Friday 20 May 2016

Butterfly Mixed Media

Morning. I hope you liked the share yesterday. Today I thought I would share a Mixed Media project that I made with Leonie's new Stamp collection. I chose the butterflies again from the Flight To Freedom Set. I have really enjoyed using Mixed Media and loved making this canvas, so I hope you like it.

I took a piece of canvas board, approximately A4 in size. To begin with I stamped branches and trees over the project as a guideline for building the illusion of a view within a forest. To achieve this I decided on a mixture of garden string for the thicker stems and embroidery cotton for the smaller branches.

Then I took the other elements that I had chosen, some torn corrugated cardboard, ripped and embossed card, a tube I made using garden string wrapped round a paintbrush and coated PVA glue. I also used some hexagonal die cuts that I snipped into along with some ribbon roses I made and some simple paper roses.

When I had arranged all of elements, I painted my project with black gesso and left to dry. When the first coat was dry I felt it needed something else so I destroyed some polystyrene to make some balls and corner element.











Then painted these black also. It's very strange before painting the whole project it started to look too busy, but when it's painted it is less than you think.When the black gesso was dry I stippled around the majority of the board to add more textured with Dyna Acrylic 356 (Violet Blue) The around the paper roses and ribbon roses I added Dyna Acrylic 354 (Red Blue).

Around the edges of the board to about 3 inches in I used Mediterranean Blue gilding polish and then around the edge added Teal Gilding polish both from Creative Expressions. I used the Rich Red gilding polish on the ribbon roses and then built up layers of all the colours throughout the canvas to add more depth.

To finish the colouring of the background and to highlight the trees and branches, I applied Pebeo Gilding wax in both Silver and Renaissance gold. 

I stamped out a selection of butterflies from Leonie's Collection, coloured them with my alcohol markers and sprayed with Crafters Companion Silver Spray and Sparkle. I secured them in place with 3D glue gel.

Thank you so much for visiting today, I hope you have enjoyed this step by step of how this project came about. I hope you will be back again very soon.Take care xx


14 comments:

  1. This is so colourful and bright. Lots of texture as well. Having said that, although it is butterflies in trees ,every time I look at it I see fish in the sea,apologies that is not meant to offend,it is the colours I think. I have still to do my first mixed media,I'll get there one day.
    Such a shame that all your lovely samples had not arrived but Leonie did at least show the photos of them, which being really good photos, I thought showed what you had done really well.
    Glad you remembered to take photos as you went along this time and that the blog is useful to you too,so you can use the measurements to make your own lantern.
    Thank you for sharing. Nicola x

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    1. Thanks Nicola. I completely agree, It could quite easily be an under the sea scene as well. You have to get going and get into mixed media. I am sure you will love it,its very addictive, once you get your head round the 'anything goes'
      Take care xx

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  2. Love the texture on this Nick, and the butterflies look so realistic! Jane :) x

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    1. Thanks Jane, I am fast becoming very addictive to it.xx

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  3. Stunning work Nick it looks amazing and a brill step by step one off these days I am going to follow this and have a try. Hugs Janet xxx

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  4. Stunning work Nick it looks amazing and a brill step by step one off these days I am going to follow this and have a try. Hugs Janet xxx

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    1. Thank you so much Janet, So pleased you like it. Give it a go, it's great fun xx

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  5. Amazing work Nick, love the detail and textures.
    Hugs Julie xxx

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    1. Thank you so much Julie, I saw your article,It's brilliant.Take care xx

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  6. This is great and an even bigger inspiration for me as I have almost every paint, polish, wax etc that you have used and now I can see what they do when actually used. Wow!

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    1. I am so pleased, you will have to get going on a project then, it's such great fun to make these items. I will look forward to seeing yours.Thank you so much for your comments.Take care xx

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  7. You've made some beautiful pieces with Leonie's new stamps Nick, I particularly love the lantern.
    Thanks for the instructions too, it's lovely to see how they are created.
    Have a good weekend
    Anne x

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  8. Thank you so much Anne, I have to agree with you about the lantern,It's my particular favourite too. I am going to make another one for myself and it's great having all the measurements on here as I dont have to think about it again.Take care and thanks again for your comments.xx

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  9. This is stunning Nick, it's amazing how you've turned everyday objects into a beautiful work of art. The colours are so lush and I love the variety of textures. I really must try one of these :)
    Hugs,
    Katrina x

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