We are so excited to bring you another technique video.  ANYONE can do this spectacularly elegant technique and make it even ‘fancier’ with a dollop of watercolor!
Watch Now!

By the way…watch for USAQ and Marco’s Paper at these upcoming shows.  Maybe you will be the next big winner of a MicaColor Palette!

Stamp & Paper Arts Show
August 7th & 8th, 2010
Rock Financial Show Place
46100 Grand River, Novi, MI.
__________________
Stampaway
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Sharonville Convention Center Sharonville, Oh

The transfer technique is done with Studio Paper, and is OH, SO SIMPLE! Run Studio Paper through your injet printer. Put it on best, making sure to dump lots of ink. Turn it onto watercolor paper or a nice cardstock, such as Folia. Gently rub the inked area from the backside, using a cotton ball, or Appliqate.  When it’s transferred, place a Mica Tile over the surface and cut the cardstock to match the shape of the Tile.  Use these images on your scrapbook pages.

In Jill and Rose we made the transfer and adhered it using Great Tape. Adhere the Tile to the image itself, by coating it with Duo Adhesive. Allow it to dry, and then just stick it down onto the transfer.

Frankie has made a wonderful cover page for a Scrapbook album featuring her father. The Tile is covering his image, is actually raised from the surface using nuts and bolts. Notice the layered geometric patterning she’s used, using lots of beautiful gilded pieces.  

 The Fine Liner was filled with Duo and drawn down a ruler, with a cork backing. When dry, apply the gilding.  Gently brush the leaves with Duo too, and gild them, using Gildenglitz – Gold.

Materials Used:
Pretty Napkins
Clear Glass Vase
Perfect Paper Adhesive – gloss
Duo Adhesive
Gildenglitz – Variegated
Soft Brush
Studio Paper
Detailing Scissors – ‘Miones’

Begin by washing the vase and drying it thoroughly. Next it’s fun time! Cut out the napkin designs you like best. It’s easiest if you leave all the layers of the napkin together until you’re ready to glue them to the vase. IMPORTANT: Before gluing them to the vase you must carefully remove the two back layers, leaving only the printed top flower.

Carefully apply the adhesive to the back of the paper napkin flower. Just as carefully, lift and place it onto the vase. I found that for tiny pieces, tweezers came in handy. Apply the PPA over the top of the flowers too. This will protect them and firmly adhere them to the glass. If too much glue gets onto the glass, you can easily remove it easily with a cotton swab and water. I looked the vase over at the very end, and found some seemingly dried adhesive. Once wet it still came off fairly smoothly. But I wouldn’t wait too long to do the clean-up, because the adhesive dries rock-hard within an hour or two.

After adhering flowers all over the bottom part of the vase, I decided to add them to the base too. I turned the vase over and adhered the flowers to the bottom of the base.  Then I got the bright idea to add gilding. When the PPA was completely dry, I applied a light coat of Duo Adhesive. (Say to yourself, “When it’s white, it’s not right. When it’s clear it adheres.”) In other words, let the Duo dry completely.

When it is completely dry, apply the gilding leaf. I used Gildenglitz – Variegated, but plain gold or silver would have also looked nice. Remove the excess with a Texture Sponge. Apply a generous coat of PPA-gloss to the gilding. This will protect it from getting scratched when the vase sits on the table.

When dry and right side up, the gilding glows through the glass base, giving the vase a rich appearance.

Here is the completed vase, ready for a fresh bouquet of flowers, straight from my garden.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this project and will try it yourself!  The vase doesn’t have to be this large.  After all, flowers look pretty in jelly jars too.  And, jelly jars can be made even prettier with some napkin collage embellishing!

The design team has put together some amazing projects! On the USAQ blog, we are featuring ONE photo that best represents their project. If you go to their blogs, you’ll find more photos, and details of and about their projects!

Suzi Blu

Lea

Jessica

Jan

Terri

first ever

Blog Hop Winner

Karen Denson

Karen has won the beautiful Draw and Gild Kit.

We all hope you not only enjoy using it Karen, but that you share your many wonderful projects with us afterwards.   Visit Karen on her blog at http://stampollage.blogspot.com/

Connie Stover is an amazing artist and graphic designer. (She designs amazing websites  through her business Webmastersnow.com  (See the USArtQuest site for instance.) She did a painting using the Fine Liner I just HAD to share it with you! There are no step-outs, but she told me what she did, which I’ll share here.  (She’s also the gal on the Fine Liner video – so you can see a LOT more of her work by viewing that.  http://usartquest.com/images/videos/video_fineliner.jpg)

The painting is entitled “Red Feather” (approx 16 x 20)

Connie began with a pre-gessoed canvas. Using Perfect Pigments and Perfect Glazes she painted the background.  Next she sketched onto the dried surface and then began painting in the large areas of color, using more paint, refining and defining areas using a paintbrush.

In this close-up, you can see the great amount of detail of work done with the Fine Liner. Loaded with Duo Adhesive, Connie drew the robe’s patterning, and when dry she applied the Gildenglitz in Silver, Copper or Gold. She also used the Fine Liner to add touches of detail color using the Perfect Pigments. Larger areas were filled in with Duo using a brush. Gidling was applied there too, once the adhesive had dried. What you might not see, is the beautiful variegated gilding that was used.

Here is another detail of the larger painting.  Connie is an artist who obviously maximizes the Fine Liner. While we may not have the talent to accomplish this level of art, I believe even a novice can draw swirly curlecues, little lines and squiggles onto larger areas of color. So, whether on paper or canvas, cards, scrapbooking or alterd art and using acrylics, watercolor or gilding techniques, this is a tool that should be a necessity in everyone’s toolbox.

Everyone got to work with USArtQuest’s fun and fabulous Draw and Gild Kit.  In the kit here’s a Fine Liner and Duo, Gildenglitz, Mica Pigments and other goodies. Of course each can be used independently or mixed with many other art materials. My project began with a simple pencil line drawing.

When complete, I mixed Perfect Pigment’s – Dark Violet  50/50 with water and loaded the Fine Liner.  It only took 4 refills to complete the whole piece, which is about 18″ x 24″.  I knew by using the acrylic paint, the watercolors could be used freely and not disturb the dried lines – and too, they’d remain visible through the watercolor.  Use a white eraser to eliminate any stray pencil lines.  A white eraser can be used confidently since it won’t leave color on a white surface.

Using lots of MicaColor watercolors this piece will soon be matted and framed.  I call it ‘Homage to Tiffany’.

Enjoy the blog hop and make sure you leave comments on each page. Someone WILL win a Draw and Gild Kit of their very own!  Also stop by the USArtQuest website. We have lots of projects and videos for you to explore, as well as the most wonderful art products in the world!

Make sure you visit the USAQ Design Team Blogs! Don’t forget the comments – doing that will automatically enter you into the contest for the Draw and Gild Kit.

Sarah

Suzi

Lea

Jessica

Jan

Terri

Connie

One of the projects that took only 4 hours were these cornice boards for my bathroom. I have 4 windows and they just looked rather plain against the white walls. Other walls are aquamarine, so I used that color as my base.

Gather the materials.  Scrap wood is a perfect for this project. In this case, I cut boards 10″ x 23″ and added a 1″ x 1/2″ x 10″ cleat on both sides. Padding them slightly, gives them a softer more professional feel. Cut the Studio Cloth with 2″ extras, all the way around.

Use a heavy-duty stapler and wrap the edges. Ease the corners and give them an extra staple or two. Trim away any excess material.

Now comes the REALLY fun part. I have a beautifully smooth base to paint on.

I used the wall paint for the base color.  I used Perfect Pigment Acrylic Fluid Paint to begin painting the design.  In this case stylized branches with leaves.

Finish and simply hang them on a nail. (One on each side of the window.)

Since I have four windows, I did them each a little differently. Two were painted left to right, and two went right to left.  In addition, the branches come from both the top and up from the bottom.  It really added interest.

To freshen the light fixtures, which are twenty years old. I’m just going to take them down, spray paint using metal paint, and rehang them. I’ll save hundreds of dollars and I know I’ll  love the new look.  Dave will love me saving the dollars.

I also did my bedroom cornice board.  It’s just over 12′ long and 10″ wide.  This one has a corner support board and keyhole hooks on the ends.  To reduce weight and to make it easier on myself, I bought a 10′ board and a 2′ board of pine.

Here is the closeup. it has large stylized leaves painted onto the base color. I sponged the base color so that there was a just a hint of texture.

We are excited to announce

that we have officially formed the

USAQ Design Team

Here’s our new logo – Isn’t it just wonderful?

Now it’s time to meet the artists who are not only very talented, and have fabulous blogs, but terrific artwork and happen to be all around nice people. We are honored to have them share their talents with USArtQuest and so many others who follow us and use the wonderful products from USArtQuest.  This is just a quicky hello – their bio is on the website!  Just look for the USAQ Design Team  button and click on.

And HERE they are:

Sarah Anderson joins us all the way from the UK. It’s a good thing for the internet, because it would be a long swim over each week!  Her mixed media work is right up our alley. Find Sarah at http://sarahanderson1.blogspot.com

Suzi Blu’s work is amazingly poignant and colorful too!  We can’t wait to see more of her work using USAQ products, and getting to know her so much better. Say hi to Suzi at http://www.suziblu.typepad.com

  Lea Cioci is an old friend of USArtQuest and will be our resident blogger.
Her fab projects will be found right here! http://usartquestblog.com

Jessica Griffin is a new friend, but she has already won our hearts and minds.
You’re going to enjoy everything she does. She also has some very cute kids. http://canyoupixelthis.com

Jan Henning’s artwork is wonderful. We loved it from the first minute we saw it. I know you’ll like it too.
Jan’s pretty nice too – give her a look at http://papercraftpleasures.blogspot.com/

Terri Sproul is a product gal that knows her stuff!  She loves USAQ and it shows in so many of her videos and projects.
Don’t miss any of them! http://terrisproul.blogspot.com/

Connie Vogt is a spot on…in her classes, her samples and friendship.
She’s another one of those people who found our products and we fell in love. www.craftjunkies.blogspot.com

I hope you take the time to visit us often, share in even MORE SURPRISES & ANNOUNCEMENTS happen nearly daily!  Stay tuned. Please take a moment and please visit our designer’s blogs and become a follower. As always you can always count on
“Something New at USAQ!”
Susan Pickering Rothamel