Mixed Media - DREAM canvas...

Happy Monday, everyone! Today's share for Mixed Media Monday is an 8x8 canvas that I made just for fun. I played with a few of my newest colors of Golden heavy body acrylic paints for the background, then layered some stenciling, and finally lots of findings with a twist...

Instead of layering all the findings and fun pieces flat across the center of the canvas, I turned two 3x3 mini canvases upside down, adhered them to the center of the 8x8, and layered the pieces inside and out of the mini canvases...it adds lots of fun dimension...

Here are a few stepouts showing how it came about. The first step was to gesso the backs of the mini canvases with black gesso, and pencil in their final position on the larger canvas. Then I randomly added some of my favorite acrylics for the background, and splattered with white gesso...

Then I added some molding paste through a stencil...only in two corners, since the other two would most likely be covered with embellishments...

Then it was time for fun. The first step was to glue the two mini canvases to the larger one - I used fabric glue for that, since it was canvas-to-canvas. Once it was good and dry, I started adding...and adding...and adding...chipboard die cuts, wood cut shapes, lots of layers of metal findings...the works!

I coated most of the pieces with black gesso before I glued them to the canvas, so I'd only have to do light touchups after they were all secured. I didn't want to risk having some of the black gesso cover areas of the background where I wanted color to show. Once I photographed that step, I thought the middle looked like a big black blob (and who wants to look at that? - haha). So I painted some of the pieces with one of the colors I planned to use, and added the seed beads for contrast, so you can see a bit more where it's going...

Once I had the embellishments secured, and painted that first small area, I thought the stenciled background areas looked a bit too bright. I was using Inka Gold metallic paints on the embellishments throughout the center, and I wanted that area to be the brightest part of the canvas. So I got out a black Stabilo pencil and shaded the stenciled areas to tone them down just a little, and add more dimension to the unembellished corners...

Here are some more detail shots. Once I had glued all the embellishments down, I touched up some of the areas with more black gesso, then started applying several different colors of Inka Gold metallic paints.

I love how some of my very-old metallic-colored buttons are so perfect for this type of project. Many years ago, you could find bags of these silver and gold buttons in the craft stores. There would be mixes of wonderful shapes - butterflies, hearts, stars, keys, zipper pulls - all sorts of goodies all in one bag, for about $5. Years later, I'm finally starting to get to the end of the supply from these button bags, and sad that they're not available anymore. You can see in this first pic one of the butterfly buttons, and on the left, the rope-edged pull-type button beneath the wooden scroll...

paper and metal flowers, hearts, buttons, findings...lots of goodies brushed with metallic colors...

This pretty round medallion was in my stash, so I topped it with a silver button, then put a Finnabair finding right in the center of the beautifully-edged button...

The "dream" key in this next photo was the inspiration for the title of the canvas and the small phrase stickers that were added around the finished canvas...

Supplies:

Color Mediums:   Golden heavy body acrylic paints:  Teal, Primary Yellow, Ultramarine Violet, Quin Nickel Azo Gold, Quin Magenta

Viva Decor Inka Gold metallic paints:   Aquamarine, Green Yellow, Steel Blue, Orange, Magenta, Violet

Stencil:   Prima "Circular Lattice"             Stamp:   Prima/Finnabair "Messy"

Dies:   Sizzix "Flowers Branches & Leaves             

Word stickers, pen nib, arrow:   Tim Holtz Idea-ology            

Metal flowers, large metal butterfly, "dream" key, floral medallions:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Paper flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts             Small metal findings:   Prima/Finnabair

Wood scrolls, buttons, hearts, stars, butterflies, seed beads:   local craft stores

Miscellaneous mixed media supplies:   Stabilo All pencil (black),  drywall tape,  black & white gessos,  Golden molding paste 

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Mixed Media - Believe in Magic...

Happy Monday, everyone! I had to take a little break from crafting recently to tend to some family business and a sick family pet, but I was able to sneak in some crafty time in small bits and pieces during the past couple weeks, and will have a couple projects to share with you this week. :)

The first is a canvas (of sorts) to get back on track for Mixed Media Mondays. I recently purchased some newly released paints by an artist friend, Cheryl Mezzetti. They're called Perfect Paints, and they're acrylic paints with a beautiful sheen to them...colors that are brilliant with just a bit of reflectivity that makes the colors dance...they're called Shimmering Matte Acrylics, and the hardest decision to make was which colors to start my collection with!

Here's the finished project...

Can you tell what my "canvas" is by this photo?

In my stash, I had the backing chipboard piece from an empty wirebound 9x12 watercolor paper pad, already gessoed for later use. When my paint order arrived, I pulled out that piece, and started laying on colors - just playing to see how they covered, how they blended with each other, and what would happen when I layered one on the other after drying. These colors are so rich!

When I saw how beautifully the colors blended, an idea started to take shape...and that's about the time that other life issues started taking priority over my crafting time. So I started jotting notes on post-its as the ideas came while I was tending to other things, and playing with those ideas when I had a few minutes in the evenings.

Along with the paints, I purchased a few colors of Perfect Paints Polishing Plasters...a sort of molding plaster with color...but a bit of a different texture, and when buffed, a slight sheen...or when burnished, a shabby, vintage look. So, following my "try this" notes, I pulled out a couple stencils, and played with laying down the Plasters...and then I had this...

Here's where you can see how different the colors look when the combo of natural light and Ott lights aimed at the canvas board (in my little homemade photo booth) reflect the sheen of the paints. In real life and to the natural eye under normal room lighting, the colors look more like they do in the first photo above. 

I used "Organic Sugar" Polishing Plaster for the stripes along the left side, and a combo of "Cayenne" and "Sunwashed Clay" Polishing Plasters for the tree and branches. Once they had dried, I burnished each with the metal blade of a palette knife, and it gave them a smooth but vintage appearance.

As a finishing touch, I used Stabilo All pencils in black and brown to add a little bit of shading and dimension before adding embellishments on top of the pastes.

And here's where taking stepout photos ended, as I only devoted short periods of time in the following couple weeks to add bits and pieces to the canvas board. 

Among the little burlap flowers and diecut cardstock leaves decorating the tree branches, I added some dark bronze metal flowers, touched up with pink and yellow Shimmering Matte Acrylics. I also dry-brushed those colors on top of the multicolored micro and seed beads that I added around each of the larger metal flowers...

These chipboard hearts were first painted with the pink paint (Peony), and then a watered-down "wash" of the Peacock Blue paint gave me the violet/purple shade for a little variety...

I had painted this chipboard fairy for another project, and didn't use it, so I covered it up with black heavy gesso, then added some of the Peacock Blue and Peony paints to the wings, and topped them with some Rock Candy Distress Stickles...

The sentiment stamp is by Unity Stamp Company - it already has some of the words "blocked" but I drew in a couple more lines and some white dots around "magic" for fun...pens write beautifully over these paints! The pink and blue Shimmering Matte Acrylics were added inside the crystals of the butterfly to make it stand out a bit more...

Supplies:

Color Mediums:   Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylics ("Cantaloupe" "Rain Slicker" "Peony" "Peacock Blue" "Moss Green")

Perfect Paints Polishing Plasters ("Organic Sugar" "Cayenne" "Sunwashed Clay")

Stencils:   The Crafters Workshop "Branches Reversed";   Tim Holtz "Stripes"

Dies:   Simon Says Stamp "Fancy Believe";   My Favorite Things "Rose Leaves"

Chipboard:   Dusty Attic "Garden Fairy" and "Heart Attack Panel Small #2"

Stamp:   Unity Stamp Company "The Time is Now"

Burlap flowers:   The Paper Studio             Metal flowers:   theFunkieJunkie.com

Crystal butterfly:   Prima             Gems:   Prima and Creative Imaginations

Mixed media ink supplies:   Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens (black);   Stabilo All pencils (black & brown);   

Mangaka black fine and medium pens;   Uniball Signo white gel pen

Beads and glitter:   Rock Candy Distress Stickles;   Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter;  silver and pink German glass glitter;  

 Doodlebug Sugar Coating BonBon glitter;   craft store micro and seed beads

Thanks for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!

Mixed Media Shabby Chic Meets LSG Color Challenge...

Hello again, friends! Blog-worthy projects are happening less than usual lately while I play with a few new (to me) mediums and practice some new (to me) techniques, but now and then I like to take time out to go back to what I know and create something from start to finish.

I love combining a bit of the shabby-chic style with mixed media, and this month, Lindy's Stamp Gang has a beautiful palette of colors in their monthly color challenge. So out came my sprays and the fun started. Here's the finished result...

And here's the color board the card is based on. The fun part is that this color palette lends itself to soft pastel colors, as well as bright sassy colors. I chose a little of both - a little softer with the background, and a little sassier with the flower colors. :)

I created the background paper by spraying 4 colors of Lindy's sprays onto a piece of mixed media paper. For this background, I used Bonjour Butter Flat Fabio, Aloha Avocado Flat Fabio, Queen of Hearts Red Flat Fabio, and Blue Hawaiian Blue Starburst sprays. 

I started randomly spritzing a little of each of the colors around the page, using a small mask to cover part of the page. Then I removed the mask, and filled in the white space left with more of the same colors, but this time, dropping the color in using the wand portion of the sprayer, and spritzing with water to spread them out. Here and there I dabbed excess color off the page with a paper towel, so you can still see some of the original lines from the stencils in parts of the background.

When that was dry, I applied some molding paste through a stencil for some subtle texture...

I added a large floral cluster over some twine and lace strips run vertically down the left side of the front.  I began with the pale yellow flowers, then added the medium blue roses, and finally the bright red lilies - a little potpourri of color intensities ...

The large yellow rose in the center is made using Spellbinders' Rose Creations dies-it was a little too bright, so I toned it down with cream colored craft paint to blend with the soft yellow of the lilies...

Supplies:

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays

Stencil:   Prima "flourish"          Dies:   My Favorite Things "Wild Greenery";   Spellbinders "Rose Creations"

Lace:   Tim Holtz idea-ology            Small flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Stamens:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy            Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   twine,  Golden molding paste

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week started with a smile!

Bright and Sunny Shabby...

It's been sunny and hot-hot-hot here lately, so I guess that's what put me in the mood for a bright shabby chic card...and that's what I ended up making to share with you today. :)

I made this flower stem a while back, using Prima leaves, a couple stamen clusters, die cut flowers using the LLLC Cherry Blossom Flowers die, and some bright yellow premade sweetheart blossoms to fill in the small spaces. Against the taupe woodgrain paper, it was a nice contrast, so it became the center of attention for this card.

A couple Maya Road grey pearl stick pins were the perfect addition to the top of the stem...

and white pearls were added after the stem was glued down to give a little luster to the niches between the flowers...

The loopy white diecut doily made a fun base for the stem, and twine dyed with Distress Ink added some colorful loopy accents to go along with the diecut...

Supplies:

Patterned paper:  Maja Design "Vintage Summer Basics" collection

Dies:   Memory Box "Whimsy Circle";   LaLa Land Crafts "Cherry Blossom Flowers"

Punch:   Martha Stewart "Vintage Doily PATP"

Stamens:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy            Sweetheart blossoms:   Wild Orchid Crafts

Leaves:   Prima            Ribbon:   local craft store             Pearls:   Recollections

Pearl stick pins:   Maya Road             Miscellaneous:   twine, cheesecloth, "Mustard Seed" Distress Ink

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week started with a smile!

Mixed Media Steampunk Card...

Hello, again! I mentioned on Monday that I'd be sharing a card using another of the "smoosh" papers in the photo...and here I am to share a mixed media Father's Day card with a definite steampunk influence - something you don't see me make very often. (This is the gold, copper, and silver metallic piece in the very front of the photo from Monday's post.)

Although I'm showing this late for this year's holiday (had to be sure it was well in hand first), it could easily be adapted for any occasion requiring a masculine card by switching out the sentiment square I used here.

I've had this Father's Day sentiment stamp for quite a while now, but hadn't ever used it. It's perfect for this card, so I stamped it onto kraft cardstock and embossed it with black powder.

The fun part about this card is that, although it looks like it has a lot of metal embellishments, the only real metal pieces are the small findings in the centers of the cogs, and the paper clip - all the rest are chipboard, painted to give the impression of metal...

The chevron piece was cut from medium weight chipboard, treated with Dusty Attic Rusting Powder, then dry brushed with Lumiere Olive Green paint to add a green patina. 

The cogs were die cut from lightweight chipboard (I cut two layers for each so they wouldn't warp from the paints) and painted with both a blue and green metallic paint after first coating with black gesso. 

The Tim Holtz Grungeboard crown, arrow, and numbers, and the Dusty Attic chipboard chain at the bottom, are all painted the same as the cogs. Here are a few detail shots...

I had more fun over in the upper right corner. First I mixed some modeling paste with Cattail Copper Brown Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical powder, then mixed in some gold micro beads, and applied it through a distressed harlequin stencil, leaving some areas of some of the shapes uncovered.

Once the brown was dry, I added black heavy gesso through the areas left uncovered by the copper paste, sprinkled gold micro beads onto the black gesso, and removed the stencil. 

(And now comes the part where I breathed a sign of relief that my experiment worked, because, in my push to do this, I realized I hadn't experimented first to be sure this *would* work the way it did in my brain.)

Once the harlequin shapes were completely dry and stable, I went over the bright gold micro beads in the gessoed sections with an aqua (BT5) Spectrum Noir solvent marker. Thankfully, it looked just as I had hoped it would...the aqua shade was the perfect blend with the metallic paints used on the left side of the card...phew! 

After mixing up some Cowabunga Copper Lindy's Stamp Gang Magical to add some "distressed shading" to the right of the uneven harlequin shapes, I used the little bit of paint left to add some splatter to the right side of the card.

Supplies:

Dies:   Tim Holtz Sizzix "Chevron";   Memory Box "Antique Gear Set"

Sentiment stamp:   Inkadinkado

Color mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals and sprays;   Lumiere 'Met Olive Green" paint;   Viva Precious Metal Effect Paint "turquoise";   Dusty Attic Rusting Powder;   Spectrum Noir marker BT5

Stencil:   The Crafters Workshop "Mini Harlequin"            Chipboard chain:   Dusty Attic "Mini Chains"

Crown,  arrow,  numbers:   Tim Holtz Grungeboard 

Miscellaneous:   brads,   Prima mini findings,   paper clip,   Golden modeling paste,   gold micro beads,   heavy black gesso,   black embossing powder

Thanks so much for stopping in for a visit today!

Mixed Media Canvas - Where There is Love...

Happy summer Monday...it's now official...there's a reason for the hot, and very dry, weather we're having! LOL

Today I have another photo-heavy Mixed Media Monday share for you...an 8x10 canvas board with a fun and *very* colorful background...

Do you remember this photo from a while back?

This is a pic of some of my "smoosh" papers - pieces of mixed media and watercolor paper colored by "smooshing" them into the leftover paints from previous projects and/or my handmade color charts of Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays and Magicals. (On Thursday, I'll be back to show you a card made with the bronze/gold/grey piece in the front...but today's piece features a bit of three of the papers in this stack, along with a few others not pictured here.)  

I wanted to make a brightly colored background for a canvas, and that's when I remembered my smoosh papers...and realized I already had the background in my basket all along! So I pulled out an 8x10 canvas board as a base, and started laying out and rearranging and re-sizing pieces. I stamped the final-choice pieces with a few fun mixed media stamps using grey Archival Ink to add some muted background images, then began gluing the pieces to the canvas with matte medium. I wound up with a starting canvas looking like this...

Then I took some smaller pieces, punched and played with the edges and ends, added stitching to a few, and glued them down with matte medium on top of the base pieces to add texture and more color variety ...

The next step was to pull out a couple coordinating stencils and add crackle texture paste...

Next up, splatter some white acrylic ink over the background, just for fun. Then I added some more LSG Magicals to color and shadow the crackle paste areas once they were completely dry.

Before adding embellishments, I needed to add an "anchor" for the large floral cluster and little pieces that would fill the center of the canvas.  I die cut two of the "Sketchy Rings" dies and glued them together in the center to form one long piece of distressed circles. 

The clear frame in the center is a Making Memories frame that's been in my stash forever...I knew I'd find the perfect use for it one day! 

And finally, black Archival Ink was brushed around the outside edges. I think the dark contrasting edges keep the eye from drifting off the edges of the canvas, and bring it back to all the fun embellishments and sentiments that will be in the center...

And now on to some closeups of the finished piece. There were quite a few "happy accidents" as I was pulling embellishments for the canvas, and I love how so many long-stashed pieces, in addition to the clear acrylic frame in the center, finally found the perfect use.

The "love" key was a recent purchase, but it was gold and didn't have enough contrast with the background, so I covered it first with black gesso, then accented with a couple different colors of Lumiere paints - and now it's perfect...

And then I found this in my metal charms drawer, and how perfect a fit is it? It's an old Making Memories plaque with the perfect quote to go with the "love" key. I accented the lettering with pink acrylic craft paint, then added more Lumiere paint around the edges, popped some foam adhesive on the back, and nestled it into the sides of the flowers...

There's still a bit of the black diecut circles peeking through at the top...I didn't cover them completely...LOL. ..

The metal butterfly was originally a dark bronze color. I had added Alcohol Inks in magenta and copper to it for another project, but didn't use it then. I pulled it out again for this canvas, dry-brushed black gesso around the outer edge for contrast, then added some Lumiere paints to the inside to bring all the colors of the canvas onto the butterfly...

I discovered that one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology clock faces fit inside one of the diecut circles perfectly...the color was just not right. Dry brushing a little more black gesso and Lumiere paints took care of that, and a couple small black watch hands in another tiny stash drawer add the perfect finishing touches. 

Below that, another happy find...a long-held Making Memories word charm, this time the word "life," the second half of the quote in the larger sentiment charm...perfect! :)

Supplies:

Color mediums:  Lindy's Stamp Gang assorted Sprays and Magicals;  Lumiere paints "Halo Blue Gold" and "Halo Violet Gold"

Stamps:   Unity Stamp Co. "graffiti art";   LOTV "Set 66-Grunge Elements"

Stencils:   The Crafters Workshop "Mini Chicken Wire" and "Mini Chicken Wire Reversed"

Art Mediums:   Studio 490 Crackle Texture Paste;  Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso;  Liquitex Ink!-Titanium White

Dies:   Memory Box "Sketchy Rings"             "Love" key,  metal butterfly,  lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com

Metal clock face:   Tim Holtz             Fleur de lis charm:   Prima             Chipboard chain:   Dusty Attic "mini chains"

Clear acrylic dotted frame,  metal word charms:   Making Memories             Pearls:   Recollections

Flowers:   Prima,  Wild Orchid Crafts,   local craft store            Pink stamen clusters:   ChocolateLetters on Etsy

Miscellaneous:   watch hands,   acrylic craft paint

Thanks so much for visiting today - I hope your week is starting with a smile!