It's the first of the month so it's Challenge time over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog and I am so happy to be posting my first project as a mix it up girl. So here is how it works... every month we will host a challenge, you are free to create anything ou like including, mixed media projects, altered art, art journal page and/or paper crafts, if you do it we want to see it... you can enter up to five projects every month! The theme will always be Anything Goes but we will always throw in an optional technique to use on your project, this week it's Embossing you can decide to do it or not but a technique is a great starting off point when you are stuck! Here is what I came up with...
I really didn't have a clear plan when I started but I figured that I would start with a focal point so I cut 2 hearts out of cardstock and ran them through a diamond pattern embossing folder, I inked the mraised areas so the the embossing would show up a bit better but I t still looked a little plain to me so I took out my heat gun and added 2 coats of UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) on them but that pushed the diamond pattern to far back so I decided to embed some crystals to emphasize the pattern. It took some work to get there but I love these double embossed hearts, here is a close up
I grabbed a chip board word that I had in my stash, it's from dusty attic! They have beautiful products and I have a drawer full that I have been hoarding for years, I am really trying hard to work through my stash! I was coating it with gesso when I wondered if I could use the gesso to emboss, and I can, I used some Zing red glitter embossing powder on the wet gesso and blasted that with the heat gun. Love the way it embossing powder stuck to certain parts but not everywhere, it would have taken me forever to get that shabby look using clear ink! To make it pop off the hearts I added some gold and brown paints especially around the edges! Here is how that came out
Them came the actual canvas, I used a 5x7 canvas board and thought I would get some texture with some modelling paste and a stencil and I figured if I can use embossing powder with gesso I can probably do it on modelling paste too, and I did! See what I mean by letting the technique inspire you... I shabbied (is that a word? It should be) the panel by sanding down some area and adding some white, red and brown paint and played till I had something that I liked finished it off by wrapping some twine around board and voila...
I decided that it really needed a little something extra to tie it all together I found a pink daisy in my stash and started to throw some paint on it to make it work with the rest of the pieces so I dabbed on some white red and gold but I really didn't like it... I went digging in my stash and fond a bottle of unopened glass beads, to tell you the truth I have no idea when and why I bought them but it was the perfect touch to finish off the bloom, here is a before and after just to show that I always keep going till I am happy with the piece I am working on...
And there you go I framed my panel and added all the elements that I created and here again is the finished piece...
I really hope that you will join us in our challenge this month, remember you can submit up to 5 projects and you have a whole month to play along! I can't wait to see what you do! Have fun!!!
