Earth Day at Anything But Cute

April showers bring May flowers right? And also Earth Day! What do you think of when you hear the words Earth Day? Mother Nature? New growth? Earthquakes? I think of it all, but mostly what natural found items I can try to make art with. Tree branches, moss, flowers, bark and such are among the list that helped me design this reverse canvas.

Our new challenge at Anything But Cute is: Earth Day (celebrated on April 22nd). Hosted by the amazingly talented Samra of Paper Talk with Samra. Here's what she would like to see: Create a mixed media project inspired by this mood board (picture below) and the beauty of our planet. Please tell us what inspired you. Entries for this challenge can be eco friendly, or even recycled/upcycled items, or a depiction of the sea, mountain, river, forest, flowery meadow.....let's celebrate our planet! 

This is my first attempt at a reverse canvas. I placed some elements I knew I wanted to use and took a picture. Not very Earthy yet, but layers and paints and creativity will turn this into a Spring Earth Day design. :)

Now it's time to play with some paper. I trimmed out a rough shape and then cut out the middle section to leave room for my nest. I edged all sides with Ground Espresso Distress Ink and used a Rubber Dance script stamp to add some stamping. Then added some small little butterflies as well. I then used some texture paste that I tinted with Primary Elements to make it blue, I pulled the blue colors from the mood board. 

I used a bit of washi tape on the inner edges to help ground the front of the canvas and get rid of the space between the canvas and wood frame. Then added some moss, some grass (element from the mood board),some flower sprigs, and pieces of a stick. I also painted a chipboard butterfly blue (another element I pulled from the mood board).

The small eggs were made from polymer clay and then painted a light blue. The "spots" on the eggs were made with a brown Archival ink pen. 

I glued everything down with a hot glue gun just because I wanted to see the end result fast and couldn't wait for other glues to dry. Lol! 

The large chipboard in the left corner and on the bottom are painted the same way. I laid down a base of white gesso, applied DecoArt crackle glaze-dried naturally, then added the script stamp.  When the glaze was dry I swiped some Raw Umber antiquing cream over everything, heat dried it and wiped it back. Then I applied the blue paint randomly with my finger. And it is done! Show us what Earth Day means to you and remember to check out what my talented teamies have made! Hugz and Carpe Diem!

I would like to share this reverse canvas with these challenges:

Southern Ridge Trading Co-Anything Spring

A Vintage Journey #40-Spring is in the Air

Craft Stamper Take It/Make It April-Spring Flowers

I used lilac flowers

The Artistic Stamper-All Things Distress 

Creative Artiste #13-Anything Goes with Option to use Chipboard, Stencils or Flowers

I used chippies, a stencil and flowers

Rubber Dance Stamps April-Stamp into Spring

Creative Embellishments-April Mood Board

I was inspired by the blues, the black filigree, and the butterfly in the board. 

Wicked Wonderland

Ohhhh dearies, today has been a day. A day of frustration and everything that could go wrong, did. But that is okay because tomorrow is a new day and it's also Friday! TGIF! I really wanted to design something with a glass bottle, probably going to be years before I do it again. I also wanted to use polymer clay (it didn't turn out so it may show up on another project). Here is the end result.

I used gesso first but that didn't work well, so I added tissue paper around the entire bottle. I created an ombré effect around the bottom of the bottle using DecoArt paints and then added crackle paste over that.  

After the paste was dry, I washed it with diluted DecoArt Cobalt Teal Hue and then layered over that with DecoArt Interference Turquoise. It sure does shimmer and shine! 

I added the antiquing cream to the bottom of the bottle and then wiped off until I was happy. I used antiquing cream Titanium white on the lid. I added some snowflake rub ons as well. 

The snowflakes were painted to mimic the ombré paints of the bottle and glued down. SnowTex was used to add some faux snow and while it was wet Glamour Dyst was liberally sprinkled over it. More shimmer! 

I totally forgot to take in action pictures. Oops! Hope you enjoyed otherwise. Lol! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

DecoArte products used: 

Media Acrylic-Cobalt Teal Hue, Media Acrylic Interference Turquoise, Media Acrylic-Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Media Acrylic Shimmer Mister-Turquoise, Media Antiquing Cream-Carbon Black, Media Antiquing Cream-Titanium White, Americana Satin-Turquoise Waters, Media Crackle Paste, Dazzling Metallic-Shimmering Silver, Dazzling Metallic-Purple Pearl, SnowTex-Snow Writer, Glamour Dust. 

I would like to share this altered bottle with: 

DecoArt Winter Wonderland challenge

Country View Crafts #35-Be Inspired by Bottles

Southern Ridge Trading Co-January Winter Challenge-Anything Goes

Light and Dark Autumn Leaves

Wowzers! Can you believe it is almost December!?! What! Where did the time go? The leaves are falling here and the days are growing colder. I don't really enjoy Fall or Winter but there are 2 special holidays during this cold time that I very much look forward to, Thanksgiving and Christmas! I was out in my back yard today watching the leaves fall and the dogs play and grabbed a maple leaf. It was so textural and pretty, I decided to use it on my design. It also reminded me of having to rake leaves when I was younger. We had more than enough trees, but the fun part was when my Golden Retriever decided to play in the piles of leaves. Good memories!

When Daylight Savings happened on November 1st, I knew the light change would alter how I photographed my art so this design was inspired by the leaves and the light change. I started with my leaf and painted it with Gold modeling paste. Then cut out a square from some thick paperboard and added the gold paste to it as well. I used my Emperors Gold silks to go over the gold paste (note the bumps and textures-my Gold Silks isn't so silky anymore, it seems to be drying out) :( Then came a wash of Spiced Pumpkin Silks. After the paste and Silks was dry, I added some DecoArt Antiquing Cream Raw Umber to the edges. 

The leaf was popped up a bit with foam dots and a metal filigree charm was added. The A is self explanatory.  I was able to use my new Dymo labeler by adding the word "Autumn".

 While all of this was happening I had also cut out my base and applied the Silks Pumpkin to it as well. The crackle is a TH stamp and coffee archival ink. 

 Adding layers is my new challenge for myself, so I went about it. I used DecoArt crackle paste and the TH flourish stencil around the edge of the base. I did add some Distress Glitter to the wet paste. When it was dry I lightly sponged over it with coffee Archival ink. 

The gold tassel is just for fun! The Gold frame is from a local craft store and "painted" with Gold Alcohol Ink then washed with the Emperors Gold Silks after applying some DecoArt Crackle Glaze.  

I used my favorite glue, TomBow Multi to adhere the frame to the leaf piece. 

The frame looks rather vintage now! Awesome sauce! I do hope you aren't too cold wherever you are and you maybe had some fun while reading this post. Happy Holidays and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would love to share this wall hanging with these amazing challenges: 

Stamps and Stencils-Remember, Remember 

Frilly and Funkie-Let There Be Light

Mixed Media World #9-Anything Goes

Love to Create #22-Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Sweet Stamps November-Anything Goes

Sweet Stampin Challenge-Autumn Leaves