Happy Birthday Tina! 43

Hi there! Today is my dearest sister Tina's birthday! She is currently out of town traveling with her job so we have to celebrate when she returns. I made her this mixed media canvas board using a combination of MFT stamps, paints, markers, molding paste and chalk pastels.

I started by creating a collage of patterned paper on the canvas board, then using a mixture of paints, molding paste and a stencil, I added the damask design. Collaged and painted the vase then added the bouquet of MFT flowers that were made using the following stamp sets: MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #1 and MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2. If you want to see a tutorial that I made creating a painted vase of flowers, please feel free to check out my tutorial HERE. 

I painted the Daffodils from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #1, the Daisies and Roses from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2 using a variety of paints then outlined using a variety of Pan Pastels and Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. To complete my project, I swiped a layer of a few different colors of Pan Pastels over the background. 

For texture inspiration, I referred to Christy Kinard's beautiful gallery and for color inspiration, I joined along with The Play Date Cafe:

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you have a great Tuesday!
Be Sweet ;)

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Follow your Bliss... 45

Hi there! So happy it's the weekend! I've been at again ~ playing in my art journal :) ***I took the time to create a step by step tutorial that I would love for you to take a peek at so I am only going to share a few pics and words in the post.

I recently discovered this really pretty canvas on the Faber-Castel blog created by Jill Foster which led me to this AMAZING mixed media artist named, Christy Kinard. Between the two works of art, I was inspired to create my art journal page:

The roses on this page were made using the beautiful rose stamp from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2. 

 The leaves were made using Die-namics Royal Leaves.

I stamped the sentiment from MFT Inspired by Flowers Set #2 using Ranger Archival Ink on a piece of torn cardstock, prior to collaging the background.

 For color inspiration, I played along with the current colourQ Challenge:

In case you are interested in the creative process on how I made this art journal page, please be sure to take a look at my tutorial:
TUTORIAL

Be Sweet ;)

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Nostalgia... 38

Hi there! Hope you had a great weekend! Jerry was in town visiting Friday - Sunday :) We met Saturday night for dinner and Sunday afternoon for lunch. Of course, time flew by ~ never seems to go that quickly when I am at work except for my 15 minute morning break and 1/2 hour lunch break.

I'm nearly caught up with dt assignments so to change things up a bit, I pulled out my art journal and supplies. I joined along with Faber-Castell monthly challenge where the theme is NOSTALGIA. 

I stamped the Vintage typewriter image from Die-namics Just My Type, stamped it on a piece of sewing pattern tissue paper then adhered it using Liquitex Medium.

 To stamp the word NOSTALGIA, I used the individual letters from Die-namics Let's Toast Die & Stamp Set. I spelled out the word, then stamped it as well on a piece of tissue paper. All the randomly stamped text is from a stamp from Die-namics DC First Class Friend.

There are many layers and lots of texture on this page! I combined various Faber-Castell Gelatos, Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pens, modeling paste, ink, paint and stencils.

To create the circles, I used my homemade stencil that I die cut using various Die-namics Circle STAX Set 1 and Die-namics Circle STAX Set 2 dies.

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you enjoy your day / evening!
Hugs,
Mona

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Easter blessings 42

Hi there! Hope you are having a great weekend! Do you have anything fun planned? Scott is working all weekend and I will be spending time creating :) Spring has Sprung in my world! I have a case of Spring Fever REALLY bad! The weather has been beautiful, temps high in the 70's and sunny blue skies. PERFECT bike riding and hiking weather :) On top of that, I'm getting quite restless as I am counting down the days until Scott and I take off for the land down under within the next few weeks, admittedly making it very difficult to focus on what I need to get done before hand. We will be gone for 1/2 of the month of March and thankfully Kim and Jody at MFT are sooooo organized and on top of things thatI have had the products to create for the March release in hand for over a week now!

Today I have a few pages in my art journal that I have been working on in between DT assignments. I combined MANY Die-namics dies and MFT stamps to create this spring scene. 

ALL the die cut pieces were made using inexpensive music note patterned paper from Hobby Lobby, (5 12" x 12" sheets for $1), with the exception of the basket which was made using upcycled corrugated cardboard. Once I colored the background using Faber-Castell Gelatos and Liquitex Basics Gesso, I arranged the die cut pieces on the pages then adhered in place using Liquitex Matte Medium. Once dry, I painted using a variety of Golden Fluid  Acrylic Paints. I used a variety of Faber-Castell Stamper's Big Brush Pens to highlight pieces and a Faber-Castell Essential PITT Artist Pen for doodling.

The flourish shown below was made using Die-namics Large Leaf Flourish, the bird was made using the bird die from Die-namics Homespun Birdhouse, the die cut flower was made using Die-namics Flower & Leaf Trio. The black stamped trio of flowers are from LJD Embellished Eggs. For flourish and bird inspiration, I referred to a calendar that I recently purchased featuring the talented Lisa Kaus. 

To create the bunny, I combined the following Die-namics dies: Die-namics Circle STAX Set 2, Die-namics Heart STAX, Die-namics Oval STAX Set 1 and Die-namics Oval STAX Set 2. For bunny inspiration, I referred to Terry's post where she used a variety of punches to create her bunny and I simply substituted the punches with Die-namics dies. The stamped sentiment is from Pure Innocence Bunny Ears and the random stamped text was stamped using a stamp from Die-namics First Class Friend Die & Stamp Set.

and here's page 2:

Another flourish, except this one was made using Die-namics Large Leaf Flourish:

I die cut a corrugated cardboard using Die-namics Woven Basket and filled it with stamped flowers using a stamp from LJD Embellished Eggs and topped it off with a die cut flower made using Die-namics Flower & Leaf Trio. The die cut eggs were made using Die-namics LJD Easter Elements and the sweet bird perched on top was made using a bird die from Die-namics Homespun Birdhouse.

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you enjoy the weekend!
Be Sweet ;)

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