Summer Memories by Barbara Vaccari
Hi there! I am Barbara Vaccari from Albisola, Italy. I am so excited to be here with you and thankful to ArtFoamies for hosting me today .
First, I’d like to thank everyone for the glad response I received for my post. You have been so nice to take time to comment. I really appreciate it. I apologize for my language mistakes. I‘ll do my best to be simple and clear in my step by step instructions.
Every time I play along with ArtFoamies I get excited. They make me feel free and a child again. They are so inspiring in-fact while I was preparing this project I had some more ideas but I will show you them in the future. For today's project, I was inspired by a friend's picture showing little girls embracing themselves as they finished their kindergarten year. I don’t know why but I immediately decided to create a frame for that treasured moment. Summer time is always welcomed with pictures and if you are like me, you’d love to surround yourself and your home space with framed best happy moments.
Please take note that I added the name of brand that I used in parentheses, but feel free to use your favorite brand and what you have handy. I understand that living in different countries may change our art supplies assortments.
SUPPLIES
- Balzer Designs | Dotted Circle | Foam Stamp by ArtFoamies
- Balzer Designs | Big Numbers | Foam Stamp by ArtFoamies
- Crayon Foam Stamp by ArtFoamies
- One or two wooden frames in your favorite size (3.5 x 3.5 in ; 8.5 x 6.5 in. approx)
- White tissue paper, watercolor sheet of paper 5,9 x 8.3 in. (Canson)
- Scissors or X-Acto knife
- White gesso (Golden)
- Kitchen sponge or large flat brush (to base wooden frame)
- Soft Gel Gloss (Golden)
- Flat stiff brush to glue tissue paper
- Palette paper or any grease paper to spread paint over
- Spray bottle with clean water
- Watercolor pastels Gelatos (Faber Castell : Mango, Banana yellow, Watermelon, Blood orange, Bubble gum, Orange Soda other any other watercolor crayons you already have in oranges tones).
- Gel printing plate (Gel Press 8 x 10 in.)
- Brayer
- Acrylic paints (Amsterdam : Rose Reflex, Reflex Orange, Napthol Red, Naphthol Red Light, Turquoise Green, Greenish Yellow, White)
- Marabu acrylics (Phthalocyanine Blue, Lemon Yellow, Black) and a tip of dark brown to paint the back of frames.
- Sticky dimensional adhesive foam
INSTRUCTIONS
- Lightly sand frames then base them with gesso. Let dry, sand again. Repeat gesso step till satisfied with a completely covered background. Let dry.
- Pick up Gel plate and tissue sheets of paper. Add in different passages paints following your preference. I started with turquoise green and white, thinking of sea, waves and water. While gel plate is covered with fresh paint I drew some marks and doodles with a wooden stick. Be careful you do not cut or damage the gel plate surface. I added texture stamping with the Big Numbers ArtFoamies and then place tissue paper over to print. I followed along creating more tissue papers with turquoise blue, greenish yellow and white on gel plate. I experimented writing on the gel plate with white neocolor to see white lettering showing through patterned gel plate papers, but I wasn’t happy with my result so I left it.
- Gel plate and ArtFoamies are dangerous addictive tools and you never know how long you’re going to continue in playing! This time I tried with orange tones and reflex pink (yummy combination). Once satisfied and you’ve got plenty of colorful sheets, let the tissue papers dry well.
- In the meantime, paint the back of the frame with a large flat brush and black. Let dry.
- Go back to the front, add soft gel generously and softly lay down tissue paper over the whole front frame surface. Lightly press with hands. Do not overthink on creases since they’ll vanish once dry. To help, lay down a piece of towel paper and gently press with your hands to be sure tissue paper is well glued to the frame surface. Once dry, use X-Acto knife to cut off central picture area. Feel free to tear tissue paper instead and glue it in pieces with soft gel.
- Once your front frame is all gel patterned covered, let dry very well.
- Apply soft gel generously to protect your work.
- Take watercolor sheet of paper and watercolor pastels, Gelatos. Spritz water on ArtFoamies crayon stamp then rub on gelatos color directly over foam stamp. I love to mix different colors even on small foam stamps surfaces and discover new flashy watercolor combinations. Let dry. Cut as many crayons as you want. I made three to add school details and then I decided to add more ArtFoamies stamps to my surface.
- Attach crayons stamps to the frame surface with little sticky squares dimensional foam.
And that’s it! A new joyful frame to add unique pics or to gift a special friend or your children's children teacher.
Hope my project inspired you and I can’t wait to see your creations. Thank you so much for reading me. Please feel free to add suggestions if you discovered new one with Artfoamies. Sharing is fundamental to grow as creatives and we love to create, right?
Last from me: I keep a Marsiglia bar of soap to wash and clean my foam stamps. They remain soft and sweetly scented.
If you want to know more from me . You can reach me at :
- https://www.instagram.com/b.vaccari/
- https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraVaccariMu.Sa
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWdkZrmaIh10w75VxpKZC8Q
Happy creating!
Barbara