December 2006 - K.I.S. theme = What is New is Old Again
(The tea/coffee stain Workshop)
Presented by Chelise Stroud Hery
Week One - Background
Supplies:
Very dark brewed black tea. Brew 1 1/2 cups boiling water with 2 bags of black tea. Leave to steep, at least overnight. Note that black tea that has an additional ingredient such as cinammon, etc. - may leave your cards smelling of that ingredient, which can be nice.
Coffee is another alternative to tea staining. Frankly, instant coffee works the best, in which case combine 1 1/2 cups of hot water with 2 heaping teaspoons of instant coffee (warning - do not drink! It will be nasty strong.) and let cool.
You can also use brewed coffee - just make it as dark as possible.
You might have fun trying a variety of these things, too.
Oh, and you are also going to need ink pads (like for for rubber stamping) in one or more color. The tiny raised pads that you can get at craft or scrap book stores are perfect, but any kind will work. The color is up to you, but I suggest: Brown, rust, copper, gold, black, dark green, etc.
for these ACEOs you will want light colored cardstock backgrounds (for the tea/coffee staining.) White, Cream, or manilla will work well.
Finally, you'll need some foam paint brushes or some cotton balls.
For those of you who are wondering “why stain the paper?” – for the most part, it is a fun way to add a background that makes your card stock look naturally aged. It is a fun technique to use when creating antique, vintage, or “prim” style collages, or artwork.
Some notes on staining:
Do not stack more than one stained card on top of another while they are drying. Otherwise, there is potential for sticking together.
Also, just as black tea and coffee will stain this paper, it also has the potential to stain clothing, carpet, cloth, etc. – so just as you would be with paint – put some forethought into where and what you are staining, so as to avoid “unwanted” stains!
The staining process:
You can actually dip your entire card into bowls or pans of coffee or tea, but my suggestion for beginners is to either dab or brush your paper with the stain. You can use: A sponge paint brush (usually most effective.) A regular paint brush, a cotton ball, or – if you are using tea and still have the tea bags in the liquid, you can try dabbing the tea bags over the cards.
You do want a nice coating of color and wetness over the entire surface of your card. You can ope to do both sides if you wish. It is up to you. Do keep in mind that the color you see will lighten some as your surface dries. Obviously you don’t want your cardstock to be soggy/wet – other than that, experiment with different color levels / different amounts of stain, on different cards.
Please note: coffee and tea are not acid free or “archival” in nature. If this is extremely important to you (the long term durability / archival quality of your final cards) you may want to very gently rinse the cards with water following the stain application. Remember that wet paper tears very easily! Rinsing the cards will cut down on some of the acidity of the final product, however – predictabley – it will also cut down on the overall color and any odor (which can be a nice addition) on the final product.
Drying Process:
Now, you want to lay your stained cards down on a flat dry surface. You may want to place a sheet of wax paper underneath them. You’ll want to leave them in a warm (at least room temp) dry environment, probably overnight – to complete the drying surface. If you have a gas oven, you may consider placing them in the oven (without turning it on!) the same as you would bread dough to rise – to expedite the drying process. If you are feeling impatient, try using a hair dryer to quicken dry time. Remember though that heat can burn paper.
If, after they are dry – you would really like them to be darker, you can go ahead and repeat the stain process, for a double coat.
Finally, a tip for those of you using instant coffee for this process. After you stain your paper and it is still a bit wet, try sprinkling a few crystals of instant coffee directly on the paper. This will create a fun variation in color on the paper with dark colored splotches. (Don’t do this with coffee grounds, however, as it will just muck up your paper. 
)
Week twp - Primary Image
Time to start putting images on our lovely stained cards.
The general idea behind tea and coffee staining is that your paper ends up looking aged, so as we continue with that theme, we will be using some vintage images for our primary images.
You can use any copyright free vintage images that you may have on hand. Those of you who feel particularly energetic may want to go to your local second hand bookstore or thrift store and look for books/magazines or papers dated at least 75 years ago. (While this does not garantee that images found within are copyright free - you can pretty much be certain that anything published later than 75 years ago is still under copyright protection.)
Few. That being said, there are also lots of wonderful copyright free image vendors who are members of ZNE. You can find a great selection here:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&fkr=1&from=R8&satitle=ZNE+image&category0=&submitSearch=Search
Phew! Ok, but now - what you are all waiting for.
The collagists highly guarded secret source of FREE fantabulous copyright free vintage images on the internet:
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/vintageresources.html
What you can do:
Save or copy and paste the images and use them in your own personal artwork.
What you really shouldn't do:
Reproduce the images on a collage sheet or image disk that you resell.
Other than that, check those links out and have fun!
Here are some ideas for working with vintage images:
Consider staining the image as well as the background.
Consider carefully ripping the image out instead of cutting it out.
Try smearing an ink pad (such as for rubber stamps) along the edges (only) of an image and/or the background, for an additional aged look.
Try crumpling up your picture and then carefully flattening it out before pasting it down.
Try lightly sanding your image and/or your background with a fine grain sand paper.
All of the above techniques are fun ways to add additional texture and "aged" looks to your art.
Examples by perpetualplum:
Examples by shabbycottagestudio:
Examples by thishasyournameonit:
Week Three - Embellishments
Remember, we are thinking vintage.
Fibers (ribbon, yarn, fabric strips) are always fun. Consider hole punching a corner and tieing on a bunch of different textured fibers. Go with browns, golds, muted, natural colors. Try using the coffee/tea stain to stain your fibers too!
Rust Rusty things are fun embellishments for vintage art. Consider nails, wire, small pieces of metal. Don't know where to find rusty items? Check your garage, the backyard, parking lots, ask people you know who work on cars, etc. - to check around. Start a box or drawer of tiny rusty items. BE CAREFUL using rusty stuff. Don't cut yourself! No one wants you to have to get a tetanus shot! YIKES. Affixing a rusty nail or piece of wire to your card can be done in many ways. Experiment with glues, you can also tie the item on, etc. Experiment and have fun!
Buttons Buttons - especially vintage, chipped, muted color buttons are fun vintage embellishments. Play with them at the edges of your card, to highlight circular elements of your primary images, etc.
Other vintage bits and piecesIf you have other tiny vintage things - yellowed paper, clips or pieces from old magazines or books, tiny vintage labels, sewing stuff, cards, etc. - now is the time to pull them out and see if any of them would make a fun embellishment on your card. Everything is game. Bottle caps, fabric scraps, etc.
Be creative, have fun, and upload those final images.
Normally we have a forth and/or fifth week in this workshop, but this month we are combining all the final steps this week, because of the busyness of the season.
That being said - for this workshop, I will once again offer the gorgeous ZNE backgrounds created by ZNE Member Tiffany Marshall (eBay id tiffanyjane1971) - Remember, these backgrounds are only for use if you are a ZNE Member, for those of you who are - feel free to use either one, they are nice for vintage inspired cards!
and
And remember, If listing your K.I.S. workshop created artwork, please include the K.I.S. logo and the following verbiage:
"The ZNE ACEO K.I.S. Workshop is a monthly collage project sponsored by ZNE and provided on the ACEO group boards here on eBay. Join ACEO or ZNE to find out more, and/or join us for next month's Workshop."
Logo:
Thanks everyone for making this another fun workshop!
A final piece by thishasyournameonit:
Some final pieces by perpetualplum:
