Finding time for blogging ...

Ugh, I feel like I haven't had a moment to spend on this blog in months.  Working full time, carpooling three kids ... finding time to relax with art ... the blog has just fallen off the list.  I have had a couple of projects on the Canvas Corp Brands Blog ... so I will add some links here!   And this is one project that I just made a mess, covered it and fell in love with the mistake canvas .... 

It started with a 7 Gypsies Mixed Media Paper Artboard 8x10 ....  

Then I covered the board with Deco Art Crackle Paste and mixed in a little Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Paint in my new fave ... Dusty Teal.  It dried overnight and in the morning - it looked amazing!

Then I looked through my sketch book and found a favorite quote.  I used google docs to find the right font and printed it out onto tissue paper.  I coated the cracked paint with matte gel and put the tissue paper down onto the board. I added some linen ribbon, twine, a vintage button!  Love this one!

Anyway, I promise - I will try to be here more often!

Here are some Canvas Corp links for you to follow if you want to see some of my projects from the last two months! 

Another Art Board Project: http://blog.canvascorpbrands.com/wherever-go-altered-artboard/

Rustic Flower: http://blog.canvascorpbrands.com/rustic-clematis-mixed-media/

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #43!!

December is here and so is The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!  I had a blast creating with the chipboard pieces that boozybear.blogspot has in her store !!

Visit boozybear's etsy shop and find her amazing stencils and chipboard pieces!  I loved playing with them because they were versatile and put up with a LOT of different mediums!!

Remember that if you join us in this month's challenge, you will be entered in our random drawing and win a prize from our sponsor!!

Come and play!!

And here is my project for this month's challenge!

I coated the canvas with white gesso and a crackle paste randomly around the canvas.  Then I used a gold paint randomly around on the white background. When it was dry, added in some gold texture paste with sand and glitter randomly.  I used my boozybear burlap stencil with brown archival ink for a little extra texture in the background. Then I took the awesome Scribble Frame Chipboard and coated it in gold paint and Distress Oxide Ink - so much fun!  

I loved this creating this project!! I hung it up in my front hallway with all my Christmas decorations!!

So come and play - you are definitely going to need some art time during this crazy Holiday Season!!

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #42 with Visible Image!

Has it really been a month since our last challenge?  Yikes, October has flown by ... it was so busy I don't even think I had time to stop and think!! Luckily, I did have enough time to enjoy the amazing challenge and stamps and stencils from Visible Images!!  

The theme this month at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge Blog  is Silhouette .... and I had these amazing lightbulb stamps ... and as usual ... one lucky, random winner will win a Gift Certificate to our sponsor ... Visible Images!

And this is my project for this month's Challenge!! 

The wooden block in about 8x8.  The bottom layer is an old scrapbook page that I had laying around! I painted on a layer of clear gesso and then  I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists and Glimmer Glazes for the background color. I smeared Distress Oxide in Walnut Stain randomly around the piece and spritzed it with water. To add more layering to the background,  the Cosmic Skies Stencil from Visible Images are in the background with archival ink on top of the color.  And  finally, I splattered PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Tangerine Twist on top. So much fun to create!!

Come play ... it is such a great a way to stretch your creativity!  

The Mixed Media Challenge #41

Hi Everyone! Happy OCTOBER!! Let the craziness of the holidays officially begin!! Let's start with cooler weather and college football on the weekends!!  Whoohoo!! And then let's get Crafty in our warm pj's and big slippers!! Best month!!  And so while you are in your pj's you can join us in our awesomly fun Color Challenge this month!! These were definitely a challenge for me but I loved it!

So come and play with us!! 

Our awsome sponsor for this month's challenge is Rubber Dance Stamps.  We were SO lucky to get to play with their products this month.  My stamp, the adorable whimsical mushrooms ... love it! So definitely visit Rubber Dance and see what they have!! And one lucky, random winner will be drawn from all our participants to win a gift certificate from Rubber Dance!! Pretty Awesome!!

And my project this month ...  The background is a scrap of wood with white chalk paint and crackle.  It is actually about 20 inches tall! The tree is brown paper, inked up and stamped.  The stamps are Rubber Dance, Funny Fungi, colored with Pitt Pens. The 'grass' and the 'leaves' are random scraps of scrapbook paper!

  

The Mixed Media Challenge #40 - Vintage!

And here we are ... September! Wow, 2017 just hasn't stopped to take a break, it just keeps going by faster and faster!  I think I have been busier and happier this summer than our usual summer breaks so I will be sad to say Good-bye to summer.  But on the other hand, FALL, is really my favorite season of all!!  Football, cool evenings and this Awesome Vintage Challenge will be a perfect fall fit for me! 

So, here is the challenge for the month ... Vintage! MY FAV!!  I love vintage!! Come and play with us ... grab some paper, some paint, some glue, anything and get your hands messy!

Our awesome sponsor this month is The Funkie Junkie Boutique!  I love this shop - I always find something that I want, something that I need and something different that I ... now need!! So visit the shop and enjoy!! And if you play along with us, one lucky, random winner will win a gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique (too bad I can't win!!)

And here is my project ...

So this canvas began while I was listening to a woman - her name is Cecilia Stoll - on an Arbonne phone call ... she was simply divine and inspiring.  And one of the things she said was ... "Be in Love with the Journey."  It struck me as something I needed to do ... we can go with the journey, we can get caught up in the journey and we can find joy in the journey too.  But to be in LOVE with the journey, to embrace the good and the bad, and to stick with it and take care of it like you would if you loved someone ... that was a way I had never thought of a journey.  SO, I doodled it on my desk ... and pulled out some of my favorite new things and some that I had never even used before and got to work!

I started with paper from 7 Gypsies Maritime Collection.

The background needed to start the vintage vibe ... although at the end you barely see any of this, I know it was part of the journey!

Then I pulled out the rest of the 7Gypsies Maritime Paper and covered the canvas.  When the paper was down, the texture was added with Architextures Adhesive and transfers.

Then the crazy part - I had this wax seal ... well the package has been sealed forever ... but I got brave and opened it! I lit the wick and melted the wax and LOVED it!  And then I dripped little bits of gold wax all over the canvas!  I think this could be a new part of my canvases in the future!!

Yummy-ness warning here ... Glimmer glaze in Aloha Green ... I shouldn't tell you about it because I want all of it! I want to buy bottles and bottles of this color ....

And then I was almost done ... some extra doodles, added hearts of paper and burlap and splatters to finish it off!  And now it is hanging in the middle of my wall above my desk!! So go ... and find what it takes to be In Love with The Journey wherever it is that you are going!

The Mixed Media Challenge #39!!

Time for another Challenge!!!  Are you ready!!??  This time, our challenge is to create something inspired by the photo in our Challenge #39 badge! And I just LOVE challenges like this because you get to see what everyone else is inspired by in the photo!!  I thought it was going to the weathered wood siding for me, but then the window boxes and the flowers really called to me!

So Come on ... join us at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!

And of course, we have an amazing sponsor ... Indigo Blu!  I mean really - one of my favorite stamp companies - SO awesome!! And one random winner will be chosen from our Challengers to win a fantastic prize!!  

So here is my take on this Inspiration Photo this month ....

I had so much fun with the layers of this project. The project is created on a new Architextures Artboard (they are thick pressed wood covered with textured white paper.)  So on top of that I started with a dictionary and copied a page of it onto tissue paper to give my background a 'thin' start! After the tissue paper was dry, I added scraps of paper to break up the black and white wording. I also used Indigo Blu stamps to create texture and layers in the background

When the background was dry, I started playing with the wonderful butterfly stamps that came with the Victorian Garden set.  I had a scrap of Canvas Corp Plain canvas laying around. I coated it with a thin layer of gesso, the stamp images were crisp and wonderful.  Using different glimmer mists, I water-colored them with pinks, yellow, blues and purples!

So the butterflies needed somewhere to go and I wanted to create some green-ery for them to be flying around!  I took a piece of fabric and sprayed it with Glimmer Mist and frayed the edges.  It really looked like grass!!  There were also a couple of paper scraps with green, using matte medium I glued them all down to the bottom of the canvas.  

When the glue was dry, I took another stamp from the Victorian Garden set and added some more visual interest to the background.

So when I put the butterflies down on the busy background, they just looked kind of lost to me.  I really wanted a more solid color, but wanted to keep the effect of the layers behind.  By mixing acrylic glazing and Plain Jane Matte Mist Watercolor - the two kind of let you see through the color and the paper underneath!  It did take forever to dry though!

This was the first layer and then I sprayed more color directly on top, along with some droplets of blue and white!

When the butterflies went back down on the board, there was much more pop from the butterflies.  The blue color really kept them from fighting with the patterns in the background. So from here, I stamped a couple of butterflies right onto the board.  I added a couple of doodle details and picked my quote.

So there were two quotes I was wrestling with ... one is "May you always be brave enough to fly" and the then the "Follow you Butterflies." And right now, I am trying to get a Health and Wellness business of the ground and it is making me so nervous, I felt like Follow Your Butterflies spoke directly at me! 

And then I was done!  This was a really fun piece to make - but the sentiment meant so much to me.  I am going to hang this on my wall and remember to follow my butterflies.  So if you have something that is giving you butterflies just thinking about .... this one is for you too!

Come play with us, butterflies and all!!  

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #38 Altered Embellishments!

Another month - another awesome challenge!!  It is so much fun to play with embellishments - I just loved this month's challenge!  Our design team had the opportunity to use Um Wow Chipboard Pieces - they are fantastic! I loved the shapes and the their ability to put up with whatever I threw on them!  

So come and play with us at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - you will love the challenge and it is a great way to get your hands in some mixed media art every month!

Our amazing sponsor this month ..... 

 "UmWowStudio is an innovative on trend chipboard, flair & stencil manufacturer located in Las Vegas, NV. Partnering with other companies & now amazing designers our line is always expanding. Our chipboard is extra thick with a beautiful rich kraft finish ready for any medium."

And remember that one lucky random winner will win an awesome $30 Gift Certificate with free shipping to UmWow Studio!!

Here is my project for this challenge!

I started with a wood block.  I found in my stash a piece of deli paper that I had painted on using a brayer.  It was just one of those pieces that you keep around because you know that you will use it someday. It became a background for a tree and nature scene, so the deli paper worked great!

 I sprayed, painted and put some more paint on the Um Wow Chipboard! The pieces really could be used in a hundred different ways, but here one is a tree and the other is a  plant in the foreground.  I just love getting these chipboard pieces ready so much so, that I didn't take one picture of the chipboard process!

I used a stencil with green paint and modeling paste to create the texture of the tree on the deli paper background.  There were a few mess-ups along the way as a couple of 'tree leaves' that I didn't like.  But thankfully the deli paper background made it really easy to wipe off the unwanted designs and try again.  

I glued the deli paper down to the wooden block with matte medium and wrapped it around the block. The tree branches went around the edge! Loved that!  I used some craft glue to stick the chipboard in place.  Then using the computer and printer I created a saying on tissue paper and glued it down to the paper with matte medium.  The words were actually very hard to see with the background showing through the paper so I had to use a pen to go over the font.  It actually turned out okay and looks more handwritten than printed!

Come Play with us!!  Try it once and you will be hooked!