Aurora Wings Guest Designer

Big News!! I was asked to be a guest designer at Aurora Wings this month for the Anything Goes Challenge, and as you can guess, I was beyond flattered (and excited)!! Mitzi Sato-Wiuff, the artist behind Aurora Wings, is celebrating the two year anniversary of the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog this month, so things are going to run a little differently for this challenge. The ATG challenge that starts today is going to have TWICE as many winners as usual. That means that there will be 2 ACA winners, 2 random winners, and 6 DT's picks!! How awesome is that?

Before I get to my project, I want to tell you about some "crafting for a cause" going on in the Aurora Wings Facebook group HERE. Mitzi is sponsoring a fundraiser until April 3, 2016, on YouCaring to help with conservation of the Slow Loris. As a thank you for donating any amount to her YouCaring fundraiser she is offering a gift of a digital stamp drawn specifically for this event, "Slow Loris Sprite". If you donate a minimum of $10 you also receive a "Slow Loris in Leaves" digital stamp. Both of these images are Special Edition and will not be offered in her store at a later date.

With these Special Edition stamps you can enter the Slow Loris colouring contest in the Facebook group until April 10, 2016. The prizes are as follows: One Artist's Choice Winner ($30 USD in digis + blog badge), one random winner ($30 USD in digis), top 5 (2 digis per person + blog badge), honorable mention (blog badge). All participates in this contest will also receive a 'special mention' blog badge for supporting the cause. All of the details about the fundraising and some awesome Design Team inspiration pieces can be found on the Showcase blog HERE.

And now to my project!! I created a little canvas with Orchid Fairy with detailed Butterfly Wings - Shades of Blue. I coloured the image with Prismacolor pencils.

To create the canvas I put down a layer of black gesso on a 5"x7" canvas. After the gesso dried, I used Faber Castell Gel Medium and a Tim Holtz Doily stencil to create some texture. Before the gel dried, I added little metal beads hoping they would adhere and dry in the gel (which they did!). After the gel was dry, I used Lindy Stamp Gang sprays in Hydrangea Blue and Lucky Shamrock Green, to add some shimmer and subtle colour to the canvas. I tried to stay in the same colour families that I used on my image so as not to distract from that.

Texture from stencil and the metal beads

I added two small silver metal filigree corner embellishments before affixing the image on the canvas. I almost always like to go a little crooked and off center when placing my image on a project. Maybe because I'm a little off center. haha!! I can hardly help myself. It just looks too neat and tidy to me otherwise.

Texture from stencil using gel medium

As a final touch, I added some mulberry paper flowers to the corners of the image, again staying in the same colour family as my image.

Paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts

So that's my turn as a Guest Designer at Aurora Wings. It was a fun little project to do. I hope you like it and I hope you'll leave a little love below in the comments! xoxoxo

Avalokitesvara

Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. It is depicted as either male or female in different cultures, and in Unky's rendition at The East Wind, she is depicted as female in today's new release image. I think she is so beautiful!

Avalokitesvara

I created a mixed media canvas because I was itching to do one, and I wanted to make something for my mom for her birthday. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I used a small 5x7" canvas, which I coated with gesso, along with all the bits and bobs that I glued on. I used flowers, butterflies, buttons, chipboard, lace, a paper doily, and denim. Then I used Lindy Stamp Gang sprays in Victorian Bouquet and Viva Decor paint in gold. I also went around the edge of the image, which I distressed, with the gold paint.

Stop by our Facebook group to join in our challenges there, and also by the blog, which has twice monthly challenges. There are quite a few opportunities to win some free images if you join in on the contests!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you like my project! xx

New Aurora Release at The East Wind

It's new release Tuesday at The East Wind. Today's new image is Aurora "Swim with Betty," and she's provided me with another opportunity to practice my underwater colouring technique. I know, I know!! All I seem to be doing is water scenes the last few projects. I love this technique I learned at Kit & Clowder, and you know what they say: Practice makes perfect! Check out Unky's post about her inspiration for this and her fish Betty HERE!

Aurora "Swim with Betty"

I didn't want to make her into a card, so I took a small laser cut frame that I got at Michaels, put a base layer of gesso on it and found a few embellishments in my stash, painted them with gesso too, and applied them to the frame with Beacons 3-in-1 glue. After all that dried, I sprayed the frame with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays in Mermaid Shells. I hope you like how it turned out. You can't see the sheen on the frame from the sprays, but they look really nice in person.

Make sure you check out the current Facebook challenge in our Facebook group HERE. The theme is "Once Upon a Time". Use an image from TEW to create a project based on a fairy tale or story book, and try to think outside the box and not just use the Alice in Wonderland images that Unky has. There are also twice monthly challenges on the BLOG: one using the freebie on the first of the month, and another in the middle of the month. The freebie comes with the newsletter that is sent out on the 1st of the month, so make sure you are signed up for that. Look for the pink box near the top of the home page on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my project with you!! xx

Mixed Media Attempt

I really love mixed media. I don't know all the ins and outs of it yet, but I'm learning, and that's half the fun. The other half is frustration and uncertainty. "How do I do this? Is that enough? Should I do more?" The questions are endless in the beginning, or so it seems. I have a lot more questions than answers, and not a lot of time to watch tutorials on YouTube. Apparently, I'm going to need a few more hours in my day, and a much bigger jug of gesso. 

So here goes, a little mixed media piece I did for my niece's birthday. 

I picked up an initial at Michaels, a couple of wooden embellishments ("love", the dolphin, and a butterfly), used a metal butterfly from my stash, along with some flowers, buttons, and a polka dot stencil. I made some texture paste from talc powder (have a good collection of that from my twins, now that they're out of diapers), white glue, and gesso. Did I mention I need a bigger jug of that? I will need some more glue too, from the looks of it. My husband will be so happy I need to go buy MORE stuff for my crafting addiction. 

I applied gesso on everything. After it was dry on the letter I used the stencil and the texture paste to create the raised dots. Then I glued everything on with Beacon's 3-in-1 glue. Then I started spraying. And that was the hard part. I used Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays in Victorian Bouquet. Mostly I used the Purple Teal and the Hydrangea Blue, along with some Rambling Rose Pink. I used the other two colours in the set also, but didn't like the way they were coming together, so I went over them. After it dried overnight, I added some Pretty in Pink Pink from the Totally 80's set. This was the hard part because I had a hard time deciding when to stop, what to spray where, and what colours. I was really overthinking it. 

After the sprays dried I randomly applied some Viva Decor Inka Gold in Silver. Then I went over the raised bits with Viva Decor Precious Metal Colors in Silver Red. And that was it. Done! I'm not putting anything else on there. I could keep adding and adding, but I really need to step away from it. 

I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by!!