Guest post with musician Rachael Sage

 I'm excited to introduce all of my Holy Craft readers to my guest Rachael Sage.  One of the perks of blogging is being involved in such an amazingly creative community.  I was contacted several months ago by Rachael's online marketing person and was intrigued at the offer to have a singer/song writer and producer do a guest post in my little part of the world.  I love music, and have a particular affinity towards folk music in particular.  One thing I love more than music is crafty people.  So when the two came together in the form of Rachael Sage I was stoked!

Rachael just released her 10th album Haunted By You

You can pick it up here.
 I love the new song on her album called Abby Would You Wait.

You can listen to it here.

And you can pick up a free download right here on my blog!
Thanks Rachael!

Take some time to check out her music.  

It's incredible!

So, I mentioned she was crafty too.

Let me turn it over to Rachael and you can find out about another one of her favorite ways to express herself.

I've been doing crafts and making art since I was a kid, and one of my favorite things to do is decoupage. Being a musician, of course it always helps to stand out from the rest of the crowd, so I've decorated my keyboard, several guitars and stringed instruments with this technique over the years, and also covered glass bottles (which then become vases!), boxes, and even wooden bracelets using decoupage.

I recently started making little 5x5" mini-paintings, to take on the road wth me when I tour, and sell alongside my albums. People love knowing other things you do and taking home something creative aside from your music, and I love making and sharing these pieces!

My general technique consists of 5-6 steps...

First, I gather a few magazines, or other printed materials (I've been known to use anything from menus, to flyers to old sheet music and even gum-wrappers), and cut out elements that strike me somehow. As a songwriter, I'm usually drawn to words, but also to eyes, lips or any other shape that might be something I'd draw or paint myself and can be easily cut out of a background.

Then, I "prime" my canvas - whether it's an actual canvas, or a guitar or box. This basically involves coating it with a couple coats of paint, and I always pick a bright color so the paper elements I've cut out will "pop". Lately I've been using bright red or blue, but I've also decorated with many other colors, including purple and turquoise.

Next, after the paint has dried, I brush a thin later of shellac - I try to always use a water-based one because it's less harmful to breath - over the paint, and then start arranging the paper elements on my surface. That's really my favorite part! I really try to arrange the elements so that the words play off each other in a clever way, and that the colors and images create interesting shapes and juxtopositions.


While the shellac is still drying underneath the paper, I usually sprinkly a little very fine glitter on the surface of whatever I'm decorating (my favorite brand is Mattese, but I've also used Martha Stewart's and hers come in bigger jars and plenty of colors). The glitter sticks to whatever part of the surface hasn't been decoupaged, and it creates a neat effect!

My next step is to "seal" everything, once it's dry. I add one more layer of shellac, and if I think the piece still needs a little more sparkle, I might add a little more glitter over the whole thing; it just depends whether I think it needs it.

Finally, I usually glue on some rhinestones or maybe draw little squiggles in the negative space, with a thick silver pen. My goal is always to give every piece its own unique flair, while still reflecting my personal creative style, so I do them in "batches", and each batch really ends up with its own unique look, as well as each piece, to an extent.

Voila, c'est decoupage!

Thank you so much Rachael for guest posting here at Holy Craft!I hope you all get a chance to listen to Rachael's music and be inspired by what you see here today.