Birch Tree Trunk Painting

Hello friends, a LONG time since I have blogged, or crafted. I have been keeping busy here on the home-front but this past weekend I decided to try a project I had seen on Youtube. A painting of some tree trunks on canvas, I used this tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pxEhveAktA

http://angelaandersonart.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/easy-birch-trees-kids-art-class.html

Here is my completed piece:

It was super easy to too, and looks effective on my wall in my craft room. I added some stamping to my background as you can see. A fun project that is great for anyone to try of any age, I highly recommend giving it a go yourself, I would love to see your versions!

Thanks for stopping by!
Annmaree xoxo.

Love Birds Canvas...

Hello again friends! Thanks so much for your warm welcome back to 'blog world'... I am definitely feeling renewed energy and enthusiasm to blog, and to create!  I also have a clearer direction in which I wish to head creatively... More into the Mixed Media / Art Journal side of things, altered art, and lots of inky, messy, painty, stampy, goodness!

So following that theme, today I have a Canvas to share, which I made from a Mixed Media Kit I purchased online at BlueBazaar here in Australia.

Here's a pic of the kit and contents:

It featured lots of items, many of which I had never used (or heard of) before.

Here's the product list:

Teresa Collins Map Paper

Inktense Block Antique White

Lumiere 2.25Oz Crimson

Neopaque 2.25 Oz Brown

Pinata Rich Gold

Basic Shapes Tracing Templates (masks)

Foam Paint Roller

Journal Texture Clear Stamp

Mister Hueys Opaque White

4x4 Canvas

8x8 Canvas

Paintstik Turquoise

I was a little daunted at first, looking at these blank canvases and all these products, wondering what on earth to do! But thankfully Blue Bazaar had a sample project sheet showcasing the items, on the canvases, so I decided to go along with that... Since it featured Birds, and I absolutely love Birds!

Here is my finished result:

I probably should have taken photos as I made the canvas, but I gave my full attention to the work, as I was worried it wouldn't turn out... But it was simpler and quicker than I thought. 

The steps were to tear the map paper to size for each canvas, stick it down on the canvas with gel medium, and when dried, going around the edges with the paintstik and rubbing the paintstik in to blend.

The brown paint was added thinly, and dabbed off with a baby wipe, and the journal stamp, so it just gave a vintage effect, as you can hopefully see on the birds:

I placed the bird templates down and went over them with the crimson paint and roller.

Once dried went around each bird with the white inktense pencil,  and blended it out... Also added some more paintstik to their bellies and blended it out... 

Then just went around each bird with the Gold Pinata Paint, this was probably my favourite of all the new products that I used! It was so metallic and shimmery! Very shiny and lots of sheen and a real metallic gold look about it when it dried, Very Cool!

I used the brown paint for their eye details, and the branch the baby bird is sitting on.

The heart canvas was made in much the same way as the birds - only used the white Mister spray on the heart template, so that it ran down the canvas, and melded with the crimson paint, giving it a very vintage and distressed look...  

I am quite pleased with how they came out, and have heaps of product left from the kit to make tonnes more canvases or pages! So it was great value for money, and I learned a lot, too.

I hope you liked seeing my Lovebirds Canvas today, I really enjoyed putting it together. This is definitely the type of thing I hope to do more of in the future. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and all your lovely comments.

xoxo

Meeting Donna Downey... (Photo Intensive)

(***Photo Intensive post ahead***)

Last month I had the amazing opportunity to attend some classes with Donna Downey here in Australia, up in Queenslands Sunshine Coast. Despite the poor setup and organization of the small classroom she (and we) had to work with, it was still a dream!

She was very friendly and wickedly funny, and shared lots of information with us. I found her to be very down to earth and helpful, and just a very inspiring woman with a bubbly happy spirit. Someone I definitely aspire to being like, personally and creatively.

When I, or anyone, went up to her between breaks to speak with her, or to ask questions she would give you her full attention, it was never an effort to chat, and she wasn't a diva either! Even when she was addressing the whole room, she made you feel like each individual was important and appreciated, and gave encouragement to ensure we all knew we could all do it, and were doing a great job.

The first class we created a canvas, and learned a bit about Color Theory, and products... This class was called "Techniques in Color"

(Promotional Poster)

We used Faber-Castell Gelato's and Big Brush Markers, as well as Faber-Castell pencils. This is where I felt it wasn't well organized/set-up, in my opinion... One tray of Gelato sticks for a table of 12...  Donna asked us to choose 3 or more colours from the same colour family for our canvas...  So all shades of greens, blues, reds, yellows/oranges, etc.... So when I got the tray there were literally like 3 colours left, a metallic purple, a skin tone pink, and a light yellow.... Now obviously picking the same colour family wasn't going to happen, but luckily I wasn't fussy and actually love yellow and purple, and pink too! The pink sadly didn't really come up though..

Here's my finished canvas:

 

I felt we ended up with a lot of waiting, and passing around, or just "making do"... Which isn't minded of course, but when you have paid good money for a class and you feel you are being rushed, or only making do, while waiting on others to catch up, makes you feel like the time and value is slipping away to nowhere... 

But back to the canvas;

We also used India Ink in a dropper bottle, to give this cool grungy effect with splatters. We used Donna Downey's stencils on the tags and canvas background.  As well as some of her sentiment stamps..

Here's a closeup of my finished canvas, with tags, washi tape, bit of stamping, some bingo card numbers, and an A for Annmaree ;-)

 The next class was called "Inspiration Journal" which was about the basics of Art Journaling, painting, and Mixed Media... We were able to choose our very own Donna Downey Journal from the box! Lots of colours and patterns were in there, but when I spotted this colourful baby, I knew it was mine!

 

While this class was the longest, at 5 hours length, it didn't feel (or show) that we got a lot done.... The main reason for that was the drying off between layers or pages. Unlike most classes I had seen online, where the cords and heat guns were on the tables - at this one they actually had the heat guns set up at the end of the room, so each time anyone (everyone) had to dry something (which was a lot!) we had to get up, go there, get in line, wait, dry, wait, come back, wait and get the next instructions. This took up the bulk of our time, and seemed rather wasteful and silly, especially when we were asked to bring heat guns - that didn't get used.  

Actually a LOT of the items they told us to bring, weren't even needed, I found... Especially frustrating for me, coming from Five and a Half hours away! Having to pack and travel with those unnecessary items on a train, and then a bus! 

But back to the Journal... Here is one background page we got done, first we stuck down tags, and painted over them, then puddled paint on, and drops of other coloured paints, and spritz with water, and let it drip and fall and move around the page, to make this groovy marbled effect:

 

This is some India Ink drawing she asked us to try on one of our painted pages... I'm not a drawer, so not 100% happy with these flowers:

 

 

This page was all about texture. We stuck down lots of different items, like paper towel, netting, mesh fabric, ric-rac, lace, doily, sequin punchouts, and went over the whole thing with Gesso...

 Its not a finished page yet, but I loved the idea of textures, and she really seems to love texture, too.

This is an image transfer technique we tried, Most didn't come out well....

 

This was my favourite page we did, which I also got Donna Downey herself to sign for me!

Its a canvas heart, with painted background and painted heart. But when the paint was dry, we went in with Oil Pastels and shaded the heart inside and out, to give the neat shadows and highlights you see:

 

(Live Inspired - Donna's tagline)

Such a simple technique really brought something so simple to life!

 Here is a page I finished  at home, employing a lot of the techniques I learned in this class and her signature item - Poppies!

 

 Here's some Photos of me and Donna Downey:

I kept giggling because I was so nervous to actually be in front of her and SPEAK to her! 

She even said in her wonderfully twangy American accent "Oh you're a giggler! I like that!" 

which of course made me giggle even more!!! 

 Here's another pic a friend got of me, 

as Donna was Signing my Journal: 

I am totally swooning here, aren't I? lol!

 

So all in all, Donna was amazing! I would absolutely go back to her classes and see her again if I had the chance, Only next time I would choose another location. Because of the things I mentioned with the poor organization and setup. The plastic garden chairs they had us sitting on wasn't great for the back, bum or posture, and it did get a little claustrophobic in the small crowded room when you were butt up to another person behind, and three more each side all trying to get up and down and around toward the front or back to dry pages etc... 

But the good definitely did over-rule the bad, and Donna was fabulous! 

I hope you enjoyed my photos, and I'll leave you with a few more of Donna from the classes I attended; Thanks for stopping by!