Do You Color Outside The Lines????

Well, I certainly do, just in case it was not obvious!!
Here I tried something new with my Crayola's. ( I just happen to have a zip-loc bag full of crayon bits and pieces that I simply could not throw away , left over from the days of little kids.) I must give credit to my art gal pal, the wonderfully talented and generous, Michelle Bonds for putting this idea in my head. She presented the possibilities of working with old crayons, here on her blog.
The task before me was to create 9 ATC's for a Technique swap. I really wanted to use what I had and as I have been generating lots of interesting fabrics during my Gelatin Mono-printing demos, I grabbed a piece of not too terrific cloth, as a starting point. I have decided to call my Technique- Crayons Can Save ANYthing!!

I had printed on white muslin with lime green and then orange paint using a mesh bag for pattern and texture. Needless to say it was yucky!! So as my first step I stamped on the yuckiness with purple Lumiere metallic paint using the top of a deodorant dispenser- a lovely oval shape! Then I stamped some more with turquoise Lumiere paint and let it dry. Here come the Crayola's.!!! Using vibrant colors- red with Turquoise, bright yellow, lime green , bright orange- I filled in the ovals. It was much easier than I would have thought. The wax of the crayon colored and covered the fabric very smoothly with little pressure applied. All that was necessary was to hold the fabric taught and color away. It was very soothing and relaxing- almost took me back to kindergarten- Ok Not that Far!!!!!! Once the ovals were colored in , I placed the fabric between two sheets of newsprint and steamed out the wax with a hot iron. The color remained beautifully and there was very little stiffness.


At this point I was thinking that they looked like Gram Stained Bacterial cultures- but that is my science background. Matthew , my 17 year old, said that they looked like paramecium- guess he got the science from his Mum! :) But I was not finished yet and I was in the mood for some handwork. Out came the seed beads and embroidery floss and I added French Knots and beads in certain strategic spots. Then after choosing a backing and stitching in various methods around the edges, my Crayons Can Save ANYthing ATC's are complete and ready to fly off into the world.

Here is a picture of some of the backs. I used scraps of left over fabric/paper for interest and a bit more color!

I now look forward to getting Technique ATC's from the other swappers, and adding some new techniques for surface design to my repertoire. Always a good thing!!