Art Journal Pages ...

So for the last few weeks, I have spent more time in my art journal than usual! Not only did I make the watercolor flower page, but I also made these 2 new pages!  So much fun to just let loose and play with layers and different mediums!!  

This first page is modeling paste, stencils and watercolors!

This one is just happy yellow!! I played with pan pastels, Wendy Vecchi clear embossing paste, and stencils!

And here are a couple of older pages  ... just inspired by pictures that I had taken this spring! 

 

Cherishing your own talents!

For my birthday, my mom sent me a card and I loved the little graphic on the front so much that I wanted to watercolor it.  I won't include the first couple of attempts, because I was trying to watercolor detail.  I have not mastered watercolor and detail ... so I threw out those first couple of watercolors and tried it my way instead!!

It started with a green background, really because I thought you would be able to see more of it ...

Then I watercolored! Big swirly flowers with really no structure at all ... but I loved how they turned out!  After they were dry, I fussy cut them out of the watercolor paper.

Then I stacked them up and glued them into my journal!

The opposite side is 2 different green Dylusion sprays and a roller stamp.  Then I included the original inspiration piece from my birthday card and some burlap for texture.   Finally,I found the perfect quote and stapled it in!!

i just adore this little picture from the card!! Maybe someday I will be able to paint like that ... or maybe I will just stick to mine!!

Thank you for stopping by today!! I hope you cherish your talents and find what they are and remain true to them!!  Have an awesome day - Karen

The Birdhouses!

Summertime is here and so are the birds!! Our wonderful neighbor has several birdfeeders in her backyard so we get to see a TON of different and exciting birds in our yard!  (We are thinking we should get her some birdseed because we get  to see so many!!)  Anyway, I was watching the birds pop in and out of the trees yesterday and thought that perhaps we should get some birdhouses! My girls thought they would live here and eat there!! LOL!  Anyway, here is my whimsical birdhouse tree!! I hope you like it - I had SO much fun putting her together!!

For Mother's Day my husband and girls went to Blick's and picked up some fun looking paints.  I think they are mainly meant for glass, but you can use them for mixed media too. So I brushed on a few colors and loved them!!  These paints are transparent, but really vibrant!! They are made by Pebeo, and are called Prisme and Vitrail.  I also used the green Vitrail through a stencil to make the green 'grasses' at the bottom! After they were dry, I sealed up the background with matte medium because I wasn't sure about how they would handle me working on top of them ... I will have to try that next time!

Then I started ripping up some brown paper bags to make the tree and used gel medium to glue it to the canvas. 

Then the leaves ... I didn't want the leaves to come off of the canvas and fight with the birdhouses.  I just wanted the leaves to fade into the background.  So out came my messy gelli plate to make some tissue paper background leaves ... Titan buff for the background and a couple of greens through a stencil! I do love my gelli plate!

I ripped up the tissue paper into little pieces and used matte medium to stick them down onto the canvas!

I think they really look like leaves!!

Then I had some fun creating a selection of birdhouses! I used little pieces of wood, burlap and some straw-like pieces that I had in containers on my desk!

 

I used twine to 'hang' the birdhouses from the tree!

 I started doodling and shading.  Then I found a perfect quote about home! I printed it on my printer onto some tissue paper and used matte medium to stick it down! What I love about using the tissue paper is that it is semi-transparent and it blends into the background!

After I finished highlighting around the tree, it needed something else.  So I searched through my Goodwill frame collection and found this older wooded frame.  It fit the canvas perfectly.  So, I attached the canvas and voila, the birdhouses are complete!!  

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I really hope that you enjoy this whimsical project as much as I enjoyed creating it!! - Karen

Happy Birthday!!! It is the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #13!!!!

Happy 1st Birthday to The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!   I can't believe it has been a year already for this awesome challenge blog!!   I REALLY hope you will join us this month and celebrate this awesome achievement!! We will have LOTS of guest designers and a whole lot of inspiration for you!!

This month, you can choose any of the 12 different themes that we have had this year!!!   And if you do participate, you will be entered into the drawing to win an amazing prize pack from Maya Road!!  Love them!!  

There are not that many rules to follow for this challenge, but we do have a coupe of new ones this month! 

You must use our challenge graphic in your challenge post. You must comment on at least 3 design team members blog and you may combine with up to 4 more challenges!!  Hope you will join us!

The Mixed Media Challenge Blog!

Here is my project!!  I used A LOT of Maya Road flowers - I just altered them a little bit!!  

Here is my inspiration, a picture from Southern Living Magazine!!

I actually started with this old award plaque.  The award had been removed and what was left was a perfect board for creating my project onto!! 

I started with two pages of a Maya Road mini album!!

I painted them with some silver colored metallic paint and some antiquing cream from Deco Art.

Next, I unraveled a couple Maya Road flowers and sprayed them with pink, yellow and blue.  The flower petals took the color AMAZINGLY!!

Here they are all colored and cut apart!

I used yellow spray on some gray flowers to make this greeny-gold for the 'moss.' 

I glued the petals onto the chipboard with Helmar 450 - they will stay there for a thousand years!!

I created the background on the plaque with a coating of gesso and green paint for the leaves in the window.

Then I created a couple of window panes....

Then I got too serious and forgot to take anymore pictures ... but here is the final project!! 

I arranged the sprayed flower petals into the shapes of the flowers from the inspiration picture.  Then I had some ribbon with netting from Maya Road that I used inside the flowers to give them a little more texture!!

Thank you SO much for stopping by!! I really hope you like my flower project!!! So, now what?  Click on this link and come and join us at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!

-Karen