Hand Cut Stamps Using Kwik Cut

I just stamped my most recent hand cut stamps using the Kwik Cut Product available from Nasco.  I know that I am repeating myself but it is an amazing product and so easy to use.  I used the Colorbox stamp pads to quickly ink each of these three stamps shown above, my favorite is the sun and think that this stamp will be something that I can use often.  The birds are just ok in my opinion and did not stamp up as easily with this stamping pad and want to try them with the black stamp pad, shown below, and the result was still not quite as good as I would have hoped.  I'd say that this stamp needs additional work and I may consider cutting more out of the center so that I have just the bird outline instead which will allow me the opportunity to color each bird.  I'd say that this process is meant to have good results with the not so good and that makes it a learning process.  I really liked the sun though and can see that I will have many opportunities to use this stamp.  Give it a try and see what you think. 

I have a new pattern available on my website that I just love.  The photo doesn't show how vibrant the color is on this piece or how adorable the frogs and the character is.  It is painted on a small photo album but could easily be painted on a variety of surfaces including a canvas covered sketchbook for someone you care about.  Wouldn't that make a wonderful keepsake to give.  I hope you enjoy the newest patterns that I will be releasing this summer. 

Happy Summer,

I'm happy to say that in spite of the weather, I am in the summer mood.  Actually it is typical June weather with rain and yes, even a little snow.  LOL.  The joys of living in the mountains.  School is out and I have the summer to enjoy and I am going to enjoy it.  I have so many plans for this summer that I may need to put in 24 hour days to get them all accomplished, which is typical of my summer time plans.  Needless to say I'm hoping to post often this summer about some of the new patterns and projects that I am planning.  If any of you are on the Tole Town site you know that Susan and Lorrie put out a wonderful E-zine that I have been a frequent contributor to and they have a new issue coming out soon with a darling fish themed project from yours truly that I hope you enjoy.  Look for it at www.toletown.com and if you are not a member give it a shot the benefits are tremendous from online classes to opportunities to connect with fellow artists and crafts people.  I love it. 

I was posting on another blog about sculpting with Kwik Wood and I thought that perhaps it would be a good time to revisit adding detail to your projects with sculpting material.  I have chosen to use Kwik Wood but I know that many of you use other products such as Paper Clay, they all should work the same.  It wouldn't be necessary to change your product that you prefer.  Kwik Wood is a marvelous product that is designed to fix or bond wood pieces together because it has an epoxy base and when placed onto a wood piece or to other Kwik Wood adheres rather quickly.  JB Weld is the manufacture and produces other Kwik Products such as Kwik Plastic which I have also used in the past and is an equally great product.  In my patterns I give detailed instructions as to the use of Kwik Wood, how to activate the epoxy, templates for sculpting, as well as a number of hints and tips to make your sculpting experience fun and exciting.

When I started publishing my patterns with sculpted detail on them the response was tremendous so I know that folks are interested in exploring the media.  I have a few new patterns using Kwik Wood that will come out this summer that I hope you will look for in the near future.  I'm going to post a few photos of some of the projects that I have completed with Kwik Wood.  Let me know your thoughts about sculpting with any of the products out there.

This pattern is called Honey of a Bruin and is available on my website at the link:  http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=144  This is one of my favorite sculpted projects that I added to a wood piece from Cupboard Distributing but could easily be added to a variety of surfaces. 

This pattern is called Giraffe, Rat, Turtle Zoo Sculpted Ornaments and can be found at http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=141 I think that these guys are so darling and are so easy.  Can't you see these sculpted and given as gifts for Christmas this year or my thought was to put them on a baby mobile. 

This pattern is called Penguin, Snow Cone Lady, and Partridge in a Pear Tree Winter Ornaments and can be found at   http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=143  Isn't this pattern darling?  These turned shapes can be found at Cupboard Distributing. 

This pattern is called Santa's Helpers and is available at http://www.chartmandesigns.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=142  I loved sculpting these onto the acorn shapes that are available from Cupboard Distributing.  I think these little guys have so much personality. 

Check back in a couple of days and I will discuss further sculpted projects that I've done with Kwik Wood. 

Butterfly Brush Step 3 Tutorial

Here is step three of the tutorial for the Butterfly Brushes.  Because this brush is so versatile you can actually do some simple stippling with the brush if it is placed on the chisel edge, it isn't a brush that you want to do any heavy duty pouncing with but will dab color in nicely.  I loaded the brush with Milk Chocolate by dabbing my brush into the paint and lightly pounced the paint color around the center of the flower, using a dirty brush added Antique Gold to one end and gently pounce blended the paint colors until I was happy with the mix and pounced the paint onto the highlighted area.  The last step was to add Asphaltum to the mix and pounce blended the base of the center of the flower. 

To finish these off you might want to try using this same brush to paint the stems of the flowers.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Using your Small Shader Butterfly Brush Step 2

I love to paint wildflowers.  I'm not a great gardener, my thumbs are pretty brown but that doesn't mean that I don't love flowers.  We are coming up on wildflower season in my part of the world and there will be an abundance of beautiful wildflowers for all to observe.  Fortunately for them they aren't dependant on my gardening skills to bloom. 

I do enjoy observing and painting them however and the Butterfly Brushes are some of my favorite brushes to use when I paint wildflowers.  The Small Shader is an excellent brush to paint this Daisy with, from start to finish in all three steps, I will use just one brush.   As I mentioned before this brush is very versatile and in addition to what I've discussed in my last post you can do linework by simply setting the brush up on the chisel edge.  Will it replace your liner brush?  Absolutely not, but for small areas that need a subtle highlight why dirty another brush if you can use the same one.  In highlighting the petals of the flowers on this worksheet I simply loaded my brush with Snow White and set the brush on the chisel edge and added a soft subtle highlight to each petal.  I then loaded my brush with thinned down Antique Gold and washed in a shadow using a corner of the brush.  That concludes step two of the process. 

That was fairly easy, wasn't it?  Can you start to see the flowers taking shape? 

I seem to recall that I promised some educational posts on using different brushes that are available on my website.  I started a few posts ago by discussing the traditional and nontraditional uses of the Butterfly Brushes.  The Small Shader Butterfly Brush is an extremely versatile brush that can be used in so many ways but my favorite is to use it to paint wild flowers.  When the brush is placed on the chisel edge the cut brush heel is facing your paper which I would say is a more traditional use of the brush, or can be used by turning your brush upside down so that the brush heel, cut edge, is facing up when the brush is placed on the chisel edge.  These three samples of painting a daisy show examples of the traditional use of the brush as versus the nontraditional use of the brush.  Practice this technique and see which one works for you. 

No matter which way you choose to use the brush you double load the brush in the same way, load your brush with your base color (Light Buttermilk), tip the brush heel into Moon Yellow.  To paint each petal place your brush on the chisel edge, slowly spread the brush out to "splay" the bristles and distribute your paint and pull it gently back up to the chisel edge working your way around the outer edges of the center of the flower.   It is a fairly quick and easy way to paint a lovely Daisy.  Check back in a few days and I will post step two of using this amazing brush. 



Cutting Your Own Rubber Stamps

The following stamped images have been stamped on computer paper and 80# white sketch paper.  The computer paper allowed for a slightly smoother image.  It would be interesting to see how a smooth watercolor paper interacted with the stamping process.  I may try that sometime in the future.  Take a look at these images and see if you can tell which was stamped on computer paper as versus sketch paper. 

Cut Your Own Rubber Stamps

This blog continues to help inspire me as an artist and I hope helps you as well, in order to grow as an artist you need to challenge yourself. Whether that is in your media of choice or perhaps in a new media, it isn't necessary to be an expert with the media you simply need to enjoy the process. You might surprise yourself when you discover that you find new and interesting techniques that will carry over. There are so many fun creative techniques out there in this day and age that we should all be excited by something new and different. To me it is fun to find some opportunity to expand on my current knowledge base and pass that information on to you. When I set out to write this blog I intended to write about creativity and how that will enhance all of you and myself as artists. These current posts have dealt specifically about cutting rubber stamps, I love finding new and interesting ways to enhance my painting repertoire and this may be one of those techniques. Not to mention the fact that they are just fun to do.

To date I have cut a number of stamps and used acrylic paints to stamp with them. My next plan is to try using my stamping pads but my initial thought was that I could duplicate a design element on a project quickly and easily. I have not tried them on wood as of yet but am hoping to do that when I find the right surface. I began by stamping with just one paint color and then continued to apply two and sometimes three paint colors directly onto the stamp with a variety of results. The nice thing about this technique is that once you have your stamp finished the material will hold up for years of use and is pliable enough to bend around a 3-dimensional surface. It is necessary to clean your stamps but do not be concerned if the paint stains that stamp. It will not interfere with the use of the stamp.

Creativity with Cutting Rubber Stamps

These past few posts have all centered around finding creativity in new and unusual places.  Do any of you like to use rubber stamps in your design work?  I think stamps are so much fun and simplify so many aspects of what we do as artists/crafts people but I often want to use my own stamp designs in a project.  I've started cutting my own, all you need is a few simple materials that can be ordered at a variety of artist supply companies, Dick Blick and Nasco just to name a few.  Purchase a basic set of Linoleum Cutters, I started with two, the fine and medium V shaped cutters and then purchased an inexpensive handle.  The cutting tools can be changed out and I found that I preferred the handle to be longer which would be similar to a pen holder that you might purchase for the interchangeable pen nibs for doing pen and ink. In fact if you already have the pen holder they will probably fit and save yourself the costs of the pen.  It had been years since I have done any linoleum block printing and thought that I'd start with an inexpensive material that cuts very easily and will hold up over time and chose to use Nasco Safety-Kut Printmaking Material.  It was fairly inexpensive and came in a variety of sizes.  I cut mine all down to 3" X 3.5" approximately.  You can draw directly onto the material and then cut it out using your cutting tools.  It was fun, not terribly expensive and turned out very similar to what you'd expect from a woodcut but without cutting my fingers.  The first one that I tried didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped but by the second and third I had it figured out and was enjoying the process.  I haven't printed with these as of yet, I could easily use my stamp pads, or I might try them in addition to my painted papers that I've been doing.  What do you think of this sun?  Is this something that you think you'd like to try?   

My last few blog posts seem to revolve around finding your creative center through experimenting with paint so I thought that I'd expand on that and include playing with brushes.  How many of you purchase a new brush either online or at a show or store, take it home and then set it with your brushes to never do another thing with it?  Often we are intimidated by the look of the new brush and feel unsure as to what to do with them and often that fear is because we don't want to do the "wrong" thing with the brush.  We seriously need to get past that because brushes should be our friends not the enemy.  They are designed to help us get the job done and there does not exist the "brush police" to tell us how to use that brush.  We should feel free to be as creative with our brushes as we are with a design.  Brushes are fairly hardy items and can withstand a lot of abuse just make sure that you clean your brushes properly before storing them at any time but especially if you plan to use them in non-traditional ways.  My past few posts discussed trying something new on a piece of paper or card stock or something that you feel you can throw away if you hate the look of the piece, or something crazy might happen and you might find that you absolutely love the look of the new paper.  Well while you are allowing yourself the luxury of playing with paint throw in a new brush to try at the same time.  Use that brush in a nontraditional sort of way. 

I recently was asked by a customer if I have done any books using the Butterfly Brushes or if I had any educational information regarding them and I had to admit that I didn't have a lot although I do have a You Tube video showing me using the Angle Butterfly Brush.  You can view that by searching for Christy Hartman on You Tube.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of publishing companies out there right now publishing books and book deals can be hard to come by but there isn't any reason why I can't give some information on this blog. 

Let me start with the Small Shader Butterfly Brush.   I use that brush to paint daisies/sunflowers as well as a variety of different wildflowers.  The brush seems to be just the right size for many of the techniques that I use, I'm sure that you can use other brushes and achieve the same result.  I painted this sunflower/daisy by turning the brush upside down, you can still double load the brush to achieve highlighting and shading at the same time and stroke in the petals of the flower starting at the tip of the petal on the chisel edge of the brush, flatten it as you move in toward the center.   I then tipped the brush up on the chisel edge and stippled the center of the flower to finish up the piece layering my brown tones.  You can easily add additional detail with this brush to add some shadows by washing paint out into the center of the petal.  It was quick and easy and took very little time and is certainly a "non traditional" use of this brush.

Do you have any wonderfully creative ideas to use your brushes in non-traditional ways. 





How about another couple of crazy painted pieces?  I can't tell you how fun these are and I'm sure that many of you are thinking... What to do with them?  Why do you need to do anything with them?  That is part of the fun and spontaneity of these.  Just do it... copying a famous slogan.  LOL.  Seriously anything that gets you out of your creative "box" is a good thing.  These free up your mind and open you up to creativity and I know that these crazy painted pieces have allowed me to loosen up. Over the years I have been accused of being a very tight controlled painter and I feel that these have allowed me to see my art work in a new way.  Give them a try and see what happens.  There isn't anything wrong with throwing something away that you just hate or maybe by completing something crazy like this will open you up to creative ideas that you haven't thought about before.

Are you using your brushes in a new way on these wild and crazy papers, maybe try a completely different type of brush that you aren't comfortable with like a Trifecta Brush or even a Butterfly Brush.  By allowing yourself the opportunity to make mistakes is the perfect time to try a brush that you might not be comfortable with. 
  



This is the second in a series of posts designed to reawaken your inner artist.  I don't know about you but I frequently seem to struggle with creativity and I either doodle or now do some free exploration with paint.  Like many of you I enjoy Zentangle and love the opportunity to free my mind and just let my "fingers do the walking".  This is the same concept but with paint and is sooooo fun!  There isn't a right or a wrong way to get this accomplished and these can be painted on anything and even combined with a variety of media.  These are just painted on computer paper and I'm not sure that I will ever do anything with them or even have to feel like I need to.  Why  not think about using these in scrapbooking, card making, or even used in a mixed media collage.  The point is to just explore paint with a variety of colors, textures, patterns, and develop a free flowing composition.   Try this and see what you can come up with. 



Happy Spring,

I think that we might have spring this year in the Rockies.  That would be a welcome change.  Today was gorgeous. 

I know that I have sadly neglected all of you this winter and I was embarrassed every time that I signed in to my blog.  Unfortunately life got in the way and family matters had to come first.  But I am happy to report that I am back or hope to be.  LOL.  There aren't any guarantees in life. 

I've just posted a new free pattern on my website that I had a blast painting.  I know that many of you are Zentangle fans and I use Zentangle with my upper elementary and middle school students to help free their minds and allow their creativity to come through and they have really enjoyed it although I often find that what they really want to do is free paint.  They adore that, even the middle school students.  They love the freedom and the opportunity to paint without restriction or having to adapt to required elements.  I tend to agree with them and decided to do something completely out of the norm for me and put it on my website as a free project.  I love this piece and hope to do more of them because they are just so darn fun to do.  I purposely kept the instructions fairly vague so that you had the opportunity to express yourselves creatively. 

I hope that you enjoy the process, because the process is often just as important as the outcome.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Hugs to all of you and Happy Spring.

 

Merry Christmas to all of you!  

I've posted on my website homepage and here on my blog the finished card which is in the Tole Town Cyber Palette online magazine.  If you are unfamiliar with this publication be sure to check it out at www.toletown.com, Susan and Lorrie have done a great job of publishing a terrific online magazine full of painting hints and techniques as well as recipes, crafts for children, and a terrific variety of painting projects.  

This project is called Crisp and Cold Snowman and is a card but he could easily be made into an ornament or put on a variety of surfaces.  I've also posted using watercolor pencils on this little guy on my blog but in the actual magazine article are the instructions for using Copic Sketch Markers to color him as well as using acrylic paint.   

In this design I've used the Spellbinders dies for the background and I absolutely love the dies.  I have quite a collection of them now and recently acquired a set of ornament dies that I am hoping to use on a card/ornament design for the future.  

If you like this little guy leave a comment because I am considering designs for stamping and am trying to get a feel for which designs will be good as stamps.  It is quite expensive to develop a line of stamps and I am trying to get a feel for which designs the public will be interested in.  Fewer missteps that way.  

Have you read the magazine Scrap & Stamp Arts by Scott Publications?  It is a great magazine for card makers, stampers, general crafters, and painters.  When I approached the magazine about my idea for an article they were very open to  incorporating painting techniques into their magazine.  I've been a subscriber for the past few years and love the magazine but wasn't sure if they had ever published articles using painting techniques specifically for card making but thought that I would give it a shot.  I discussed the idea of providing photos showing me painting the background papers as well as the design for the bees and the editor thought it was an interesting idea.  I am a very frugal artist and like to be able to control the background papers using media and materials that I have at home rather than running to the store to invest in more papers and came up with the idea to paint my own papers using a batik style of painting. You can also find the process on this blog under my archived articles.  It took a little time to get everything together for the article but it was well worth the effort as the article is fantastic and I hope it will be interesting to the readers of this magazine.  I have been considering developing a line of stamps from my designs but the costs can be staggering and decided to print out good quality line art printed on good quality card stock instead and have tried to keep the costs down so that card makers and crafters can afford them.  You can find these on my website under the Supplies Category in the main menu.

This article is designed for painters and crafters of all skill levels and I hope that you find it to be interesting and leaving you wanting more articles.  If you feel that way please contact the editor of the magazine so she continues to be interested in publishing painting designs.

Watercolor Pencils

The instructions for painting this snowman and then making him into a darling card will be available in the December issue of the Tole Town Cyber Palette and in that issue I painted him using Deco Art Acrylic paints as well as have given you the instructions for using Copic Markers.  Prior to painting this little guy I wanted to experiment with color and chose to use my watercolor pencils. I will often use my watercolor pencils when I am working out color in the design process.  The watercolor pencils allow me to play with color before painting the finished version.

 I have a couple different brands of pencils that I use but used my Faber Castell Albrecht Durer pencils on this snowman.  I had just received them as a gift this spring and hadn't had a lot of time to play with them.  I love them but they are a little fatter than many of the pencil brands and I had to purchase a new electric pencil sharpener for them because they wouldn't fit in the old one.  If you are interested in watercolor pencils I would recommend this brand highly but be forewarned they are more expensive than other brands also obviously fatter.  I also have a set of Derwent and a small set of Prismacolor that I've used in the past.  Of the two I prefer the Derwent but both are about the same retail price. 

I hope that you take a look at this article when it is published in December.  http://toletown.com/ezine/ 

New Patterns

I have a new pattern that will be available during NET in the Turns in Time booth as well is currently available on my website.  I recently sent this pattern off to Italy which means that I have become international.  Very Exciting!!!  This pattern is called the Chicken Coop and is a repeated design done on two candleholders from Turns in Time, one is designed to hold a tea light and the other a 2" votive or small candle like I've painted up.  They are marvelous to paint on and fairly flat so they would be so easy to store.  Let me know what you think about this pattern, your feedback is so important. 

Watercolor

One of the reasons that I have not been posting as often this summer is because I have been taking a watercolor class.  I've been interested in refreshing my skills for a number of years now and finally was able to work it into my schedule.  I have to say that I love this class my teacher, Kendall Jan Jubb who is nationally known and recognized, has been just amazing and has allowed each one of us taking the class to go at our own pace and paint what we wanted to.  I've focused primarily on landscapes this year as I've really felt that was not one of my strengths.  The first class that I did was an all day watercolor on canvas class.  As we were instructed prior to class I went in with a couple ideas and we were told by the instructor that we were not going to draw with pencil on the canvas rather we were going to draw with yellow paint.  Well after I had a minor panic attack because I am usually a planner when I paint, I sketch, resketch, and may even lay it all out on the surface prior to painting.  When I had very privately hyperventilated I decided to suck it up and try something new and chose the aspen trees as they were a looser format and I felt that they might be something that I could truly learn from in the class.  I'm not sure that anyone in the class really knew exactly how terrified the thought of no control when I started to paint made me, I hope that I masked it very well.  At any rate I allowed myself the freedom to just experience the medium and the watercolor canvas and I loved every minute of it.  I chose to use color very freely and make the painting a very impressionistic loose painting.  As I have shown this piece to family members I get a mixed reaction, most of them say "Oh my".  I'm not sure if that is good or bad but I have chosen to think that they are just shocked at how completely different it is for me in style and format.  I love the piece and felt an incredible freedom when I was painting it because I felt removed form the confines of any "rules" of painting.  I'm curious to see what any of you think.  Now that you know that I love the piece I'm sure that you will all be kind.  LOL.  You can also say "Oh my".  I'm now working on my second landscape which I'm painting on watercolor paper and it too is different for me stylewise.  I can't tell you how much fun I'm having in this class and would highly recommend Kendall as a teacher if you ever have the chance to take one of her classes. 

New Patterns

I have finally gotten myself out of my painting room in the basement and can see the light of day.  LOL.  I must be super slow because it took me most of the summer to complete these new projects.  They are on my website and available for purchase just in time for HOOT.  Look for these patterns and many of my other patterns to be available at the Turns in Time booth at the HOOT show.  I have a number of new patterns as well as new products in the Supply Category and of course paint brushes as usual.  Come on over and take a look at all of them under What's New.  I'd love to hear from you about what you think of these.  I'm in the process of working on another pattern that will be out later this fall. 

Where has the summer gone?

As I was having coffee with some friends the other day, one friend mentioned that I haven't posted on my blog since the beginning of June and it is now the beginning of August.  It made me laugh because I can't quite figure out where the summer has gone to.  In my defense I have been so busy painting and designing and will have 5 new patterns available at HOOT and those seem to have consumed my time, as well as a new Tole Town Project that will be available in September that can be previewed on the front page of my website.  I'm planning to get a preview up on the blog of the new patterns very soon and should be able to get them on the website very soon as well.  I've also been taking a watercolor class that I have enjoyed tremendously and will share that with you as soon as we get the photo taken. 

We've also had quite a bit of company during the last few weeks which we have enjoyed thoroughly.  It is always fun to see family and friends.  We were up in the mountains last week and checked on the Huckleberry crop and they will soon be ready, I think that they need a couple more weeks to ripen and then we will get started picking to take us through the winter.  My son loves my Huckleberry Cake recipe which was given to me by a friend years ago.  In fact my son requested it as his birthday cake this year.  I'm posting the recipe here for those of you who love Huckleberries as much as we do.  I am not sure exactly how well you could substitute other berries but you certainly could experiement.

Huckleberry Crumble Cake
1/4 cp butter
1 1/4 cp sugar
cream the butter and sugar and add:
2 eggs
2 cp flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 cp milk
1 1/2 t almond extract
2 cp huckleberries
Mix in order and pour into greased 9X13" pan

Crumble Topping
1/2 cp sugar
1/2 cp flour
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 cp butter
Mix until crumbly.  Sprinkle over batter in pan.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.  Serve with ice cream or cool whip. 

This cake is similiar to a coffee cake and is wonderful at any time of the year.  I always check the cake at 40 minutes because it bakes quicker in my oven. 

Enjoy