Brush Strokes

---

I love paint brushes!  I have well more than I need and generally pick the same old favorites to create with, while others are simply 'bench warmers'.  One evening, after working many long hours on a canvas and feeling a bit punchy, I gave a third stringer a chance after I thought I heard it say, 'Put me in coach, I'm ready to play'!  Ah yes, everyone loves those uplifting sports stories where the underdog finally gets a shot at the big time, wows the crowd AND gets the girl!  This, however, is not one of those stories... Yes, that's right, this young newbie paintbrush lost it!  Lost it big time, coughing up bristles all over my wet canvas!

Newbie couldn't cut it as a player, but guess what, he got a second chance!  In all his technicolor glory, Newbie became the leading actor in my new canvas, "Brush Strokes"!  Don't you just love happy endings!

I started with applying white gesso to three 4" x 5" mini canvases.  I wanted to build up layers, so I began with modeling paste through stencils, drywall tape and yarn, followed by cardboard, string, thread, cheesecloth and torn pieces of a teabag. I add a little more interest with a script stamp and Sepia Archival ink. Art stones and mini art stones were the last base items added prior to beginning my monochromatic background tones. 

I sprayed, misted and dropped dots of several colors in the the Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst spray line and in Prima's Color Bloom Spray Mists.  After achieving the color effect I wanted, I set my canvases aside to work on the focal brush.

I often work in monochromatic and neutral tones, but I must say, painting the brush in it's vivid colors was like going to a party:  I need to get out more, color-wise! I started painting the bristles first, those troublemakers I mentioned earlier, and then I worked down the brush handle, merging one color into the next.  I finished by splattering paint on the brush...and myself and my workbench and my stool which I also sat in.  Like I said, it was a Party!

Gluing the brush onto the three prepared canvas secured them together.  I added some accent around the brush with bronze micro beads.  The canvases were then wired onto a metal rack I had picked up at a thrift store.  

Lastly, the final touches:  the letters for the phrase Brush Strokes and two additional 'aged' brushes, all of which, after being altered, were wired to the background rack.

The wood letters were gessoed and triple-emblossed in the following order -  First: clear distress ink and Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder; Second: Vintage Photo Distress ink and clear embossing powder; and Third: Black Soot Distress ink and a mix of clear and gold embossing powder.

The two 'aged'  brushes began as brand new, shiny-white dollar store brushes.  I applied white gesso followed by Lindy's Steampunk Sepia Starburst spray and gave the handles a blistered finish with the heat gun.  I dabbed some of my homemade rust paste on the ferrules of the brushes and painted a heavy coat of DecoArt Media's Crackle Glaze onto the handles, leaving it to dry overnight.  The next day, I sandpapered some of the glossy finish off the crackle glaze and coated the brush handles in antiquing cream, wiping off the excess with a soft cloth.  I was happy with the result of the aging process, especially the fabulous deep crackle of these two brushes in contrast to the colorful focal brush - our rising star, "Newbie".

Smiles all!

Leslie

Product List

Prima Art Basics:  Modeling Paste, 3D Gloss Gel; Prima Color Bloom Spray Mists: Frost, Worn Leather; Prima Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint Metalliques: Fresh Orange, Emerald Green, Rusty Red; Prima Art Ingredients: Art Stones, Mini Art Stones, Micro Beads Bronze; Prima Cling Stamp: So Happy Memories with You.

Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays: Clam Bake Beige, Steampunk Sepia, Creme Brûlée Creme, Down The Rabbit Hole.

Ranger Dylusion Paint: Fresh Lime, Lemon Zest; Ranger Distress Inks: Clear, Vintage Photo, Black Soot; Ranger Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder; Ranger Dylusions Stencil: Black Diamonds.

DecoArt Media: Crackle Glaze, Raw Umber Antiquing Cream, Titanium White Antiquing Cream

TCW: Mini "Art Is" Stencil

Folk Art Acrylic Color Shift Paint: Pink Flash; Blue Flash

4" x 5" canvases, white gesso, string, thread, yarn, cheesecloth, teabag, wire, paintbrushes, drywall tape, cardboard, metal rack, gold wire, clear embossing powder, gold embossing powder

---

I will be entering this canvas in the Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo February Challenge - BRUSH! 

I also would like to enter the Stamps & Stencils Challenge: Texture, Crackle and Paint

And lastly, the February Challenge at Creative Embellishments, spreading my love for art!

Space Junk Galaxy

First load of laundry for 2017, washed and dried.  Fascinating blog beginning, no?  

I have a purpose for telling you about this laundry room chore, however.  You see, one sock did not make it back from this domestic journey.  Just like that - Vanished!  

Not one clue, other than possible evidence in the lint trap. Forensic results: Inconclusive.  Lint trap remains may be from the lucky survivor, sock 1, who has no memory of events following the spin cycle.  Is sock 2 in an endless spin cycle in another dimension?  Endlessly circling in a black void with lost keys, earrings, buttons and various other doodads that have been reported missing?  I believe so!

You could say my theory is supported by a Popular Science article featuring a website developed by a brilliant young man named James Yoder who has established the stuffin.space website.  Check it out, it's super cool. 

Speaking of SUPER COOL, I am honored and delighted to report that I was invited to be a Pinworthy Guest  on the wonderful Vintage Journey website!  When I learned the challenge theme was "Going Round in Circles", I knew I would create a canvas in memorandum of all the mysterious missing objects in our lives.  

 That's right, I knew the time was right for... Space Junk Galaxy! 

---

In a 

Galaxy

Far, Far Away

I Began by Covering a Canvas

with black gesso.  I cut a spiral out of paper to use as my galaxy template and temporarily adhered it to the center.  I applied a light coat of texture paste inside the spiral pattern to use as my reference for adding my space junk.  The template was removed when the texture paste was fully dry and a coat of crackle paste was applied to the outside spiral outward to the canvas edges.  

Next up, adding all the goodies!  This took ages, but I do love picking through all my random bits and pieces and organizing them on a canvas.  Caught in this interstellar circle, you can see nuts and bolts; flowers, shells and screws; stars, wire, beads and buttons.   Many light years later, I applied black gesso to the entire loaded canvas.

My space background was painted next.  I started with Finnebair's Art Alchemy Metalliques in blues and purple and Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays in the same color scheme.  I splattered Lindy's Frozen Jack Frost for the stars.  

While the canvas was drying, I stenciled and textured on 4 wooden circles that would later be glued to the corners of my piece.  I painted the prepared circles in acrylic paint and added embellishments followed by Tim Holtz Rust Effect Distress Powder.  

The spiral of space junk was painted next in Finnebair's Art Alchemy Silver Spoon and highlighted with Pearl Ex Powder Pigment in Silver and Macro Pearl.

Before adding my circle 'gauges' to the canvas corners, I sprayed Finnebair's Art Stones with Lindy's Sprays off canvas.  After the stones had dried, I glued the stones, metallic thread and, that's right, sock yarn onto the canvas.  See, I think that was borderline genius...missing sock from the laundry...then sock yarn in space...Okay, maybe not genius, but...oh let's just move on, shall we?

I finished off my piece with adhering the gauges to the corners and adding rusted gears as a final touch.  

I hope you enjoyed Space Junk Galaxy and maybe even spied something you lost in the spinning circle.  I certainly had fun making it for the Vintage Journey Challenge as a Pinworthy Guest and would like to invite you to visit their site by clicking on the image below.  You will be so inspired by all the talent and inspiration of the Design Team and will want to visit their site again and again!

Supply List

Prima:  Art Extravagance Texture Paste - White Crackle; Art Basics Modeling Paste and 3D Transparent Gloss Gel; Finnebair's Art Alchemy Metalliques in Dark Velvet, Deep Waters, Rich Turquoise and Silver Spoon; Finnebair's Art Ingredients Art Sones and Mini Art Stones.

Lindy's Stamp Gang - Moonshadow Mist Sprays in Pegleg Pete Purple and Smoky Sapphire; Starburst Sprays in Afternoon Delight Denim, Tibetan Poppy Teal, Tiffany Lou Blue, Whale Watch Blue, Screamin' Banshee Black, Autumn Maple Crimson and Frozen Jack Frost.

Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments in Macro Pearl and Silver

The Crafters Workshop Stencils - Mini Geodesic and Mini Specimens

Rebecca Baer Stencil - Steampunk Clockface

Stampers Anonymous Stencil - Tim Holtz Schoolhouse

Ranger - Tim Holtz Distress Powder in Vintage Photo Rust Effect

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Clock Hands 

Black gesso, canvas, wooden circles, gears, found objects, metallic thread, sock yarn

Catching Snowflakes

Don't you just hate it when you misplace something?  Is it lost for good or can you just not find it at the moment?

I misplaced November.

I vaguely remember having it shortly before Thanksgiving, but that's the last I saw of it.  Now it is mid December, and I'm thinking maybe November 2016 is lost for good.

Not only that, but I have contracted a cold.  Not the 'common cold' variety, but something much more nefarious.  Far be it from me to do the 'common' thing.  This cold should have a name - something ten syllables long and unpronounceable.  

In case you missed it, everything you've read so far is a disclaimer for the rambling words to follow.  Here's one more - in an effort to clear my head, I am in a Salsa and Vicks VapoRub stupor.  Ah, yes.  Vicks VapoRub.  Awesome stuff which, according to the label, contains nutmeg and turpentine oil - much like my Grandma's fruitcake... How could this not drive out the cold banshee?

Speaking of nutmeg (were we? yes, we were) let's talk about Christmas (nutmeg, eggnog...you get the connection right?) 

I was formulating some ideas for a Christmas canvas when I noticed a page by the fabulous More Than Words website.  Their monthly challenge for December was Tradition and Handmade.  I love traditions and nostalgia and always incorporate a handmade embellishment into my mixed media, so I couldn't resist participating in this challenge.

Remembering traditions of my childhood, my canvas celebrates several annual yuletide memories: traveling into the mountains of Montana to pick out our Christmas tree, caroling (hence the sheet music) with a group of children from our church and making snow angels!  My handmade embellishment is a play-on-words - a snow angel herself, a guardian of snowflakes!

---

This canvas, Catching Snowflakes, is about tradition and the magic of a woodland Christmas.  I wanted to create a sense of stillness and peace in a winter forrest.  A place where a 'snow angel' catches snowflakes.

---

After applying white gesso to a blank canvas, I added a page of Christmas sheet music followed by a coat of clear gesso. To this layer, I adhered ribbon flowers. Texture was next.  I used a snowflake stencil with Frabrika Decor marble paste, Finnabair's Art Stones and White Crackle Medium and my recipe for faux snow.  I used this mix also in a plastic baggie to 'pipe' on the icicles.  I used Decort's antiquing cream in Raw Umber to accent the fissures in the crackle. (Crackle paste and antiquing cream were also used on the wood star in the upper left corner.) 

1) Canvas background includes Christmas sheet music, ribbon, texture paste and white crackle medium   2) Plastic baggie filled with 'snow' for piping icicles  3)  Clamps hold my 'snowy slope' (foam board) in place while gluing  4) Antiquing cream applied to accent crackle medium

Wintery colors were applied next followed by various add-ons like pinecones, dried flowers and hemp cord.

I love making my own embellishments for my art pieces.  My snow angel began with polymer clay, bake and painted.  I fashioned her blonde wavy hair from yarn and thread and her gown from muslin, modeling paste, paint and glitter.

1)  Modeling paste applied to a square of muslin  2)  Gown shaped and allowed to dry before painting  3)  Yarn and thread used to make angel's hair  4) Almost done...

Supplies

Prima:   Art Extravagance Texture Paste - White Crackle; Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint in Opal Magic Green Gold, Yellow Blue and Ancient Coin; Color Bloom Spray Mist in Frost; Art Ingredient Art Stones & Mini Art Stones; Art Basics Modeling Paste and 3D Transparent Gloss Gel

DecoArt:   Antiquing Cream in Raw Umber; Satin Varnish; Acrylic Paint in Snow White and Light Buttermilk

Fabrika Decor:   White Texture Paste with Marble Particles; Metallic Paint Olive

Shimmerz:   Vibez Spray in Don't Rain on My Parade

Pearl Ex:   Powder Pigment in Sunset Gold

White Gesso, Clear Gesso, Snowflake Stencil, Muslin fabric, polymer clay, yarn, white and gold glitter, sheet music, ribbon, hemp cord, star wood piece, buttons, dried flowers and pinecones 

Fright Night!

I LOVE Halloween!  Ever since I was a little kid and dressed in a hand-me-down Mighty Mouse costume, no doubt flammable in those days.  Then I graduated to the gypsy costume because my mom had old full skirts and beads and I could rouge my cheeks and put on lipstick.  Next was the vampire stage which lasted for more than one season, and I could still put on bright red lipstick plus the added bonus of plastic vampire teeth! I was fascinated by that set of fangs and it seemed like I would be Count Dracula forever...

But then, that fateful day when my mom dragged me to the fabric store to buy material for a groovy smock she was sewing for me. (The smock is another story entirely.) Anyway, nestled among the bolts of polyester and chintz was a rare beast I had not seen before: FAKE FUR!  Oh my, I was mesmerized by this Cousin It of the fabric family!  I negotiated with my mom (in other words, 'whined') and she relented into letting me take home a swatch of the long, black haired hide.  

Now, I wasn't willing to forego the fangs for fur, so, brilliant (haha) child that I was, I combined the two for a werewolf costume.  I use the term costume loosely, because by time October 31st rolled around in Montana, the body of the costume was most likely a snow coat. No worries, I was mainly concerned with my fur/fanged face.  

Logistics: how to adhere fake fur to your face??  I had no idea and pleaded with my solve-all mom to help.  She was also stumped, but finally came up with the idea to put peanut butter on my face in order to 'glue' on the fur.  And it worked!  I looked fabulously werewolf-y!  Out I ventured with my best friend and our pillowcases in search of some sweet loot.  But then, trouble!  As the temperature dropped, the peanut butter hardened and cracked.  I shed my fur like a shaggy dog, with only clumps hair stuck here and there in the cold, cracked lumpy peanut butter.  Yikes!  I remember one of the last houses we visited, the man who answered the door called his wife over saying, "I don't know what she is, but she sure has a scary face"!  

---

Here I am, many years older and still so excited about Halloween!  Of course, I had to do a Mixed Media Assemblage Canvas for this spooky season.  

I started with framing-in the sides of my canvas with stakes I'd bought at my local hardware store because I wanted to convey the feel of 'something wicked' on the verge of coming through a window or door. I textured the stakes with my homemade paste and used white crackle paste on the upper half of the canvas.  The texture in the lower half is done with torn paper strips and string.  Everything got a healthy dose of black gesso, with the upper half rubbed partially off with a baby wipe in order to conserve the crackle.

Next - assemblage.  I went through my bins of found objects (some of which is considered to be trash by the general public) and adhered all sorts of goodness, like gears and plastic skeleton bones, beads, caps, springs, screws, broken toy pieces and the infamous orange zipper.  While these goodies were drying, I began forming my polymer clay accessories.  To name a few, I created a voodoo doll, a jack-o-lantern, a scary bone fish (which I named Kyle, don't ask me why), eyeballs, and a hand digging out of his grave - ooooooooo!  After baking the clay, all the polymer pieces were painted with black gesso.  

I know I am not alone when I say clowns give me the creeps!!  So of course, that's the focal point of 'my nightmare'.  From Modge Podge, foil and torn paper, Mr. Twinkles came to be.  Then black gesso, crackle paint, acrylic paint, polymer clay and, yes, fake fur fine tuned him to all his glory.  I wanted my clown to have skeletal hands, but saved that clay challenge for last, as I was quite intimidated by modeling them.  Once they were formed and baked, the hands got the gesso- crackle-paint treatment.  Quite by accident, my gnarly tree came to be from the leftover paper mache torn paper.  I was wadding the strips of paper to throw out and noticed one almost looked like a branch.  I set to work twisting and turning the paper until my tree  (warning, bad pun ahead) 'took root'.

I loved (ok, love) hidden pictures!  It was THE favorite part of my childhood Highlights Magazine. So, in the phrase from the scary movie Saw, "Wanna play a game?"

Find:

2 monopoly houses, a zipper, a birthday candle, 10 items in a sewing basket, 8 cocktail forks and 8 hands!

“HAPPY HALLOWEEN! GET YOUR SPOOK ON!”

Supply List

Prima Art Alchemy Métalliques:  Deep Waters, Fresh Orange, Black Berry, Dark Velvet, Steampunk Copper, Ancient Coin. Lindy's Starburst Sprays:  Screaming Banshee Black, Black Orchid Silver, Bayou Boogie Gold, Opal Sea Oats.  Dylusions Ink Spray:  Ground Coffee.  Deco Art Americana Acrylic Paint:  Snow White, Light Buttermilk, Lamp Black.  Prima Art Basics:  Modeling Paste, 3D Gloss Gel, Texture Paste White Crackle. Prima Art Ingredients:  Art Stones, Mini Art Stones. Liquitex:  Black Gesso.  Ranger:  Inkssentials Glossy Accents.

I would like to enter Fright Night in the following challenges:

More than Words Challenge Ombre & Change (I changed, or 'altered', many items on this assemblage piece.)

A Vintage Journey Make It Spooky challenge.

More Mixed Media Challenge "Anything Goes" + Optional Orange.

Dream in Darkness Challenge #13:  31 Days of Halloween! 

Beneath The Rust in I Wonder Land

I like to live a very upbeat life, but the stress of seeing my sweet mom lost in the memory-robbed darkness of Alzheimer's disease can be overwhelming at times.  Art is my therapy on so many levels, one of which is the fact that my love for creating started at a very young age via my mom.

I remember a wonderful time with my mom.  She had read in one of her magazines (Family Circle? Women's Day? Better Homes and Garden?) about an art project to do with your child that involved melting crayons in a pan on the stovetop...

So, there was a fire...

Anyway, what a fond memory of rushing to the sink with flaming paper and trying to erase all evidence of smoke and ashes (and colorful melted wax everywhere) before my father got home!

Beneath the Rust in I Wonder Land

Isn't oxidation beautiful?  Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, the blues and greens of patina...  I wanted to create a piece that incorporated the colors of age; of rust in all it's beauty.  I also wanted to convey a sense of wonder, by taking a peak through the rusted 'break' in the wall at the mysterious machine beneath.

Stages of the canvas: Texturing, Assembling, Reassembling...

After applying black gesso to my canvas, I began adding texture.  There is a veritable banquet of texture on this piece. (Yes, that's right, I just wrote 'banquet of texture' - remember my art studio doubles as my kitchen.) Along with Prima's Art Basics Modeling Paste, I used about five or six different stencils including TCW's Mini Gears, Penny Black's Oscillations and Tim Holtz's Measured.  I applied Prima's Texture Paste White Crackle to the upper and lower sections of the canvas along with a heavy textured gesso concoction I mixed up to give the effect of corrosion.  I love the look of dry wall tape, so that went down the center of the piece. While this texture overload was drying, I tore some card stock into pieces to make my 'rusted broken barrier'. This also received a heavy application of my homemade textured gesso goop. I decided barbed wire would be a good addition, so a grabbed a coil of craft wire and began snipping and twisting until I fashioned my own version of mini barbed wire. 

And now for MORE fun!  I began building my machine.  There are a few purchased embellishments such as Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Pen Nibs, Kaisercrafts' Metal Padlock, Finnebair's Mini Art Stones, but, for the most part, my machine is made from orphaned parts and pieces.  Look and you'll see latte straws, a parmesan cheese lid, a bread bag clip, clock parts, electrical parts, bicycle chains, vintage lace and tool box treasures. (I was concerned that my usual choice of adhesive was not going to be up for the heavy metal challenge.  I researched and experimented with three different glue products and discovered that Weldbond is amazing.  I mean, this stuff is super strong, yet doesn't have that brain-cell-suffocating fumes of other permanent adhesives.)

Next up: Color!  This is my comfort zone palette and I used a mix of my favorites like Prima's Color Blooms in Cobalt, Tea Stain and Worn Leather; Ranger's Dylusions Black Marble & Melted Chocolate to mute tones in their vibrant Dirty Martini, London Blue, Postbox Red, Fresh Lime and Lemon Zest; Shimmerz Sprays in Tuscan Sun, Don't Be Suede and Don't Rain on my Parade; Tattered Angels Woven Burlap GM and Gold GM; Americana Acrylic Paint in Bittersweet Chocolate; and an ancient bottle of Creamcoat by Delta in Mocha Brown (I couldn't believe this old relic still had plenty of liquid-y life left in it!).

Paint, spray, dab, repeat. Repeat again.  I love, love, love making my own colors by mixing different paints; it is so fun pretending to be a 'Paint Mixologist'.  I created a huge puddle of my rust-mix and then kept adding a touch of this and a touch of that to bring out some subtle tone changes.  'Rusting' the brass padlock, key, chains, Prima's Screw Heads and the barbed wire was the final touch. 

Another memory was brought to the surface when I sat back and looked at the tones.  The shades at the top reminded me of a childhood adventure I was on with my parents in the mountains of Montana.  My dad took us to this rustic, abandoned mining camp/ghost town.  The area was richly colored in a coarse reddish sandstone with strands of green sandstone and shale  by Neihart quartzite, and was one of only three places in the world where it could be found.  The abundant mineral deposits including ore stained the earth and the water an array of colors.

I showed my project to my mom today and told her I've discovered I have a passion for rust.  She smiled and said, 'You've always been my funny girl.'  Love you Mom!

I would like to enter this piece into The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for September;  Rustic (and Rusted)!

I would also like to enter the Canvas Corp Brands September Challenge.  Their Tattered Angels spray in Woven Burlap and Gold were part of the 'cast of character in this canvas.

And, of course, the fabulous challenge MMW#19: Assemblage/Altered Art over at Mixed Media World!

Write here...