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 (see video below)

• 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.

Take a look at my video to see the whole process!

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

Welcome Home ArtFoamies by Barbara Vaccari

 

HI! I am Barbara Vaccari from Italy. I am a mixed media artist and I am very honored to be a guest designer for ArtFoamies brand.

I am really excited today to present my project to you. The idea came to me as I was approaching my Artfoamies and having lots of fun. I have to tell you that these play tools are addictive. The more you play the more you want to explore them. So let me guide you through my simple practice and all together we’ll discover their infinitive possibilities.

I am a fan of the “make it easy” theory but at the same time, I love to end with something to keep in my hand for daily use specially when it comes to a journal. I never have enough.

This is a very easy project to make and you’ll enjoy your finished mini booklet to customize, journal on, doodle or even as happy mail to send to a special friend.

I hope you’ll love this project as much as I enjoyed creating it and had fun with it. Feel free to send me a message or comment if you have questions or doubt into the making.

Below my supply list, I use a A3 piece of paper to work with but you can use whatever size of paper you have handy.

You’re going to need few supplies to start:

• Balzer Designs | Dotted Circle | Foam Stamp
• Balzer Designs | Big Numbers | Foam Stamp
• Cat Kerr | Inchworm | Foam Stamp
• Patti Tolley Parrish | Pictograph 2.0 | Foam Stamp
• A3 piece of paper
• Scissors or exacto knife 
• Bone folder or you can use your fingers or ruler for the creases on  edges
• Distress Oxides -- mine were: Broken China, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door, Faded Jeans, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, and Seedless Preserves. Feel free to use your favorite colors !
• Palette paper, spray bottle with clean water, Scribble sticks or any other watercolor crayons you already have.
• Finishing: washi tape, scraps from leftovers (even from fabric), fine tip marker in black or favorite color, glue stick.

LITTLE BOOKLET INSTRUCTIONS

It might seem difficult but it is easier if you try directly on paper. Follow along on my step by step video to help you during this process.

1. You'll need an A3 size sheet of paper, folded in half lengthwise (horizontally). Make sure all corners meet up. Fold in half again and then fold once more.

2. Unfold the paper. Fold the entire page in half horizontally.

3. Use scissors or an exacto knife to cut in the middle of the paper until you reach the center.

4. Slit the end and pull the sections out.

5. Fold sections down flat.

6. Trim uneven edges being careful not to trim the folded ones.

I worked as wet on wet technique to enhance the watercolor effect. I continued spritzing with water on foam stamps on each step, taking advantage on all residual color with no waste at all.

1. Rub ink pad on palette paper and then dilute the color by spritzng with water and on ArtFoamies before loading foam stamp with ink.

2. I stamped on my page randomly and alternating foam stamps and different colors.

3. I couldn't stop as you can see so I finished with having lots of sheets of paper. That's when I decided to make some small books.

4. I ended with three signatures (three large sets of paper folded in booklet are called so).

I opened each signature flat and overlapped one to the other. Then I sewed them all together in the center to have a unique journal with yummy pages.

Now I need a cover for my new journal . Trim a thick sheet of paper to signatures size 8,5” x 6” , fold in half ; drawn a circle in the center of front cover page , using a cap or whatever you have handy with circle shape ( no more than 1,5” wide) , then cut out a circle window.

I patterned the whole cover with my ArtFoamies , I used Gelly plate just to try new ways of stamping . If you don’t have gel plate, you can base your cover surface with acrylics then enjoy your favorite ArtFoamies to customize it.

I embellished my empty circle on the cover, adding patterned paper on the inside of the front page glued on the reverse so to have a floral design that shows up on the cover. Glued a round wooden hipboard previously painted with Turquoise acrylic. Added free hand doodles and lettering with a black fine tip marker. Voila!

Thanks a lot for stopping by and follow me on this Artfoamies adventure. I really appreciate your comments. Please feel free to add suggestions if you had new one discovered while using Artfoamies.

Last from me: I keep a Marsiglia bar of soap to wash and clean my foam stamps. They remain soft and sweetly scented 😉

I hope you’ll enjoy my project and can’t wait to see your results. You can reach me at: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b.vaccari/

Website: https://www.barbaravaccari.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWdkZrmaIh10w75VxpKZC8Q
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BarbaraVaccariMu.Sa

I’ll be very happy to meet you there!!!

Happy creating!

Barbara