Mixed media canvas - Video tutorial - FLY

Hello Creatives,

Earlier this month, I decided to make myself a set of affirmation cards (it being my birthday month annal) and jotted down what to write on each card. Some were lengthy, some just a single word. Over the next few days/months the plan was to include them into ATCs or cards ...but instead, looks like I've created two canvases now (you can see the first one here).

Take1 of this canvas didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, so I started over and definitely like this one better. The good thing about take2 was I finally got the time (& courage) to ditch my DSLR and shoot with the iPhone instead. Lol. Here is the canvas made with pretty Maggie Holmes Bloom pattern papers, design memory craft gelato, a whole heap of blue mists and inks. To finish my current favourite- the fine line applicator to write 'fly' , which stands for First Love Yourself!

I hope you can spare a few minutes to watch me create and let me know your thoughts. Thank you :)

Linking this project to
All you need is love - Scrapki Wyzwaniowo


Words & Paintery - Design team call and challenge submission

Abstract lotus canvas / painting

Hi folks,

Last weekend I decided to try my hand at painting again and have actually given myself a little (huuuuge) challenge of making  100 paintings.. I may not be able to complete a painting a day, but the idea is to paint something every day - watercolour, acrylic, oil anything really. Inspiration for this piece started on ISD from this post on Finnabair's blog and I decided to paint a lotus because of the deep meaning it holds - rising above the mud to bloom requires great faith in oneself.

As luck would have it, when surfing the net for lotus stencils / sketch I came across Donna Downey's huge lotus canvas and also her '40,000 Facebook fans video' available in her store for free. Equipped with a whole heap of techniques, I began my painting on a 12inch x 16inch canvas (primed with gesso).
Painting the lotus was my biggest challenge - wanted to give the feeling of light falling from the top. This close up was taken on day2 towards the final stages of completion, you can see a lot of turquoise in the background which I later painted over.

The canvas started off with seemingly random strokes and splashes of paint and Finnabair modelling paste (coloured with acrylic paints). When I was happy with the mess, I wrote these words from the poem 'A Psalm of life' by H W Longfellow using a fine line applicator and blue India ink.

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

   Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Let us, then, be up and doing,

   With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

   Learn to labor and to wait.

Then one part at a time I drew circles using the base of a mist bottle, the cap of a gesso tube and whatever circular stuff was on my table, covered the rest of the area in shades of blue. I also wanted the word act to show through, just lucky it happened to be near the lotus.

To finish , I highlighted some of the raised areas using gold acrylic paint and the same paint was used in a fine line applicator to write this on the lotus stem.

Act,— act in the living Present!

   Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Linking this project to Finnabair's ISD celebration - making a project with a quote.

Supplies from ItsyBitsy - Camel paint, fevicryl pearl paint, blue India ink