Poured Paint Technique

Hi everybody, I've been wanting to try a poured paint project for a while now.  So, this afternoon, at the end of the day, I found myself a little time to mix up the paints and try it out.

The trick with this technique is to mix a few different colors of paint, so that they have varying thickness or viscosity.  

I mixed Color Burst and Liquid Metals with my White Acrylic Medium and Clear Sealer.  I used Turquoise, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Olive Green, Yellow Gold, and Metallic Jade. 

The next little trick is to pour the mediums that you've just created into a cup or vessel to pour from, without mixing them together.  I used a paper coffee cup from my last visit to the coffee shop.

I created a little pour station outside with a box lid, and some small plastic cups to hold my surface above my pour tray.

With my surface in place, I was ready to pour.  

I really liked pouring paint.  Now, to let it dry to see how it turns out.  Some of the areas are really thick with paint, so I think I'll have to wait til tomorrow to see the end result.

For now, this was a great little diversion, that let me try a new technique and practice a little non representational abstract expression with paint.

Til next time, Ken

Color Challenge: Turquoise, Chartreuse, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber

Hi everybody,
This past week, our color challenge was to use the colors Turquoise, Chartreuse, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber on a project or work of art.

It's a great color palette to use and a little unexpected...

...but it works because it's an analogous color palette, or, the colors are beside each other on the color wheel.  (Burnt Umber is neutral). 

And, I've been amazed by the projects that everyone has submitted.  They're all just stunning.  At first, I thought I'd randomly pick a winner.  But, the works are all so beautiful, I couldn't choose one myself, so I would like to put it up for a vote.  Please vote for your favorite by commenting with the Number and Name of the project that you would like to vote for.

1. Milagros C. Rivera

 

2. Milagros C Rivera

3. Lauren Bergold

4. Lauren Bergold 

5. Kathy Davis

6. Emilee Grupp

7. Pam Miner

8. Lisa Smith 

9. Ayoti Mittra

The voting is now open and will remain open until noon, 12:00 pm, August 31, 2016, so you only have 1 day to vote.  Feel free to share this blog post with your friends to let them see the color palette we worked with and give them the chance to vote for their favorite.  Tomorrow, I'll count the votes and name the winner here and on my Facebook Page. The winner will receive a set of Color Burst Caribbean Brights. 

Thank you again to everyone who took my color challenge this week. I'm planning to have another color challenge really soon!

'til next time, 

Ken

Ken Oliver Crafts May Challenge Day 3

Welcome to day 3 of the May Challenge, we will be sharing projects by our Creative Team for their monthly challenge.  

The theme this month is 'May Flowers' and the to make it a 'light' challenge they could use any Ken Oliver Craft products alongside products from ANY other manufacturer

Now it's your turn to get in on the fun!
 Facebook or Instagram with the tag #kenolivermaychallenge or email your submissions to sharon@kenolivercrafts.com.  You could win some Color Burst for your stash.  

The deadline for submissions is June 3rd. Winners will be announced her on the blog and Facebook on June 6th.

Today we have a project from

Giovana Smith

Supplies:

Color Burst: Fuchsia, Turquoise, Lime Green, Alizarin Crimson.
Liquid Metals: Metallic Sky and Metallic Mandarin.
Stamp: Poppy Mandala.
6" x 6" Mixed Media Art Board.

Cut'n'Color Poppy Flowers Card

Giovana Smith has a great card and tutorial to share with us, recently the Creative Team got to create with the new range Ken Oliver range of Cut'n'Color dies and stamps.

 Here's Giovana to tell you more:

Hello friends!! Giovana here today showing you one of the new Cut' n Color Stamp and dies from Ken Oliver Crafts! The set I used today is Poppy Flower Stamp and Poppy Flower Die.

Working with them was super easy!! Here are the picture details:

Stamp the Poppy flower image on a piece of Water Media Paper, then die-cut the image.

Start coloring the image, starting with the flower in Color Burst Fuchsia, while this gets air dry, color the leaves with Lime Green and Terra Verte, then add Lemon Yellow to the flowers.

 Cover the edges of a Kraft Water Media card, using a stencil add Lemon Yellow Color Burst and spray water.

 After background is dried, stamp sentiment in Crimson Click It Ink pad.

 Add flower to card, add pearls and little drops of Yellow Gold Liquid Metals. Set aside to dry.

And this is the look of the finished card.

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge: Coloring with Color Burst and Stencils

Hey everybody, this month, I was asked to be the guest artist for The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.  I was super honored to be asked because I know thousands of viewers read their blog every day to mixed media inspiration! And, some of the best artists around post amazing art there all the time!

This month's challenge is "Butterflies and Blooms." It's spring and I couldn't wait to get started.  But, I wanted to do something a little different for this challenge.

I created an 8"x10" photo frame using one of my Mixed Media Photo Mats. The mats are really great, they're heavy weight mat board that holds up to water media without warping. The front of the mat board is covered with smooth watercolor paper, so it's great for watercolor, or coloring with your favorite coloring medium, whether it's markers, colored pencils or inks. 

And since "coloring" is so popular, I wanted to show you how you can create your own coloring pages or projects using stencils that you may already own.

I simply used a stencil from The Crafter's Workshop to create a back ground design by tracing the shapes of the stencil with a sharpie onto my mixed media board.

I layered traced shapes on top of one another making sure to keep in mind which traced flowers were foreground, mid and background.  It gives the illusion of depth of field in the composition.  Here's a tip when using stencils for a background pattern like this, rotate or angle the stencil in different directions as you trace the image.  It appears that the flowers are all different, just by changing their angle or position.

When I'd completed tracing my background, all I had to do was "color" each image with Color Burst, a brush and water.  As you're coloring with Color Burst, there's no need to stay in the lines perfectly.  Afterwards, you can go back with a sharpie to redraw the lines a bit.  It looks pretty cool...and watercolory!

I gotta tell you, I love coloring with Color Burst, because it's a powder, you can get really intense colors and blending with a brush and water lets you get very interesting shading and highlights. I painted the flowers with Fuchsia, Tangerine and Lemon Yellow.  When I'd colored all the flowers, I used a light wash of Chartreuse to fill in the background.  When everything was colored, I went back to the surface with a fine tipped Sharpie to redraw the flowers for added visual interest.  I finished the surface with a waxing medium to protect the watercolor. 

Now, you have to check out the projects over at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!  The mixed media art on the blog is incredible! And, take the challenge to create a mixed media piece! It's always good to challenge your self to create something new.  When you take the challenge and post it...you'll have the chance to win a set of Color Burst Caribbean Brights!  Make sure to read the rules and requirements for eligibility...I am telling you, you will love the art you'll find there!

Here's what I used to create this piece:
8"x10" Mixed Media Mat Board
Caribbean Brights Color Burst
Fine Tipped Sharpie
Watercolor Brush
Water
Wax Finish

Thank you for visiting my blog today and make sure to take the challenge at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge! 

Until next time, 

Ken

Mixed Media Canvas with Color Burst and Scrapmatts

We love seeing projects that the Creative Team make for other Design Teams, especially when they incorporate Color Burst and are as stunning as this.  Dunja Ducker created this canvas as part of the Scrapmatts Design Team and you can find the supplies details and instructions here.

Don't forget there is still time to submit your projects for the Ken Oliver April Challenge. Full details here. Email your submissions to sharon@kenolivercrafts.com or share them on social media with the tag #kenoliveraprilchallenge. You could win some Color Burst for your stash.

Color Burst

Turquoise, Lime Green and Indigo

Creative Team April Challenge - Day 6

It's day 6 of the April Challenge.  Thank you all so much for your comments and feedback so far, we cannot wait to see your submissions, so just to remind you here are the details:

 The theme this month is 'Family' and the challenge was to create using three Color Burst colors, one metallic color, Stick it, any stamp and die cuts. (If you haven't got all the supplies above don't worry you can still enter as long as there is Color Burst in the project)

This month we will be opening up the challenge to you. Create a project following the brief above and share it on Facebook with the tag #kenoliveraprilchallenge or email your submissions to sharon@kenolivercrafts.com.  You could win some Color Burst for your stash.  

The deadline for submissions is April 29th. Winners will be announced her on the blog and Facebook on May 1st.

Today's inspirational projects are from 

Krista Riley and Dunja Ducker

Krista Riley

Supplies Used:

Ken Oliver 12 x 12 Mixed Media Art Board

Color Burst

Paper Flowers

Adhesive Gems

-0-

Dunja Ducker

Supplies Used:

Stick It Adhesive
Color Burst - Lemon Yellow, Terre Verte, Ultramarine Blue, Indigo Blue
Liquid Metals - Metallic Jade, Yellow Gold, Verdi Gris

Creative Team April Challenge - Day 1

All this week on the blog we will be sharing projects by our Creative Team for their monthly challenge.  The theme this month is 'Family' and the challenge was to create using three Color Burst colors, one metallic color, Stick it, any stamp and die cuts.

This month we will be opening up the challenge to you. Create a project following the brief above and share it on Facebook with the tag #kenoliveraprilchallenge or email your submissions to sharon@kenolivercrafts.com.  You could win some Color Burst for your stash.  

The deadline for submissions is April 29th. Winners will be announced her on the blog and Facebook on May 1st.

To start us off today we have projects from Jeanne Streiff and Laurel Beard

Jeanne Streiff

Supplies used:

Liquid Metals - Metallic Rose, Metallic Mandarin

Color Burst - Turquoise, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Burnt Orange, Merlot, Orange, Tangerine

Stick-it

Best Ever Craft Mat

Ken Oliver Crafts Mixed Media Art Board 6 x 6"

Stencil from Stencil Girl

Die from Simon Says Stamps

-0-

Laurel Beard

Supplies used

Stick-it

Color Burst - Fuchsia and Orchid 

 Liquid Metals  -  Metallic Rose and Platinum. 

Watercolor Card Stock

Creativity Team Meet up, Final Day

Today we have the final installment of images from our local Creative Team get together.  I think you will agree that these are amazing works of Art created using Color Burst, mixed media art boards, stencils and mixed media techniques.

We would love to see your Color Burst creations, use the tag #KenOliverCrafts or #KenOliver on social media and share with us.