Wednesday, June 1, 2016

MMMC 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Happy 2nd Anniversary to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog!!!! It's hard to believe it's already been two years since Donna and I jump started this challenge, a first of it's kind! Thank you to ALL OF YOU who play along each month and keep our challenge thriving! 


We have a special challenge to celebrate... You get to pick from ANY of our challenges over the past year (the ones listed in the photo) to play along and be entered for a chance to win! Join in the celebration with our blog post here!

Our challenges this year were:
Summer Days
Get Texty
Photo Inspiration (colorful tires/birdhouse)
Haunted Word Search
Texture
Silver and Gold
Time Flies
Glitter
Photo Inspiration (eggs)
Dimension
Butterflies and Blooms



I wanted to recreate/mesh two of my favorite MMMC projects (Get Texty and Birds of a Feather from two years ago) so I grabbed inspiration from them both and created a mash up canvas! I am entering it for the DIMENSION challenge.


Our special guest designer this month is Jenny Marples from the Funkie Junkie Boutique! You won't want to miss her creation and be sure to check out all the goodies she's giving away!


NOW on to my project! Here are some steps to how I created my Dimension canvas...


I decided to try something new and used two canvases as one (so they need to be hung together to be complete). I started by adhering old book pages all over the canvases with matte medium. 
Then I grabbed a super old pack of chipboard Thickers (I know you have one somewhere!) and started gluing them to the canvas. I put the alphabet pieces where I wanted the 'flow' of my piece to go.
My next background step was to add some stenciling using The Crafter's Workshop Time for Love stencil. Then I applied a very thick coat of Distress Crackle Paint and heated it completely with my heat gun. My final background step was to gesso everything. I like to use Design Memory Craft Gesso for this step because it is very light, thin, and dries incredibly fast.

Yeesh that was a lot in one step! Keep with me here!


Next up is the fun part... GLUE ALL THE THINGS! I have a box of supplies that will only ever serve this one purpose... to be hot glued on a canvas and gesso'd. So I just grab whatever fits and plop it down. I used the three larger flowers as my anchors to keep the flow of the canvas. 
Then gesso them all and let it dry!


Before I start adding color sprays I do a couple base coats of Gelatos. I scribbled the two colors shown above, got my finger wet, and spread the color around. Once that dried I was able to spray with even more color!


I used three different Color Shine mists to get this pretty pastel look. After each color spray I did also spray over it with water so the colors wouldn't be so vibrant. I just love how it all transforms in this one step!!


I'll be adding these two Scribbly Birds to the canvas as my focal point. I colored them with Faber Castell Aquarelle watercolor pencils. Now I adhere my birds, a quote, and some other small doo-dads and call it finished!






Thanks for joining me and I hope you join in our 2nd anniversary challenge! Check out The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge for all the details!! Happy June!












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31 comments:

  1. Wonderful colors! I love your project!
    Maggie

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  2. what marvelous texture you created with all your blooms and other ephemera - your birds are so sweetly colored to match! Julia xx

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  3. Wonderful! Love the color, texture and style you created the canvas with and my try something like this my self. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Just beautiful, I love the pastel shades

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  5. Rachel, this is honestly one of the most beautiful canvases I have ever seen!

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  6. Gorgeous! Rachel Such a lovely colour mix- so fresh ! Love your birds and such wonderful dimension x

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  7. Beautiful project. Love the colors and dimensions.

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  8. Oh sumptuous Rachel - the colours and texture are stunning! xx

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  9. Rachel, I am in awe! I fell in love the moment I saw your pair of pastel canvas'. I'm not usually a pastel kind of girl, but you have used your colors to perfection! Love staring at all the "doo-dad's" and those wonderfully colored birds! I feel like I'm in a tropical paradise! Hugs!

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  10. Rachel, I am in awe! I fell in love the moment I saw your pair of pastel canvas'. I'm not usually a pastel kind of girl, but you have used your colors to perfection! Love staring at all the "doo-dad's" and those wonderfully colored birds! I feel like I'm in a tropical paradise! Hugs!

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  11. Gorgeous canvases, love the dimension & all the fun elements :)

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  12. STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL Rachel. Love the double canvas - wow. But I also love how your sentiment goes "up" - bottoms up!!! And after I read your sentiment it seemed to me like as your bird on top was climbing up... it was posting each word of your sentiment. Like footsteps - for the little bird to follow - encouraging the little fella to believe in himself enough to climb up and sit beside the bird already on top!!! It even looks like the bird on top is a bit brighter - indicating how fabulous it is at the top!!! Heheheheh - yes, I know - my imagination is wild sometimes!!! Nevertheless - your canvases are just WONDERFUL in every way. Xj.

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  13. Your piece is fascinating and memorable! So inspiring too. Thanks for sharing the process.

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  14. Oh wow, what a difference the Color Shine makes. Fabulous project.

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  15. Really lovely Rachel, amazing texture and dimension xx

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  16. Love the colours and the dimension is fab! Jane (Isle of Crafty Creations) :) X

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  18. what an amazing piece! gorgeous colors! thanks for the inspiration xo (made a mistake and posted the comment twice, sorry!)

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  19. Beautiful colors and texture, just love the dimension!

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  20. I just love those scribbly birds. They always make me happy.

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  21. Oh, i love the colors and all the wonderful details!
    This is just awesome :)
    Hugs, Maya

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  22. Wow !!!, fascinating work !!! I love the textures and volume ... and so bright colors are fabulous !!
    Thank you very much for the inspiration !!

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  23. Adore the colours in the project and adore Scribbly birds stamp set. Great project - love it!!

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  24. This is so very pretty - love your building of dimension. Great inspiration with one problem - now I need to buy gelato, haha!

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  25. I just love the pastel colours, and all the gorgeous textures.

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  26. This really is so beautiful - I loved seeing how you made the background! Chrisx

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  27. so beautiful Rachel,love the double canvas and the wonderful canvas !!
    http://kalasirjana.blogspot.in/

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  28. Amazing colours, textures, layers ... I love it all Rachel! Thanks so much for sharing it and happy anniversary to Mixed Media Monthly! Deb xo

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