Saturday, December 26, 2015

Silver and Gold Winter Wonderland 20x24 Mixed Media Canvas

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HELLO Sweet Creative Friends.... 
 HAPPY Day after Christmas to you!!!  

It is hard to believe that it has come and gone - wow.  

I have been playing in a wintry landscape!!  





I began with some Pebeo Masking Fluid painting it on where it seems there should be white between the branches - SNOW!! 


Then the adding of the Pebeo Iridescent Precious Gold and Silver studio acrylic paint.  Love the shimmer in these paints!  It sure makes it hard to capture the finished picture though. :)







Using the Lost Coast Designs Snowflakes Set with a Ranger Emboss It Dabber and Lindy's Stamp Gang Queen Shebas Silver - the snowflakes began to fall!





Next came the DecoArt Media Titanium White Antiquing Cream painted onto the Lost Coast Designs snow flakes from their Snow Flakes Set.  Love the variety of lovely snowflakes! 





Using Golden Fiber Paste mixed with DecoArt Ebony Black along with more Pebeo shimmering gold paint - it was time to create the deer. I used a Artplorations Christmas Reindeer Stencil as well as an Plaid Folkart stencil from my stash. 




Yummy fun.... this combo made the prettiest color of a dark shimmering gold!




Removing the masking fluid is always so much fun!!  But it sure looks like a scary mess at this point!!!!!




Adding more silver and gold paint! 




And then a rather sad thing happened.... must have been a hunter in the woods because my leaping deer disappeared!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh - such a bummer but... after I added the little cabin, I realized that the leaping deer was way to huge to work.  And dear me... what a chore it was to try to make him become...."deerly departed"!!!  









And in the place of the leaping deer came a second cabin!




And here are some close-ups of the finished painting! 










Side view:  this is a 20x24 canvas and it is 1.5" thick!!  






 Here you can see a bit of the shimmering gold and silver bling!!! 



Thanks bunches for stopping by and please KNOW how much I appreciate your comments.  My reply button is still broken but... I am always thrilled to hear from you - truly.  

Hugs. j.

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I would like to enter this painting in the following challenges:
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#19 Silver and Gold

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#34 December, Create a Scene

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and
Facebook Challenge #2 Winter Holidays

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Friday, December 25, 2015

HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS - with LOVE j.

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THINKING OF All of  YOU TODAY...

It's a quiet day here at the ranch for hubby and myself. I am thinking of all of you and how happy you make each day for me.

Whether it's Christmas time or just a normal day where you live...
thank you for making my life "merry and bright"
with your inspirations, your comments, and your love. 

This past year has been a wonderful adventure for me...
because of all of you.  I am grateful.   



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Thursday, December 17, 2015

BRIGHT Life, BRIGHT Future SCRAP AROUND THE WORLD

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Hello to all of you creative friends out there!!! 

Here is my "real" layout for the Scrap Around the World final challenge.  If you saw my last post - you know I had it on my heart to do a little tribute layout for SATW so I did!!!  However, I also wanted to do just a normal project for the final challenge too.  

When I saw the theme on the mood board "the future is bright" it sent my thoughts to my grandchildren.  I remembered this picture of the two youngest at the ranch sitting high up on the flagstone in what we call the pavilion with the flags flying between them. That's our bright future... our children and our freedom - a safe and secure nation... united together in trust and love.


 


I began with Fancy That Pearl Bouquet Gold Foil Paper.


 I wanted the gold foil to look more like the gold "salt" at the top of the champagne glasses in the SATW mood board!  I added Galeria Glass Bead Gel over the top of the gold foil.   



I also added DecoArt Champagne Glamour Dust on each side of the gold foil for sparkle and texture. Love the Glamour Dust too!!




Then Ranger Vermillion Archival Ink & Gold Stickles for the edge.




The finished sheet was lovely and more like the mood board!!! 


Out came the Caran de Ache Neocolor II water colors for making a sunset to match the sunset in the picture... hopefully! 




The little picture was ready but I printed two of them so that I could give a tiny bit of dimension to the little bodies of my "stars"!!


I used Ranger Alcohol Ink to make a frame for the picture. It was fun - just running it on it stripes and then running my old credit card through it to make the checks!!  I also added a piece of gold glitter card stock for another layer behind the kids picture. 




Yes - that is the same piece below but for some reason in the picture it doesn't look as bright!! 




Hubby brought me a "real" horseshoe from the barn.  He was so sweet about polishing it up for me. The blobs of metal at three places are the nails that didn't come out - just melted down! I thought they added such a neat texture to the horseshoe. 

Again, Ranger Alcohol Ink - gold and watermelon. 


Here are more pics of the finished project. 

By the way... the beautiful butterflies came yesterday from Scraps of Darkness... and they were the perfect match... YEAH!!
They are from Renea Bouquets

The flowers are from Prima. 

The birds/flowers are Idea-ology Botanical Remnant Rubs.

The horses are a die cut piece that I bought from ebay before I had my Vagabond and I don't have a name for it. 

I made the bow with organza ribbon from my stash.

The letters were just fussy cut from card stock. I enjoy doing that!

I hand painted the smaller barb wire fence on the right using card stock with Ranger Distress Ink to make the smaller posts. 








This is a blurry picture! But it shows added texture - meant to look like dirt and grass!  It is Stampendous Shaved Ice and Art Ingredients Licorice Glass Beads. 






This was great fun for me because it was all about the "RR" which is the ranch and our youngest grandkids!!  

Thanks bunches for taking time to visit!  And most especially - for your very special to me comments!!  One of these days I hope they will fix my reply button so I can thank you personally.  

Hugs. j. 

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Happy to participate in the following challenges: 

December 2015 Challenge 32 by Valia Katzaki
A Fabulous Finale Mood Board for our Final Challenge

I was inspired by the sentiment as follows: 
When I saw the theme on the mood board "the future is bright" it sent my thoughts to my grandchildren.  I remembered this picture of the two youngest at the ranch sitting high up on the flagstone in what we call the pavilion with the flags flying between them. That's our bright future... our children and our freedom - a safe and secure nation... united together in trust and love.

I also enjoyed creating a background texture to match the "salt" around the edges of the champagne glasses as well as the gold in the jars in the mood board!  I used licorice glass beads to represent the seeds in the fruit. The flowers to represent the flowers in the jars.  And lastly - I used the colors around the sentiment of the mood board for the overall color scheme!

Again, I want to thank everyone at Scrap Around the World for giving me a vast amount of teachings and inspirations. I learned so much from all of you and loved seeing all the lovely creations made for the challenges too. I admire the way the SATW site was run and enjoyed the face book page posting the lovely winners so we could see them each one again.  It was all just done to perfection. Best wishes to you all. XO j. 

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Sunday, December 13, 2015

Thank You Helen: Scrap Around the World

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Hello to all my sweet artsy blogging friends!! 
Hope your holidays are off to a great start. 

Just about a year ago, I made my first ever scrapbook page for Scrap Around the World. I was so intrigued by all the wondrous visions of loveliness coming from their design team that I would spend hours looking at them all and watching videos.  

I was so shy and unsure of how to do anything at first... but I was determined.  And honestly, I had this tiny tiny spark of a dream that I would one day see my creation on the wall of fame at Scrap Around the World.  It just seems almost as good as getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard - doesn't it???? At least to me.  

So when I read that this was the last SATW challenge... truly - I was a sad gal.  I know it's the right thing and understand totally why it has to be but... there are so many super fine things about SATW.  For one thing... it was one of the best organized and well done challenges I have met up with yet.  Inspiring, motivating, impeccable scheduling, timing and follow-thru.  Professional. And for another... it offered such fine inspiration and teachings. 

So for me... this last Scrap Around the World page just HAD to be about SATW. It's a thank you... to you all with love! 





I began with 12x12" Craft n Craftin  'Rose' glitter cardstock and accented this with the same cardstock in 'Champagne Gold'. 

I modified the SATW banner a bit by adding Helen's picture etc and used Lindy's Stamp Gang Brushed Nickel Glitz Spritz on it and another piece of cardstock in a matching size. 



Although it's not nearly as wonderful as the mood board... I tried to copy "The Future is Bright" part of it just by hand drawing. Then drew in the colors with Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. 



The chipboard was embossed with Ranger Emboss It Dabber and Lindy's Stamp Gang Midnight Pewter. 




Again, Lindy's Stamp Gang was used in Flat Fabio Rizzo's Rowdy Red to spray the Prima flowers to match.  I tried a more pinkish color but it wasn't dark enough to match the rose colored cardstock!


The flowers were made into a nosegay type embellishment with some vintage lace I cut off of an old wedding dress. 



I tried many things to accent the edges of the cardstock but nothing seemed just right so... I got out my gelli plate and made some pretty paper - tore it and attached it randomly to the edges.  I already started tearing it when I realized I had forgotten a picture!

To make the paper I used:
Gelli Plate
Pebeo Iridescent Violet Blue & Fluorscent Pink
A Noodle Brush!!
Prima Finnabair Stamp 960889
The Crafters Workshop 'Art Is' by Jaime


I added the paper to the edges with DecoArt Decou-page.  I had already done the edges of the other pieces and put the layout all together when I decided to add the matching paper to the outside edges as well as some lace I had in my stash.  I realize the paper torn paper edges are a little different but I enjoyed them!


Here are a few extra pictures of the finished project. For me, this one wasn't as much about perfection (which is my ususal issue!!) as it was about saying thanks bunches to SATW!  When I think of Helen, for some reason I think of lace, glitz, sparkle and always flowers so I wanted to make my project with all those things!  

The picture of the girl with her hand on the glass seemed so perfect - saying goodbye but with the knowledge that we are all still here and will always be blogging friends and artists :)












Thanks bunches to for stopping by again to spend time with me especially during this busy holiday season.  I soo sooo sooo appreciate your comments.  My reply button is still not working but truly know I am thrilled hearing from you.  
Hugs, j. 




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Happily entering in the following challenges:

Final Challenge
Fabulous Finale - Mood Board

Thank you Helen Tilbury and all of those who helped you to make Scrap Around the World a life changing opportunity for us all. 
Best wishes to all of you and the new More Than Words Team too!  Hugs...j.

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