Saturday, August 27, 2016

JUST US GIRLS #358 Photo Week



Hello and welcome crafty peeps! Judy is your hostess for Photo Week at JUST US GIRLS! She's found this amazing picture for you to be inspired by! What jumps out at you when you look at it? The fairy woman? The feathers? The birds? The butterflies? The colors? Soooo much eye candy! I was compelled to make a mixed media canvas for my project:



This is gonna be a photo heavy post, so get your favorite beverage and get comfy. I started with a 5" x 7" canvas and applied Gesso over it. Once that dried, I painted acrylic paints over it, using the colors in the photo. (Luckily, I already had most of them in my stash of paints) 


As much as I loved how this came out, I knew I wanted to try adding a stencil and mask over this. (Andy was not happy that I covered the colors up, but he just doesn't get mixed media. LOL!)  My inspiration was this art journal by Lynne Mizera. Her art journal pages look so amazing! I loved how she used the circle stencil and the butterfly mask. Since I had that same mask, I knew butterflies were going to be a major element on my canvas. I also liked the gold touches, and I thought stenciling in the next layer in gold paint would look cool. I was right! (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the canvas after stenciling the gold. DOH!) 
After that dried, I went over it using the butterfly mask.


While this was drying, I stamped, colored and fussy cut Tess Girl. At this point, I thought I was also going to incorporate feathers onto my canvas. I experimented with using die cut feathers, colored to look like the feathers in the photo. Obviously, I took another road. *wink*
So when this dried, I outlined the butterflies with a waterproof black marker. (Make sure it's a waterproof marker, otherwise, any future layers you add will smear the marker ink) 


I couldn't handle all the white space, so I stamped some texture using archival ink.


Sorry for the blurry picture. (I was using my cell phone camera while creating, since I was too lazy to go downstairs to get my good camera.) At this point, I wasn't sure if I should stamp the sentiment directly to the canvas. Well, I was terrified to do that, since I didn't want to screw it up. That's when I called Lynne for advice, and she gave me a tip on how she gets around that: you stamp onto tissue paper using archival ink, and adhere it using gel medium, or glossy medium. She goes into detail about this on her blog here. 


Another tip that Lynne gave me is that not all tissue papers are created equal. She suggested using the tissue paper that comes from a shoe box. It's more durable. That Lynne, she's brilliant!! Thank you for all your help! I rooted around trying to find shoe box tissue paper that didn't have printing already on it, or at least enough space around the pre-printed paper to stamp around it. This was the best I found. I took a wet paintbrush and went around the sentiment, then carefully ripped it out. At this point I decided I wasn't going to use feathers at all, and decided to punch tiny butterflies from coordinating card stock. The next picture shows my placement before adhering everything down.


I didn't have glossy or gel medium, just matte medium, so that's what I used. Note to self: get glossy medium, as matte will cover the 'glossy' of the acrylic paints. (Hey, I'm a rookie at this mixed media shtuff! I'm still learning!)


I did wind up lining up the stencil and carefully adding more gold paint around the sentiment. I also carefully added more brown paint around the sentiment, and redrew some of the outlines of the butterflies when that was dry. It's not perfect, but I'm pleased with how it came out. It still needed something so I added rhinestones to all the punched butterflies. That's when my inner muse said I was done. Shew!

Here are some side views, because you need to paint all the sides too! (And yes, I stenciled them also) If you look, you'll see the feathers that I colored, and Stickled, then decided not to use. There's also another die cut butterfly I thought to use, but didn't.




Congrats to you for making it til the end of my photo heavy post! I hope that you find some time to play along for Photo Week at Just Us Girls! For more inspiration, please visit the blogs of my teammates, and Colleen, our guest designer, and leave them some bloggy love! 

Just a reminder that if you are picked as Chic of the Week for any of our August challenges, you'll be in the running to be our Guest Designer for the month of October! Have fun and happy crafting!



I'd like to enter this at:



Spectrum Noir markers used:
Skin: FS2, FS3, TN2,CR3
Hair: DR5, TN9, DR7
Jeans: BT5-7-9
Shirt: GB3-7-9
nails/heart/bangle: PL1-2-3
Shoes: TN3, TN6, EB4
Ground: LG5, JG1, JG3


Supplies:
Stamps: Unity Stamps - Tess Girl; Raisin Boat - Edgy Accents
Ink: Staz On - Jet Black; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Paint: Adirondack - Terra Cotta, Stream, Butterscotch, Cloudy Blue; Delta - Gleams 14K Gold; Plaid - Wicker White; Plaid - Stencil Gel - Russet
Stencils: ARTplorations - Shower of Flutters; Dylusions - Triangles
Spectrum Noir markers; PrismaColor pencil - 70% warm grey
Golden - Gesso, Matte Medium
Nicole/Recollections - rhinestones
various paint brushes, foam brush, stencil brush
Martha Stewart - butterfly punch
shoe box tissue paper
AC Moore - canvas







15 comments:

  1. Wow, Chris, this ROCKS! What a stunning canvas, and a true mixed media masterpiece! Love your girl and sentiment, and the butterflies are so amazing! Your stenciling is gorgeous. Love the gold. Love the dimensional butterflies you added, too! Wow!

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  2. This is an absolute WOW, Chris! Nicely done.

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  3. OMG I love how this masterpiece turned out. Thanks for the LONG posting. It sure helped me out. Love mixed media but it scares me a bit. Just need practice eh! You have done an amazing job here Chris. Love your take on this weeks challenge.

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  4. WOWZERS! This is Beyond AMAZING Girl!!! You took this to a whole new level and Made Me PROUGD!! (and Thank you for the shout out... Smile) Now you just HAVE to enter this into the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge for Aguust! please, please - pretty please! (but don't forget to add the logo to your post to be ellibible for the prizes.) So Who is getting this? Are we going to exchange Christmas Gifts this Year? Just ASKING Sistaaah!

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  5. I thoroughly enjoyed this post Chris! I am so impressed with the versatility of your talent. This is certainly a work of ART! WELL DONE!

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  6. What a beautiful piece! Simply fabulous, Jo x

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  7. Quite a process, but it turned out beautifully! Love the image and those fun butterflies!

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  8. Quite a process, but it turned out beautifully! Love the image and those fun butterflies!

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  9. Chris, I am picking my jaw up off the floor! (well at least off my chest!) OMG you are one gifted artist! This post was amazing to read through your whole process...and on canvas too!! Good Golly Miss Chris, this is STUNNING!! Thank you for allowing me to be in this line up with YOU! Gosh after seeing this post I am truly feeling honored and quite honestly, humbled! Thank you again, Heart Hugs, Colleen

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  10. This is a technique that eludes me, Chris, but you have it well under control. The final product is such a great exhibit of your talent.

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  11. Chris, this is amazing! I love those butterflies fluttering around that cool girl. You are truly an artist and thanks for sharing all of the steps.

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  12. Oh WOW - this is absolutely AMAZING!!! I am so not good at mixed media, and I'm envious of your expertise here. LOVE the colors, the images.....well, just everything about it. Well done, great take on the photo!!!

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  13. This is fabulous Chris, I love this masking technique and color palette. Thank you for joining us at STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge this month and good luck. We sure hope you join us again.

    Amy- DT
    {Lil Cutie Creations}

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  14. Holy smokes!! this is stunning! what an amazing technique!! Thank yu for sharing your process.

    Patti

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  15. this is gorgeous!!! so glad you played along with us at STAMPloratios Mixed Media August Challenge :)

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