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Create A Mixed Media Blooming Tree

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 by Alyice

The sweet and incredibly talented, Lisa Fulmer, of Lisa Liza Lou, just purchased an original mixed media canvas from yours truly!

This is what she purchased…

I call it “Longing For Fall” because I seriously cannot take much more of this winter and I desperately long to see the changing of the seasons. I truly hope she likes it.

Oh, and by the way… this mixed media painting was created using scrap materials. I am a firm believer in getting every last morsel I can out of my supplies—and thanks to Lisa’s blog, I am always challenged to think outside the box when it comes to using my scraps.

How To Create A Mixed Media Blooming Tree

For this particular project, I was down to the last of my modeling paste and I didn’t want it to harden so I lathered a nearby canvas with it. While the modeling paste was still wet, I inserted paper strips, a tree stump, and flowers. Once dried, I painted the canvas.

When the paint dried, I glued on some course turf (the stuff railroad modelers use) and clear beads. And just before I sprayed the canvas with a high gloss varnish (three coats), I sprinkled glitter onto the sky.

Here’s a tip: Every time you use paper in a project, set the leftovers aside. Then on a day when your creativity is low, take your scraps and cut them into various shapes and objects. The next time you want to work with paper, you’ll have plenty of pieces to choose from!

Keep Creating

Posted in Art How-Tos, The Wall Art | 1 Comment »

Make An Old Canvas New Again

Monday, November 16th, 2009 by Alyice

In February, I created an “Inspiration Board” using a canvas, green and gold acrylic paints, Mod Podge®, a few magazine images, and pictures of my husband and kids. It wasn’t anything elaborate, and it surely didn’t scream “I have artistic talent”, but it was therapeutic. Last month, as I starred at that canvas, I realized that I was in a different place in my life and it was time to say good-bye to the messages written on that canvas, and create something new—maybe even eye-appealing.

So I took that canvas into my art room and created this beauty!

Supplies:

An unwanted canvas
White Gesso
White tissue paper
Paints: acrylic, watercolor, or oil (your preference)
Acid-free glue: GAC 100, Yes!, Mod Podge® Matte, or stick glue
Aleene’s Jewel-It® glue
3-D items: i.e. fake flowers, metal pins, anything that brings your vision to life
Sand paper, fine
Paintbrushes
Kramar® non-yellowing varnish

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There is really nothing to repurposing an old canvas:

If the canvas has a varnish finish, sand it to a dull finish with a piece of fine sandpaper; avoiding images or areas you’d like to maintain.
With a large paintbrush, paint three coast of Gesso over the canvas—allowing each coat to dry before adding the next coat. You can get away with one coat if you plan to use darker paints.
Allow to dry.
Glue tissue paper over the existing images with Mod Podge®. Don’t forget to crinkle some of the tissue paper before gluing so that some areas obtain more texture than others.
Allow to dry.
Paint the base of the canvas.
Allow to dry.
Adhere 3-D items to canvas with Jewel-It® glue.
Allow to dry.
Use a thin paint brush to paint inspiration words, quotes, names, or dates.
Allow to dry.
Hang the canvas on a wall, in the room you feel the canvas belongs, for two days. As you pass by the canvas, pause long enough to explore the canvas. Does it need more work? Or is it telling you that it’s done?
Seal canvas with spray varnish.
Allow to dry.
Hang back on your wall.

Keep Creating

Posted in Art How-Tos, The Wall Art | 1 Comment »

Magnets From Start To Finish

Saturday, July 18th, 2009 by Alyice

Have you ever taken a really bad photo and wanted to keep some aspect of it—an aspect that was just “too cute” to destroy? Perhaps it was a fuzzy faced baby who just happened to have the look that truly captures baby’s personality. Or perhaps it was a great family photo, only Aunt Jillian was yawning? Or an animal that just wouldn’t cooperate? Thanks to digital magic, I—as well as you—can take a rather lame photo, crop out the parts that make it unusable, enhance the salvaged part(s), take parts from one photo and put them into another photo, manipulate the photo digitally, then print the “perfect” picture.

I do it all the time—as do many professional photographers. In fact, I know a few professionals who say that today’s buyers demand perfection every time—they even expect professionals to digitally remove unsightly parts, perform plastic surgery, and enhance color schemes.

While I am no “professional”, I do have fun playing with both my camera and my digital darkroom. Take today, for example. Two months ago, I took a photo of a baby skunk. The skunk was originally in a wire cage. The zoo keeper, however, agreed to take the skunk out of the cage so I could get a “good” photo. Only one problem, the little guy was scared to death and would not stop clinging to the zoo keeper. I decided I’d just snap a few quickies and hope for the best. When I got home, I was disappointed because the photos were not only flat, but I didn’t get a good angle of the guy.

I was pretty bummed. I mean seriously, how often do you get to take a photo of a skunk up-close-and-personal and not have to fear being sprayed?

Today, I decided to play with the photo.

First, I tried to clean up the image by removing any digital noise, clarifying the image, and of course adjusting the contrast.
Next, I erased the background and replaced it with a solid color.
Then I cropped the image and resized it.
Next, I picked a different brush and added what looked like stars and fence posting.
Since I didn’t like the background color I chose to alter the color by using the “chalk” tool to soften the overall image.
It was looking better but still missing something so I added a fine paper texture to the image.
Then I used the magic wand tool to remove the skunk.
Next, I added three different textures, then replaced the skunk.
For some reason, the replacement no longer fit perfectly and left a tiny glow around the skunk. I decided I could live with that because it seemed to add something to the piece.
Next, I stamped over the existing stars so they could stand out more.
Then I used the magic want to cut out the skunk’s eye from the original photograph and pasted into the new photograph.
Next, I added a border.
Somewhere in the process the mouth got distorted so all you see is his white stripe—but for some reason it works.

I also played around and created these two wildlife magnets.

One day I am going to show you something really amazing, but for now it’s all about baby steps…

Keep Creating

Posted in Art How-Tos | 1 Comment »

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AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

Copyrights

All material on this blog belongs to Alyice Edrich, unless otherwise noted. No project, artwork, or text may be reproduced or displayed elsewhere without the consent of the creator. That includes making derivative works for resale. Please use project tutorials for personal use and/or gifts only.