Art Anthology Products

I love learning new techniques.  I love learning about new products for stamp art.  When you combine the two -- it is very nice!  Since Pat Huntoon (owner of Technique Junkie stamps and all of the newsletters and CDs for Technique Junkie) has been showing the Art Anthology products she discovered a few years back.   However, since I had to downsize my stamp room, new stuff and new tools must be truly usable for me to buy them. I am both a visual and an auditory learner -- but I learn techniques best if I can somehow visualize it. So I read her blog, I read the Art Anthology website, and I pondered. 

It wasn't until the recent stamp show in Westminster, MD that I got to see these products in real life and played with them at the Technique Junkie booth that I decided I really must have some of these. So now I want to share with you  the things I have learned about these products. And of course I have cards to share with as well. 

But here is what I have learned:
1. Art Anthology paints are really a "gel medium" but you can paint with them in different ways.  More info on this later with examples.
2. Art Anthology paints dry fairly quickly -- but as with any kind of paints the thicker the paint the longer it will take to dry.
3. You can hurry this process a bit by using a heat gun.  But you have to remember that the heat gun  will make the paint  feel "tacky" even if it dry until it has cooled.
4.  You cannot use typical brayering techniques  because the paints dry so quickly.
5. Art Anthology sprays do not have a wide "spray area" and they are permanent when sprayed on fabric if they are allowed to dry well.
6. Art Anthology sprays are not water reactive.
7. Neither the sprays or the paints hardly have any smell at all.  So you do not necessarily need to use them in a "well ventilated" area.
8. The Art Anthology paints, while not really an adhesive will adhere very small things to a design.
9. You do not need  fancy and extremely high quality paint brushes. 
10. After you have painted with the paints, the brushed must rinsed very thoroughly.  Otherwise, the paint brushes will become stiff and may not be usable.
11. If you need to stamp on top of the Art Anthology paints -- you will need to use Stazon you will need to use Stazon or Ranger Archival inks.  Otherwise, the ink will not dry.  It would similar to stamping on glossy card stock.
12. The Art Anthology paints will also resist the Art Anthology sprays.  So when you paint first and then spray the spray does not change the color of the paints. The thicker the paint, the better the resist.

I will show several cards today using the same flower from Greetings http://techniquejunkies.com/greetings-set/. This is the first one of seven.  I stamped the flowers several times.  I used Memento ink.  I then started with  one of the yellow Art Anthology paints, then added some red, and then the green.  I added a brown in the center of the flower, followed by some

Prills which when the dry stuck very well to brown paint.   Then I sprayed some Art Anthology sprays for the background. I then stamped a greeting and added a rhinestone embellishment. The greetings is from the set "Things I want to Do." http://techniquejunkies.com/things-i-want-to-do/

For the above card I stamped Random ABCs http://techniquejunkies.com/random-abcs/  and then flower several times.  Then I painted the flowers with a red Art Anthology paint thinned with water so it is not as "clumpy." I added the Art Anthology sprays and it still resisted!   I added a saying "Seeds of Today" http://techniquejunkies.com/seeds-of-today/ on some card stock with the "over spray" (I had placed a scrap nearby purposefully). Layers and a ribbon -- done.

The next card was done with similar techniques as the card above.  I also some leaves by laying down some paint with my brush in a "leaf shape."  It is not exact but gives a impression of leaves.  I used a greeting from the same set as the flower.  Some Prills and some ribbon, and layers -- done.

 

For this next card I sprayed the Art Anthology sprays first and then stamped. The paints were only slightly thinned with water and then Prills. More leaves were painted in.  Then I used a stencil from Art Anthology --  Soliloquy Stencil http://techniquejunkies.com/soliloquy-stencil/ and I used Lava Stone paint http://techniquejunkies.com/lava-stone-effects-dimensional-medium/ to add the word to a piece of  yellow vellum. When that was dry then I torn the vellum, ran it through one of my Xyron machines and adhered it to the card front.

This next card is a result of  trying to brayer the gel medium paints to the card.  It did not go well until I added a lot of water. Then it worked because didn't dry so quickly.  Again I added leaves to the stems and I used a different word on the stencil with the same paint.

 

Anyone who follows my blog knows I really like using the Antique Glimmers technique from the Technique Junkie newsletter. So I wondered if I could that with these Art Anthology Gel Medium paints.  You tell me -- does it work?

 I placed a small amount of the gel medium paints on my craft mat.  I sprayed the paints VERY LIBERALLY with water.  Then I started pulling the card stock back and forth through the paints with the water until I had the coverage I desired. What I liked about doing this was the intensity of the colors were quite varied.  I let it dry for quite a while before stamping the flowers and then painting them.  I had already discovered through "boo-boo sheets" you never see that for this step of stamping I need to use Stazon as regular dye-based inks would not dry and would smear badly!   I used Stazon ink and stamped the greeting. The greetings came from the set "Things I Want to Do." http://techniquejunkies.com/things-i-want-to-do/ . 

So I am curious -- did you learn anything new about Art Anthology products? 

Have a wonderful day!