Journals & Collaborative Projects

Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous collaborative projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/

Tutorials & Techniques

Below are some of our favorite tricks for adding depth and dimension to your art.  We hope you have fun giving these a try!

Current Group Swaps & Projects

Below is a list of current swaps and projects available to group members. If you are interested in joining our group and participating in these projects, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.  

For existing group members, you can sign up to participate  in these projects here: Swaps & Current Projects.  

We look forward to swapping with you.  Happy Arting!

Member Gallery for Group Swaps
 
Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous group swaps and projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
 
Come play with us... Join today!

Paper Traders is a friendly online community of artists from around the world. We nurture and value creativity, embrace new ideas, products, and techniques yet also value tried and true methods of artistic expression. Our projects consist primarily of paper arts, mixed media collage, artist trading cards, altered art, assemblages, collaborative journals, mail art, and more.

We are interested in creative individuals of varied skill levels who wish to challenge themselves artistically and help build a supportive community. We are at our best when we can share our creative efforts as well as techniques, resources, feedback, and insights. We encourage conversation about art, the art process, and what it means to be an artist.

Paper Traders is hosted on Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
We hope you will consider joining us on an artistic journey!

In order to prevent spammers and to insure that all applicants are actual persons interested in creating art, a questionnaire will be sent to all potential members. When applying, please submit digital examples of your work or direct us to a website where we can view your art. The intent of the questionnaire is not to judge the merits of your art but to safeguard the integrity of our community.

Free Images for Download

Below you will find images that are owned by our group members and offered for your personal use as well as images found in the public domain. Images may be freely used in your personal artwork but may not be used for commercial purposes of any kind without written permission of the owner. No images may be used to create collage sheets or image collections for resale.

To download, follow the link provided. In some cases, you may be able to just click on the image to enlarge it, then right-click and select "save image as". Content changes frequently and many images are available for a limited time.  Please check back often for newly posted images to use in your art journey.

Open Art Challenges !

We're changing things up here at Paper Traders. Instead of the monthly challenges of the past, we'll now be hosting special challenges that might feature a specific technique or product and will be rewarded with actual prizes sponsored by our group members.

Our new challenge for 2013 is a year long word prompt journaling project/challenge. Each specific challenge will be open for one month and all art bloggers can participate, whether you are a Paper Traders member or not. Each artist will comment with a link to their blog post that features the artwork for that particular challenge. For each challenge, a winner will be selected whose art best exemplifies the challenge. The winning artist will be featured here and get a "Trader Treasure" blog button to display on their own blog. They also will receive one chance for each entry for the end of the year prize drawing. Watch this page for more details and challenge announcements.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Beeswax Tutorial

"Fluttering"
Finished Beeswax ATC

Materials: 1 qt size crock pot, set on high, natural beeswax from Michael's,
 Heat Gun ( Nicole Heat Tool),  Natural  bristle brush
Wax (small chunks) took about 15-20 mins to heat.
I wrapped a piece of foil on the edge of the crock pot to catch drips

My first step was to glue down the background of 
a piece of a French book page and the vintage image of the girl.
Let  it dry.  Next step is to paint the first layer of wax. 
You need to work fast and paint your wax in the same direction,
 moving across the shortest side, top to bottom.
 Reload your brush with wax after each stroke.


This step is important. You must fuse your wax layer with 
your paper otherwise it will flake and chip off eventually.
Gently, move your heat gun across your paper until the wax just re-melts
and gets shiny. If you place it too close your wax will move around,
 which is not always a bad thing. Sometimes happy mistakes happen. :)


I placed the butterfly image on by slightly re-heating the wax
in the area I wanted it and quickly laying the image down with slight pressure. 


Second layer of wax is painted over entire card.
This layer will cover the butterfly.


Again, fuse this wax layer with your heat gun. Important.

Then I placed the card stock text onto the card 
by first slightly re-melting the area and quickly placing it down 
with slight pressure.


I added the chipboard gold heart and glitter by the same
method of slightly re-heating the area and applying the heart
and sprinkling the glitter. I then added the third layer of wax.


Before I fused this third layer I rubbed a red oil pastel around the edges.
Then I used my heat gun to fuse this last layer . This is where I found out that 
if your heat gun is too close, your wax will run around.
But, I liked the mistake as it caused the red oil pastel to
move around and created a wispy effect.

 
Finished ATC

2 comments:

JoAnne said...

Nice tutorial, thanks so much for sharing!

Sharne Gregory said...

Thank you for the instructions. I must give this a go.