My Teabag art for today

My teabag art for today.  This was a square teabag and I added gesso lightly to the background.  It was painted with watercolors and gouache and then splatters added to the background.

New Art Journal Page "Don't ask why, ask instead Why Not" John F. Kennedy

Just completed this Art Journal page after watching several of Marta Lapkowska's videos on mixed media on youtube.  "Don't ask why, ask instead Why Not".  A quote by John F. Kennedy.  The supplies I used:  chipboard, clothing tags, puzzle pieces, teabag tags, tissue paper, gesso, acrylic paint, drywall tape, masking tape, glass beads by Liquites, Heidi Swapp color shine Georgia Peach and black velvet, Tattered Angels Glimmer mist Haunted Shadows adn Turquoise Blue, twine, transferred butterfly image, matte medium and gold metallic run ons.

I covered the background and all of the chipboard/background elements with Collections tissue paper and then added a light coat of gesso to everything allowing some of the tissue paper to still peek through.  I then added turquoise acrylic paint to the background rubbing some off while still wet with a baby wipe so you could still see some of the tissue paper.  

I then added glass beads by liquitex and while that was drying, I took an inkjet printed butterfly and painted matte medium on the front of it and matte medium on a piece of watercolor paper, then layed the image face down on the watercolor paper and burnished with a spoon.  After a couple of minutes I rubbed off the white paper to reveal the transferred image.

I wet the background and added my color shine and glimmer mists one at a time and sprayed each of them again with water until I like the movement and then dried with my heat gun.  I then added my butterfly and title and then put gold rub-ons over various areas of the page.

My Teabag art for today - In the glade

My teabag art for today.  Paintd on a used teabag with exlusively ShinHan Watercolors and outlined with a black permanent ink pen

My teabag art for today. Octopus Watercolor painted on unused teabag

My teabag art for today.  I painted on an unused tea bag again today.  This one was exlusively Shinhan watercolors on an unprimed background.  I then went back in with a uniball white gel pen and an Arline black ink pen and added detail.

You Are my Happiness Art journal page

I just finished an art journal page in my Dina Wakeley journal - this was done on one of the burlap pages.

I brushed the burlap with acrylic paint.  I also cut a hole in the bottom left of the burlap and glued my title to the back so that it would peak through the hole.  The paper, die cuts and stamp set were from CreativePl Set "Beach Dreams".

This was my teabag art for the 28th of May 2018 - Lighthouse

my teabag art for today.  This was an unprimed used tea bag and I used Inkadinkadoo Stamp Set "Down by the Seaside".  Then I used gouache to paint it.  

This one was a bit tricky because when trying to stamp it I realized that quite a bit of the stamp was going to stamp solid and in this case I was using Ranger Black Archival ink and that meant the red stripes on the lighthouse, the hillside, the setting sun were all going to be solid black so after I inked up the stamp, I wiped most of the black that I didn't want off - leaving a bit around the edges so the shape would still stamp and I ended up with a happy accident.

Because I couldn't wipe all of the ink away, I ended up with black shadows which worked in my favor.

My Teabag art for the day "Bird of Paradise"

This is my teabag art for today - painted on an unprimed, unused teabag using exclusively Shinhan watercolors and then highlights added with Prisma watercolor pencils.

Genoa Santa Christmas Ornament - part of the Renaissance Santas Series by Mill Hill

I just finished this cross stitch Christmas ornament that is part of a Renaissance Santa Series (I bought the 3 Santa Series and the 3 Santa Series of Celtic Santas from The Stitchery online).  

This Santa is stitched on perforated paper and has stitching and beading.  I just need to add the felt backing and the hanger.  I keep the leftover perforated paper to use on my mixed media artwork - sometimes I stitch on it and sometimes I just use it as it is.

My teabag art for today: Little Girl at the beach

My teabag art for today.  This was an unused teabag (I'm running out of used tea bags, LOL!  I should have started saving sooner!)

I primed it with gesso and then painted with watercolor and gouache and added some detail with Prisma watercolor pencils.

My teabag art for today - A cowboy on a horse

My tea bag art for the day.  This one was primed with gesso first then light washes of watercolor were applied over the top - I decided to do a cowboy on a horse.  I was born in Texas so I'm a Texan at heart and one of my favorite animals is the horse.  I miss having horses - they brought such joy and it was so nice to be able to ride whenever you wanted.

Today's tea bag art - Poppies

Today's Teabag art - Poppies.  I left the background tea stained but added some torn pieces of tissue paper with text to the bacground with Matte Medium and then painted the poppies with gouache.

Tea bag art for 24 May 2018

My tea bag art for today was inspired by a clothing tag I found in the yard when working in my front garden.  (I'm assuming it was from my Mother-in-law as it wasn't mine.)  I saved it thinking I would use it somehow, sometime and today I kept looking at it and thinking it would go well with a primitive folk art type of cottage so I painted this cottage with a combination of watercolor and gouache and then hung the clothing tag off of a piece of bamboo from an old bamboo placemat that had fallen apart.  I then glued it to the base of the tea bag.

My teabag art for the day, Entry into the Dina Wakley, Ranger Ink May Challenge - #showusyourmedia #rangerink #timholtz

This is my teabag art for today - it is my entry into the May challenge #showusyourmedia for Dina Wakley and Ranger Ink - where you have been or where you want to go.  

This is two teabags with a cotton ball in between (glued together with Dina Wakley gel medium.  I glued on a faucet handle, buttons and a butterfly, used Dina Wakley lime heavy body acrylic paint, aztec gold mica powder, water and hair spray in a mini mister to give me the gold shimmering lime green background.  I added some Collections elements tissue paper with Matte Medium - sewed around the cotton ball on my machine with black thread, did some texture with DecoArt stencil 201506 and Tim Holtz black distress ink and with Ranger Black archival ink I stamped another circle of stitching around the cotton ball (this stamp came from Ali Express).

To finish it off I stitched some DMC floss up through the cotton ball and added a blue/black bead to the end.  My title was typed on my manual typewriter.

My tea Bag Art for the day - Hand embroidered Flowers and seed beads

My teabag art for today.  I'll have to say this one is my favorite so far.  This was a teabag that was a berry blend so it dyed the teabag pink.  I cut some uneven squares of pale green organza and stitched some flowers and french knots and leaves over the organza through the tea bag with DMC floss and then stitched on a variety of pink seed beads.  Each flower has a gold seed bead in the center.  On the tea tag I put a piece of a pink tea bag down with pink organza over it and stitched various colors of lime green seed beads over it.

Tea Bag art for the 21st of May

My tea bag art for the 21st of May.  I put a piece of a McCall's clothing pattern on my tea bag today using Liquitex Matte Medium and then went through my stamps to see what I had that might go with the dress pattern and found a stamp by Papermania called Bellisima Dress Mini Stamp.  I stamped a dress on a hanger, a hat on the coat rack (and shoes on the tea tag).  It was painted with watercolor and highlights and shadows added with watercolor pencil, and then I added pink rhinestones to the center of the flowers.

My tea bag art for the day - Art Colors my world

My mixed media tea bag art for the day.  Art Colors my world.  This one is primed with gesso, texture paste added through a stencil, bits of the top layer of a napkin and the tea bag were sprayed with Burnt Red Glimmer mist so they all have a glimmer of gold which really isn't apparent in the photo.  I then added gold leaf to the napkin and tea bag, gold leaves and tiny butterflies were punched from gold glitter paper and then a bit of burgundy twine and gold metallic thread were added.

My teabag art for today - Bunny

This was the tea bag I did for today.  I left the tea bag unpainted in the background and just drew my bunny in black permanent ink.  I then went in with a combination of watercolor and gouache and added a little turquoise, pink and white and added splatters as well.

This time I also decided to paint the tea tag.  I put a layer of gesso on the background, stamped a bunny from an Art Impressions stamp set and then painted it with gouache.

My tea bag art for the day

I really loved how this one turned out.  I was using a square tea bag and I was going through my stash of stuff for mixed media and I notice on one of my napkins there was just an outline of flowers and leaves so I separated the layers of the napkin, tore out just the bit with the outline on it and glued it to the tea bag with gel medium and let part of it overhang at the bottom.

I went in and painted with gouache and did a little doodling and very quickly had this finished tea bag.  I love the bit that hangs over!

My teabag art for the day - painted on a watercolor background and then doodling with White Uniball and black ink

Today's teabag art is a watercolor background with doodling on the top with black permanent ink and white uniball pen.

My tea bag art for the 15th of May of a Sea Turtle titled "Patience"

This is my tea bag art for the 15th of May of a Sea Turtle titled "Patience".

This one I painted in memory of a wonderful professor and friend to my son.  My son is getting his Master's Degree in Marine Biology and he and his sponsoring Professor went to Costa Rica to study the Sea Turtles as this is the project my son wanted to research and do his dissertation on (and would love to spend his career researching and saving these wonderful creatures).  His professor ended up getting a terrible infection in a cut on his foot while there and died several months later from complications from the infection.  He was only in his 40's and my son was devastated.  This painting is a tribute to this wonderful man.

May 13, 2018 Tea Bag art for the day

My Teabag art for the day - this tea bag had a hole in it so I decided to glue the tag behind the hole and then tried to figure out what I could paint on it to incorporate the tag.  

I decided to paint the tea plant and flower.  This was painted in watercolor and gouache.

Happy Birthday Card Little Girl

I just finished this card for my granddaughter's birthday.  She turns 7 this year.  This little sticker girl looks just like her too!  

I used the Grace Taylor "Flower Patch" scrapbook paper and sticker pack.  I just noticed that I put the ribbon on upside down - but already have something stuck to it - oh well, maybe she won't notice, LOL!!

Tea Bag Art for 12 May 2018 - titled Hope

This is my tea bag art for today May 12, 2018.  This tea bag has a lot of acrylic paint, stenciling, doodling on the background.  I then added bits of used baby wipes that I had saved, twine, and chipboard.  I added some stitching to the large butterfly and some wink of stella, although it is not visible in the photo - it really sparkles.  The tiny butterfly is fabric with a metallic look.  I titled this one "Hope"

May 11, 2018 Tea Bag Art for the day - Fabulous Figures Series

This is my tea bag art for May 11, 2018.  I'm really enjoying doing these tea bags, they are a little challenging to draw and paint on but so much fun.  This one was drawn following along with Jane Davenport's Fabulous Figures book.  I painted on one layer of gesso, drew my lady and then painted with a combination of watercolor and gouache.  Highlights were added with Jane's Magic wands, black permanent ink pen and white posca pen.

10 May 2018 Tea Bag Art for the day titled "Small Things"

I'm really having a wonderful time doing the tea bag a day art.  I challenged myself to do a tea bag art everyday this year - even if I don't manage any other artwork for the day.  This used teabag did not get any paint at all, just little bits of painted and stamped muslin, bits of twine, bits of painted canvas and pieces of chipboard.  I then took it to my sewing machine and sewed the leaf pattern down the front.  Hope this inspires you to create!  Thank you for looking!

Tea Bag art for the day - May 8, 2018 "Porcelain Lady" and "Innocence"

These are the tea bag paintings I did for today.  I also have a tutorial under the heading "tutorials" telling you how to make the mirror image transfers as seen here.  

Video that you can pause and play along with on transferring your Tea Bag artwork onto a journal page or watercolor paper

How to make a transfer from your original tea bag art

And for further information - this was not my original idea - I found it on Lynne Hoppes Blog.

Start out with your tea bag in the size that is big enough for the image you want to paint.

This happens to be an unused tea bag because I had no used tea bags left at the time of this tutorial.  I drew my image on the tea bag with a graphite pencil.

I then added Derwent academy Oil pastel white to the skin sections of my "Porcelain Lady"

Then using gouache and Prisma watercolor pencils I added color.  I found that you either had to add gouache straight out of the tube (no water added) or watercolor pencils to be able to add color over the oil pastel but I don't think if I do this again that I will use the oil pastel if I have such a large area to cover and transfer because the watercolor pencil I added over the oil pastel did not transfer well (I did not try gouache straight out of the tube on this one) I then added a watercolor background.

I used Matte Medium by Liquitex to transfer my image to a 5X7 piece of watercolor paper.  Take your tea bag and turn it face down on your watercolor paper or journal page .....

Then spread the Matte Medium heavily over the image starting in the center so that you don't have a bunch of wrinkles as that will prevent some areas from transferring.  Use your brush to mush the matte medium into the tea bag to make sure it gets absorbed.

This is what the original tea bag looked like after the transfer.  It retained most of it's color and detail.

This is the image that I ended up with on my watercolor paper and as you can see, the watercolor pencil detail that I added over the skin did not transfer much. Next time I will try gouache straight from the tube or don't use oil pastel at all - just watercolor, gouache and/or watercolor pencil.

The image on the left is the original tea bag with a few touchups.   The image on the right is the transfer with touchups.

Here is another tea bag that I did a transfer of - I thought on this one I would try Matte Gel rather than Matte medium - didn't work well!

Image face down on watercolor paper with Matte gel added.

This was the resulting transfer image - wish I had used matte medium instead of matte gel because I think this image would have been really lovely with almost no touchup needed if I had.

The image on the left is the original with touchups and the image on the right is the transfer with touchups.  I wish I had not been as heavy handed on the transfer image - I would have preferred her to be more patchy!

Thank you for visiting and I hope I have given you some inspiration and would love to see what you create.

And for further information - this was not my original idea - I found it on Lynne Hoppes Blog.

Tea Bag Art of the Porgs from Star Wars

Another painting on a used tea bag.  I just love the creatures from the Star Wars movies and these Porgs have to be my favorites.  

The tea bag was primed first with one coat of gesso.  I lightly drew my images with pencil and used watercolor and gouache to color them.  They were outlined with a black permanent pen and white highlights added with a white Posca pen.

Hope you enjoy!