Hope & Encouragement - This Month's Inspirational Post For Graciellie Design

Hello Everyone! And welcome to my inspirational post for Graciellie Design this month, where I am showcasing the new release for August - Magnolia Dreams.   And if you are here for the first time from Karen Seifert's Blog as you hop through the design teams inspirational posts today... WELCOME TO MY BLOG! (Smile)

Did you know that as well as symbolizing purity, perfection, youth, innocence and joy, that the magnolia also represents Endurance?  As soon as I read that little-known fact the idea for this 4x6 mixed media canvas was born. 

I wanted to create something inspirational that evoked feelings of hope and encouragement, especially for someone striving against adversity as they move toward their dream.

 

I think I achieved this with the contrast I created by having the soft, velvety petals of the newly opened flowers blooming against the hard and cracked brick wall.  And the addition of the dove from the Peace Collection is always a symbol of hope and of a loving spirit watching over me.

 

So did I get it?  I would really like to know, so please do leave me a comment to let me know how this piece made you feel.  And now I am will share a few of the steps in my process of creating this lovely little canvas in the photos below, Enjoy!

I applied a layer of crackle texture paste through my small brick wall stencil over top of a canvas already colored using various dye ink sprays in reds and oranges and yellows.

Once dry I enhanced the crackles using these antiquing solution ink sprays - spray them on, wait a minute or two and wipe them off...

 

I further enhanced the bricks using this gold shimmer spray by Heidi Swapp - you do not need to wipe this one off.

 

I printed and cut out the magnolia flowers and coated them with a layer of Lindy's Moon Shadow Mist in Buccaneer Bronze.  The 100lbs card stock I used not only absorbed the ink beautifully, but it also curled just enough as it dried to give me these lovely shapes.  You can also wrap the cutout flowers around any kind of cylindrical item to get the same effect.

I added watercolors to both the dove image and the saying I chose, and then cut out and mounted all of these elements onto the now dry canvas, using foam tape a strong liquid glue, (like Beacon 3 in 1).  I also added a bit of copper colored Pebeo Cerne Relief to the centres of the flowers to give them a little bit of extra sparkle.

 

So that's it for this month's inspirational post. I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial. If you are hopping through all the Graciellie design team inspirational posts  today your next stop along the way is:

 MARIA PILLAR

And please feel free to join in the blog hop - it starts HERE at Graciellie Design.

As always, thank you for popping in today to see what I am up to and please do leave me a comment if you like what you see!
Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist
for the Graciellie Design Team

 

AUGUST PROMOTION:

GRACIELLIE Design products:

Peace Collection

Digital Stamps

Digital Paper Pack

SVG Cut Files