Mixed Media Monday ~ Boxing Clever

This month’s challenge over at Mixed Media Monday is all about boxes! I love boxes and have a great collection; some have bits and pieces stored away and some are waiting to be altered or on call for the next school project. One can never have too many boxes.

The box I made for this challenge was made using my new favourite technique; cutting card to size, gluing and then paper mache with old text sheets to give it strength.

A few coats of paint and some varnish finish off the box. Then I embellished it with a few beads, a button and some ribbon.

I will put this box to good use as a gift box for a special person. I have bought a necklace that will fit in it perfectly.

Happy creating,

Michelle

MMM ~ Shrines

Mixed Media Monday has shifted to monthly and the theme for this month is Shrines. Having a full month has allowed me to create a more complex piece that I would usually do for the weekly challenge format.

I created this from pieces of card and added layers of old text sheets to strengthen the assembly.

Front with doors closed:

 

Inside before doors were added:

Details:

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – Art

This week’s theme at Mixed Media Monday is ART…

On considering the topic of “art” I come up against the same question often – When is craft art? Can I really call what I do “art” or is it just fancy craft stuff? As I was putting this art journal layout together, I realised that many of the arts / crafts I had listed were “ing” words – doing words (aka verbs!)….

Does this mean that the process of crafting results in art? The verb creating the noun?

Anyways, I started with a painted art journal page, done in monotone greens.

I added “craft” and “art” using Making Memories mixed font foam stamps in white and black paint. “When” was stamped using the Basic Grey alphabet stamps with grey paint. Text was handwritten in black, white and silver gel pens.

Thanks for stopping by…

x Michelle

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Mixed Media Monday – Seeing Red

It’s been a while since I have popped into Mixed Media Monday, but with this weeks theme of Seeing Red and after making these fun cards, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

The details of using the Serendipity Technique to make these cards is over at MixedMediaArt.net

Thanks for coming over to look! You are most welcome to leave a comment!

Happy creating,

Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – Party Animals

The Party Animals have been let loose over at Mixed Media Monday this week. My barnyard animals are having a party…

This is another page in my art journal. Background painted with two shades of blue. Grass uses green card and highlighted with dark green on a dry brush. Edge cut with sharp scissors. Animal stamps by Fern Gully Stamps. Harold coloured with Faber-Castell pencils. All stuck in with double sided tape. Text by me.

Hope your animals have enjoyed their parties!

Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – It’s not all black & white

Mixed Media Monday have issued the challenge that’s “Not all Black and White“. So I delved into the Black and White box to see what I could find.

Black and White ATCs with a splash of colour!

The six ATCs all feature border stamps from Collections and text from Stylish Images, stamped in Graphite Black Brilliance ink, on an offcut of pearl sparkly board. The card was cut into 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ ATC size pieces. Images from Somerset Studios 2006 image CD, printed in black and white. The coloured paper and black and white scrap across the bottom came from my collection of coloured paper bits.

Happy to trade ATCs, from one through to all six – just send me a message!

Happy creating!

Michelle

P.S. Mixed Media Art now have a mailing list! Come and see what we are up to!

Mixed Media Monday – Romance

Romance is the theme over at Mixed Media Monday in the lead up to Valentines Day.

The background for this spread was created back in 2008 as part of the GPP Street Team Crusade (which you can find here). It was done using the Gesso Resistance Technique. Staz On Stone Gray ink was used with Collections stamps (Flourishes Sheet #1) to add the hearts and swirls. The image is from Somerset Studio CD 2006. Purple and pink buttons from Fiskars embellishment collection. Music sheet and gold thread from my vast collection of stuff.

I don’t do a lot of stitching in my mixed media work (well, at all, for that matter) but I wanted to balance the gold thread in the buttons, so I added the stitching to the right side of the image. I’ve also just noticed that I didn’t layer the image to give it a border of black before adhering it to the page… slightly unusual for me, but this way it sits into the page, rather than standing out. The overlaying stamping is also used to tie the pieces together.

I’ve had fun creating this piece this morning – with my youngest son starting school just last week, I’m hoping to have more creative time during the day (and the housework and garden be damned!)

Please add your comments below. I’m off to see what you’ve been up to!

x Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – What was she thinking?

What was she thinking? That’s what we had to determine this week over at Mixed Media Monday.

I had a great time creating this art journal page. I created the background using my favourite mixed media art technique; I painted the background with gesso and acrylics, and added Collections stamps in Staz-On. The girl was attached with craft glue and I gesso’d over her dress to provide a definite outline. I made a paper template for her dress, then transferred it onto the map paper. This was cut out, gesso’d and details added with Collection stamp, pink pencil and Twinkling H2Os.

Animal stamps by Fern Gully Stamps. Bird stamp by Rhonna Farrer, Autumn Leaves. These were stamped onto dictionary paper and coloured in with pencils.Heading written by hand with silver pen and pink Sharpie pen.

Thanks must go to Diane, who does such a great job conducting and co-ordinating our Mixed Media Monday challenges each week. And thank you to all of you – each of you, with your viewing and leaving lovely comments, really have make the MMM community a fantastic one and one of my favourite challenge groups.

Until next week, keep creating!

Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – Wings

We are spreading our wings for Mixed Media Monday this week.

This series of cards came to me as an inspirational flash, which does happen on occasions but I’m not always able to make it look exactly as it did in my brain. This was one of the rare instances it did!

I had these Darkroom Door stamps out last week for our Something New theme. The images must have stuck into my brain. I imagined a fiery orange sky at sunset. Silhouetted dried grasses waving in the warm evening breeze. And a lone butterfly heading off for the night on her delicate wings.

I got a little melancholy while making these cards. My youngest son is starting school in February; he is spreading his wings and will most definitely change into something new, under the influences of his teacher. Then I started thinking of the sun setting on his pre-school days and his “big boy” days about to begin…. deeper thoughts than I usually have while creating – may be I’m beginning a new phase as well; I will definitely have more time on my hands (yippee!!!)

Background created with Yellow Cadmium and Amber Clay Chalk inks, applied with a brayer, on semi-gloss card stock. Darkroom Door Wildflower stamp set, stamped in Jet Black Staz-on and heat set, just in case it didn’t dry properly.

Would love to hear your thoughts…

Happy creating!

Michelle

Mixed Media Monday – Something New

Hmmmm… Something new… something new… Could I possible have something around here I haven’t used before? Well, there are those nice background papers and border punches that my sister gave me for Christmas. And maybe those Darkroom Door Stamps that I bought at the Beachhouse Boulevard stamp camp…. Was it really back in July and I haven’t even mounted them yet, let alone use them? Surely not! Well, maybe… yes.

Mixed Media Monday has challenged us to do or use Something New this week. This is what I managed to scrape together:

After getting those stamps cut and mounted, I made a few simple cards:

Using these stamps were pure pleasure. It was such a delight; the Brilliance Pearlesent Lavender ink just glided onto the ivory semi-gloss card, leaving an incredibly crisp image (right hand side). The image in the left was stamped with Chalk ink. Both colours matched the background papers perfectly.

It was great spending the day making a few simple cards and remembering the joy of papercrafting, and why I had started in the first place.

Hope your day was just as joyful,

Michelle