Home Sweet Home...

Well HELLO you wonderful world of arty blog followers!  I am SO Excited to be sharing my first project for the Susan Weckesser design team! This month the theme is "Home Sweet Home" which is so very timely in my life right now as my hubby and I are in the process of selling our home in Alberta, Canada to move to British Columbia, Canada on the "next step" in the journey of our lives together.  So needless to say House and Home are much on my mind these days, and I have been trying to define what turns a House into a Home?  I have decided that, for me, it is Laughter and Love, and with those two thoughts resonating in my brain, here is the canvas I created...

It was the 6 x 20 inch canvas and my box of inky paper towels that inspired me to see a row of wobbly little houses running across it and I hope you enjoy the photo-heavy tutorial I have created to share my process of creation.

I started by gluing my inky paper towels to the canvas using Liquitex Matte Medium... I like to use a matte because it takes other mediums like pen and marker so well after it has dried.

Next I used my new TCW (The Crafters Workshop) stencil and a new-to-me product called Ferro by Viva Decor.  It is like a modelling paste full of very fine glittery sand, fine enough to use with my stencil and thick enough to make the words crisp and dimensional.... Swoon! 

Now for the stamping: I stamped my little houses from Susan's "Create Your Day" stamp set from Unity Stamps right onto pages in my dictionary.  I used Stayzon ink in Aqua and Red because it is fast drying and waterproof.  I picked up a dictionary in a secondhand store for $2.00 and I love using it for stamped images in my mixed media work because the paper does not dissolve when I wet it with paint and sprays and it stands up to the heat gun and dries fast.  I used my Dylusions sprays on some of my houses to color them up and I also stamped some images on tissue paper ... a technique I love because the background shows through the tissue paper when it dries. 

This sun I applied is from Susan's "Fly Away" collection from Unity Stamps.  Now I have a background for my main images... here it is in detail... you can see the texture from my inky paper towels and how the small houses have depth and texture also.

Now for the Fun stuff!  I cut out my clouds, sun, kite and stars from Susan's Paper Line and applied them over the background.  I stamped this house from the "Heartfelt Warmth" Unity Stamp set onto a piece of gesso'ed card stock and actually used my Dylusion sprays like paint... I LOVE the texture and subtlness of this technique.  This house I Popped off the canvas as well as the kite.

The final two steps were to outline and embellish my images with first some Sharpie markers (because they are waterproof and non-bleeding) and then with Ranger's Liquid Pearl and Stickles because it just needed to sparkle!!

This little canvas just makes me Happy and I think it will brighten up someones home very nicely.

Cheers from

Lynne Mizera