Do I look like I know what I'm doing?

This is my inspiration for you for the new challenge at All Dressed Up.

It's a strange title for a blog posting you might think ;) but do I really look like I know what I'm doing?   

Yes I can colour, yes I'm an artist - although you guys haven't seen much of that side of me.  I'm enjoying crafting so much I've not really got back into sketching properly yet!  I've done the odd water colour with some of the challenges but I've never dabbled with acrylics or modelling clay.

Mixed Media - what an earth is all that about.  Well my journey has been progressing slowly from noticing these fantastic creations, to getting some books and looking the whole thing up on the Internet.  Eventually I've started to get some bits - some canvasses, some acrylic paints, some stencils and other bits and pieces.  Flowers I've got in buckets as I'm always using them on my cards.

So here goes - it did occur to me afterwards that I should have taken more pictures at earlier stages - ooops!

The image I've used is Party Frock from All Dressed Up.  She's been coloured in pastel purple and black.  Once I'd coloured her I left her for a bit as I was originally going to make a card.  In the end I fussy cut her out.

The first pic of the canvas I've got to show you is where I've covered it with a huge piece of lace which I bought from The Ribbon Girl.  Over the top of this I used a Tim Holtz stencil, brick wall and some modelling clay.  I went over the centre portion of the wall a few times to make it more raised.

I then mixed some paint up and the only way I can describe it is I splodged patched of different purple shades over the brickwork and canvas.  Once this had dried I used some DecoArt clear crackle paint and some interference paint in magenta and blue - here's a close up of the wall.

Once all this had dried I trimmed the lace around the canvas then started to add flowers.  The majority of these were from Wild Orchid Crafts with one or two from Live and Love Crafts.  Here's a close up of the bottom right corner.

Here's a close up going towards the top left.

And this one shows the whole canvas with the added flowers.

Once all the flowers were set I added the final touches of the silver butterfly and dragonfly beads and my coloured image.

Ta Da!

To be honest I was totally amazed how this came out - not bad for a first go.

Andrea x

I'd like to enter this mixed media canvas into the following challenges

Create and Inspire - Anything Goes

Live and Love Crafts - In the Garden

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps - Summer Colours

That Craft Place - Anything Goes

Creative Craft Cottage - Flowers

Corrosive Challenge - Pile it On

Anything But a Card - Out and About

I Love ProMarkers - Anything Goes