More examples of alcohol on acrylics

With this painting I started by painting watercolor paper with a layer of orange paint. After the paint dried I painted watered down yellow acrylic on top, and with the paint still wet I dripped alcohol on top with a dropper.  After that paint dried I painted 2/3 of the paper with red paint. After that paint dried I painted over the red with watered down blue paint. I tilted the page to let some of the blue to drip off the page. With the paint still wet I dripped alcohol onto the blue with a dropper. I am happy with how this painting turned out, I’m sure I will use this technique often.

I started this painting with yellow, red and orange for the first layer. After that paint dried, I painted watered down yellow acrylic on top of that. With the yellow still wet I dripped the alcohol on top with a dropper. I like this painting a lot. I have not decided if I want to use it as a background, of just keep it as is.

The process for this painting is the same as the second example, only the blue paint is not as watered down with the exception that the blue paint is thinner.  

Acrylics & alcohol

This is another fun technique that does not take a  lot of supplies. I found an old YouTube video I like that does a good job of describing the proses.  Acrylics & Alcohol don't mix, or do they? 

For my first example I started by painting a piece of watercolor paper with yellow acrylic paint, then I let the paint dry completely. Next I thinned down some red acrylic paint and covered the entire painting, before the paint could dry I used a dropper to drip some rubbing alcohol onto the paint. I was very happy with the results.

For my second example I painted a piece of watercolor paper with black acrylic paint, before the paint dried I painted on top of the black with watered down blue and white acrylic paint. With all the paint still wet, I splattered on the alcohol using a brush. The paint blended more than I wanted, but it still looks interesting.

Watercolor and glue

This technique is easy and does not take a lot of supplies. To start with scribble a pattern onto watercolor paper using any kind of glue; I used Elmer’s glue-all.

Next, spray the paper with water, then ad the watercolor.  The color will pool around the glue. Check out Blue and orange collage, stationery box to see what I made with the painting.

I tried the technique again, this time I put some salt on the page to add some texture.

I did not feel like I was getting enough contrast, so I tried again, this time I painted the watercolor paper yellow first. After the paint dried I drew the pattern with the glue. Then I poured on watercolor I had already mixed with water. To add interest I splattered some  paint onto the paper using my paintbrush.

I liked the last painting the best. I would suggest that you pick a color you want for your background, then make whatever pattern you want with the glue, then mix watercolor or acrylic paint with water and pour it onto the paper to pool next to the glue, leaving some of the background to show. 

Mother’s day card

This is the card I made for my mother for Mother’s Day. As a little kid, I was always picking flowers for her. Looking back, I’m sure I must have brought home a lot of weeds, but she was always happy to get them.

For the background of my flowers I glued gold marbleized paper onto cardstock using gel medium. I glued tissue paper with glitter on it on top of the paper.

I colored the sky with blue soft pastels and the grass with green.

I painted the flowers using puffy paints, and drew in the stems with colored pencils. I colored the edge of the cardstock using a blue marker, and then wrapped blue yarn around the card. Then I glued the cardstock with the flowers onto a light blue cardstock.

I wanted the card to look a little rough to remind my mother of the flowers I used to pick for her. I hope she likes the card.

Painting on tissue paper

I liked the painted tissue paper I made by trying a lot of techniques on one project, so I tried to recreate it.

I started by painting a piece of 9x12 inch mix media paper with gesso I had tinted with yellow acrylic paint. Then using mod-podge I glued down glitter tissue paper.

Using soft pastels I colored the tissue paper.

Next I covered the pastels with mod-podge. The mod-podge blends and seals the pastels and holds the tissue paper in place.

I painted another piece of mix media paper with gesso I tinted with blue acrylic.

Then I pressed the tissue paper painting onto the blue paint.

Then I pressed the tissue paper painting onto the blue paint. I wanted a little more contrast, so I painted some of the tissue paper orange with watercolor markers.

I tried again, this time I started with a green background and pressed the painting onto red and yellow paint.

On this piece I used several layers of different colors of pastels, than several layers of different colors of tinted gesso. The end result is pretty messy.

I cut circles out of the last painted tissue paper project to use on a box I made to hold paper for a new project.

I used the piece I cut the circles out of to go on the bottom of a box I made to hold my watercolor paper I cut up for zentangles.  The end result of the painted tissue paper was not exactly like the first time, but still very interesting. Because the layer of mod-podge you can paint on them with watercolor or any other medium. I shaded, shadowed and highlighted the pieces I glued to the boxes I made, and they look great. If you try this technique yourself, don’t be surprise if it does not look anything like the pieces I did. The fun part is it will always look unique, just have fun with it.

Tissue paper and pastels handmade card

I started with white cardstock that I marbleized with gold spray paint. I decided instead of a color wash I would glue tissue paper with glitter on to the cardstock using gel medium.

Using soft pastels I added color to the tissue paper.

I applied mod-podge to the tissue paper to seal the pastel; when I did the pastels blended together.  The painting looked muddy after that. In order to add contrast, I painted some mixed medium paper with gesso that I had colored with light blue acrylic paint, then I put the cardstock with the tissue on top of it and pressed down lightly. The gesso covered only the raised parts of the tissue paper.

I cut the cardstock up into pieces and made two simple cards that can have more added to them later, to make father’s day cards or thank you cards.

Handmade collage card

I had planned to make this card simple, but I got carried away. I starting with the marbleized paper with the blue wash, it did not seem like enough, so I tore off a piece of a acrylic painting I had already cut up.

I glued both pieces to orange cardstock, and then I decided I did not like the background, so I cut most the background out. I outlined the paper that did not get cut out with copper acrylic paint.  I painted the rest of the background with gold acrylic paint. I needed to attach white cardstock to the inside of the card to give me something to glue the new background to. The new background was more blue paper, brown cardstock and a piece of a watercolor painting that matched perfectly.

 The card can be a thinking of you card or something can be written or drawn on to the top right hand corner. I love all the layers on this card; I will have to make another one like it, on purpose this time.