C is for Crayon Resist

Some techniques starting with the letter C are Crimping, Carving, Caught in Crystal, Cracked Glass, Credit Card Backgrounds, Crayon Resist, Collage, Chalks and Watermark/Versamark ink, Cosmos Paper and Colorwash techniques. I decided to make a fun Birthday Card with the Crayon Resist technique. Which I have played with before, it is also called Resist with Crayons.
Stamped candles with black Archival ink and heat set on glossy paper. Colored in the candles with white crayon, the flames with orange & red crayons and wrote the word "Brilliant" with a yellow crayon.
Covered the card with Rainbow ink with a brayer, wiped off the ink over the crayon colored areas.

Stamped "A happy birthday" and colored the edges with black Archival ink and heat set. Layered on a yellow card.

Resist with crayons

Had time for some quick playing. Never get tired of Resist techniques, so decided to play with an oldie but goodie: resist with crayons. (Part of the ABC of techniques for Art-Venturers). You can make some fun backgrounds by just scribbling or doodling over paper with crayons then cover the surface with dye inks or sprays. The ink easily wipes off the waxy crayons to reveal the original colors. I decided to play with some bird images and using the crayons to add resist color. I stamped the birds on some cheap white card stock with black VersaFine ink. For the bird on the left, colored some of the bird with a white crayon and used the white crayon to highlight around the outside edge of the bird and by the flourishes (sort of like the bandana technique, but doing the white before the background color, instead of after). Wondered if I'd get a similar effect using metallic colored pencils, so used a silver pencil to color in parts of the bird on the right and around the flourishes.

I had some mini misters that still contained watered down dye inks and a bit of perfect pearls in them, so used these to spray over the card stock. The white crayon on the left sample had great contrasting resist. Very similar look to the bandana technique that was so popular last year. The metallic pencil on the right sample is a very subtle look. Might have made a difference if I'd chosen other colors.

Decided to give it a try with two colors of crayons. This time I colored the entire surface of the bird with a white crayon (not sure why some of the black ink got caught up with the white crayon and turned the color gray?!?!!? Used both white and blue crayons to color around the flourishes (must admit I was rushing at this point, I was running late).

Sprayed over the card stock with an assortment of home made color sprays as above. Like the white & light blue around the flourishes. Turned out pretty good for a rush job!!!

The possibilities of adding resist colors with crayons are endless. I had a cheap brand of crayons laying around the house. Think I need to keep my eyes open to pick up some metallic colored crayons. These are much easier for me to work with that the metallic pens. Don't get the big blobs of ink gushing out unexpectedly.

Another Background Salvage

I finally got around to turning the 30 sheets of backgrounds I received in ccswaps' Background Swap into a resource book. I signed up 3 times and made gessoed sea sponge, mists & plastic wrap, and luminous paste backgrounds.
I thought it appropriate to use an old background, that I didn't like, and turn it into something I did like for the cover. This was an experiment that went bad, and everything I added just didn't help. It started with color mists & gold perfect pearls, got scratched & walnut ink added, even wiped gesso over it. Don't know what I was thinking at the time. I put it into my look at later file.

My friend Maggie sent me to Artylicious blog to see how Glenda used the small Cuttlebug embossing folders on a larger piece of paper. What she did was so cool, go look!!!! It got me wondering if I could use the large folders to emboss even larger pieces of paper. I needed paper 6" x 9-1/2" to use for the covers. In order to fit the paper through the Cuttlebug, I had to fold it. That was ok, I was experimenting. And I know if I had a Wizard, I probably wouldn't have to fold the paper, but that machine is too hard on my wrists. {It is probably NOT recommended to place this thickness of paper through the Cuttlebug, don't try this at home if you're not willing to take a risk of damage to the plates or machine itself, and if it does: don't blame me}

I decided for the corners to just run the end through the machine, then back it out so I wouldn't have too many layers of folded paper.
I discovered the paper that was folded under the embossing folder got flattened where I had previously done the embossing.
For the second sheet, I folded the paper in half and placed both halves within the folder. {see note above about possible risk}
One half was a positive image and the other half a negative image.

I highlighted the raised areas with Distress ink and sprayed some home made color mists and white perfect pearls to add some color, sheen & contrast.
I think all sheets of paper look better when they've been folded over cardboard and finished as a cover. This will be the back. Not sure if I'll add anything to it later. [The color sprays resisted the gesso and just wiped right off. : ( ]

I lined the inside covers with some old crayon resist backgrounds and wrote out what backgrounds were in the book and who did them. Each person wrote the directions on the back of their backgrounds, now I have a great resource book. The page you see, is a Gesso Resist Technique done by Trish B.

For the title, I wanted to play with a new toy I picked up, the texture hammer by Tim Holtz. I took a chipboard B cutaway and gave it a good pounding.
Covered it with black acrylic paint and decided it needed more pounding.
Used my finger to rub on and then mostly rub off some Lumiere paint.
I wanted glitz, so I sprayed over it with Radiant Rain Mist.Glued my B to some light blue paper and added the title.Mounted my title block to the front of my background resource book. Love the contrast and how I transformed some just ok (to me) paper into a cover I like.