Must Love Cats - Mixed Media

 

I have had a few questions regarding my mixed media process, and thought I could try my hand at showing you the different steps that I take to get my final "look".  I'm by no means and expert, and at the moment, I'm struggling with trying to make a background that doesn't look like all of my other backgrounds!  (I tend to use the same colors and need to step out of my safe place!)

If you would like to learn more about mixed media, I highly recommend taking Christy Tomlinson's She Art Class #1.  It is an amazing value, and it will change how you look at your art supplies :)

When I first read Elsie's blog post about her Stencil Canvas, I thought I'd give it a try in reverse with a mixed media touch!

1. Stencil Stickers (that turned out to be not very sticky! Grr!), Charcoal pencil, ruler

2. & 3. You can see I placed my lines on the canvas so I could figure out where my alphas would go

4. My various Punchinella (Love this stuff)

5. Different things to get paint on my canvas (I rarely use an actual paintbrush)

6. Get my colors ready

7. Start dabbing color onto canvas with sponge (It's important to lightly dab onto the alpha stickers)

8. You can see the different punchinellas layered onto the canvas

9. Another must have are the Crafters Workshop Stencils

10. They have so many different shapes, this flower is well loved!

11. Modeling paste... Its a bit more expensive than regular paint, but it goes a long way (I've had this tube for a year).  You can mix it with your regular paints, but I liked white on this canvas. I use an old gift card to spread the paste onto my canvas.

12. You can see how textured the paste is here on my palette

13.  Love my textured dots!

 14. I always paint the sides of my canvas for a finished look

15. You can see how the layers using punchinella and stencils are coming together

16. More texture items: bubble wrap and shelf liner

 

17. The final paint layer

18. Time to remove those Stencil Stickers with a pair of tweezers! 

 

 

I didn't like the alpha area just plain white, so I outlined them in black, and then masked them off with painters tape.  I then stamped with Stazon a newsprint look.   This was done on a whim after staring at the canvas for a week, so I forgot to take process photos! 

 

 

 

The final step is to take my black Stazon ink pad and lightly run it over the textured bits, to give everything a little bit more definition.

 

The finished canvas is 10x10, and I like the final look.  I think the most important thing to remember is to DAB the paint on near the stickers and not use a brush with a sweeping motion.  Dabbing directly, beginning with minimal paint and building layers prevents the bleeding that tends to happen on the sides of the letter stickers.

 

Happy Monday!

Steph

xo