It has been ages since I have posted or created anything new. There are several reasons the two most powerful are depression and disorganization (I could not get to the art stuff I needed).
But in the last few weeks art ideas have been rolling around in my head and with Christmas tomorrow I figured its time to start. So I made this piece for my boyfriend. This is our first Christmas together. Really our first gift exchange as well.
Ingredients I used:
Recycle cardboard
Scissors
Ruler
Scratch paper
Scrap paper for decoupage
Matte medium
Glue brush
Gesso
Heavy gel medium
Stencils
Paint brush
Water
Paper towels
Portfolio oil pastels - light blue, dark blue, white, light green, dark green, black, red and yellow. one of my favorite colorants. If you have not tried them you must) along the end to give it depth. These pastels smear so nicely
Graph paper
Jenni Bowlin punch
Green China marker
Tacky glue
Acrylic paint - yellow, white, green
Plastic wrap
Carbon paper
Graph paper
Black stazon
Tim Holtz heart stamp
Uhu glue stick
Crown tape
Yellow rick rack
Leaf bead
Heavy book
I had a cardboard box in the recycle pile. It was a great blue color with the word "blue". I cut it down to 8.5 x 11 inches. I decopauged with random scrap paper. I used a technique I learned from Julie Fei Fen Balzar of using a stencil and gesso to creat a resist to the green paint. I used flower and circle stencils. I mixed heavy gel medium to make the gesso thick and easier to use with the stencils. I used portfolio water soluble oil pastels to add depth to the sides. To create a garden I used a punch, green china marker, and portfolios to draw the flowers.
The focal point is the house made out of cardboard. I hand drew the larger one then made a smaller template and cut it out. I painted both with gesso and let them dry.
The background house was painted with yellow acrylic paint and let it dry. Using the plastic wrap technique where I painted over the yellow with watered down white acrylic. While the paint is wet smoosh plastic wraps to make texture. Leave the wrap in place and Let this dry completely. Using the portfolios again I outlined the sides and edges with green and dark blue. It was glued to the base using tacky glue.
For the smaller house, I used carbon paper and a paint brush handle and scribbled the carbon on the gesso. Then using portfolio in blue to deepen the color and cover the edges. Using a tag as a template I created the door out of recycled graph paper stamping the heart. Colored the heart with red portfolio and out lined the door in green portfolio. Glue this to small house using uhu glue stick. The roof was edged with yellow rick rack blue leaf bead and brown crown tape. Glued the little house to the big house using tacky glue. I set a heavy book on the house as it dried.
Pretty cool if I say so myself
