Becoming...

 

Hi friends!  Let's face it...I stink at consistently posting on the eP blog...LOL!  So...starting next week we're going to have a guest designer who will post a project each week!  Yeah!  Can't wait!  We're booked with guest designers through June, but if anyone is interested in posting from July throughout the rest of 2015, drop me an email at kim@eclecticpaperie.com. And now...on to my project! This was a canvas project that I created for a mixed media challenge, posted a few months ago.  Let's get going!

Since I can't imagine any canvas without texture, I started by applying embossing paste through a stencil.  

 

Notice that I didn't cover the entire canvas with paste...just a few areas.  Once the paste was dry, I used Dylusions Ink Sprays to add color.  The ink sprays are fabulous for creating drips!

  With this canvas I also opted to embrace the white space...a practice that I find difficult.  I love white and I love color, but boy do I have a hard time doing either option half way!  (What does that say about my personality?  Yup, it's all true! LOL!)

Next I added a bit more design using another stencil and more ink spray.  See that tiny bit of bright pink...I love it...

 

Now it was time for a contrast color.  Nothing makes me happier than a burst of color from the opposite side of the color wheel!  I opted for a turquoise color from PaperArtsy.  Now...what do you think happened when I added wet paint on top of Dylusions Ink Sprays?  Yup...the water from the paint activated the ink sprays and I got a decent amount of brown.  No worries...I waited for the paint to dry and applied more paint to intensify the turquoise color.

 

More drips...oh how I love the drips!  At this point, I broke out my stamps!  Nothing finishes off a piece like adding a neutral.  I used a few Dina Wakley stamps and black Archival Ink to add another design element.  (I love that crosshatch design!)

 

And since I can't live without text circles, I added a few and then used a Stabilo pencil to draw circles around the text.  Using a waterbrush activates the Stabilo pencil, allowing me to broaden the lines.  Once the pencil is dry...it's permanent.

 

I wanted butterflies to live in my text circles so I stamped a butterfly from Dina Wakley's Scribbly Insects stamp set three times on watercolor paper.  I used Peerless watercolors (have you tried these?  If not, you need them!) to paint each butterfly and then I used the She Script stamp from Christy Tomlinson to stamp, in white paint, on top of the butterflies.  I adore the white script across each butterfly...divine!

 

Each butterfly was fussy cut and attached with a glue dot.  I folded up all of the wings for great movement and dimension.  The last bit was the addition of the sentiment (also stamped and cut apart) and date stamp (ala Donna Downey...I love adding dates!)  And here is the completed canvas...

I hope you enjoyed today's project and stay tuned for a new project next week!!

Step Off the Path ~ Mixed Media Canvas

Hi there! It's Bonnie here today sharing a little 5x7" mixed media I created to feature this sweet Dina Wakley Scribbly Birds. I stamped the birds onto white mixed media paper using Jet Black Archival ink. Then I spritzed my water colours and painted in some base colour and shading to give me that washy look I wanted. The birds were then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border for contrast. Foam tape was placed on the backs of the birds and they were set aside.

The pre-gessoed canvas board was sponged with three colours of Fresco Finish ( Claret, Cotton Candy, and Blush) working wet on wet and applying the paint with a piece of Cut n Dry foam. Once dry, white gesso was pounced through Prima's Stone Wall III stencil. Magenta Archival ink was sponged through Dina Wakley's plastic mesh stencil. Old book pages from Michelle Hill's Vintage Ephemera bundle was torn and  adhered to the canvas with gel medium. More white gesso was spread across the background including the text using both a brush and my finger.

Tangerine Gelato was used to edge the canvas and was spread with a dry finger. Black embossing paste was added to the canvas through TCW's Mini Texturized stencil. Extra texture and pattern were added by randomly and imperfectly stamping a TH script stamp using Jet Black Archival ink. Pieces of cork ribbon were added to the base to ground the birds and to the top left to carry the cork through the piece.

Party hats were cut from yellow scraps of designer paper and small colourful circles were punched and added to make them more fun. The sentiment, from Studio 490 Seriously Art set, was stamped with Jet Black onto mixed media paper, cut out with a Spellbinders die, and inked with Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry Distress inks. The same inks were used on a chipboard heart. Punched semi-circles were adhered to both sides of the canvas and black enamel dots were added to the cork bits. To complete the piece, black doodling was added as well as Black Big Brush pen on the edges.

The party birds and I thank you for hanging out with us today. Hope we made you smile!
Bonnie

Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Scotch Foam Mounting Tape	Dina Wakley - White Gesso - 2 oz.	Dina Wakley - Gel Medium - 2oz.
Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - Black	PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint - Claret (Translucent)	PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint - Blush (Semi-Opaque)	PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint - Candy Floss (Opaque)
Vintage Paper Ephemera Bundles	Prima - 6x6 inch Stencil - Stone Wall III	TCW - Mini Texturized 6x6 Stencil	Ranger - Cut n′ Dry Foam Pads
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Reinker - Spiced Marmalade	Distress Ink Pad - Picked Raspberry	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black

Autumn Bounty

Good Tuesday eP friends,

Micki here to share a quick "get-me-in-the-mood-for-fall" mixed media canvas, utilizing left over paper scraps, ink soaked paper towel pieces, Dina Wakley stencils and paints, some Dylusions Ink Sprays, Distress Paints and those yummy Wendy Vecchi archival ink pads.

Fall is my most favorite time of the year - I love all the seasons but Fall is the favorite!  With the transition into Fall, summer time weather seems to have returned here in the mid-west and it has been hard to get "into" the fall spirit.  My daughter and son-in-law planted their own vegetable garden this year and planted some pumpkins.  The girls loved the vegetable garden, but their excitement knew no bounds when the pumpkins started sprouting.  Although their pumpkins are not big enough to be used for carving Halloween faces, they are perfect for decor and that gave me the idea for my Autumn Bounty canvas.

I used a black gesso'd canvas (which I completely forgot I had in my closet) and grabbed lots of scrapbook papers in blues, greens and of course, orange.   Using the blue papers for the sky and the greens for grass, I laid down ripped and torn paper pieces on the canvas using Gel Medium to glue them down.  I knew my pile of pumpkins would be in the center, therefore leaving the center empty.

Next I added stenciling, first with Dylusions Ink Sprays:  London Blue through the Luscious Leaves stencil and Cut Grass through 7 Dots Studio's Nature Walk Damask Mask stencil.  This was followed by applying a thin layer of Studio 490's Translucent Embossing Paste through Prima's Decor I stencil using Ranger's Craft Scraper.  Before removing the stencil, I lightly sprayed Dylusions London Blue Ink Spray over the stencil.  I knew I would be adding more paints and wanted to make sure that the ink would stay put.  Once the embossing paste dried, the ink is permanent.  At this point, I also added Dina Wakley's Spinners stencil using white paint.  You can see that I also rubbed white paint over the raised (dried) embossing paste.

Next up was cutting out various shapes of pumpkins and gluing these onto the canvas.  Once dry, paint was added.  Trying to create various shades of orange, I added Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylic paints then adding Distress Paints and mixing these right on the canvas:

To start building some depth, I added more paints, including Distress Paints.  Once dry, continued to built depth and layers with watercolor pencils, Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers and the black Gelato which I smeared with my finger.

As the final touch I added texture with Dina Wakley's Textures stamp set and Unity's Classified Newsprint stamp and Archival Ink.  The sentiment was typed onto a piece of book paper edge, cut and glued with gel medium.  I lightly added doodling with a black pen and edged the canvas with black gelato which I then blended with my finger.  I also had some old sewing stitches rub-ons which were also added.

This canvas came together rather quickly which is a good thing because I wanted to join in this month's ePlay Challenge!  Made it just in time :-).

As always, I hope you were inspired to grab your inks, paints and stencils and get creative!
xoxo

Supplies Used:

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