Exploring mixed media

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Linda Matthews

The first month of this year has been crazy busy, but I finally found some time this week to catch up with some artful creativity.

Exploring some photoshopping
The February tutorial being presented in The Creative Explorer’s Club is all about using photoshop elements so I thought I’d get a little practice in ahead of time. This image was manipulated in photoshop elements to enhance the figure of the statue and replace the background. I then printed it onto some paper and glued it to a canvas background. I think I did a pretty good job of blending the edges even though most of the background got covered up anyway.

Mixed Media Textiles

Exploring some sewing
This year I’m allowing myself the freedom of exploring sewing that is less structured and more free form. I’m also beginning to enjoy working with raw edges which is not something I usually work with.

Mixed Media Textiles

Exploring some mixed media
I’m madly trying to get some new textured surface work done in anticipation of my upcoming workshop. I’m really enjoying working with mixed media applications for creating textured surfaces on fabric, and some of these techniques will also be included in an upcoming tutorial for my Creative Explorers.

Mixed Media Textiles

Blue Angel is my new notebook cover.

Mixed Media Textiles

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New in the store: Photo art fabric prints

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Linda Matthews

For the last several years I’ve been diligently working hard to perfect my Photoshop skills (lots of eye rolling here) which I put to good use when printing photo art designs onto fabric to make my art bags which you can see here, and my more recent venture printing on paper for my 2012 calendars and bookmarks which you can see here.

So now, since some of you have been asking, it’s time to make some of my designs available to you on fabric, so here you go!

These Photo Art fabric prints are available in sizes 10″x8″ and 7″x5″ and are fully washable. They come printed on either soft high quality 200 count cotton which is ideal for using as focus panels in quilts or other types of textile projects, or cotton canvas which makes them suitable for framing as artwork or for using in textile projects that require a sturdier fabric.

I haven’t done much in the way of quilting recently, but I’m currently quilting each of the panels and plan to combine them all into one wallhanging. I think it will look loverly, but we’ll soon see. My quilting is a little rusty.

I currently have four brand new flower designs available from my “Graffiti Garden Series”. Each piece is digitally signed on the front and also personally signed on the canvas prints.

You can find ordering details here in my store. Or if you prefer, you can also find them here on Etsy.
Questions? Email me.

Graffiti Garden Series: Sunflower
Photo Art Prints

Graffiti Garden Series: Coneflower
Photo Art Prints

Graffiti Garden Series: Tulip
Photo Art Prints

Graffiti Garden Series: Rose
Photo Art Prints

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Empowering the new year with my new 2012 Photo Art Calendar

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Linda Matthews

Update: Photo Art Calendars and Bookmarks SPECIAL
From now until 15th December take 10% off all orders over $50.00 (excludes shipping)
Applies to Photo Art Calendars and Bookmarks only
Use code photoart10 at checkout
Find them here in the store

I promised myself I wouldn’t say it.

Not just yet anyway.

But I guess I have no choice.

2012 is almost upon us!

Instead of moaning about how fast the year has gone (it really has though), I’ve chosen instead to take this as an opportunity to look forward and envision how I’d like the coming year to look for me.

As you know, I’m a great fan of the “one word” concept – and if you’re a new reader of my blog you can read more about that here – so as well as one main word for my coming year (I haven’t quite decided on my “one word” yet), but I have decided to also use monthly focus words.

A new word each month to use as a booster for my main word.

And what better way to do that than with a “one word” calendar!

So I chose twelve of my favorite words and I’ve spent the last few weeks working on some new photo art designs that I can use for my calendar pages and I’ve finally finished! This is the first time I’ve done a project like this so it’s kind of exciting to see the project finished and printed. On paper not fabric for a change. And it looks fabulous!

Too fabulous to keep just to myself. So I’ve polished the presentation a little so it looks more professional, and you can now find my 2012 photo art calendars here in my design store.

Using the same design I made several different types of calendars because it’s always nice to have a choice.

There’s a “one word” (of course) photo art mini calendar size 2.3/4″ x 8.5″.

In addition to the “one word” mini calendar, there’s also an “unworded” photo art mini calendar size 2.3/4″ x 8.5″ for those of you who prefer to allow the picture to tell the story.

And finally, there’s a small calendar size 5.1/2″ x 8.1/2″ which includes photo art, words and a quotation (this is my personal favorite).

With gift-giving season coming up real fast, these calendars will make wonderful gifts for yourself or your friends. Plus they’ll continue to inspire you all year round.

You can find them all listed here in my design store, and for those of you who prefer to shop over on Etsy, you’ll find them also listed here in my Etsy store.

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Mixed media and quick photoshop elements color tutorial

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Linda Matthews

This weekend I found an extra hour to play around with some more mixed media. Now that I seem to have got the hang of it, I can’t seem to stop myself!

Like the previous pieces that you can see here and here, this piece was also made using a combination of different pastes and gels, paints and inks, and stamps and stencils. The colors and textures turned out amazing.

Mixed Media Texture

After I scanned and saved the original, I painted on some more red to tone down the green.

Mixed Media Texture

Which then made it an ideal background for overlaying images using photoshop elements.

Mixed Media Texture

And because several of you have asked about the way I change the background color, here’s a very quick tutorial.

There are several ways in photoshop elements to change the background color, but the quickest way is to use the hue slider.

From the photoshop elements main menu, select
Enhance
Adjust Color
Adjust Hue Saturation

Note: This might be different depending on your version of photoshop elements.

Or just use the keyboard shortcut “ctrl U”

Changing Color Photoshop Elements

Then simply adjust the hue slider and you can see the background changing color.

Changing Color Photoshop Elements

And you get all these amazing colors.

Changing Color Photoshop Elements

Don’t you just love photoshop elements?

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More mixed media and photoshop

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Linda Matthews

This is another of the mixed media pieces that I’ve been working with this week.

This one has a different texture to the previous mixed media piece I showed you which you can see here, and I used only one color to paint it. Again I’ve highlighted the texture so that it really stands out.

Mixed Media Texture