Blackened Canvas

Sounds like a New Orleans entree', but it's really a fun art technique. One of my PAO friends directed me to this blog entry on Ink Stains  and I have been thinking about trying it for weeks. Finally got around to it this week end and I love the results. I even fell in love with the same Andy Skinner face stencil and had to order that (plus a few more, of course). I decided to do this in an existing art journal that I have some blank pages in so you'll notice a difference in sizes of the two sides. Here is the finished page with details below.

You start by adding texture to your base layer. The left side is canvas paper and the right side is handmade paper that has a texture like crumpled paper bag already. I added some tissue, napkins and torn cotton balls.

Then I stenciled with moulding paste with my new Andy Skinner stencils and a Club Scrap one that looks like open weave fabric.

Next you paint everything black with acrylic paint that has been watered down slightly, just so it flows into all the cracks and crevices. (Sorry, forgot to take a pic of that step) Add, some ephemera, broken jewelry bits, metal bits, etc. and test out the position of a picture or 2. Since this is in a journal, I tried to keep my bits fairly flat, but you could go as lumpy as you want.

And.......paint everything black again. Really looks good, huh? thought it was going to be a good candidate for the round file at this point, but I kept plugging along.

Now, comes the fun part. Get out your metallics. I had some silver and gold paints and a set of metallic rub on creams. If using paint, make sure you're using a dry brush that you've wiped almost all the paint off of first; we're going for highlighting the texture here.

 I added some more bling after gluing my pictures and words down. It just looked like it needed a little more sparkle.

I will definitely be trying this again!

Summer Glory

I had a very enjoyable birthday yesterday, quilting  and relaxing. My quilting friendship group started this sampler quilt, Summer Glory, earlier in the year. I've been slowly working on the blocks and made some significant progress this week.

First of all, I chose to pick my fabrics from all the leftover fabric from the 2 chicken quilts I made, so you may see some interesting patterns in some of the blocks. This one is called Stars and Flowers.

Here is one of the many birdhouse blocks throughout the quilt. 

This one is Dutch Tulips. I really like that cobblestone fabric for the tulips; it really pops.

A nice folksy flag block is next. Took me forever to do the stars until I figured out that they're just pieced, not paper pieced. Read the directions, Rachelle. 

Next is the Watering Can block. I was going for one of those old galvanized metal cans with coppery accents. Not bad, eh?

Birdhouses, Trowel and Star block. 

I have several more ready for applique, but I've made a good start. 

And this is another hand project I've been working on since arriving in Oregon. The day before we left Arizona, my friend Maryann stopped by and handed me this little baggy with hexagon templates and a sample flower. Well, I've been hooked on making little hexagon flowers ever since.

I'm trying to keep to yellow, brown, orange and teal blue, but it just keeps growing and growing. I guess it's headed to being a Grandma's Flower Garden quilt.