Adventure Awaits - Spring Renewal

Hello! I'm excited to be guest designing at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog for Lisa's "A Study in Contrasts" challenge. I chose to create a dimensional spring canvas for my contribution. Here are some closeups of my project and following those, I provide a step by step on how my background came together.

At the heart of my canvas, I used a piece of thick bark I found in my yard. It's dark, rough texture contrasts with those soft  fresh colorful spring flowers I handmade and had stashed for years. I think these were made using the old Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Bigz die, or it could be another die I used to have. Either way, I have so many in my drawer and it feels good to finally use them. That gorgeous stamped butterfly was also in my stash, and I just fussy cut him and edged in Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink to offer contrast to his black and white image and the neutral wood he perches on. Adding the yellow ink was also inspired by an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly I spotted yesterday while I was working in the garden--the first of the season! I used the non business end of my awl to shape him in my palm.

In keeping with the challenge theme, behind the floral display you see black geometric numbers on the left and the colorful natural design of the birds nest on the opposing side. The brightly colored foliage unfurls over and around the black, grey and brown decaying leaves and wood.

I die cut the leaves from inky scraps in my stash with Tim Holtz Leaf Fragments. And to differ from the dried rotted leaves, I die cut some other foliage and inked them with Twisted Citron spray stain. I used Bigz L Large Stems (closed leaf at the top) and Skeleton Leaves Thinlits (open leaf design at the bottom). There's also a couple of those long thin stems from the Wildflower Stems #1 set. They remind me of pussy willows. I had the black and bright green smaller foliage pieces in my stash and tucked them in at the last minute.

A Quote Chip embossed with Broken China Embossing Glaze and blended with Squeezed Lemonade ink completes my canvas. 

So let's get started with the how-to: (click on any photo to enlarge)

 I start with a primed canvas, and adhere Tim Holtz Ideaology Collage Wrap with Distress Collage Medium. The best way to get just the prints you want is to outline them with a paint brush wet with water, and then gently pull the pieces apart. This eliminates the harsh edges. I've chosen two contrasting black and white prints; one is an organic design, and the other is an inanimate design. I filled in some areas  with colored scraps to offer contrast to the black and white.

When the papers are in place, and the glue dried, I trim excess with scissors and sand the edges.

I give it a wash of watered down Speckled Egg paint, removing the paint from the colored areas with a damp paper towel. You can see I came back in later and added another scrap of colored collage wrap to the bottom right corner to provide balance to the colorful robin at the top.

To complete my canvas base, I apply Distress Crackle paste through a couple of stencils-one graceful and flowy, the other geometric and linear for contrast. I used TCW's Mini Labyrinth and Tim Holtz Flourish stencils. After the paste was dry and crackled, I applied Walnut Stain crayon with my finger to the cracked areas, rubbing it into the cracks to define them further. I also smeared some of the crayon randomly around the edges. I find it easiest to work this way by scribbling the crayon onto my craft mat and spritzing a little bit of water separately. I dip my finger into the water to moisten it and then into the scribbled crayon.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! I hope you enjoyed my spring renewal canvas. Thanks, again, to the ladies over at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog for having me join them as their Guest Designer this week! Hugs! Sara Emily

I would like to include my canvas in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Wild and Wonderful Wild about Wonderful Nature!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes

Country View Challenges April 2022 - Spring is Coming (it's here!)

 

Trust Your Heart Panel -- Guest Designer with Bleeding Art Challenge Blog

Hello friends! Today I have the honor of creating for Bleeding Art as their Guest Designer where the current challenge is 'Show Us The Love'. I decided to work with my beloved Tim Holtz Sizzix Faceted Heart once again--I hope you aren't getting tired of it! Here is my step by step process followed by closeups of my finished panel.

First, I used the Paint Resist technique for my background panel that will later be adhered to a 5 x 7  wood panel. For a complete tutorial on this technique, I'll refer you to the master--Tim Holtz. I used Picket Fence Distress paint to stamp the Ornate stamp from his Ornate & Lace set. My ink colors are Victorian Velvet and Frayed Burlap. There might be a bit of Seedless Preserves at the center where I  tested my colors.

Next, I cut the Faceted Heart from some textured thick vellum I had in my stash and folded it up. This was really difficult material to work with, but I find that if I give the crease lines an extra score and then fold the creases back and forth a couple times, it gets a little easier to assemble. After it was assembled, I painted it with Brushed Pewter paint and Caramel alcohol ink. While I had the paint and ink out, I colored just the edges of a black card stock panel in the same way.

I worked on another panel here, which is a wooden panel from my stash. It had an original oil painting on it and it was somewhat warped. I didn't enjoy the painting or the fact that it was misshapen, so it went into the bin to be altered at some point. I smeared DecoArt Crackle paint through a Tim Holtz mini stencil and allowed it to dry. Then I applied DecoArt Media Antiquing Cream in black and brown one color at a time in this fashion: apply, dry, wipe with damp cloth. I wet the back of the wood panel with water and pressed it for several days under a stack of books and other weights to flatten it back out.

In the meantime, I created another panel by embossing a piece of thick canvas with Tim's Botanical 3D embossing folder. I pulled the threads from the edges to fray it a bit and colored it with Distress Oxide Victorian Velvet and then just the raised portions with a skim of Prima Metallique Waxes in Brushed Iron and Rose Gold. Addendum: I prepared the canvas so long ago, but I'm pretty sure I gave it a coat of Prima's sculpture medium to give it extra body, because it was a little stiffer than my other pieces of canvas in my stash.

Even though I stamped with my Stamp Platform, my images turned out blurry, because I had to keep reapplying paint and stamping repeatedly, and I'm afraid I gave my stamp CPR. It's all good, though, because I know this will be mostly covered up with the additional panels.

I adhered the Paint Resist panel to the wood panel, sanded the edges and inked them with Frayed Burlap. Then I flipped it over and adhered, sanded and inked a panel of design paper from my stash.

I needed something to provide contrast to the heart and stenciled panels, but didn't need anymore pattern in my design. My solution was to cut a Stacked Baroque panel and match the colors.

Now here are some close ups to show the detail of how it all came together. 

Thank you to Cathy and the Bleeding Heart Design Team for inviting me to create with them this month. I hope you'll pay a visit to this  mixed media challenge blog where there's a ton of inspiration to be had and a fun challenge to play along with! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs and blessings, Sara Emily

Challenge shares:
SanDee&amelie's February 2019 Steampunk Challenge Please delete if it's not industrial enough.
Card Mania Challenges CMC#113 Love is in the Air
Double D Challenges 'HEARTS'

Scrapy Land Challenge #107 Anything Goes  I used 2 Sizzix dies; I'm not sure of the maker for the greens; the cuts were a gift.
More Mixed Media Challenge - Anything Goes with optional Red I did not do the option.
Love 2 Create Challenge #2 Anything Creative Mixed Media Goes
Artistic Stamper February's Creative Challenge - Heart it! Stamping in paint on my first layer.
Crafts Dreamy February Mood Board Challenge

Also playing along in Tim Holtz Addicts Facebook group Current featured Tim Holtz technique: Paint Resist

Links to products used stocked by The Funkie Junkie Boutique:
***Remember to use coupon code DIEDISCOUNT to receive 20% off MSRP Tim Holtz newly released dies!***The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Faceted Heart Thinlits

Sizzix Thinlits Set - Stacked Baroque by Tim Holtz	Sizzix 3-D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Botanical	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 27	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Ornate & Lace	Tim Holtz Stamp Platform by Tonic Studios
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence TDF53170	Tim Holtz Ranger Metallic Distress Paint - Brushed Pewter TDF52968	Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink - Caramel	(LATE OCTOBER PRE-ORDER) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Victorian Velvet	Ranger Tim Holtz Mini Distress Ink Pad - Victorian Velvet TDP40255
Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap TIM21469	Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair - Metallique Wax - Brushed Iron	Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair - Metallique Wax- Rose Gold	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDA47933
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quotations Metallic Stickers	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Bouquet Findings	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Bundled Sage	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Crushed Olive