A Mixed Media Weekend

The Deeply Rooted house is fully recovered from the Holidays, but now we're gearing up for a birthday party! My youngest will be turning three in a few weeks, so expect a nice, big post all about that in the coming weeks!
I recently had a great weekend up with my parents, without kids! It doesn't happen very often, but it gave us a great chance to catch up, eat, shop, and craft! I was very impressed...mom created her first canvas piece! I have a feeling she's hook on the mixed media style, because she's already sent me pictures of her new Zentangle journal, complete with a collaged cover!
I used the weekend to finish up one canvas, and then did one alongside mom, as well. The shopping trip was a great success, because I found the rub-on sentiment that I ended up using on this piece.

  I gave her a berry wreath for her hair, which I *love*. It doesn't stand out that much, but I feel like it gives her just enough interest.

I also used white rub-ons to give her flowers in her hair. I colored them with my Faber Castell big brush pens.

I'm thrilled to debut my mother's first canvas, as well! She seemed to have a great time making it, and I'm proud of how she finally 'let go' and let the piece create itself!

Not bad, eh? I love it! It's great to be able to make something you're proud of and be able to see it every day. I'd love to see your favorite creation! Leave a link in a comment so I can come check it out!

Random Acts of Cards, Week One!

Hello, and Happy New Year!! The Deeply Rooted house was crazy busy over the holidays, first getting the nasty stomach bug that has been traveling around, then with the holiday family get togethers and parties. Everyone had a great, safe time!
One of my New Years goals this year was to actually USE the cards that I love so much to make. I'm really great about making the cards, but then they tend to sit in a photo box, tucked away in the abyss of my crafting land. The first card I'm sending is one that you've already seen on here, but we're revisiting it for week one of my year-long Random Acts of Cards.

This is Girly Face. I made this card back in August, and I love how she turned out! Here's a recap of the instructions and materials:
"This little Girly Face was sketched onto a dictionary page and cut out. I used Faber Castell gelatos for the cheeks, and I used Faber Castell Artist Big Brush Pens to color the scrap doily hair. Buttons for eyes, scrap papers from My Mind's Eye (Stella Rose) for the backgrounds, paper tape from Recollections for decoration and Thickers letters complete the card. I adhered everything with Mini Glue Dots."


So, week one, done! One of you can expect this cute thing to end up in your mail box in a few days! I have a big list running of recipients for the year, but I have a few spaces I need filled. If you'd like to be added onto my Random Acts of Cards list, let me know! Leave me a comment here with your email address and I'll get in touch with you to get your address.


Until next week, get out there and send those cards!

Hi Girly Face!

I finally got a chance to read through my latest issue of Paper Crafts Magazine, and I felt the creative urge to get back to craft land a make something whimsical and fun. I had a basic idea in my head, and here's what I came up with!

Girly Face 'Hi"

This little Girly Face was sketched onto a dictionary page and cut out. I used Faber Castell gelatos for the cheeks, and I used Faber Castell Artist Big Brush Pens to color the scrap doily hair. Buttons for eyes, scrap papers from My Mind's Eye (Stella Rose) for the backgrounds, paper tape from Recollections for decoration and Thickers letters complete the card. I adhered everything with Mini Glue Dots.

I think she's a lot of fun!! Can't wait to have more time to make her some little friends and get a card pack together!

Spreading some birthday love -- mixed media style!

Hey, guys!
Was it me that said I'd have more free time to craft, photograph, and blog in my last post (two weeks ago!)?? Surely not. :)
I'm living vicariously through a lot of different friends right now...some on family vacations, some at the Stampin' Up! National Convention and some at CHA! Let me just say I'm jealous of each and every one of you!!
Things have been busy, but I've gotten some new inspiration and a new found crafty love to share with you!
First things first, I have to give all of my new-found-crafty-mojo love to the ever so talented Christy Tomlinson. You may have heard of her...like the lady who build the most awesome kids playhouse on some little new craft show on TLC!! The title of 'winner' was robbed from her, despite her amazing creation. I loved how you could see her artsy, crafty touches all around (inside and out, may I add) her work.
After the show, I looked up her blog and
FELL.
IN.
LOVE.

Her art is amazingly inspiring, and her YouTube videos are the best! You can find her blog here and here's a link to her YouTube channel. (this is the specific video I watched roughly 17 times to learn heads from tails in mixed media land!)

Here's my try at some Christy-inspired goodness!!

Mom picked this one...

...and this ended up being Kasey's.

I made one for my mom's birthday and one for my best crafty friend's birthday. The hardest part was deciding who got which!! (Mom ended up picking because she saw them first.)

Here are a few close up shots with some detail:

Modeling Paste

Pen doodling

I've really never loved anything I've created as much as these two pieces, and I know they'll live in great homes from now on.
I'll check back in my next post with all of my materials, beginning your own mixed media art, and a few techniques I learned along the way!

My First Mixed Media Canvas and a HUGE Thank You!

Here it is!! My first mixed media canvas. I had a lot of fun making this. I did it in several steps, spanning over at least a week. I like to be able to do a layer, step back and take a second look at it, and come back to it with a fresh perspective (plus I needed a lot of drying time in between!). I have to admit that I got a lot of inspiration from a fabulously talented artist/designer/everything else named Mou Saha. Go check out her blog sometime. It's definitely worth linking up to! (and I'll just go ahead and admit now that attending one of her classes in Florida is on my bucket list!!)
This canvas was a Christmas present to a wonderful friend who is taking life by the horns and really proving and shaping themselves right now. I wanted to make something that would be an inspiration during the hard times and somewhat decent to look at during the good times :) Luckily, we exchanged gifts early this year, so I can finally post about this project!!!

I feel like I've crossed over from making projects to actually creating something with this piece. For the first time, I understand what artists feel when they are composing artwork. Each element, from the dress pattern layers to the color underneath, the images to the fibers, mean something to me. Every item added to this canvas has a meaning. And while someone might not 'get it', or even appreciate anything about it, to me, it means a lot (and hopefully to the recipient, too!!)

Babble, babble, babble, right?? Ok. On to the steps.

Step One: Prime canvas with gesso, let dry (overnight-ish). This particular canvas came pre-primed, but I'd rather play it safe.

Step Two: Get crazy with gelatos!! Faber Castell makes these amazing little color sticks called gelatos (more info about them here). They go on like a crayon, and once they're wet, they blend amazingly! I tried several different methods to blend my colors (wet paintbrush, baby wipes, fingers) and ended up liking using my hands the best. It was a lot easier to control how much got blended. Once you're happy with the coloring, let dry (doesn't take very long!)







Step Three: Next I decoupaged old dress patterns onto the entire canvas (they're in the bottom of that picture up there). No real rhyme or reason to this part, just overlapping a bit as a go. Drying time for this was a few days!

Step Four: Play!! Once your canvas background is all ready, you get to create and play! I inked up some Grungeboard letters and used some Grungepaper through the Cricut to cut out the bird house (from the Serenade cartridge). The bird was cut from the Serenade cartridge from cardstock, traced onto a piece of plain muslin, and decoupaged onto the canvas.

added some curled wire for detail

popped this off the canvas slightly

inspirational phrase

I can't wait for inspiration and a few extra days to work on my next one. I think I'm hooked!! (plus my canvas came in a two pack!)

This will definitely be my last post before I'm off on a holiday for a bit. Thanks, everyone, for a GREAT 2011! A huge thank you to Glue Dots and Becky at Friendship's Garden for taking me on as a designer this term. This blog was started because of you all, and it's turning out to be such an amazing journey!! 

I'm looking forward to all 2012 has in store. It's going to be a great year!! Merry Christmas!!

Art Journaling

While I was waiting for paint to dry last night (literally), I made this little ditty in my art journal. Getting the hang of those gelatos finally!
Rough? yes.
Amazing? not really.
Part of me and where I'm going? yes.