Flashback Friday

Hello Again,

I wanted to share a Flashback of a project I did a little while ago. I have mentioned my unknown fascination with using butterflies in my work but this one was done a little differently.

This was a wooden 4x6 frame that I picked up at the local thrift store for $1. I thought I would try and see what would happen if I didn`t use a canvas and just the glass with paper and Gel Medium. I let it dry and it gave this beautiful texture and weathered look. I adhered some different embellishments including paper flowers, fabric flowers, twine, buttons and metal embellishments from my stash. I painted everything with Liquitex White Acrylic Paint. After that dried I used some Adirondack Alcohol Inks in Stream, Sunshine Yellow, and Magenta. I love the effect the inks give and how they make it look like watercolour. I decided I would do something a little different and recycle a piece of packaging from the alcohol inks. I used Stazon Black Ink and my Martha Stewart Butterfly Rubber Stamp and stamped on the plastic packaging. As soon as it dried I used my small, sharp scissors and cut it out. I bent the wings at the body and adhered it too the center of the frame.

 I love how happy and colourful it looks. I am definitely going to use these colours again soon together on a project.  Hope you enjoy it! Feel free to leave any questions or comments below. Have a great day!

-CreativelyMixed

Dream

Good Evening,

I am sharing a quick little frame I created today. I was inspired by the weather outside as its always a great place to find inspiration. Its one of my favourite places to be. The day started as a bright sunny morning then became a bit gray. The as the sunset the clouds moved to the side and it was a beautiful sky. Here is a picture of it just so you can see a little bit of what I mean.

I decided to do a small 4x6 Frame. I stared with a 4x6 canvas board and used a smaller piece of a computer memory for some texture to start. I continued layering with different fabric and paper flowers, metal embellishments, a small frame, and other embellishments. After I was happy with the placement I placed the canvas board in the frame and covered the entire thing (frame and all. The frame was black originally) with a good layer of White Gesso. I played the waiting game again and waited for the Gesso to dry and began painting with some Liquitex White Acrylic Paint, Martha Stewart Mother of Pearl and Craftsmart Tide Pool Acrylic Paint. I blended the colours together to create a softer feel but still was not quite happy with it. I looked through my paint collection and found a FolkArt Metallic Ice Blue Acrylic paint and thought why not. It matched perfect. I finished off with accenting the edges of the embellishments and frame with Martha Stewart Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint. I was loving it at this point. I felt like I was in such a day-dreamy mood for the good part of the day and felt the colours were so soft and dream-like I rummaged through my wood veeners and found the word `Dream`. Perfect. I painted it using the same gold paint and adhered it with Gel Medium and was done.

I am very pleased with how it turned out and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. Thank you again for looking! Have a great night :)

-CreativelyMixed

Chirp

Good Morning!

I am going to share a small piece I did for a expecting mom friend of mine. She is due in 2 weeks and I can not wait to meet her little bundle of joy. She is so happy to be having a spring baby and it is the perfect excuse to make baby sized and themed things. YAY!

With the beautiful fresh spring air here I opened all the windows in my apartment and all I can see when I look out at our yard are the Robins looking for worms. It immediately inspired me to make this cute little Robins egg baby shoe.

I bought a pair of used girls shoes and went home to make what I envisioned. I started by ripping the bow off and covering the shoe with strips of paper from an old book and Gel Medium. Once that dried I cut a piece of cardboard to fit in the heel of the shoe and covered it with fake moss. I cut a small piece of fence from a Miniatures stash. The eggs are clay that I shaped and baked to harden. Once cooled I painted with a Robin Egg blue paint. Mixed to make the appropriate colour. I glued everything in place with some fabric flowers. The fake grass is from the same bouquet as the fabic flower. It was still missing something so I used some lace and pleated it to the same spot as where the bow was. I used the same ribbon to make a little rosette. I love how it turned out and I hope my friend does too for the baby room.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. I hope you enjoyed!

-CreativelyMixed

Kaila

Hello Creatives,

Today I am going to share a small piece I created for my good friend Kaila. This is one of my favourite pictures of her as it is an unplanned photo. My favourite always. Anyways she does not yet know that I have made this for her and I really do hope she likes it.

This is the final piece. I have it in a simple black frame as it is busy enough.

I started with a 5x7 Canvas board. I adhered many layers of lace, letters and embellishments. Then I added the letters which actually spell out her name. I continued to add some other metal embellishments from my stash along with some paper flowers. Once i was happy with the placement around the photo I adhered them all to the canvas board with Gel Medium and waited for it to dry. Once dry I covered all the embellishments with white Gesso. Again once that was dry I used  some acrylic paint by Martha Stewart in Black Nickel Metallic, Mother of Pearl and CraftSmart Tide Pool acrylic paint.

I am pleased with the final product as I hope she is. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below. Thanks for looking!

-CreativelyMixed

Oh Joy!

The Joy of Creating Art!

Hello Lovely Creatives,

I am again sharing a piece I created a week or so ago. I have been into this turquoise blue colour for some reason this spring and I am not complaining. I just love the calmness that the colour makes me feel. You always need to create what you feel. It creates the most interesting artwork!

This is again a 5x7 frame. I have a few old paint brushes that I neglected a little to long after use (we are all guilty of this sometimes. Am I right?) so I decided instead of throwing them out I would repurpose them into something awesome!

I have seen a few ideas online of altered paintbrushes and I really like the idea. The frame stayed the way it was when I got it from Goodwill only I painted it with Martha Stewart Metallic Gold acrylic paint. I covered the glass with scrap pieces paper from an old book. I adhered it to the glass with Gel Medium and it gave it a neat texture and I really like it. Its simple. Next it was time to have fun with the paint brush itself.

I used some Gel Medium to adhere some scrap pieces of ribbon, lace and trim from my stash. I also used some paper flowers I got from the discount bin at Michaels (15 cents for 9 flowers) and some of my other stashed flowers from random bouquets. After I was happy with the basic layout I covered the entire thing with white Gesso and used Adirondack Ink and Martha Stewart Metallic Gold acrylic paint to add some colour. Once again when I was pleased with the look I attached the paintbrush to the frame using Gel Medium and a few dabs of hot glue. Once everything was dry it was time to add the final touches. I added a few final metal embellishments, buttons and flowers, along with the butterfly cut out with my Cricut Create. I used a piece of laser cut wood veener that I purchased in a pack from Michaels as well that said 'Joy'. I coloured it using the alcohol ink too. It was also adhered using Gel Medium and a few dabs of hot glue.

I hope you enjoy the piece. It currently makes me very happy and inspired every time I look at it. Please leave any questions or comments below. They are always appreciated :)

-CreativelyMixed

Reminder

Hello Fellow Creatives,

Today I am going to share a piece I did a few weeks ago that is sitting proudly in my craft room.

I don't quite know why but I am a little obsessed with butterflies in my art pieces. Something about the detail in the wings has always fascinated me. This piece obviously includes a giant butterfly.

This started out as a simple piece. As I worked on it more and more slowly I began to see what it was I wanted to create. I used a small 2x2 canvas to start. I covered it using some old random letters from different sets that just don't get used (Wish I had more places to use Z and Q. So many wasted letters...) After I covered the letters using some white Gesso. Once that was done and set aside I started rummaging through my stash and grabbed the little glass corked bottle. I knew I wanted to do something with it at this point but wasn't sure quite what just yet. I saw this butterfly in my stash too and thought nahh but it was for some reason calling me to use it. So The bottle became the body. But it still was missing something. So I looked at my inks. Nah. Paints. Nah. Beads. Nah. RIBBON. NAH. Then BAM. A stamped sentiment in the bottle. Like a message in a bottle. But instead of being a secret message it was going to be some for everyone to share in. So I dug out my 'Do one thing everyday that makes you happy' stamp and voila!

I used my Adirondack Ink in STREAM blue and had some fun. I adhered everything to a 5x7 canvas board and found a simple frame to frame it in. I painted the frame with Acrylic Paint by Martha Stewart in Mother of Pearl.

This is the final piece. I hope you enjoy! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.

-CreativelyMixed
  

Cherish Time

Hello!

I have been enjoying this beautiful spring weather we have been having here in Canada, and it has been inspiring me to create all sorts of wonderful Mixed Media projects.

Today I am going to share a new addition to my art collection and a new favourite of mine. It is an altered clock from the dollar store! That's right! The Dollar store. I dug out a few pieces from my collection but tried to use mainly the pieces from the clock itself.

I started first by taking the clock apart carefully then reassembling it without the guts. I then found some of my larger recycled gear pieces from my stash and adhered them to the front using some gel medium. After it dried I covered everything in white Gesso. It looked like this at that point.

After the Gesso dried I used some scraps of lace & trim to add some dimension to the sides of the clock. After that dried I again covered it with a layer of Gesso. Once all the layers were dry I added one last layer of acrylic paint. I used Martha Stewarts Black Nickel Metallic Paint and Folk Art Emerald Green Metallic to give it the colour I was looking for. Once that final layer was dry I adhered the arrows from the original clock and painted them the same Emerald Green. I also used a piece of laser cut wood veener I got at Michaels in a 4 pack. I also painted it with the Emerald Green paint. I felt something was still missing so I peeked into one of my many piles and immediately saw this knob from an old CD player and thought it would make the perfect something, something on top. So it got painted with the Green also and adhered with Gel Medium.

This is the final result! I hope you like it as much as I do. It will be a lovely reminder to cherish time as it goes so quickly.

 If you have any questions feel free to leave them or any comments are always appreciated.

-CreativelyMixed