Own Your Style

It's Bonnie Irvine here today to share a mixed media canvas featuring one of the Prima Mixed Media Doll stamps by Julie Nutting. I am absolutely smitten with these stamps. They are so versatile allowing me to design whatever Project Runway outfit I wish plus the quality of the stamp gives such a clear image. They really are awesome.

The project started with a plain white 8 x 10" canvas to which I added torn papers from the Authentique Renew Collection. These were collaged onto the background using gel medium, overlapping, leaving some white spaces, and making full use of the double sided paper. White gesso was applied with a wet brush to blend the papers and knock back some of the patterns. Further blending and colour was added with Blueberry, Cotton Candy, and Lime gelatos spread sometimes with a dry finger and other times with a wet finger depending upon the intensity of colour I wanted.

Studio 490 Black Embossing paste was applied through TCW's Mini Punchinella stencil as well as their Reverse Chickenwire stencil and allowed to dry thoroughly. Pieces of doily were fussy cut and gel mediumed to the upper right and lower left corners to add shots of white and give the eye places to rest. The stitching stamp from Tim Holtz's Seamless Experience set was added randomly with turquoise ink. Black and white washi tape was added in two lengths to give this diva a platform on which to stand and another to bring the pattern to the right side of the canvas. A script stamp from Tim Holtz's Urban Grunge set was rolled onto the background using Ranger Archival black ink.

The lovely and stylish Diva was stamped a number of times: once in her entirety on text background from Authentique's Strong Collection;, her bow on Renew dotted paper; her dress on Renew's distressed yellow paper; her crown on a yellow striped scrap from the Strong Collection. All pieces were shaded and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils before being fussy cut and assembled on the complete stamped image. Diva's crown was given a coat of Icicle Stickles for sparkle factor. Because she didn't stand out as much as I wanted against the busy background, she was matted in black cardstock, fussy cut and then shaded around with a charcoal pencil after she was adhered to the canvas.

To complete the project, some stronger black elements were needed. Three half circles were punched from black cardstock and dotted with white pen. A Bazzill chipboard arrow was sprayed with Dylusions Black Marble ink and doodled with the white pen. A butterfly was punched and given a button body before being adhered next to the Idea-ology Alpha Parts sentiment. To give the sentiment more visual weight, thin strips of black cardstock were adhered below each word. Those four elements gave me the visual triangle (the sentiment and butterfly read as one) that I wanted to move the eye around the canvas and created great contrast with the background. They also frame our lovely Diva making sure that she is the center of attention.

Thanks for visiting and for reading this (no surprise) lengthy post. We love your visits and your comments. I hope you have found some inspiration here today. If you have been sitting on the fence about these doll stamps, I can tell you that they are so fun and of exceptional quality. Love 'em all!

Hope you find (make) time to play. You can connect to the eclectic Paperie store to view some of the products used on this piece by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Thanks,
Bonnie

Prima - Strapless Doll Mixed Media Stamp	Authentique - Renew Paper Pack	Authentique - Strong 8x8" Paper Pad
Fabel Castell - Gel Medium	Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Blue Colors
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Green Colors	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - Metalllic Silver	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Chicken Wire Reversed
Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad	Stickles - Icicle	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen
Findings - Alpha Parts, Ransom