3CS Postcard Exchange
Signups are now open for the first Three Creative Studios Postcard swap!
Here’s how it’s going to work:
- There will be a maximum of 12 participants in the group. If we have more than 12 sign up then I will create multiple swap groups. If you want you can volunteer to be a part of 2 groups and I will fit you in if I need to fill out a group.
- The swaps will be theme-based. You can use any technique or materials that you want.
- Sign-ups will close Monday, August 9
- I will send you a mail list of the participants in your group. You will make a card for everyone on your list and mail it by Tuesday, September 7
- If for some reason you will be late mailing your cards or something has happened to prevent you from participating, please leave a note on the Forum to let the rest of the swap participants know.
Is this your first time considering a postcard swap? Check out the http://www.squidoo.com/fabricpostcards for some great links to fabric postcard tutorials and postcard galleries.
Now for the theme…….
On Broadway
If you want to join in just send me a PM on the Forum with your snail mail and email addresses. I’ll update this post with the participant names as people sign up.
Creative Cue 30
Creative Cue #30: BOOK
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Is the sun required for sun printing?
The topic for this month’s Technique of the Month is Sun Printing. The full document is on the Free Project page or our site. I know a lot of people already know how to sun print so I wanted to share a little experiment that I did as part of the TOM. I knew that if I didn’t have sun available that I could sin print with lights but I wanted to know exactly how much the light was required.
In this example I prepared 4 fabric boards with the same paint and masks. I used some large leaf foliage, a fine leaf foliage, elbow pasta and a tube pasta. I placed one sample in direct sun, one in shade, one under the light and one in a room with no direct light.
This experiment proves that we aren’t really “sun” printing. Instead we are “mask drying” with heat. In all 4 examples, the broad leaf shapes and the pastas show up clearly. They are sharper images in the sun and lamp samples and the indirect light samples is the palest of all with the pastas. The fine leaf shape is sharpest in the sun and lamp samples.
Without doubt, the sun sample is the clearest. The sun heats and dries the fabric evenly and draws the paint out from under the masks the fastest.
The Shade example is quite clear. It was a very hot and dry day when I did this. It’s clear that the shade did not perform as well for the fine leaf sprig but the pastas are very clear.
On the lamp dried version notice that the center of the fabric is much darker than the edges. That’s because the heat from the lamp was concentrated in the center. That area dried first so the wet paint was drawn from the edges to the center. If you are going to lamp dry your fabrics, try to set up multiple bulbs and have them about 10” above the surface of the fabric.
The indirect dried sample is the least clear. It obviously makes a difference how quickly the fabric dries. With the indirect light there was nothing catalyst to dry the exposed fabric first except under the larger leaves where the mask would keep that area wet longer.
This experiment is presented to encourage you to experiment to figure out the best sun printing set up for your own applications. If you don’t have a good sunny day you can still sun print!
Creative Cue 29
Creative Cue #29: PINK
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Creative Cue 28
Creative Cue #28: CLOUD
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Interest in a 3CS postcard exchange?
I’ll announce a theme and then open up signups for about 2 weeks. Once signups are closed I will email the address list to every member. You would make a postcard and mail it to everyone on the list. I usually allow a month to make and mail the cards.
If this is something you would be interested in, please let me know your thoughts on these questions or any other questions that you might have.
Would you prefer a design theme or a technique theme swap?
Would you like to limit the size of the swap group and , if so, what would you want that to be?
How much time would you like to allow for making and mailing the cards?
Whistlestop Web Tours
The two most recent Whistlestop Web Tour articles are posted to the MQResource site.
Volume 51 is about Getting Out of a Creative Slump and Volume 52 has some free resources for Marketing Your Business on the Web
How do you get yourself out of a creative slump?
Do you have an art-based business? If so, how do you market your business?
Progress on my Block of the Month
I spent this past week having 7 wonderful days of sewing with my friend at her vacation home on the Rappahannock River in Virginia. It was our annual Craft Week. When we have Craft Week we take all of our food and usually only leave the house once or twice. The week is all about sewing and listening to audiobooks. This year was particularly fun and successful. We had 3 great books and between us we finished 7 quilt tops (they started the week in various stages of completion)! We were also blessed with incredible sunsets, like this one.
After I completed my 4 UFO quilts I pulled out my BOM quilt.
A couple of weeks ago I posted some layout options for my quilt and I asked my blog readers to vote on their favorite. There was a tie for A and B. I decided to go with option A. I was still worried that my obnoxious blocks would never make a nice quilt……but I moved on!
I got the center of the quilt done and the blocks constructed for the border. I didn’t have enough of the yellow and green hand dyed fabrics to finish it. I’ll get those dyed this week and get this top wrapped up soon. Here’s how it looks so far. I used the bright batik that I bought in February at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival to tie it all together.
What do you think? It’s looking better to me! How is your quilt coming along?
Creative Cue 27
Creative Cue #27: NAIL
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Creative Cue 26
Creative Cue #26: DRINK
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
