Silly and Whimiscal Summer Evenings

Here is my project for the Linnie Blooms design team challenge project this month.  The challenge is to use Linnie Bloom Stencils/Masks and Canvas to show a favorite outdoor activity.  And one of my favorite parts of summer are the fun evenings that we spend outside with our kids and our friends.  I adore how the kids run around and ride bikes, play games and end up sitting on the driveway doodling with chalk and talking. 

 

  When I was overseas last fall, I found a stamp of dancing kids and fell in love with it!  It just portrays our summer evenings perfectly and these nights are definitely my favorite outdoor activity. So I made this canvas for the challenge, it is a little silly and a little whimsical!

 I started with Linnie Bloom Canvas Trees.  I used acrylic paint and 'spouncer' brushes to dab on the green paint.  I started with a lighter green.

Then I added some dabs of a little bit darker green.

I let the green dry and then added a yellow ocre and titan buff for the trunk and branches.

For the final layer I added dabs of a darker blue-green on top.

I took out a larger 10x13 canvas and painted around the edge with blue and white. 

As I was imagining the background, I just wanted to make a sunset.  So I took out some watercolor paper and my watercolors and tried to paint the colors of the evening.  While it was still damp I sprinkled on some salt for a fun texture effect.

Next, I worked on all the fun little bits that I wanted to add to the canvas.  I printed out the text on tissue paper, so that it would be almost transparent on the canvas.

I was also a little chicken and afraid to stamp right on the watercolor canvas.  So I stamped on the white tissue paper too.

 I added some fun scrapbook paper for bunting and glued the paper down to the canvas.

I put all the pieces together gluing them down with matte medium.

I used some leftover Linnie Blooms burlap for the bunting.  Seriously, don't throw out all your scraps, you never know when you are going to use it!  I added some doodles and shading to finish off the project!

So I hope you enjoy my summer evenings canvas.  I think we might just end up outside tonight!! 

- Karen