Trust - Mixed Media Paper Mache Heart

Wow, it's Wednesday already?!  Yikes, the week is flying by!!  I hope you all are having a wonderful week so far.  As I mentioned yesterday, I had a chance to work on another paper mache heart over the weekend.  So this makes II in my Heart Series:

My inspiration for this heart came from another project I've done recently.  (I'll share that one soon)

I started by layering book text, then adding fluid acrylics and 3-D Enamel flourishes.  I really love adding them to my projects ;D

Next I drew and painted her in.  I really had fun creating all those beautiful curls.  It's funny because when I draw a person my husband always asks "who is that".  I don't draw with anyone in mind but I do add a couple of my features.  So all of my "ladies" will always have a mole under their nose and full lips like me. ;D (granted I make their lips much larger, lol).

I've been in need of some meditation lately so her closed eyes and the sentiment I chose reflect that.  My work is always a reflection of who I am, what I'm feeling and the colors of my soul at the time.

I hope you liked the second installment of this series.  If you missed the first one, you can check it out HERE.  I'm entering this project in the Simon Says Stamp & Show - Absolutely Anything Goes Challenge.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your sweet comments!  May your day be beautiful and filled with inspiration!!

Beauty - Mixed Media

Hello, Hello!  I hope you all are having a fabulous week!  So far mine is going great, we've been enjoying Spring Break with family but I did manage to fit in a little studio time.  I've also been adding items to my Etsy store daily and connecting with my local artist community (which is very exciting for me).  This week I was also featured on Dawn Herring's JournalChat over on Twitter, so that was extremely cool.  I feel like it's definitely been a great week so far and I have so much to be grateful for!!

Okay so onto to some art!  

I just finished up this 12x12 canvas and have been itching to share it with you:

I started working on this one about a week ago but really hadn't had the time to sit down and finish until last night.

If you follow me on FB, then you've seen this one coming along.  I started out by adding the swirls with crackle paste and a stencil, then transferring the image with gel medium.

Because there was already a lot of texture on the canvas from the stencil, the eyes and hair didn't transfer well.  So I decided to give her a beautiful butterfly mask and long dark brown hair.

From there she sprang to life and her message fell into place: 

Dare to Dream,

 Beloved All Natural Beauty, 

Forever Believe

I'm very happy with the way she turned out and I think I'm going to make artist prints of this one.  I've been researching how to make prints and I think this would be a perfect canvas to try it on.  Either way, this "Beauty" will be available on Etsy starting tomorrow.

I've got some other exciting news to share soon, so keep an eye & ear out!  I really want to THANK all of you for all of your kind and encouraging words.  They really mean the world to me and I am so grateful to have this forum to share my love of art with you.  Have a wonderful day & from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU!!!

Royal Tag

Hey there my creative peoples!!  I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was jam packed with birthday celebrations.  We celebrated my DH's birthday and another very special birthday.  You see my DH and our sweet grand daughter share the same birthday.  I did manage to work in some crafty time.  I started several projects but they're being a little temperamental  lol.  So I decided to dig into my stash of unfinished tags and put this together:

The card is from my haul of vintage items that I shared with you on Friday and everything else is either from my stash or scrap bin.  I always love when I can use up some of the scraps on my desk or something that has been in my stash for a long time.  I'm just a few things away from being on hoarders, lol!

See the white and red embossed heart behind the king?  That is from a scrap that I've been holding onto for around six years, lol, see what I mean......hoarding, lol.

I used a piece of zipper for the loop up top, some jute twine (love this stuff), a metal star (miniature Christmas ornament), a pin and a Prima charm.

The sentiment I used is by Autumn Leaves, Rhonna Farrer - Gypsy Style 2 and the heart chip is a Creative Imaginations sticker.

I mixed in some muslin and scraps of white washed corrugated cardboard.

I really like all the texture and dimension I ended up with on this one.  Now if I can just get my other projects worked out I'll be golden.  Well friends if you were lucky enough to get an extended weekend,  I hope you enjoy your day off.  If you had to go back to the grind, I hope you day passes fast and smooth.

I'd like to send a shout out to my newest bloggie friend: Francine Schneider!  Welcome Francine, I'm so happy to have you joining me here in blogland!!!

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments & Have a Beautiful Day!!!

An Evening to Remember

Happy Friday, Woot Woot, Let the Weekend Begin!!

Thanks so much for all you comments on our Halloween costumes.  We always dress up but I think this year's costumes were my all time favorite.  They really suited us, lol.  

Next week is our wedding anniversary so I think I'm gonna take you down our memory lane and share some layouts featuring my honey & I.  What do you think, YAY ot NAY?!  Here is today's lovey dovey layout:

This was at least 14 years ago.  My DH use to work for the Chamber of Commerce so we got to go to so many fun events.  I loved getting to go out and buy fancy new dresses for the black tie affairs.  This event was at the Marriot Riverwalk hotel and he surprised me with a suite.  When we went up to the room he had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting for us.  It was a really great night ;D

The beautiful paper I used is by Creative Imaginations and I really didn't have to do much to it.  I used a foam rose stamp with some silver paint to add a couple of roses.  Then I used my Cricut for the hearts and title.  A little ribbon, rubons, a button and some journaling and wha la, done!

Thank you so much for joining me today!  I also wanna send out a BIG WARM WELCOME to Denise! Thanks so much for following along Denise!!

Have a wonderful weekend, I might be back a little later with a PWP project (maybe, hehehe)!  If my project gets posted, I'll let you know ;D

Keep True

This canvas really stumped me!  I started out good but then just hit a wall, I think it may have to do with the color.  I know they say purple is the color of creativity but I'm not a purple girl.  Even though I don't like the color, I challenge myself to use it.  I'm hoping to have a creative purple break through one of these days, lol.  Well, this is what I came up with, I'd love to hear what you think:

The quote came from a BoBunny Marrakesh Die Cut that I've had for years.

The winged image is a rubon from Creative Imaginations & the lettering is done with Higgins Black Magic.

I used Gesso to stencil the frames and then again to stamp the circles

The base coat is Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic in Prism Violet blended with Holbein Gouache in Magenta.  I also used masking tape and specialty scrapbook paper.