Butterfly Canvas

Hello friends!

This is an 8x10 canvas.  It was originally going to be for a group challenge on Facebook, but I never got it completed in time.  I've been working on this canvas off-and-on for months.  I bring it down off the shelf and tweak something then put it back.  I think I'm finally ready to share it.

There is a long list of products used and I'm not even sure I remember everything I've done to it.  I'll note what I can below for you.  I hope you like it!

 

 

Supplies used (at least, those I can remember):
Tim Holtz distress paints
Tim Holtz tissue paper
Fresco white chalk ink
Gesso
Tim Holtz distressed leaf cutting die
Bazzill black border
Tim Holtz rub-ons
The Crafter's Warehouse stencil
The Robin's Nest Dew Drops - mini pink & yellow, regular crystal clear
Sharpie markers - black and white
Stamper's Anonymous clock stamp
Stamp Camp foreign text background stamp
USArt Quest amethyst mica flakes
Terri Sproul mica mixers in rose
Matte finish sealer

Until next time...Happy Crafting!

Stop and smell the roses

The roses in this case are napkins and they help bring my Garden of Dreams layout to life.

This double page features a lot of greens and browns.  I made this background knowing that one of the techniques that Terri Sproul highlighted in this lesson was using napkins to enhance the page.  But when I was done with the painted background I thought it was going to be too dark and too busy.  In the past, I would have scrapped the idea and made another but I really wanted to see where this would take me.  Before the paint could dry I added a sprinkling of gold Mica D'Lights so the page would have a very light sparkle.

I started my napkin collage with a tan and cream floral napkin to try and soften up some of the dark swirls.  Some of the pieces of this pattern and one of the large flowers were stamped with a handwriting image and allowed to dry before being decoupaged onto the page.  These were the napkins I chose.

After the tan floral, I added two of the large lilies and two roses.  A marble pattern was stamped in gold to add a little depth to the background.  I wanted more of a garden feel to the page and because of the dark background the napkins weren't as prominent as I'd hoped.  No problem!  I grabbed a stencil and some of my USArt Quest 101 Light and added some vines.  While the paste was still wet I sprinkled Mica Delights in ruby and green.

A green Bic Mark-It was used to highlight the vine and a red one was used to highlight the circles to match the mica used on each.  After that, I stamped bees in cream colored acrylic paint and dragonflies using a brown Faber-Castell Gelato.

Terri's original theme was "Dream Big" but it just didn't seem to fit my page so I changed the title to "Garden of Dreams".  I chose a font from my computer and printed it out to use as a guide for how to draw each letter.  The same Bic Mark-It that was used on the vine was used for the letters.  And voila!

Thanks for joining me once again!  Please drop me a line or use one of the links to follow my blog journey or add me to your Google circle!  Have a wonderful day!

Be Brave in your art journal

Be Brave and Take a Chance was the theme of this next layout.  My bravery on this layout was mainly the use of mustard yellow!  That color took me out of my comfort zone.  There were a lot of techniques going on for this layout.  Hey, you can catch Terri Sproul's art journal tutorial #3 over on YouTube if you'd like to play along on Tuesdays and make your own brave layout!

First I tore large sections from a sheet of scrapbook paper.  It was a brown paper with copper hexagons.  The brown paper really drove this layout, which is ironic because I used so much paint that it almost doesn't show.  Only the shiny copper really comes through.  That's a shame because it was wonderful paper. 

After the paper was down I spread on a generous amount of Elmer's glue and a little touch of copper color glitter glue.  You have to let that start to dry and then paint over top.  While the paint and glues dry the paint begins to crack and split.  Because the paint got away from me I tried to wipe some of it off.  A couple of things went wrong at this point.  When you blend the glue and paint it doesn't really crack.  Also, because the paper was saturated with paint, when I began wiping it off I was also wiping off the scrapbook pattern!  So I stopped wiping and decided to go with whatever happened.  I sprinkled on a few of the turquoise mica flakes that came in the mail that day.

 

Because I was being Brave. I wanted to do something different to add interest to the page.  I took my largest mica tile and split it into two pieces so that I could have the same shape on each side of the layout.    The "Be Brave" tile has the yellow paint on the back and the words and my thumbprint on the top.  The "Take A Chance" tile has the yellow paint on top so it's not as shiny.  Both tiles were attached with Helmar 450 glue.

 

After the paint was thoroughly dry I  added a couple sections of USArt Quest's 101 Heavy on two different stencils.  The first was an Asian symbol for energy, which was decorated with their Mica D'Lights.  This wonderful stuff is like glitter, but it's all natural.  It also matched the flakes so I thought it would be a nice burst of color.  I stamped a couple of flowers with glue and added more D'Lights.  Then I added some checkerboard sections just for fun.  I stamped some additional background images and let the whole thing dry...again.

 

So this is my page.  There is a lot going on and it is different than anything I've ever created.  I like it for that reason alone!  One more step along the new creative path I'm taking.  I hope you like it.  

Please leave me a comment or follow my journey using the links here on the page.  Happy creating!