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Often on the same page or opposite page –

Psalms 100:1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. .


And there is no more joyful noise (other than children laughing) than the sound of Fireworks !

Pin board at a Maltese Fireworks Factory

A recent visit to a fireworks factory in the country of Malta inspired me to to attack my Bible with paint and glitter.

The country of Malta takes “Making a joyful noise unto the Lord” seriously and the only groups that are legal to shoot fireworks are “Band Clubs”, that are church organizations whose volunteers make their world class fireworks from scratch and shoot them on their churches feast days.

So here we are going to present a simple way to express that joy through art.

 


Tools List:

  • Scissors
  • Paint Pallet (or paper plate or scrap paper)

Supply List:

  • Plastic Straw
  • Masking Tape
  • Acrylic Paint
  • .5 mm Black Pen
  • Foil adhesive and Foil
  • Glitter and Glue Pen
  • Gel Highlighters
Dangle Doodles

Practice the “Dangle Doodles” before starting the project so you are comfortable drawing them.

 

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The first thing you have to do is make your fireworks stampers. Make at least three sizes, small, medium and large.

 

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Place pieces of tape between 1/2″ and 1 ” from the end of the straw. Make each straw different.

 

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Cut the straws back to the tape into even segments.

 

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Make at least one straw have fairly thin segments and at least one be have fatter segments

 

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When you are done use your finger to flatten the segments outwards

 

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You can make each burst a single color or 2 or three colors. For multiple colors I recommend you put the lightest color in the center.

 

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To evenly apply paint to your stamper, press the center of the straw into the lightest color and pounce up and down as you turn it in a circle.

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You can see what you are doing better than regular stamps because of using the straw as a handle.

 

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Practice stomping fireworks and finishing the embellishments on plain paper before you jump into your Bible to get the feel for how much paint needs to be applied and to see how simple stamped fireworks can be embellished into gorgeous representations of joy.

 

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This is where you realize why you needed to practice your Dangle Doodles before you started. And how the doodle lines turn the chicken tracks into gorgeous fireworks burst.

 

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Make every Dangle Doodle line different. They will be much easier if you always start in the middle of the fireworks burst and draw to the outside, pulling twards you to make the lines smooth, turning your Bible as you go around the fireworks burst.

 

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You can embellish your fireworks multiple ways. Here we use the Quickie Glue Pen to put fine detail lines and dots of glue.

 

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Use the extra fine glitter so it won’t get to chunky. Unless that is what you want, there is no wrong way to add bling to your fireworks.

 

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Adding foil embellishments makes the fireworks jump off the page. You can get foil in an endless variety of colors. My favorites are the white opalescent and the multi color iridescent, but the bright glitters are fabulous also and the other solid colors are excellent also, however I highly recommend the lighter and brighter colors. The process is simple. You use foil adhesive with a fine tip and apply the same as you would the glue for glitter. Then you let it dry until it is just a bit tacky. Press the foil, dull side down onto the page, press well and pull the foil page off, leaving the foil on the page where ever there was adhesive. I normally press the foil sheet over the adhesive again to make sure all the adhesive has been covered by foil so that the pages won’t stick together after the fact.

Watch this video to see how easy it is to apply the foil

(after having applied the foil adhesive and letting it dry until clear).

Illuminating Illustrations with Foil

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This picture does not do these burst justice. The glitter sparkles, the foil reflects, they are truly gorgeous.

 

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We added a few burst of fireworks around the Chapter heading with gel pens.

 

Example of Psalms 100:1

You can do many variations to make your fireworks jump off the page

 

Example of Puffy Pens

Here Puffy Pen ink was used instead of acrylic paint. After heat was applied the fireworks literally jump off the page. It is important to practice on plane paper until you are happy with the amount of “puff” you get since it is easy to have if fluff up to much . . . you want it to just barely start puffing up.

 

Gwen

We did a class demonstrating Stamping Fireworks at the Anchorage Salvation Army Church. Here is Gwen with her fireworks.

 

Pam

Pam

 

Sing - Shout - Joy

Adding words of joy – Sing – Shout – Joy

 

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Psalms 98:4 and Psalms 100:1, Fireworks art around the columns in a narrow margin Bible. Note the gate at the bottom was previous art I did for Psalms 100:4

Photo of small Fireworks Stamp from drinking straw

Small Fireworks Stamp from drinking straw

TIPS AND TRICKS:

  • Use Folk Art Brand – Extreme Glitter acrylic paint, if you want to read the print underneath through the paint and still have it sparkly. Omitting the adding or glitter or foil steps.
  • If you do 2 colors with one stamp put the lightest color in the center.
  • Stamping twice with 2 different sets of colors give a much more three dimensional look to the fireworks.