New Mixed Media Art--My Step by Step Process

 I especially enjoy making art this time of year--I'm pretty much hibernating now with our nasty winters that we get here.  I'm not on a time crunch like I am later in the year so I thoroughly love the process of creating.  And  I also can take the time to stop and take photos of my art process for you to see and maybe  give you some inspiration to try this too.

Here's the finished piece:

This is a dimensional piece that was a bit time consuming but very fun to do.  So as you can see it's collaged with papers that I hand painted.  I love painting papers and it's somewhat of a warm up for me. I started out looking for objects in my studio that I could make marks with on paper--

And I like to paint  some textured papers also:

The one painted in blue is a textured wallpaper and the one painted in yellow is from an Etsy shop--HimalDesign --great hand made papers there!

After a fun day of painting papers--I have my palette ready for my art project--(the other papers were painted on 110lb cardstock that I get at Staples--office supply store)

So going into this project I knew that I was going to transform these 2 pieces--

The wood square is actually a cradle board that I got from Dick Blick--I just flipped it over so it could be used as a shadowbox.  And the wood heart frame I've had forever--I found it at Michael's and I'm pretty sure they don't make these anymore--it fits perfectly over this 8 x 8 cradle board.

The next part for me is fun--I look through my plethora of embellishments and vintage finds that I have everywhere in my house.  I like to make my story before I actually put the art together--

sometimes I find other objects as I go on, but the main theme will stay the same..

Next comes the paper collage part--

I made a template of my heart frame, marked a grid design on it, and numbered each piece, cut them and used them as pattern pieces for my papers that I wanted to collage on the  frame

Next, all my papers went on the different surfaces--

I like to use gel medium to adhere the papers and these papers are fairly thick with the paint on them, so I like to wet them down before I put on the gel medium--it makes them more pliable and easier to work with.  You could also use Mod Podge, but I prefer the gel.

So now everything comes together--

.....and don't forget the sides!   I  pretty much use E6000 for the gluing part and I nailed the heart frame to the cradle board.

I hope I've given you some inspiration to take some time for yourself to play--whatever your creative outlet is.  This was very fun and relaxing for me--great therapy for this time of year!

P. S. Right now you can find this piece is in my Etsy shop HERE

A Step by Step Tutorial--Painting in Layers

I  have  a  new  tutorial  over  at  the  DecoArt  Mixed  Media  Blog  for  this  piece  that  was  so  fun  to  make  from  beginning  to  end....

...using  DecoArt  Media  fluid acrylic paints  that  are  wonderful  to  work  with  and  come in  lots  of  colors--see  my  entire  process  HERE.  I hope you try this very  fun  way  of  painting!

A New Tutorial For You

Hey  everyone--I'm  the  guest  designer over at  the   DecoArt  Mixed Media  Blog   today  and  here's  the  piece  with the  tutorial  that  I  made  that  you  can  find  there--

....a  fun  project  to  make--make  sure  to  visit  the  blog  HERE!

A New Cat Tutorial For 2016--My Step-by-Step Process

Welcome  to  2016  everyone!   I've  decided  to  start  out  the  year  again  with  another  piece  of  cat  art,  since my   cat  tutorial  from  a  year  ago  was  SO  popular.   So  here's  another  cat  tutorial  for  you--basically  the  same  thing--just  a  little  bit  of  a  variation  from  the  original.

My  new  cat--

.....and  back  to  the  beginning  of  it--

Once  again  I  warmed  up  by  getting  out  my  Gelli® plate  and  my  paints  and  brushes  and  had  some  fun--

.....and  again  I'm  just  using  here  110lb  card stock  that  I  find at  my  local  office  supply  store  (Staples).  I  also  like  to   use   scrapbook  papers   that   I'm  not  too  crazy  about  that  I   get  in  the  pads  --they work  great,  and  you  can  get  some  of  the  background  design  of  the  paper  to  peak   through  if  you  like  or  cover  it  up  completely--the  heavier  scrapbook  papers  hold  up  really  well  to  layers  of  paint.  And  book  pages  are  fun  to  use  also--good  ones  are  the  over-sized  children's  picture dictionaries  or  story  books (depending  on  the  paper--they  also  hold  up  well  to  anything  that  you  may  want  to  do to  them).

I  chose  my  'color  palette'  for  my  6 x 18  birch  cradle  board--

.....and  made  my  background  with  my  papers--

.....and  then  I  outlined  the  moon  on one  of  my  papers from  the  template  that  I  made,  got  out  my  gel  medium,  put  it  on  my  surface,  and  then  added  some  washi  tape  borders.....

next--I  drew  my  cat  template,  cut  it  up  and  numbered  it  for  my  papers  that   I  chose  to  use  for  the  cat--

--after  that,  got  the  gel  medium  out  again  and  placed  my  cat  on  the  moon  along  with  some  scattered  stars--

This  is  when  you  want  to  bring  the  cat  out  of  the  background  by highlighting  and  shading  areas  of  it    I  used  my  inktense  blocks  for  this  part.   If  you're  not  familiar  with  these,  they're  watercolor sticks.   You  just  color  in  the  area  with  them  and  then  apply  water--the  difference  is  that  they're  made  with  ink  and  are  very  intense  color  (I  guess  that's  why  they're  called  inktense).  They  did  exactly  what  I  wanted  them  to  do--

You  can  also  see  here  that  I  outlined  everything  with  black--still  using  my  favorite  permanent  pen  that  I  used  last  year--my  Fude  Ball  pen.

And  I  also  let  my  muse  take  over  and  let  the  piece  tell  me  what  else  it  needed.   I  added  some  ephemera  flowers  on  the  body  and  along  the  border--

And  I  added  the word 'wish'......and  a  little  more  embellishing...

......and  also finishing up the sides.......

So  now  that  it's  all  finished,  it's  ready  to  find  a  new  home--it's  for  sale  in  my  Etsy  shop, which  you  can  find  HERE.

....or....start  playing, and  make  a  cat  (or  whatever  you  want)  using  papers  that  you've  painted--it's  fun  seeing  your  art  progress  along  the  way--the  more  you  play,  the  more  you  want  to  play!  :-)

A New Step-by-Step Tutorial for 2015

Well,  we're  not  quite  there  yet,  but  only  a  couple  of  more  days  till  2015--so  an  early  Happy  New  Year  everyone!   And  I  thought  of  starting  the  new  year  off  with  a  small  tutorial.    First--the  finished  piece--

But  let  me  back  up,  and  show  you  how  I  started.   I  began  by  getting out  my  paints  and  art  tools  and  warming  up  by  painting  papers  on  heavy  card stock  paper  (110lb  paper  that  I  get  at  Staples  office  supply  store)--

there's  actually  a  lot  more  where  these  came  from,  but  these  are  the  ones  that  I  chose  for  my  'palette'.    As  far  as  the  techniques  I  used  for  these  papers--there  are  endless  step-by-step  tutorials  on  you tube--if  you  put  in  a  search  for  art  journal  backgrounds--you'll  find  them.   I  also  have  tutorials  on  painting  papers  on  my  blog  here-under  the  tab  "Tutorials".   A  lot  of  my  favorite  little  tricks  are  ones  that  I  discover  by  just  fooling  around  or  by  accident--the  happy  accident.   And  I  also  want  to  add  my  Gelli  Plate--my  new  friend!   This  is  what  I  do  to  get  me  warmed  up,  and  what  I  really  enjoy  doing,  but  there's  no  reason  why  you  can't  use  scrapbook  papers--or  any  decorative  papers  that  you  may  have.

I  worked  on  a  6 x 12  wood  cradleboard  with  deep  sides,  which  I  decopauged  with  book  pages--

I  like  working  on  the  wood  surfaces,  because  they're  easy  to  stamp  on  and  adhere  papers  to   as  opposed  to  the  wrapped  canvases,  and  I  wasn't  sure  at  the  time  what  I  was  planning  on  doing--but  again,  this  is  whatever  your  preference  is.

Next,  for  my  background--

I  got  out  my  inktense  blocks--these  are  great--a  very  intense  watercolor  stick,  but  I  used  gesso  (any  gesso,  it  doesn't  matter)  instead  of  water--I  like  the  effect  that  you  get  when  you  use  the  gesso.    Also  a  little  acrylic  ink  here  and  there--this  was  the  first  layer.

Next  layer--

I  added  a  bit  more  acrylic  paint  here  and  there  and  some  tim  holtz  tissue  paper  on  the  bottom  with  added  color.   There's  no  right  or  wrong--I  could  have  kept  going  with  the  layers.

So  someone  on  my  Facebook  page  requested  a  cat  piece--and  that's  where  the  cat  idea  came  from.  First  thing  I  did  was  make  my  'template'--

And  then  I  cut  up  the  blocked-out  segments  of  the  cat   and  numbered  them--making  it  much  easier  to  cut  out  the  same  pieces  with  my  paper--

...kind  of  like  a  puzzle   :-)

So  next--assembling  this  'puzzle'  on  my  cradle  board--

my  kitty  with  some  daisies  I  just  use  regular  gel  medium  to  adhere  all  of  these  pieces.

next  step--the  fun  part--

bringing  everything  to  life.....I  wanted  to  define  the  different  papers,  so  I  used  my  new  Fude  Ball  pen.  I  recently  discovered  this  pen--nice  dark  black,  writes  over  basically  anything,  and  permanent  when  dry.  I  also  used  some  acrylic  paint  to  shade  the  sides  of  the  papers.   This  is  also  the  time  when  the  organic  process  starts--no  plan  in  mind--I  just  listen  to  my  muse.   I  added  the  scrolls  with  the  pen,  the  butterfly  and  the  Imagine  stamp.

The  finishing  touches--

some  brads  for  the  flower  centers,  and.....

don't  forget  the  sides---I  used  a  small  flower  stamp.  And  then  I  coated  it  with  coats  of  gloss  varnish--the gloss  gives  it  that  mosaic/stained  glass  look  that  I  really  like.

If you have any questions about this project or to see lots more of my current art, please visit and like my Facebook Art page HERE 
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