Hello and Happy Monday!
I've got a few examples to share with you today on using handmade foam stamps and cut up flip flops to make marks in your artwork.
First, have you ever looked in the foot care section at the drug store? Those corn pads for your feet come in a variety of shapes, and they are usually sticky on one side! Do you know what that means for the mixed media artist? Those corn pads can be adhered to a piece of cardboard and turned into fabulous mark making stamps! (By the way, these handmade foam stamps are great for Gelli Plate enthusiasts!)
Ta Da!
Second, it isn't the summer season where I live right now, but if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you might still find flip flops at your local shopping spot!
If you can snag a pair of inexpensive flip flops, they can be sacrificed in the name of art!
Get a pair of heavy duty scissors and cut those flip flops apart. The various parts can be used to make different marks. See below.
In the images above, I combined the corn pad stamp with the tiny dots made with the flip flop. Don't you love it?! I adore seeing circles in art. They make my heart go pitter pat.
Pictured above, the rectangles you see were created using the edge of that piece of flip flop shown. The green ovals are a different shaped corn pad. The circles with numbers were part of the plastic piece on the flip flop that labeled the size. There are so many marks you can make from one flip flop! I never knew how exciting flip flops could be as art marking tools until I tried it myself. I got the idea from Traci Bunkers' book Print & Stamp LAB. It's one of my favorite books for printing and stamping ideas; many are DIY type ideas, which I love.
Another idea for a homemade foam stamp can be created by cutting strips of sticky back fun foam. Once you cut your strips, adhere them to a piece of sturdy cardboard.
You can create a repeat pattern in your art journal or on your canvas, similar to the altered atlas art journal pages shown below.
You can use acrylic paint or ink pads with your foam stamps.
When I am done using a foam stamp, I like to stamp it off on a side paper to get it mostly "clean". That usually does the trick. If you leave too much acrylic paint on a foam stamp, it can get hard. The dried paint might make the stamp less absorbent the next time you try to apply paint or ink, which is a bummer.
Back to the circles and dots for a moment:
Bubble wrap is also a great mark making tool. You can paint it with acrylic paint or tempera paint. You'll have to work quickly, as acrylic paint dries fast. If it's too dry, the print will not show up. Play around and you'll discover the amount of paint that works for you and your climate.
Once you get those dots down, you can add doodle embellishments on top of them to add another layer of interest. A white gel pen was used in the example below.
Are there any wine drinkers reading this? Well, save those corks! Corks make great marks, too!
In March of 2015, I taught a MiXed MEdiA Art Workshop in Minneapolis called, Pattern and Design Play Using Basic Supplies. I enjoyed preparing for all of the art workshops I teach, but this one was particularly fun. The workshop and prep for it was truly just about playing with different tools to create interesting patterns and designs. If you look at the linked page for the workshop, you'll see several examples, including a picture of the foam strip stamp I mentioned earlier in this post.
In summary, making your own stamps out of sticky back fun foam, wine corks, or cut up flip flops is a fun way to create interesting marks in your artwork. I hope you'll give at least one of these ideas a try! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below!
Thanks for being here and reading another edition of Mark Making Monday!
Happy Creating,
Briana
