dreams...

Today's project is one that I made for Design Memory Craft's Earth Day Challenge. The challenge on the DMC Facebook page was to create upcycled mixed media projects using Faber Castell's products. This is one of those projects that kept changing and evolving. Originally I started out with this cool corrugated cardboard design that was from an Ikea dresser. I was going to create a honeycomb from it but it just wasn't working. So instead I ended up cutting letters from the cardboard box the dresser came in instead. I used tissue paper that was in the bottom of the kids Easter baskets to create texture on the canvas. The flowers were stamped on old pages from a book. And I used a toilet paper roll to stamp circles on the canvas. Ok, I guess that one might not count since the toilet paper roll itself isn't actually on the canvas.

To begin with I painted a 11 x 14 inch canvas with Kaisercrafts Lime and Spearmint acrylic paints. While it was still damp I layered on some ripped tissue paper and painted more paint over it. I sprayed some Midnight Blue Glimmer Mist and Pearl Glimmer Mist. I dripped some Northern Lights Glimmer Glaze down it. I smudged some True Navy acrylic paints on it. I splashed it with White acrylic paint. And finally I painted the edge of a toilet paper roll in white and stamped it onto the canvas. I played around with techniques, got my hands dirty and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! 

The next step was to paint some old pages from a book with Gesso and stamped Stampendous Jumbo Hydrangea stamp on them. The gesso softens the text slightly and creates the perfect surface for the coloring with the Faber Castell Stampers Big Brushes. If I get a chance I really want to make a video tutorial for creating these flowers. SO easy! I just kept scribbling on colors with the markers and then going in with a damp paintbrush and swirling the paint around. After it was dry, I would go in with another color. To finish the flowers off I added glitter to the centers to give it some sparkle. 

I used Mod Podge to adhere the flowers to canvas and seal in that glitter. When the Mod Podge dried I went in with a White Sharpie and scribbled some lines around the flowers. 

I die cut the Kreaxions Butterfly Die from Shrink Plastic. Right before shrinking it I added a bit of color with the Big Brush Markers. A little trick that a friend told me...rub an antistatic pouch like Scraperfect over the Shrink Plastic to prevent it from sticking to itself as it shrinks and curls. (it worked! thanks Pam!)

I traced some old Making Memories clear acrylic letters onto cardboard and cut them out. I peeled bits and pieces off the cardboard to reveal the grooves of the corrugation. I rubbed on some gesso and then added some color to the gessoed areas with the Big Brush Markers. 

You can see the texture that the tissue paper gives in this photo...

All that was left to do was add journaling. I wanted a whimsical handlettered feel to the quote. I found a cool font on Dafont, printed out my quote on scrap paper, scribbled on the back of the paper with pencil and used that to trace my letters onto my canvas. I finally went in with a black marker to finish up the letters.