Black Glue?

Black Glue?
Black Glue?

I have an idea for a project that would involve black glue. I thought you could buy an Elmer’s black glue at a craft store. They do have black Elmer’s, but it has glitter. I think it’s for making slime.

I found an article that said make your own black glue with regular white glue and black acrylic paint.

Now, one of the most useful things I’ve learned from Patricia and Mariah at pmartiststudio.com, is that acrylic paint is just a glue with pigment added.

So why not try an application of heavy bodied (thick) acrylic paint? I’m about to inventory my black acrylic paints. If none work as is, then I’ll add a little glue.

SlappingPaintonPaper

SlappingPaintonPaper
SlappingPaintonPaper

Today, I accompanied my husband to Moh’s surgery. An old motorcycle burn on his lower leg left a scar that turned into a squamous cell sarcoma. It presented as a white scaly patch the size and shape of a silver dollar. The surgeon got it all first cut. Still, that and a trip to the pharmacy took most of the day.

I did get home in time to catch Karen McKoy’s live stream. Karen is an artist who is also a grief counselor. Her art channel is called, Slapping Paint on Paper

I found her through friends in the chat of PMartist Studio. Her words of wisdom have been invaluable to me, and I am grateful.

https://youtu.be/rAnYwbCJ7BM?si=_V_nkf7yO5TLmk9j

PMartist Studio

PMartist Studio
PMartist Studio

‘Just a little crafting, and a whole lot of sleeping, today. It’s Sunday, for one, and I’m always exhausted after relocating to Charlotte. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 1996, and that drive, along with packing and unpacking, uses all my spoons. Thats a story for another day.

Today, I did get to watch PMartist Studio’s Sunday morning live stream, at least until I fell back asleep.

https://youtube.com/@pmartiststudio

The masterminds of this channel, Patricia Carmichael Cline and Mariah Scott Rushing, are a mother and daughter duo. Patricia is a retired art teacher and Mariah is a graphic artist. They are multi-talented with specialties in mixed media and gel printing.

If you subscribe to their channel, you can participate in a live chat during their live streams. It is described as, “the best chat in town,” and I enjoy being a part of it. They stream live 4 times per week, and are certainly something to look forward to!

There’s much more to tell about their business, https://pmartiststudio.com/, and their Facebook group, Makers of Mixed Media Art/Artists.

That’s something to look forward to, too!

Glueless!

Glueless!
Glueless!

Not really, but I did spend the day cleaning and packing and driving back to Charlotte.

I was anxious to get back to seal and finish this big collage:

Gutsy

There’s a whole story behind this collage. It’s my entry for the January Collage Challenge at Makers of Mixed Media Art/Artists, a group sponsored by PMartists Studio. I’ll share more in the future.

My favorite sealant is Liquitex Satin Gel Medium. I have 2 containers and both are left at home. I’m off to the web to see if Michael’s has any in stock, or order more for here. 🙄

Spring Things

Spring Things
Spring Things

We’ve been freshening our house for spring. Before:

Winter 2026

After today:

Spring 2026

It was gorgeous warm weather, today. When Laura and I had our Face Time creat time, this morning, I moved my diamond dot tree out on the porch! Laura knitted away on a baby blanket and we told funny stories and laughed. Maybe I should record some of those, here.

The husband and I have been trimming dead limbs out of our rhododendrons. I won’t let him cut these, though, even if they are intruding on the porch:

See those two fat buds? They’re the Sappho variety. When they bloom, they’ll look like this:

Sappho Rhododendron

I definitely include decorating and gardening as crafts!

Mark-Up

Mark-Up
Mark-Up
Original
After Mark Up
Original
After Mark Up
Original
After Mark Up

Or at least that’s what I think you call it. You find it in an iPhone photo editing app. You don’t have to buy it or download it to your phone. It’s there in Photos, already loaded.

More on how to find and use it in future posts. I played with it, today.

My original photos are licensed from Shutterstock.com.

Back to the Tracing Paper

Back to the Tracing Paper
Back to the Tracing Paper

Discouraged by the renderings of our garage addition, I decided to try something else. I asked Chatgpt if it could make a stencil out of a photograph. It said yes, so I uploaded this photo.

It’s a wooden wall hanging from Hobby Lobby. It seemed to have great lines for stencil cutting. The bot generated this.

I asked could it clean it up? It said yes and generated this.

I’m serious. Here’s a screen shot.

So, maybe I’ll try, again. Or maybe print the photo on plain paper, trace the lines by hand, and put it in my ScanNCut cutting machine. I do think it will make a neat stencil.

I piddled with some other projects, today, that are not ready to be shared yet.

I cleaned a gel plate and tried to think of an easier way than rubbing with a baby wipe and hand sanitizer. It worked, but took a bit of elbow grease. More thoughts and experiments to come.

Here’s a tip Ii discovered in the wee hours this morning. I have a hard time sleeping and am trying to catch up on my You Tube “watch later” list. (I love You Tube craft videos.) I found the tip here.

Mixed Media Soul Sparks with Sandra Duran Wilson

Instead of watching on my phone and taking screen shots, i took photos of my tv. 😄 The subject was collage, and the tip was, “If you are adding paper to a wet substrate, wet the paper to reduce wrinkling. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Use your hands and then a bone folder, credit card, baren or brayer to smooth out the wrinkles. Thank you, Sharon. I gave your video a thumbs up and subscribed to your channel!

Back to the Drawing Board…

Back to the Drawing Board…
Back to the Drawing Board…

or graph paper, if you will.

After more measuring and discussion with my husband, I returned to Chatgpt (AI app) to work on our garage design. After entering measurements and choosing options, it rendered this:

The garage is nice, but not right. The house looks nothing like our existing house. I made suggestions, and got this:

No. It had even asked if I wanted windows in the garage doors. I said, no, not yet. It very nicely generated a diagram of object arrangement:

Close, but the street is on the bottom. The bot and I agreed I should drag out my ruler, my pencil and some graph paper.

Face Time Create Time

Face Time Create Time
Face Time Create Time

My best friend and I get together on Face Time to create at least a couple times a week. We highly recommend this for other friends who love to create together.

Laura knit on a baby blanket, today, and I worked on this, again.

We don’t always work on the same craft, but we always laugh!