Making Magic - Guest Designer, Anything But Cute

I am absolutely thrilled to have been invited to be a Guest Designer over at the Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenges and I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Pamellia and her team for inviting me along, I am absolutely thrilled.

The Challenge Theme is "Making Magic" set by hostess Georgie and the challenge description is to "create a magical mixed media project strongly inspired by the colours and textures of the images in the mood board below"

I loved Georgie’s challenge theme “Making Magic” which conjures up so many thoughts, especially when combined with the imagery, colours and textures in the mood board.

Once I saw the mood board I was hugely inspired by the colours, textures and gold highlights. The first thing that hit me was the bottom middle picture, it looks like the texture from leaves to me, and that is, as they say where my piece began. I included a leaf from my garden which adds texture and life to my piece, nestled in the backdrop amongst layers of texture and paint.  The droplets in the picture inspired my use of a glue gun in my magical piece and I added touches of gold, dry brushed over the whole canvas to give a touch of opulence and light to the design. The browns, turquoise and greens showcased in the mood board greatly inspired my colour choices achieved from DecoArt Paints and Lindy’s Stamp Gang Sprays which give a real touch of shimmer to my design.  The mood board also conjured up thoughts of secret forests and hidden treasures for me and the facial image in the mood board inspired me to add a Sandra Evertson Relic piece for centre stage, which I aged with DecoArt products. Finally I added a feather to the background, applying Crackle Paste through a stencil, again inspired by the imagery in the mood board. The sprays, layers of paint, texture, shimmer and a touch of the garden really add a touch of magic for me and remind me of my garden which is a daily inspiration for my art.

I began my piece with a leaf from the garden, those veins and the texture from the leaf were greatly inspired by the mood board. I sandwiched the leaf between two pieces of wax paper, lay a cloth on the top and then ironed over the paper, I then removed the top layer of the wax paper, some of the wax remains on the leaf and so preserves it. I left the bottom layer of wax paper intact. I cut around the leaf and then adhered to my canvas.

I then applied a layer of DecoArt Matte Medium to the top of the leaf to protect it from any further layers I would add later. I then set it aside to dry completely.

I then placed the Climbing Vine stencil onto my canvas and applied DecoArt Crackle Paste over the leaves and set aside to dry.

Whilst my canvas was drying I took a Sandra Evertson Relic piece and applied DecoArt Crackle Paint randomly and set aside to dry. 

I then began to build my layers further. I added Glass Beads randomly around the central focal piece, inspired by the gold highlights in the mood board. I also added twine for added texture. I also added a feather, applying Crackle Paste through a stencil, again the feather was inspired by the picture in the mood board.

I imagined the relic piece to be nestled in a forest, amongst leaves and debris and again this was inspired by the mood board. I applied a dirty wash to the face using DecoArt products, I wanted the relic piece to resemble an aged piece that had been aged from the elements of being surrounded by woodland.

I added paint in layers, beginning with a light coat of DecoArt Green Gold and touches of Cobalt Teal Hue and allowing the first layer to dry. Once dry I then added a further layer of the same colours with a dry baby wipe to give a more random feel and to remove any hard edges. I also highlighted the leaves and feather by applying Pitt Pen around the edges and smudging with my finger. "magical" has been computer generated, again aged with a dirty wash to blend with the backdrop.

The droplets shown on the mood board inspired my use of a glue gun to add droplets to my canvas. I also dry brushed over the canvas with DecoArt Gold Metallic Paint to add gold highlights to represent the gold shown in the mood board.

The 'woodland' text is torn from an old book and adhered to the canvas with Matte Medium, adding a coat to the top of the paper too so that it is protected from any further added layers.

I added 'found art' using a Remant Rub and added rusty touches using DecoArt Quinacridone Gold Paint.

At this stage I allowed the canvas to dry completely and then took some time to add further touches of Quinacridone Gold Paint randomly around the canvas and then dry brushed once again with the Metallic Gold. I added delicate splatters of black paint for a contrast.

Adding layers of paint, twine, beads, a leaf from the garden, torn paper and embellishments really adds so much texture to this piece, it is so tactile; I love pieces that encourage you to want to reach out and touch them!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope I have inspired you to create some kind of "magic" for this challenge! Tracy x x