She has Strength!

I think this has been the busiest summer that I have had  ... ever.  I didn't plan it this way, it kinda happened on its own.  We went to the beach, that was planned a long time ago. The other week that was going to be busy was an awesome week to Disney ...  but then we had this wild and crazy idea that we wanted to sell our house so that we could get some extra space for the kids and my art supplies that were taking over the dining room and kitchen.  And we listed it ... and in 48 hours we had 3 offers over asking.  Seriously. Shocked. That also meant that we had a week or so to find something new or be homeless.  Luckily, after about 20 houses I found one that we loved. Whew.  But SUCH a whirlwind!!

So I dug deep and felt like I had to find strength that I hadn't used in a long time!!  So when this stamp arrived from Eclectic Paperie, she talked to me and said, "i have strength too!" So here she is ....

 I am not good at drawing faces at all - but I have always wanted to be!! So when I saw the amazing Prima stamps in the Eclectic Paperie store -I went for it!! And I am SO glad that I did!! Here I used the Sharon stamp - LOVE HER!!

I started by stamping the image with Archival Black ink onto watercolor paper!

I loved how easily this stamped onto the paper!!  (And historically, I am stamp challenged!)

Then I wanted to watercolor Sharon.  But I couldn't find my watercolor kit .... so I grabbed my Dylusions.  Really.  I used the Dylusion Inks to watercolor!! And I LOVED it!! See the drop in the pallet - that was all the color I needed!! The ink is so saturated with pigment, that when I added a brush (wet with water) the ink took over!!  I was so amazed!!

The colors of the Dylusions are AMAZING! I actually used little medicine cups to keep the colors separated because the inks were so intense.  And honestly, I could have used the water that I was using to clean the brushes with to watercolor!)

Finally, I created a background for her.  I used Wendy Vecchi embossing paste to create some texture and then rubbed it with Wendy's Dandelion Archival ink pad after it dried. I sprayed some Dylusions through stencils (going traditional with the Dylusions here!)  I cut Sharon out of the watercolor paper and glued her down to the canvas with Gel Medium and then wrote on the canvas to finish her!! 

Really, these face stamps are SO stinkin' easy to use!!  If you have been thinking of getting one, like I had for a long time, try one!! I can't wait to get a couple more different faces! I might even use her to practice drawing faces myself ... maybe!!

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!

I am so excited to be the guest designer for the mixed media blog challenge this month!! I absolutely adore modeling paste and when the challenge came up - I thought, YES, I have the perfect idea!!

I started out by smearing modeling paste thickly through a stencil onto  parchment paper! I pulled the stencil up and left the paste to dry. Then I got started with the rest ....

When we were at the beach this summer I saw a beautiful egret sitting at the waters edge. She looked so peaceful and regal that I knew I had to sketch her and keep her forever.

 I started the background by using a roller stamp onto a blank canvas. Then I used tissue paper on my gelli plate to make my pink sunset for behind the egret.  I tried to make it as ombré as possible! (This was harder to do than I thought it would be!!! ) When the tissue paper was dry, I used gel medium to adhere the tissue paper to the canvas. I love the effect because you can see the roller text behind the tissue paper!

I also wanted to create the blue ocean with a wavy texture.  I painted teal onto the canvas.  I mixed the same teal with modeling paste And  painted the paste the through the stencil to create a texture. I used the same stencil as the feathers!

The I used my sketch to help me cut out a large bird silhouette out of watercolor paper. I used the watercolor paper to make sure the paper wod be strong enough to add the modeling paste 'feathers' to it! I did paint some gray and white paint onto the paper, but in the end, you can't even see it!

After about 24 hours, the modeling paste was completely dry. It peeled right off of the parchment paper and held its shape.

I took the 'feathers' and layered them on top of each other.  I cut out little triangle for the neck. I used gel medium as my adhesive!

And with some glue to attach the bird to the canvas, a couple of doodles and a favorite quote - Done!