Posts Tagged ‘paper’

Book Review: Digital Art Wonderland by Angi Sullins & Silas Toball and ROYALTY FREE images

// November 9th, 2011 // Comments Off // Book Reviews, Mixed Media, Journals & Papercraft

You can purchase this book from the from Amazon or from the authors here:

Purchase on Amazon

http://www.duirwaigh.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=793&Itemid=111

So you have photoshop.

If you have photoshop then you probably have a huge technical tome of some sort that you intend to read so that you can really use photoshop.

Someday.  When you have time.

That’s why I have to say I’ve really enjoyed Digital Art Wonderland.  This is a book that gives you the keys to the castle without having to drag all the bits there stone by stone.  Does it explain every technical detail behind the tools it encourages you to play with?

No, and isn’t that a relief?  :)

To work best with the techniques described here the authors recommend that you have Adobe Photoshop CS5 but they also note that CS3 will work.  I have CS4 and haven’t struggled at all.

This has opened so many creative doors for me and I plan to do much more exploration because now that I don’t have that huge technical manual staring me in the face I feel like playing and play is the main focus of this book.  Learn to let go, click around, and see what happens.

There are excellent explanations of layers which in particular have frustrated me for a long time.  Armed with a bit of understanding whole new vistas of exploration open up.  There are also suggestions and instructions on using scanning, paper ephemera, your own hand drawn art, and vintage stock images to create artwork that is truly yours.

Below you will find a few papers that I came up with when I was playing around with the instructions.  They are not elaborate at all but I thought some of you would have fun printing them out and cutting them up for collages, journal pages, or whatever you can think of.  These are free to use, share, and enjoy.  If you do make something wonderful I would love to see what you’ve done!  I want to do some more keyholes myself and then do a collage on a wooden box, I have a fascination with the idea of stepping through to unexplored places.

Here is the PDF file:

Digital Art Papers PDF file

If you like to do digital art but want to dispense with a good amount of techy stuff and just play then Digital Art Wonderland is a great jumping off place.

 

 

 

Fun and Easy Halloween Vase Tutorial

// October 5th, 2011 // Comments Off // Blog, Mixed Media, Journals & Papercraft

 

Halloween is one of my all time favorite holidays and I love to add fun handmade touches to my decorating. There was a city wide yard sale last weekend where I found these packets of three glass vases for only 50 cents, I knew I could come up with a fun and simple way to use them. I ended up using 6 of them to decorate my fireplace mantel and for only a $1.00. You can’t beat that! This project was so simple to do it requires no skill other than being able to cut a semi straight line, notice I said semi straight line, I am one of those who has a hard time cutting straight lines, if you have a paper cutter that will make this project even easier. Make some with the kids and let them add their personal touches to the holiday decorating too. Have fun!

Materials you will need:

Decorative paper, depending on how many vases you make and the size of them it will vary, I used 6 coordinating prints, one for each vase I made.

scissors

glue strips

glass vase

ruler

 

 

 

Get all of your supplies together and cut your decorative paper into the size you need to fit around your vase.

On the blank side add glue strips all around the edge, I used the kind that is double sided and has a backing and when you pull it off, it leaves the sticky pieces behind, so easy and NO mess!

 

 

 

Start by placing your paper with the glue strips on it to the glass vase, slowly wrap it around and overlap the edges and your done! Really its that easy and cute too.

 

 

Here is the finished Vase and another one I made to go with it.

 

 

I added some branches from my yard and hung plastic spiders, skulls and bat rings from the branches for a spooky touch. See the Halloween pennant in the photo, well if you come back on Friday and watch the latest video of Things Crafty you will get to see how I made that too. Its also a fun and easy project. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and join the community, we have lots of prizes to give away and so much crafty goodness on the way. See you Friday!