Inspiring Art. Some mixed media artworks created in 2012 by visual artist Januz Miralles from Laguna, Philippines. The artist combined photography and

Innovative creativity from PaperArtsy. Paint, stencils, and techniques galore for any mixed media enthusiast to enjoy.

Mixed Media Art for Beginners – 5 ways to start a blank canvas or page

I learned something new + want to share it with you in case you didn't know how to do it either: how to add an isolation coat to your mixed media painting.

2017 Topic 11: Books (big, small, binding) Samantha Braund Well hello everyone, Darcy here to welcome you to a new topic. this time we are exploring book making, be that a simple one sheet folded book or bound signatures. We will look at bindings, pages and covers. Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 10: Light to Dark Challenge... The winner is: Laury 55 from Blog de Laury Email Darcy to claim your prize. [email protected] Over 2,000 years ago, in India, palm leaves were used to create books. These had religious content, the method was surprisingly ordered with the pages even being numbered. the pages were rolled up and tied with twine. The move from rolls to bound leaves took about 400 years, at which point the bindings became both protective and decorative. Around the year 400 we see leather tooling making an appearance on covers, metal took another 150 years to be introduced. At this time the covers were made from wood, by 1508 these were replaced by pasteboard in France. England followed suit around 1520. Mark Rowney Nowadays there are a plethora of books about making and binding books, full of techniques and inspiration, but the first was written between 1741 and 1753. It covered everything from cost and techniques to apprentice regulations. It was fully comprehensive and filled 4 volumes. I wonder if any copies still exist? By the 1800's books were hugely popular, and although the pages were printed by machine the covers were still handmade. This is when cloth covers made an appearance, and later in the century the first dust jackets appeared. France Papillon So by making books and journals you are joining in with an ancient and very traditional activity. The materials and techniques available to you now are endless, combine those with the inspiration available all around us, especially online, means you can make some truly stunning books. So, first up we have covers. I love this one made from scrabble boards. Made by Sara Hindmarch, she calls this 'hackbooking' by this she means combining traditional techniques with recycled and found objects. How about a simple leather cover, leather scraps can be bought cheaply and make excellent covers. What I loved about this book was the way the key is used as a closure, very clever. Megan Winn This fabulous cover is handpainted, it looks like it is on something substantial, the Paperartsy greyboards or heavy smoothy would make perfect painted covers. DJ Pettitt Of course you could do a fabric cover too, painted fabric, embroidered or like this one a gorgeous felted cover. Gillian Chapman Once you have your covers, you might want to think about the pages inside. What will they be? paper, fabric, acetate? will they all be different sizes? maybe you will add fold outs or pockets, perhaps the paper will be plain, inked, lined. The insides are really dependent on how you intend to use the book. A great way to create pages is to use origami folding techniques, often a book can be formed with just one large sheet of paper. the folds range from simple to complicated and can create very interesting effects and layouts when you open the book. Karen Elaine Here is an example of a book made from one large sheet of paper, watch while Teesha Moore shows you her 16 page journal. Below is video 1 and here is video 2. Concertina books are one of the easiest styles, however they are probably one of the ones with the most visual impact as the folds can be opened out and the viewer can see almost every page all at once. Geninne This book shows how eclectic the insides can be, different papers have been used, glassine bags and tags and envelopes. shabbysoul This one has a beautifully elaborate fold out interior, so much to look at, a real treat as it unfolds. Kirsten Horel Books can be many shapes, not just the regular flat ones that you think of, what about star books, these look especially lovely at Christmas. follow the linked name for a full step by step on this book. Shelly Hickox How much fun do these look, what a perfect place to hide a mini book. Richard and Sophie Meier If you do go for the regular book shape, back, front and pages then you will need a cool binding method, and there are some very cool ones. far too many to show you here. The most popular binding is stitching, but even within that category there are hundreds of different ways to stitch. This one employs a cross stitch, simple but perfectly executed. Owl and Lion These spines show a variety of long stitch patterns. Sphinge Of course you don't need to use thread, how about using ribbons instead. this Japanese stab stitch binding done with ribbon is so delicate, it would be perfect for a wedding album. Bari Zaki A very popular stitch technique is called 'Coptic stitch', here is a very good and clear video showing just how to do this stitch. Once you have your binding done, why not go ahead and add charms, buttons, beads and other wonderful dangly bits. they could just be your favourite random bits or you could theme them to the contents of the book. Paige Evans There is no maximum or minimum size for books, but I have to confess to loving these dinky little mini books, how adorable, and of course you need very little paper to make them. why not try making a teeny book from your leftovers. Traci Jones If you cannot bear to leave your creations at home then turn your book into a bracelet, what a talking point this would be! Lyske Gais and Lia Duinker This is a subject that I love, and I hope that you will too. I am excited to see what kind of books that you make, be they big or small, painted, stitched or folded. Have a fabulous 2 weeks making your journals and remember to link up and show us. Of course once you make your journal then you can do some great PaperArtsy type pages inside. Don't forget to follow Darcy and Leandra's Pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks! ~ Darcy We hope that you learn something interesting from our blog. Our bloggers deeply appreciate your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired! Why not join our challenge by blogging your interpretation of the current topic and link it here? The current topic link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 20th, 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00. All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. Challenge Guidelines The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic. We encourage you to play with us and explore your personal creative style. Please mention which PA blog post inspired you and and why (link directly to that post). Please don't link to the home page of your blog because then no-one can track back to easily find the original post. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though! You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday August 20th (London Time) Prize: The winner will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. email: [email protected] NEW Challenge/ winner: Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Join us to learn this lovely Faux Encaustic Technique! Create mysteriously beautiful misty effects for your Mixed Media art!

Take a break. Take a moment. Immerse yourself in this beautiful world of poetry created by Agnieszka Anna. Hello. Today, I'd like to present a dress that was inspired by poetry of a Polish poet, Rafał Wojaczek. Technically, this piece was very easy to make. My base for the dress is a paper mache shape formed on a Barbie doll. I used pieces of a newspaper soaked in glue to create the skirt. After the glue dried, I used gesso applied with a soft brush to fix the whole dress. When it dried and the dress was hard, I painted it with acrylic paints. Finally, I added some frills and some glimmer with this mist. For the background, I applied a thick layer of gesso on a piece of cardboard and stamped this circle shape into the gesso. When dry, I painted the background with the same paints I used for the dress. The little houses I placed on my dress I created out of thick cardboard. I glued pieces of newspaper onto them, then added some touches of white acrylic paint and distressed them with distress inks. Finally, I glued the dress onto the background with the magic glue. I hope you like my dress. Creating it was really that complicated, maybe you will give it a try and create your own? Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

Innovative creativity from PaperArtsy. Paint, stencils, and techniques galore for any mixed media enthusiast to enjoy.

Creating abstract and intuitive paintings is so much fun. I totally get into a flow and I am just focusing on the painting process. There is no thinking or planning, just painting and enjoying all …

This summer I installed this commissioned artwork for NIH [National Institutes of Health] in their permanent collection.

If your art project feels stagnant, repetitive, or downright boring, you may benefit from reading how to be more experimental with media, techniques and processes.

Corine Ko, originally from Paris, has worked and lived in the Marseille region since 1998. After studying literature, Corine combined her passion for painting and the world of childhood by moving towards specialised animation.