Rich at Tahoe

Hi everyone, Melissa here with a page for the latest 7 Dots Challenge.  This is a photo of my husband at Lake Tahoe. We had a house about 45 minutes away from it, where we lived for two years.

February is the month of love, and I have tried to express my love for my hubby with paper and paint.  

To make this page I used the beautifully elegant paper, tags, and stickers, mostly from 7 Dots Writer's Block. I put watercolor paper under my photo, I had painted it with LSG colors. Under that is a layer of corrugated cardboard that I put gesso on, then some more LSG. The bottom layer is canvas that I sprayed with water, then pulled off horizontal threads with pliers and a straight pin, then painted with LSG over gesso. I brushed on gold acrylic paint by Firefly.

I painted on gesso on the page around the layers.

I did some stencil work with a Tim Holtz die cut, a brass stencil, and home made texture paste.

To add visual interest I added micro beads, wire,beads, Tim Holtz and other brands of metal,a little chipboard, and bling.

To sort of tie things together I brushed gesso on randomly.

You can see a little stamping, chunky glitter, jump rings, distress glitter, and mica flakes.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day!

This is my entry to the 7 Dots Studio : February Challenge - Love is in the Air

March More Than Words Main Challenge, Princess in Watercolor

Hi everyone, Melissa here with an art journal page for the March 2017 Main Challenge Beautiful and Butterfly. 

I titled this Princess in Watercolor,

This is my version of Alphonse Mucha's Princess Hyacinth. Mucha painted the original, of the lead actress of a ballet called Princess Hyacinth, in 1911.  

  I started with a 12 x 12 piece of watercolor paper, did the central painting, then applied layers of gesso, Lindy's Stamp Gang ,and gold mica powder around it. I did the painting freehand, using Winsor and Newton watercolors, gesso, and Derwent Inktense watercolor pencil. To add visual interest I also used texture paste with a stencil,gauze, micro beads, and rock candy crackle paint.  I wasn't happy with the 12 x 12 and cut it down to fit my 9 x 12 art journal.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day!

A Fairy Tale Mind

Hi everyone, Melissa here with a small wall hanging for Mixed Media Warriors Design Team! I'm going to hang this on a wall in my scraproom, it'll look cute with all the other projects I've put up. 

I drew a rose using a photo from a book about flowers as a reference and put a little texture paste on top with a stencil. The rest of the watercolor paper has a few layers of Prima Heavy Gesso.To add visual interest I added a lot of embellishments around the edges: the white flowers are from a local scrapbooking store, the baby photo is from Pion, Grandma's Attic Papers. The stickers are from 7 Dots, the pink paint is Rambling Rose by Lindy's Stamp Gang.  The green is a mix of sap green and burnt umber from Winsor and Newton. The brown is Derwent Inktense Watercolor pencil.  I used micro beads, seed beads, a tiny brass lock by Vintaj,a little bird from Graphic 45, a rose from Bo Bunny, a fairy from an old Christmas card,tiny butterflies die cut from Sizzix, tiny Prima stamped butterflies, and the metal wing is from Hobby Lobby.

I used Rock Candy Crackle paint and brushed brown and pink on the dried surface of it, on top of some brown chalk.

I put gesso and then green paint on the white roses.

There are two layers of watercolor paper under the top one. On top of the second layer is tulle, under the bottom one is pink,then green ribbon. The crinkle ribbon is by Tim Holtz.

The little pigs are wood that I put crackle and paint on.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day!

Beautiful Girl and Spring Colors

Hi everyone! Melissa here with my Design Team take on the March Mood Board, at Mixed Media Warriors. Spring is the best season here in Texas, and we're right in the middle of it now. 

  I have used a photo of my son's beautiful girlfriend,Aron. 

I used the color palette in the bottom middle photo of the moodboard.

To make this page I took a sheet of 12 x 12 watercolor paper and put some gauze on with gesso. I put homemade texture paste on with a few stencils. I painted it with a mix of white acrylic paint and Lindy's Stamp Gang. I painted over some of the page with white paint to create some negative space,  then used a brush to apply texture paste to several areas.

To add visual interest I put on flowers, pearls, die cut sizzix leaves and butterflies,micro beads,seed beads,and bling.

I ran a bark colored Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencil over the surface by holding the pencil sideways,I wanted to make the gauze texture more visible.

I used several kinds of Prima and Petaloo flowers.  I made the chiffon purple one.

Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day!