Monarchs Mixed Media Canvas

Hi everyone!  I hope you all are doing fab today.  I just wanted to pop in and share a canvas that I just created for a fundraiser.

I didn't have anything in my inventory that I thought would have a broad enough appeal for the auction so I created this beauty.

This is a large 18"x24" canvas that I upcycled.  It was actually a mass produced canvas for a children's room.

To repurpose, I applied several layers of gesso, then book text wrapping paper from the dollar section of Target.  After that I began adding color.  I only had 24hrs notice so I went for my favorite go to colors.

I was inspired by Lenny Kravitz' Fly Away so I wanted to create something with dragonflies but as I was searching through photos, I came across a beautiful pic of monarchs.

So at that point my vision changed to these lovely monarchs.

Here's a closer look at the finished butterflies.

I found the PERFECT quote: Blessed are they that see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing... Camille Pissaro.

What a great artist quote right.  I absolutely LOVE it!

I'm super happy with the way this turned out.  I hope you like it too!  Thank you for stopping by :D

Update!
The original sold at the auction but you can get an art print here: Monarchs

Work Your Art

Happy Sunday everybody!!  We just came back from a frigid camping trip.  It was so cold and I super happy to be home.  Anyway I just wanted to share a few pics from our trip and share some exciting news.

Our first night out the temperature dropped down to 29 and then dipped to 22 the second night.

This is my son competing in a scout obstacle course :D  Okay back on the art front, I'm very excited to share an interview that I did with Work Your Art.  I hope you'll stop back and check it out.  Alright guys, I'm super tired so I'm chillax for a bit.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!

Dia De Los Muertos Sacred Heart Shrine

Hey there, I hope you are having a fantastic day!  I wanted to share one of the nichos I recently created.  Nichos are small shadow boxes usually made of wood or tin.  They originated as a take on the Roman Catholic retablo tradition of painting saints.   So nichos are little shrines or mixed media assemblage pieces.  I really love working on these little guys and sometimes create my own out of cardboard and found objects.

So back in November during el Dia De Los Muetos, my husband and I did a little shopping in between all the festivals/celebrations downtown and I found these awesome tin nichos.

These are authentic tin shrines from Mexico.  I knew right away that they were PERFECT for my art.

I bought them all and then they sat in stash til recently.  I finally got around to working on them and I'm loving these little treasures.

The outside is painted and then I drew the flowers.  Next I added bling and the inside features a copy of my original canvas entitled Bendita Mujer.

I've created two more that I'll be sharing soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by, letting me know if you have any questions about my process or the products I used.

Take Care!!

Muertos Tag: Paper Wings Productions Anything Goes Linky Party

Happy Friday!  Today I'm playing along with my friends over at Paper Wings Productions.  This year they've added Linky Parties so we'll have a chance to share our Paper Wings Productions creations on their blog.  This month's theme is Anything Goes so I pulled out my favorite PWP stamps and got to work.

I've been trying to reorganize my studio lately and one thing that has become abundantly clear is that I really need to use up my scraps.  So almost everything I used is from my scraps stash.  This tag was in my drawer.  It was a failed PWP design team project but I thought you what, it'll work for a mixed media tag.  It already had the beautiful yellow and pink inks and stamped papel picado from the Dia De Los Muertos Hombre stamp set.

I grabbed the Liquitex Glass Beads just because I hadn't used them in awhile.  All I did was spread it over the tag with a pallet knife.  Then I added some fusible webbing that was left over from the Fall Nesting Components kit.  After all glass beads medium dried I started layering and completely forgot to take progress pics, sorry.

The next step was creating the heart. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil to guide me a bit.  I added three rows of the roses also found on the Dia De Los Muertos Hombre stamp set.  I actually embossed the roses with fine detail black embossing powder.  I wanted to continue with the textural feel of the tag.  I added a bit of color to the roses with Dylusions inks.  I applied the ink with a water brush.  Then I outlined the heart with Liquitex ink.

The honeycomb pattern is the sticker outline from one of the very first Paper Wings mixed media kits.

I used a mask to arrange the muertos close together and colored them in with Distress Markers.  I fussy cut them and then just slipped them in.

I also added some found jewelry, patterned paper scraps, leaves, roses and ribbon.

The heart up top is actually an earring, pretty cool right.  The stud is going through the hole in the tag and the chain is connected to the earring's backing.  Well thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll join the Paper Wings Linky Party too!  Here is the link:  Anything Goes Link Up Party.  One lucky participant will win a $25 gift certificate so go get linked up!! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!  I hope your year is off to a fantastic start.  I'd like to THANK YOU you all for an AWESOME 2014.  It was a truly AH-MAZING year filled with wonderful friendships and inspiration.

This year my goal is to create a minimum of three new canvases a month.  Much more than the 23 produced last year.  Are you setting a new goals for the new year?  Whatever you decide to do, do it with all your heart.  Follow your passions in 2015 and above all, stay true to yourself.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the new year brings :D

Thank you for stopping by, take care!!!