Journals & Collaborative Projects

Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous collaborative projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/

Tutorials & Techniques

Below are some of our favorite tricks for adding depth and dimension to your art.  We hope you have fun giving these a try!

Current Group Swaps & Projects

Below is a list of current swaps and projects available to group members. If you are interested in joining our group and participating in these projects, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.  

For existing group members, you can sign up to participate  in these projects here: Swaps & Current Projects.  

We look forward to swapping with you.  Happy Arting!

Member Gallery for Group Swaps
 
Below you will find a sampling our members' work from previous group swaps and projects.  Click on images to view them larger. We hope this will inspire you to come and play with us! If you are interested in joining our group, please visit us at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
 
Come play with us... Join today!

Paper Traders is a friendly online community of artists from around the world. We nurture and value creativity, embrace new ideas, products, and techniques yet also value tried and true methods of artistic expression. Our projects consist primarily of paper arts, mixed media collage, artist trading cards, altered art, assemblages, collaborative journals, mail art, and more.

We are interested in creative individuals of varied skill levels who wish to challenge themselves artistically and help build a supportive community. We are at our best when we can share our creative efforts as well as techniques, resources, feedback, and insights. We encourage conversation about art, the art process, and what it means to be an artist.

Paper Traders is hosted on Yahoo Groups at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Paper_Traders/.
We hope you will consider joining us on an artistic journey!

In order to prevent spammers and to insure that all applicants are actual persons interested in creating art, a questionnaire will be sent to all potential members. When applying, please submit digital examples of your work or direct us to a website where we can view your art. The intent of the questionnaire is not to judge the merits of your art but to safeguard the integrity of our community.

Free Images for Download

Below you will find images that are owned by our group members and offered for your personal use as well as images found in the public domain. Images may be freely used in your personal artwork but may not be used for commercial purposes of any kind without written permission of the owner. No images may be used to create collage sheets or image collections for resale.

To download, follow the link provided. In some cases, you may be able to just click on the image to enlarge it, then right-click and select "save image as". Content changes frequently and many images are available for a limited time.  Please check back often for newly posted images to use in your art journey.

Open Art Challenges !

We're changing things up here at Paper Traders. Instead of the monthly challenges of the past, we'll now be hosting special challenges that might feature a specific technique or product and will be rewarded with actual prizes sponsored by our group members.

Our new challenge for 2013 is a year long word prompt journaling project/challenge. Each specific challenge will be open for one month and all art bloggers can participate, whether you are a Paper Traders member or not. Each artist will comment with a link to their blog post that features the artwork for that particular challenge. For each challenge, a winner will be selected whose art best exemplifies the challenge. The winning artist will be featured here and get a "Trader Treasure" blog button to display on their own blog. They also will receive one chance for each entry for the end of the year prize drawing. Watch this page for more details and challenge announcements.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Product Spotlight: Goosebumps Texture Spray


On a recent trip to our local scrapbooking store, I couldn't "resist" the opportunity to grab this new product - Goosebumps clear texture spray by Tsukineko.  This product is sort of like a liquid spray gel that dries to a clear, flexible finish and can be used to achieve results similar to clear embossing.


This stuff dries fairly quickly - 30 minutes for a light mist or an hour for a heavier application.  The bottle recommends cleaning the spray mechanism after use and I definitely agree.  Once you've used this and see how it becomes like plastic, you won't want that drying inside your nozzle.  I also recommend cleaning your tools as quickly as possible to prevent the product from drying on them.  I experimented with several different cleaning methods:

  • baby wipes: ineffective
  • warm, soapy water: even after scrubbing, I could still see a shiny film on my stamps
  • rubbing alcohol: this worked just okay
  • UnDu: this worked better than the alcohol - both methods required multiple swipes to get it all off
  • Adirondack blending solution: cleaned like a dream!

On their website, Tsukineko has a project sheet that you can download here: http://www.tsukineko.com/pdf/GB_techniques.pdf.  For this project, I used two of the rubber stamp techniques.  For the large bird at the top, I stamped the solution onto the page.  Then I misted the lower corner of the page with the product and used the stamp with the smaller birds to lift off some of the product.  Once everything had dried, I rubbed inks into the paper.  Wherever the product remained, the paper was resistant to the inks.  In the photo below, I have taken the picture from an angle with the light shining on it so you can see the texture created by the spray:

Goosebumps clear texture spray by Tsukineko

This was a really fun product to play with and I would recommend it.  I paid $6 for a 2 oz bottle at our local store.  I got the original version but it also comes in matte and shimmer.

Bonus Spotlight: Resist Canvas Shapes

Awhile back, I received a package of "Printery" Prima Resist Canvas Shapes from a friend.  These are really beautiful!  They are white pre-cut canvas shapes in various sizes that have a resist on them to show the details of the image.  The one I used for this is the birdcage...  You can see below how the resist showed off the lines of the cage after I sprayed it with my colored mist.  Each piece has a cardstock backing on it to help keep its shape and prevent it from raveling (it also made it easy to apply adhesive to the back for mounting to my project).

"Printery" Prima Resist Canvas Shapes

And here is what I made using both of these products:
by Beckie Holso