New Beginnings

Hello and happy July 1st!  Can you believe this year is already half over?  I can't but looking at the bright side, with a new year approaching comes the chance for new beginnings.

I don't know about you, but I love trees.  Big trees, small trees - all types of trees.  I especially love to see a grand old tree all by itself in a field.  Trees inspire new beginnings for me as well as the ability to change.  So I decided to create a little  wooden plaque using Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Layered Tree Stencil with her awesome sauce Embossing Paste.

product links at bottom of post

Some time ago I had purchased those cheap wooden plaques.  This one measures aproximately 3.5" x 5" and I paid less than a dollar for it.
First thing was to put a coat of Dina Wakley's Black Gesso down.  Once dry, I mixed some of Studio 490's White Embossing Paste with some Paints.  Here's a tip:  Next time you are at a thriftstore or yard sale and see mini cupcake pans - grab them.  I started using these to mix paints and especially embossing pastes!
I didn't take pictures of mixing the paints and embossing paste, but it's like your cooking.  A little of this - a little of that until I liked the color.  Adding the embossing paste through the stencil was a two step process.  I did the leaves first and let that dry.  Next I mixed some more embossing paste with paint for the tree trunk which was then added through the stencil.

I'm always afraid I'll mess up when laying down stencils and pulling the stencils up. And because I had mixed up just a wee bit too much and had some left over, I added the rest to piece of white card stock to be used in collage or in my art journal at another time.

This time, it turned out!  You'll notice that the colors are pretty flat - so I lined the stencil back up with the leaves, adding some tape to make sure it stayed put.  Using my finger, I added Splash of Color - Silks Acrylic Glazes in Key Lime and Olive.

 After carefully removing the stencil, I used my Heat It Craft Tool to help speed the drying time along.
Next I mixed Black Soot and Frayed Burlap Distress Paints on my Craft Sheet and using Dina Wakley's #4 Round Brush, aligned the stencil over the tree trunk and tried to add some dimension so that the trunk didn't look so flat.
Then I decided to add dots of Ginger Peach and Sunflower Splash of Color Silks Acrylic Glazes with the brush and while it was still wet, sprinkled some Dristress Rock Candy Dry Glitter over the whole piece.

I could have stopped there but I ended up brushing some of Sunflower Silks Acrylic Glaze around the tree, followed with some white paint, which kind of mixed with the glaze.  I kept adding layers of glaze, going back and forth between adding, smudging and/or removing with a baby wipe.

  I lightly sanded the surface with Tim Holtz Idea-ology Sanding Grip because the wood was a little rough (baby wipe kept getting snagged).

Then I misted the whole thing with some Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearl Mist:

 Using Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers, I filled in the edges of the tree - to hide some of the white and to add more dimension.  Can I just say.... I LOVE those markers!!!!!  It never ceases to amaze me how these markers will finish a piece.  I used a sticker, which was cut apart, from 7 Dots Cold Country Word Sticker collection.  Generally I always doodle around stickers with a black pen but this time I just swiped my wet brush through some of Silks Acrylic Glazes left over on my craft sheet and brushed it over the stickers to tone down the whiteness of the sticker.

Inka Gold was rubbed around the edges and Matte Glue N Seal was used to seal the entire surface and that was it.  I wanted the beautiful tree to be the main focal point which is why I didn't add any extra stenciling or stamping on the background.

I love how this turned out - simple, yet lots of shimmer and shine and a wonderful daily inspiration!  I hope you enjoyed this project and came away inspired!
xoxo

Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com

HOPE ~ created for the ePicks Team Challenge

Hi!  Sue Lelli here and My layout is all about HOPE.

I am playing along with our ePicks Team Challenge ~ HOPE hosted by Andipants!

I LOVE these resin Angels that I painted with Silks Acrylic Paints by Splash of Color.

The colors I used are Emperor's Gold for the wings and African Jade (which I toned down a little with Gesso to match the paper) for the letters.

Here is my layout and it is all about my friend's tiny little 2 month old baby boy who needs open heart surgery:



I used the photo from the actual baby announcement and built my page using Prima Elements that help me tell his story. The title Hope just says it all.

Here is a close up of the hearts (on the Prima "Princess Paper") I outlined with a Sakura Glaze pen. I used metal and wood gears and clocks with the hope that they can get his heart working again. See the tiny little plane on the clock? The family is waiting to hear when they can fly him to Boston Children's Hospital to have his surgery. I also used a lot of stitching to represent mending his heart.

Here's his Beautiful little face surrounded by more heart gears and time pieces and a wood Prima flower to represent Florida where he lives along with a butterfly made of cork. Can you see the tiny clothespin? Even that has the word Hope on it. The ruler is to measure his growth because hopefully, when the surgery is a success, he will grow into a fine young man.

Some photos of my process:

I LOVE this Prima Doily Stencil! I used it to apply my embossing paste and later my Silks paint.

The embossing paste looked so COOL for my background but I thought it needed a little color.

I painted the stenciled pattern with Silk Paint in African Jade mixed with Gesso and added outlines to the hearts with my Sakura Glaze pen.

I hope you like my layout. Creating is how I cope with the emotions of life. I'm not sure I will give this to his parents. I am going to wait and see how he does with surgery and maybe I'll change the word to LOVE and frame it for them to put in his room. But right now, I am filled with HOPE and prayers.

I HOPE you get inspired and come play with our eP Team Picks Challenge ~ HOPE.  You can win a $15 gift certificate to the eP store!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 10 - Creating with Silks Acrylic Glazes!

Oh my goodness EPeeps!! Only 2 more days of the ePaperie 12 Days of Christmas . . . but boy, do I have a fun product today!! 

Silks Acrylic Glazes!!

 I am IN LOVE!!  Colors, shine, and SO super versatile!  I stamped with them, I embossed with them, stenciled with them and just plain painted with them!! 

Make sure you use the code:   12DAYS10 when checking out to get your discount!!  What's the deal today? Silks – Buy 3 for $15.99   What a deal because normally buying 3 is $21 ... I know I will be adding to my collection today!! 

I had so much fun that I ended up with a ton of little experiments that I loved . . . yikes, what to do . . . so I cut them up and sewed them together as my patchwork Christmas quilt canvas!!

So, honestly, I had the flu when I started on this project. I sat in bed and watched a ton of YouTube videos about Silks Acrylic Glazes.  There were SO many ideas out there.  My head was swimming (and full of decongestant) so I just experimented!

I stamped - circles and hearts . . .

I put the Silks Glaze on my craft sheet, dipped my stamp into it and stamped it down! I painted the watercolor paper with one coat of Silks Glazefirst!

 I stenciled with embossing paste too.  First I painted one color of Silk onto the paper and after it dried, the snowflake is painted through a stencil! No bleeding under the stencil! (And the stencil is made from paper) 

I embossed - by mixing the Silks glaze with Wendy Vecchi translucent embossing paste and pushed it through stencils! Love the shine and the texture!! (I think this was one of my favorite techniques!!)

To Create the 'quilt'  I cut up all my little experiments and wrapping paper squares into 2x2 squares.  I glued them down to a piece of cardstock paper and let it dry.  Then I took out my sewing machine, and zig-zag stitched around all the pieces. 

Then I decided the 'quilt' needed a home ... so I got a canvas ready.  I put Christy Tomlinson coffee filter paper around the edges down with matte medium.

I painted the edges of the canvas. The Silks are translucent, so you can see every word from the paper underneath! I also got a little crazy with the embossing technique around the edges too . . . and then I glued it all together!!

This was such a fun project!! I hope you enjoy playing with Silks Acrylic Glazes, I think they might be a new favorite around here!!

HINT HINT!!  Now I was also practicing for my ETeam picks challenge ( using wrapping paper in your project.) So make sure this holiday season that you are keeping scraps of wrapping paper to use in a project with me in the future!!