The Queen of Ever'thang

Hello and Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you are all taking good care of yourselves today and being taken good care of whether you're a mother to children, pets, your plants, whatever.  It's YOUR day!

As is our custom, my daughter and I are spending the weekend at my mother's house (remember the wonderful English cottage garden?  You can see it here.) and are having a wonderful time.  We went "thrifting" and antiquing yesterday (jackpot!), and then last night we saw Johnny Rodriguez in concert.  This little town sure has some big names coming through.  Granted, he's from a different era (my generation as opposed to the NOW generation), but nevertheless, he's one of the biggies.

And now to the project at hand, the one I couldn't share any earlier because my mother reads my blog every day.  Sorry, Mom.  :)

What do you think?  It's the second time I've painted on a mixed media canvas (the first time was here), and I'm quite enjoying it.  It is my goal to paint roses in a decorative fashion (as opposed to a realistic fashion), and I'm starting to feel more comfortable doing so.  

There is a lot of symbolism on this piece, starting with the music notes I stamped onto the colored base layer (I used Neocolors this time).  They're ever so faint, but music is a big part of my mother's life.  Country music from the good old days, not that modern stuff that passes for "country" nowadays.  It plays all day in her house. 

Flowers are another biggie as evidenced by her fabulous garden.  She grows so many kinds of roses, both modern hybrid teas and fragrant antiques.  I have normally given her plants every year for Mother's Day - it was a big tradition for me while she was building her garden.  Roses, hostas, you name it, I probably gave it to her; however, she doesn't do the heavy, hard planting anymore and instead is directing her attentions towards her art, so this year will be the first without a live plant.  Instead, she gets the painted rose which will bloom forever.

 As a side note, I used to grow a very similar rose.  It was a modern hybrid tea and I don't remember the name, but here is a picture which looks exactly like it.  Alas, it was too finicky and no longer resides in my garden.

Two of the digital stamps are from Gecko Galz, and I honestly can't link directly to them because I think they were freebies that Leanne gave to us at the retreat (referenced here), but you could always contact Leanne through the Gecko Galz site (here) to see if she does have them for sale.  I LOVE these images, especially the woman's face, both of which are perfect for Mother's Day.  The "Mother" word has a crown on it because, as today's title states, my mother is the queen of everything.

I added a bit of blush and lipstick with Copics as my mother never EVER leaves the house without her makeup on.  I should be so dedicated.  And the wooden butterfly was painted with shimmer paints to match the rose.  Butterflies are thick as thieves in her gardens.

This soft, vintage image is part of a free collage set that you can obtain over at The Graphics Fairy.  It was designed by my friend Heather Hudson and is featured on her painted canvas blog post here.  It's perfect because my mother had two children, me and my sister.  

By the way, all images were printed onto tissue paper for that soft, see-through effect.  I love how you can see some of the background stamping through them. Card stock is just too thick and heavy for my purposes.

The words "my friend" were printed from my computer, also on tissue paper, and edged with Stickles.

When I had all of the painting done and the images decoupaged, I knew this piece needed something else, something 3-D, and definitely something dangly.  My mother almost never makes a piece of art that something isn't dangling from it somewhere.  So Mom, here are some danglies for you.  At first I thought I'd do a "necklace" but I didn't want to cover the lady's face with it, so then I played around with the vintage chain and it struck me - a charm bracelet!  The first charm is a frog because my mother used to collect frogs, but some years ago she said, "NO MORE FROGS."  Sorry Mom, just one more.  The flower charm of course symbolizes her extensive flower gardens.

Next come the scissors for the woman who sewed nearly all of my clothes as a child.  She also made some of the most fabulous quilts you've ever seen, many of which grace my home.

And of course a heart.  She puts at least one heart on every single project she makes, whether it's quilts, mosaics, paintings, etc.  I don't think I've ever seen her make something that didn't contain at least one heart, if not more.  Because of her, I ♥ hearts.

I made the centerpiece and in-between charms with my various pearls and beads.  The little key (another heart!) was silver but I colored it with a copper Copic marker.  I rarely use silver, and copper looked better.  My mother has always collected keys ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper.  And last but certainly not least, the flamingo.  Why?  Because a few years ago I said I was going to put a flamingo in my front yard for a little bit of tacky fun, and being who she is, my mother made me a huge one, mosaiced in pink and sporting a stylish ceramic bow on her neck.  You can visit Fanny the Flamingo here.  I am now known as "the house on the corner with the flamingo in the front yard."  I truly think this is the ONLY cool yard flamingo out there - nothing tacky about this one.

I will be entering this piece in the Gecko Galz challenge which is all about Mother's Day, and also in the Frilly and Funky challenge which is to use a single word as a focal point.  Hopefully this one qualifies!

So thank you for joining me today - it was long but, well, that's how I roll.  I'm chatty.  And I like lots of pictures.  Here's wishing all you moms out there the most wonderful day that's focused on YOU!  And for my own mother?

I ♥ you, Mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

P.S.  I was on a rose painting roll, and I had a tiny 1" wooden heart, so I painted it for my daughter.  It looked fine until I saw the close up photo.  Clearly I need to work on my vine painting.  I know she'll love it regardless.

Blue Green Mixed Canvas

Hello!

Today's project is yep, another canvas.  Actually I've had this one in the wings for a while waiting for a good time to share it.

There are quite a few types of media and techniques used here as I explore and try to find a style.  Who knows, maybe I don't HAVE a style because I haven't found a particular one yet!  I've used stamping on tissue (the ferns which are mostly covered up), molding paste put through a chicken wire stencil, decoupage and 3-D pieces pressed into more molding paste.  Then everything is painted with one of the most gorgeous paints with which I've ever had the pleasure to work, that being Lumieres Halo Blue Gold.  It goes on blue and green, and the more you brush it, the more gold appears.

Paper roses, smaller paper flowers, glass flower beads, a glass star bead and a metal bee pin are all placed in a mound of molding paste.  Pearls are sprinkled here and there and everything is painted with the blue/green paint.

A chipboard flourish, more glass flower beads and pearls, and a resin flower.  I've used blue Stickles for the bits of sparkle here and there throughout.

The hearts were cut from book pages and shaded with a charcoal pencil.

These letters are outlined with a gold paint pen.

All of the dimensional pieces, once painted with the blue/green metallic paint, were also rubbed with gold Rub 'N' Buff.  It really makes the dimensional pieces stand out further.

Thank you lovely readers for joining me today on my journey to figure out what I want to do with mixed media.  It truly is an exciting art form which encourages one's imagination to let loose!

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes
Crafts and Me #139 - Anything Goes
Pile It On #30 - Anything Goes
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
613 Ave. Create #30 - Anything Goes

Time To Shine

Hello!

Today's project isn't a card.  I'm taking a tiny break from cards because the urge to put stuff to other surfaces is too much to ignore.  There is SO much inspiration out there in blogland, so I thought I'd try my hand at it.  And here is the result - a 5x7 canvas board that I thought might make a nice, colorful decoration somewhere.

And colorful it is.  I love color, and lots of it.  I've only used three acrylic colors on the base, but I more than made up for it with the decorations.  Every single flower started out another color but was painted with Creative Inspirations shimmer paints to suit my tastes.  And the frame...well, I'll get to that in a bit.  And I'll let the pics do most of the talking this time.

Bits of gold embossing sprinkled about.

The stamps are from the Inspired By Stamping store, Paris for the clock with Eiffel Tower, and French Country Backgrounds for the faint bits of chicken wire pattern that you can see here and there.  I embossed the clock with black embossing powder to make it stand out.

Lots of color and texture.  The small clock is wood.

A tiny prize in a Christmas cracker.

This little frame started out bright silver.  I think it was the prize in an English Christmas cracker several years ago and has been floating around the house ever since, too small to use but too cute to discard.  So glad I didn't.

I gessoed it and then coated it with several layers of shimmer paints.  The flowers and leaves were colored with Copics then accented with more shimmer paints.  Black ink was sponged over all, then wiped off, leaving the colors dulled down a bit.

Sweet little birdie.

Thank you for stopping by today, and I hope you, too, take a notion to do some crafting.  I have to let the smell of E6000 filter out of my craft room before I go back in, but I can hardly wait to try the next project!

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:

Stampotique Designers Challenge #105 - Anything But a Card
Oozak #16 - Anything Goes w/a Sentiment
Creative Card Crew #38 - Metal
Divas By Design - Distressing
Sugar Creek Hollow #63 - Mixed Media
Eclectic Ellapu - Summer Sunshine