{Spotlight Project} Maria Tried Salad Spinner Art - part 1

Hello there STAMP friends! I've got a Spotlight project for you today and it's a messy one. Have you heard about Spin Art? Have you tried it?

I remember long ago hearing about putting an art canvas with blobs of paint on it in the back of your car and then driving around with it, thereby creating a cool piece of art. Never tried it though. Then a couple months ago an artist I like, Alisa Burke, posted this where she and her kid used a salad spinner to decorate little gift boxes. That stuck in the back of my mind and when I saw a salad spinner at my dollar store I decided to buy it to try out the technique.

Fun. And messy. And unique. There's no way to know what you're going to get. And no way to recreate it exactly if you get something you really like!

Here's a card I made using one of the backgrounds I made in my salad spinner.

STEP 1

Gather supplies - salad spinner, thin paints (I used some ancient tempura paints), cardstock (I used both watercolor and 100gsm smooth cardstock), stamps, stencils and dies to turn the backgrounds into cards.

STEP 2

So, spin art. Basically, it's using centrifugal force of a salad spinner to distribute paint on a piece of cardstock. Basically, you lay a piece of cardstock in the bottom of the strainer, spritz it with water, drop on some blobs of paint, close and spin it. Here's my first-ever video (!) to try to explain it better than with words...

BTW, that yellow in the bottom of the strainer is a platform I made (cardboard circle covered with plastic) to support the cardstock.

These are the pieces I created with the spin art technique... Cool, eh?

STEP 3

This is the fun part. Look at your creations and see what you "see". Then make a card.

Ha! Easier said than done. Today I'll share two cards I made with the panels on the outer left and outer right of the top row. But notice that super cool galaxy on the lower left. And if you look at the blue/red (top row second from left) I swear you see a portrait of Chewbacca!)

STEP 4

I saw treetops in the panel on the top left. So I chose The Birds and the Blooms and "perched" a bird on a branch with some heat embossing on vellum.

BTW, this is the panel I created in the video. I used blue and green paints on wet watercolor CS. Spun it about five times. Contemplated adding another color of paint but didn't. Spritzed more water and spun again. This was the result. After a 24 hour drying period.

STEP 5
For this piece I used red, orange and white paints on wet watercolor CS. I liked how the colors fanned out from the center and it reminded me of the new stencils from Helen G. But I must admit this one caused me grief.

Problem being, I couldn't bear to cover up too much of the BG. So I chose the stencil with less negative space (bottom) and applied clear embossing paste just to add some texture.

But it didn't stick too well to the paint when it was all dry, and the center was still too empty. So then I put down the other stencil and traced through the open areas with a Sharpie...

... and then ended up cutting it all apart anyway! When in doubt, punch it out!!!

I traced the pattern onto a white cardbase, punched out areas of the panel and adhered them to the white card - some flush, some popped up. A heat embossed sentiment from Layered Watermelon finished it off.

So have I piqued your interest? Keep your eyes open for a cheap salad spinner to add to your craft room supplies. And use up old paints - I bet watered down they'd work wonderfully for this technique. I'll be back next month with two more cards made with these spin art backgounds.

If you should find yourself placing an order at the STAMP store soon, I'd love it if you used my STAMPGIRLMARIA code for an additional 20% off your order!

The Birds and the Blooms, Layered Watermelon, Petals 2 and Petals 3 Helen G Designs Stencils due to be released next week