Waxy Rainbows & A Giveaway to Come . . . .

“Don't seek to be happy; let everyone else chase after that rainbow. 

Seek to be kind, and you'll find the rainbow follows you.” 

― Richelle E. Goodrich

Hey Everyone! Happy Friday and happy PPF. . . .

I have a project here that's been in the works since - believe it or not - this year's Summer of Color! I've finally gotten around to finishing her, and took copious amounts of pictures along the way to show the progression from a quick sketch to a colorfully drippy & waxy finished piece. Wanna take a peek? Okay then, here we go. . . .

The initial sketch

Addition of collage pieces including decorative napkins, tissue paper & washi tape

Washes of blues and grays and the beginnings of her face

The rainbow is colored using 2-3 hues for each segment in a variety of mediums

Texture is added with acrylic white paint mixed with fiber paste pushed through a stencil

Using a quilting iron and crayons, I carefully melted 2 colors for each segment and let 'em drip

The final result! Additional touches include iridescent stars, Stickles glitter in her hair and tights, hash marks made with pencil, wax crayon scribbles (Caran D'ache 1), stamping and charcoal.

Thanks for looking! Now I'm headed over to PPF to see what everyone else is up to this week! 

But wait! Before you go, I'm really excited to offer you a chance to win a FREE SPOT on the next Life Book 2015! 

To do so, make sure you come back HERE this Sunday, 9/21 and enter. It's that simple. I'd love you to join us and am thrilled to offer you a chance to play along for an entire year of mixed media goodness for nothing, nada, zilch . . . . 

See you Sunday!

To Love & Art,

Kristin xo

KristinVanValkenburgh.com

Paint Party Friday: Lil' Cardboard Collages

Happy PPF!

I hope this week found you with paint under your fingernails at some point . . . Mine were definitely encrusted with acrylics, gouache, glue, gloss medium, fiber paste, varnishes and (naturally) glitter for days. It was a case of peeling fingers for sure. You know, you've been there . . . .

But I digress: this week I was influenced by the lovely (darling & delightful) Mindy Lacefield after watching several of her You Tube videos. It was this one that really got me: watching her paint several little cardboard paintings at once. So excited I was, that I cut up the next box I got my hands on and went to work. My pieces took some different turns, but I'm so grateful to have had the impetuous to try something fun and new. Thank you Love Bug, for the beautiful inspiration!

Wanna see what I came up with? Okay:

4 little cardboard collages, all lined up in a row.

(Each one measures approximately 5.5 x 11)

They were first cut, pulled to reveal texture and then gessoed

Elements such as vintage playing cards and game pieces were added

Stencils served as the base, with some molding paste mixed with paint 

to create some raised areas

This one included a face - behind chicken wire that was adhered with E600 and beeswax

And here we have a little pocket that housed vintage tickets

They are hung with decorative wire and grommets

And finished off with decorative (and painted on) trim

That's it. Thanks for letting me share and thank you to Kristin and Eva for another opportunity to play with paint.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Kristin xo