How To Make A Cabinet Card Collage

I’ve been having fun creating cabinet card collages.  Cabinet cards are vintage photos taken by professional photographers in the late 1800’s.  They are extremely thick which makes them perfect for mini collages as they absorb paint without wrinkling or warping.  To make a collage using cabinet cards, you use the same collage techniques you would use on any other project.  Just a reminder, you must use transparent paint so that you can see the layers underneath.  I used watercolor paint. 

You can find cabinet cards on eBay, Etsy, antique stores, estate sales and flea markets.  If you’re looking for cabinet cards in an antique store or flea market, they can usually be found in a box of vintage photos.    This is where you can get them for the best price. 

The best cabinet cards for this project will have a white background.  If your cabinet card has a dark background, the project becomes more difficult.

I purchased this cabinet card because I fell in love with the angelic faces of these children.  Unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to the background.  I’m going to paint the background white and see if I can make it work. 

How to Build Layers for your Background

I love the look of depth from layered backgrounds.  When trying this technique, you must use transparent versus opaque paints.  How do you know if a paint is transparent or opaque?  Several paint brands, such as Golden, make it easy to see how transparent their paints are.  On their label, they have a brush stroke of paint coated over black lines.  If you can see the black lines through the paint, the color is transparent.  If it’s hard to see the black lines, that paint is opaque and you won’t see any layers underneath.  Learning about the black lines was an “A-ha” moment for me.  Very handy to know.

This orange paint is transparent as you can see the black lines through the paint stroke on the label.

The blue pain is opaque because it's hard to see the black lines on the label.  You don't want to use this paint to build layers as you won't be able to see any layers peeking through.  Your background will turn into one color only - blue. 

I created the background above by using a circle stencil.  I paired the stencil with different opaque paints (orange, red and yellow).  I built up layers by stenciling on top of previous layers.

How To Make A Perfect Dot

I’ve started the layering process on my backgrounds and wanted to add some white dots using acrylic paint.  Just in case you haven’t heard of this trick, there’s a simple way to create those perfect dots.  You simply use the end of your paintbrush instead of the bristles.  Dip the end of your paintbrush into your paint and start dotting away. 

Art Journal Backgrounds

 

I watched a free online Strathmore workshop called Sketchbook Fury - The Art Ninja’s Handbook taught by Graham   Smith.  Lesson one has  great tips on designing background pages for your art journal.  I created blended backgrounds in my art journal with Graham’s tips in mind. 

For these backgrounds, I choose 2 to 3 translucent paints per page.  I made sure I picked out colors within the same color family.  For example, I used cool colors (blues and greens) per background, or warm colors (reds and oranges).  This strategy ensures you won’t create a muddy brown background.  For a more blended look, I sprayed the pages with water prior to adding paint. 

After I applied paint to one page, I closed my journal so that the paints would bleed and blend onto the adjacent page.   Upon opening my journal, there were a couple of places where the paint didn’t do what I wanted it to.  In these areas I simply used a baby wipe to help spread the paint where I wanted it.

Tutorial: Portrait Art

This portrait is of my son, Colin.  Making this style of portrait is fun and a great gift idea, especially with Father’s Day coming up.  

Supplies Needed: 
paper
pencil 
photo 
Sharpie
eraser



Steps: 

1)  Have the person you are making the portrait of write down words that represent them. These words or phrases can also include things they like to do.  As for my son, his words were Disneyland, Legos, student, etc. 

2)  Very lightly sketch the outline of that person’s head.  If sketching isn’t your thing, lightly trace the outline of their head from a photo.  If you don’t have a large photo, you may want to use software such as PhotoShop to enlarge one.

3)  Use the outlines you made of their hair to create the letters of their name.  Be sure to leave a small space between the letters so you can read the name. 

4)  Remember those descriptive words?  It’s time to use them.  Write these on top of the lines you sketched of the face. 

5)  Use a sharpie to color the lettered hair in.

6)  Trace over the descriptive words with the Sharpie.

7) Erase any pencil lines.

One Flew Under the Cuckoo's Nest

Spring was my mom’s favorite season and inspired the design of my paper mache shelf.  The shelf is hand made exclusively of paper mache and the birdcage is created from recycled wire.   After I created the shelf and birdcage, I assembled elements from my mom’s life that represent her passions.  To complete my sculpture, I used elements from mom’s life, including her baby photo. 

What I learned:  Thread does not photograph well.  I draped pink and yellow thread through the birdcage wires, but it was difficult for the camera to pick this up.  Next time, I’ll use a much heavier thread, perhaps embroidery thread.

As a side note to relatives:  I didn’t use grandpa’s cuckoo’s clock while making this piece.  I found a broken one at Value Village that I used.   

Thorp Grist Mill photos for sketching

Years ago my sister took me this grist (grain) mill inThorp, Washington.  I fell in love with this mill built in the 1800's, but failed to get pictures.  I visited it recently, this time taking pictures.  My goal is to draw this mill when I get a few minutes to sit back and sketch.  I’m sharing these photos, hoping they inspire others to sketch it as well. 

Equipment on the dock