MMM: Shrines

Affirmation Shrine

"My good is rushing to greet me"

Detail of stork and circled #2

Teardrop crystal and crackle medium

This will be the first time that Mixed Media Monday is going monthly! With this prompt, Shrines, each participant will have an entire month to complete their pieces. I decided to take this opportunity to revisit a style of assemblage art that I first shared here. This latest piece is what I have come to call an Affirmation Shrine and reads, "my good is rushing to greet me. . . ."

The above was created using the back of an 8 x 10 canvas and a 5 x 7 canvas panel. I first painted the "front" back and sides of an 8 x 10 canvas in several soft washes of grey and blue. When the layers of acrylic were dry, I then added crackle medium (that had been mixed with paint) to the sides and corners of the "frame".  A few strokes of this mixture was also added to the canvas panel. Several layers of crackle and acrylic were applied to the rough exterior until I got the distressed look that I was after. The final step in this process was to wash the dried frame in charcoal. The canvas panel was also given a wash of soft acrylics before being collaged with damask wallpaper, stars, babies and the stork image from The Graphics Fairy. 

Final assemblage details include a teardrop crystal added to the top right of the frame with an eye hook, a bit of pink feather behind the wing of the baby that is meant to represent Kendra, glitter and white gel pen on the stork that is carrying the baby rushing to greet us and silver glitter details on the lining of the "clouds." Lastly, Swarovski crystals adorned the sky along with the cut out stars, vintage text was applied in a ransom-note style to spell out the sentiment and a portion of a vintage ruler was added to the front of the piece with E-600. The final touch was to use a craft knife to rip the exposed canvas sides so that whatever the piece is hung on will show through. 

Thank you for looking! I so look forward to seeing everyone's shrines this month . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Something Blue

"I don't want to Brag"

5 x 7 canvas panel

This week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Something Blue, was a fun excuse to use a quote I recently received in a forwarded email. It reads, "I don't want to brag or make anyone jealous or anything, but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school." . . .

I decided to use blue as my background for this challenge and pop it with accents of it's opposite color, orange. The 5 x 7 canvas panel was first washed in several layers of acrylic and charcoal before adding the collage element of a bust I cut from a catalogue. I altered the image with sandpaper, acrylic (panting over the pearls, lips, cheek and flower), ink (to enhance the brows, hair and lashes) and glitter. I then broke off the back of a vintage earring and glued it to the ear. Final touches were added with water-soluble oil pastels and gloss medium on the face and lips.

Thank you for your time! I look forward to seeing all your beautiful blue pieces this week. . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Look What I Found

"Pieces of You"

8 x 10 Altered Canvas & 5 x 7 Canvas Panel

Vintage wallpaper / background pattern

Part of poem, Most Precious Gifts, by T.L. Riley 

I wanted to create an assemblage of sorts for this week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Look What I Found.  It was a great excuse to use some of the items I had been saving / collecting that were either from Kendra or inspired by her. 

I had an 8 x 10 canvas that I used backwards and found that a 5 x 7 canvas panel fit perfectly in the center. I first created a collage on the canvas panel of vintage wallpaper, a picture of Kendra and her shadow when she was one, a fork she used when she was a baby, and some vintage items including an old lemonade top and a block with the initial K. I also added distressed Swarovski crystals and a metal strip from one of my old flip flops.

The "frame" was painted with several layers of crackle medium and watered-down acrylic and was topped with a broken pair of Kendra's glasses and a craft store bird. Other materials used were charcoal, water-soluble crayons, matte medium and E-600. It was finished with part of a poem by T.L. Riley. As a final step, I used a craft knife to rip holes into some of the exposed interior frame so that anything placed behind the piece would show through.

  

Thank you for looking! I look forward to seeing all the wonderful talent and their pieces inspired from the theme. . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Try Something New

"Dumb Birds"

5 X 7 Canvas Board

Loving this week's Mixed Media Monday prompt: try something new. I had some new products that I wanted to experiment with (Tim Holtz Distress crackle paint and my new - oh so pretty - box of Martha Steward glitters to name two) and this seemed the perfect excuse. In addition to the new products, I also wanted to try my hand at some new techniques. With that in mind, I played around with the idea of paper piecing with fabric. I have long admired birds (in artwork and in general) but I just can't seem to get the look I want with pens. When playing around with the idea of creating what I wanted via fabric, a whole new world was opened up to me. I love the concept, and when I found vintage text to support the theme (from the 1957 Learning to Read picture book that was still lying around from last week's piece), it all came together.

This piece was made using a canvas board (crushing on these lately), acrylic, the new crackle paints (in broken china and picket fence) both under and over glitter, fabric and Swarovski crystals. The shoes were made from fabric backed with cardstock so that I could cut them out easily. The sentiment, "dumb birds" came from the chick herself: why should one fly when there are so many beautiful shoes to choose from?

Thank you for looking! To see more pieces on Something New, please check out www.MixedMediaMonday.wordpress.com.

MMM: Song

MMM: "Someone to Watch Over Me"

5 X 7 Canvas Panel

This week's Mixed Media Monday challenge was to create a piece of art inspired by a song. My "baby" is four today (Happy Birthday My Love!) and I can't help but hope that she will be joined by a sibling soon. As you may know, our beautiful girl came to us by way of adoption and now that she is old enough to understand some of what that means, she asks almost daily for another baby. The song that kept playing over and over in my head was "Someone To Watch Over Me" as I can just picture her loving and protecting any baby brother or sister that may come along.

This piece was created using a 5 X 7 canvas panel that was covered in sewing pattern tissue paper, fabric and a vintage piece of music before being topped with an ATC of Gesso relief, acrylic, vintage ledgers, vintage wallpaper and vintage children's illustrations (and of course a single Swarovski crystal). It is meant to represent Kendra watching over "her (future) baby."

Thank you for looking! To see all of the wonderful work on Music/Songs, check out www.MixedMediaMonday.Wordpress.com.