ARTplorations Stencil Sunday - Sharing My Newest Mixed Media Canvas

It's Sunday Morning...Happy sigh.  I have always loved Sunday mornings.  In my younger years when our children were still living at home it was family time and sharing time, and now that I am a grandma and our kids are in their own homes with their own kids, it is my time for quiet reflection as I think back over the events of the past week and give thanks for all the blessings in my life.  Which meshes perfectly with my newest mixed media canvas created in celebration of Me and Mr. Awesome and our 19th year together this month.

This canvas is especially sweet to me because the twigs I incorporated into the design came from this beautiful old willow tree in the backyard of our new home where we hope to spend all our remaining years together... (hugging myself here) Smile.

It is also the project that I am sharing for this week's Stencil Sunday over at the ARTplorations blog.

And a reminder that you have until the end of today to link up your mixed media project to this month's "Anything Goes except a Card" mixed media challenge!

Every month two project are chosen by the design team with the Winner receiving a $15 gift certificate OR their choice of any two ARTplorations stencils, and the Top Pick receiving their choice of one ARTplorations stencil.     

Now if your are interested in the steps I used to create my canvas, GO HERE... to my ARTplorations tutorial for July and where I used all the same steps to create this canvas with the biggest differences being that I used Liquitex Light Modelling Paste for for the flowers which I outlined and accented with Ranger's Liquid Pearls...

And that I stamped my bird images  onto a piece of painty scrap paper using Tsukineko's StazOn midi ink in Blue Hawaii and cut them out, edged them in black ink and glued them right onto the canvas using a gel medium.

So thank you for taking the time to pop in today to see what I am up to and don't forget to check out the STAMPlorations Stencil Sunday post to see what my other design teammates created!

Mixed Media Artist Lynne Mizera

for the ARTplorations Mixed Media Design Team

STAMPloration products used on this project:

Happy Flowers Stencil

Trendy Birds Stamp

  

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #373

Happy What's On YOUR Workdesk Wednesday Everyone! I am doing a quick tour of my space today and showcasing the door that leads from my studio to the outside paradise I am living in.. Happy Sigh...

And I am hoping to get this out quickly as it is already almost 9:30 in the morning here and I have so much to do these warm summer days as the veggie garden grows like it is on steroids! (See last weeks post for Those Photos!) NOTE: If you are new to WOYWW or want to know more about Why we do it and how it works - go HERE!

Here is my desk this morning - I am giving you a peek at the mixed-media canvas I am working on that I will be submitting for a show in September... I am crazy nervous about this piece even though My Inner Art Muse is dancing with joy every time she sees it! (Aren't we our Own Worst Critics?! Go figure??)

I am no where near finished, but today I will be working on the details of her face and maybe adding some stamping to the background. 

Here is the detail of her dress; I am IN LOVE with what I did on her dress!  I am trying to follow my inner artist's voice without over thinking the process but that critical voice in my head can get pretty loud sometimes and I have to walk away - Usually through the door into my garden -

And either I walk around the flower beds pulling some weeds or I sit under  Old Man Willow looking at the mountain to get some perspective.

Getting this perspective has really helped me to keep going on this canvas... but it still surprises me how loud that "mean girl" voice can get when I am feeling insecure about my own work... It is SO CRAZY!!

I spent the last week up to my eyebrows in mixed-media and did a number of tutorials on my blog... check out the last few posts for some really good Stuff! (Even if I do say so myself - grin)

The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers "R" is for Resist Technique

ARTplorations Mixed Media Tutorial - Making Art Out Of Garbage

Susan Weckesser Creative Team - Home is Where You Plant Your Flower Seeds

And I am signing off now (it is already 10:00am!!!) by showing you this photo of the bit of my garden which I can see from the window where I stand when I am painting, because that is where I am heading right now to work on that lovely lady in my canvas!

As always thanks for popping by and please do leave me a comment if you like what you see!

Scrapbooking, Mixed Media Artist, Lynne Mizera

Playing with My STAMPlorations Stencils to Create Some Really Pretty Mixed-Media Storage

 

Happy Day Blog Land Peeps!  Lynne here today excited to be sharing my first ARTplorations mixed media tutorial post featuring the Happy Flowers stencil and the Bubbles-mini stencil and the STAMPlorations word stamp - Bold Sentiments-Create (my new favorite!)

I am going to show you how I turned garbage into ART by repurposing this box I saved from the landfill into some really pretty storage to hold all my STAMPlorations stuff in one convenient place.  

And an added bonus to my using a box for this tutorial is that it has four sides, so I tried out something a little bit different on each one - all of which I will share with you!

Before I get started here is a photo of the products that  I will be refering to in the step-by-step tutorial below.

I started with this sturdy cardboard box and used my stash of inky paper towels to cover it.  Lynne's Mixed Media Tip#1: I never throw away my inky paper towels but use them as the starting point to most of my mixed media projects.

Paper, even paper towel is pretty flimsy when it gets wet so I use a concoction of matte Mod Podge and water cut 50/50 and a very delicate touch with my brush.  Make sure you get the paper wet on both sides (back and front) when applying it to the box or you will get bubbles that can cause problems once they dry.  Also, you need to let everything dry thoroughly before the next step. Note: paper towel is quite sturdy after it has dried and the wrinkles give you all that lovely texture without any work.

After my box was dry I used masking tape to tape down my Happy Flower stencil and a pallet knife to push some gold colored Ferro (by Viva) through the stencil to create 3-dimensional, textured flowers.  Once these had dried it was really easy to outline the flowers in black waterproof pen to make them really pop.

Now a bit about Ferro - it is like a very thick metalic paint mixed with a  fine-grained sand.  It is amazing through a stencil because it does not run and holds its shape beautifully, and the sand is so fine even the tiniest details come through clearly. I think it worked especially well with this Happy Flower stencil and an added bonus was how quickly it dried - in less than 30 minutes! Note: wash stencil as soon as you are finished, do not let this product dry in your stencil.

I accented the background of my box by using my finger to rub some Golden heavy-body acrylic paint over areas where I wanted to hide some of the text that was showing through or where I wanted to add more color.  But then I faded back that color by dry brushing white gesso over top until everything was the softness I wanted.

Lynne's Mixed Media Tip #2: Mixed Media is all about adding and taking away and then adding back in again. More close ups of the wonderful texture that paper towel and acrylic paint and gesso gives the project...

Here is another close up of the towel-covered box side. Note: when you are enhancing your mixed media backgrounds like this, nothing you do is wrong. 

For this side I used Gun Metal Ferro - you can really see the sparkly sand in this image.

And now for the back side ...

Using my mini bubbles stencil, I added even more texture. I used a new-to-me product Art Anthology's Sorbet - a dimensional gel paint which looks like icing, is easy to use and is very subtle when it dries - exactly what I was looking for.

For these next flowers I used another new-to-me product by Dreamweaver, Crackled Texture Paste... it was super easy to use, thick enough to go through the stencil and hold it's shape and it dried with these beautiful crackles!

Even the messy bits that smeared underneath the stencil looked great after it had dried.

And even better, the crackle paste, once dried, had a beautiful matte finish which absorbed the ink that I brushed on to it for more color and highlighted those crackles even more.

And finally - I added my words using the Bold Stentiments-Create stamp set from STAMPlorations.  I am in LOVE with these word stamps!

Lynne's Mixed Media Tip #3: stamping words and phrases on tissue paper with waterproof ink and using watered down Mod Podge or liquid gel medium to apply it to the lumpy, bumpy surface.

This method works beautifully on anything mixed media - and if you use a paint brush wet with clean water to "outline" the stamped phrase it tears away perfectly with a ragged edge that blends into the surface so you have to look very closely to see that it was not stamped right onto your project. 

Just remember to use a delicate touch when applying your words to your project as wet tissue is VERY delicate!

So here it is-the finished product!  My box full of STAMPlorations stuff sitting on my shelf...

and looking just as Wonderful as I imagined!

So I hope you enjoyed my in-depth tutorial and that the time you spent with me today inspires you to repurpose something of your own that was headed for the landfill, mixed media style.  (She says Smiling and Waving!)
Lynne Mizera
for the ARTPlorations Mixed Media Design Team

The following STAMPplorations and ARTplorations products were used on this project:

Happy Flowers ARTplorations Stencil

Bubbles ARTplorations Stencil

Bold Sentiments-Create STAMPlorations Stamp