a new way of painting

I recently discovered the Gellimat and my kids love using it. You paint this mat with a brayer and then put your paper on top to make a print. We would use different shapes to remove paint in areas which makes for endless possibilities.

just a note to say 'hi'

This is a card for a friend's birthday...even though the card says 'hi'.  I recently got a feather stamp (stamped at right) and just love it.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

• acrylic paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic)
• alcohol inks
• cardstock
• chipboard
• clips
• double sided tape
• embossing powder (for some of the stamps)
• feather
• gesso (white)
• mod podge (matte)
• punch (for the 'hi')
• recipe book pages
• silver ink

• stamps
• sticker (flower)
• stencil (of letters for background)

mixed media card

A generic card which are always handy to have around.  I love all the layers and the depth it gives to the card.

Here is a list of the supplies I used:

• acrylic paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic)
• cardstock (purple)
• chipboard
• dictionary page
• gesso (white)
• mod podge (matte)
• pattern paper
• silver ink
• tissue tape (from Tim Holtz)

Valentine's Day craft

Here is a fun idea that I had seen quite some time ago, a toilet paper role made into the shape of a heart. I used some tape to help the roll keep it's heart shape.  The kids had fun stamping their paper full of hearts.

mixed media card

My background started off with dictionary pages and then I used some wrinkled aluminum foil on top of it for texture. The butterfly I used was as an image transfer for another card and since there was still a fair bit of the image left, I cut it out and used it here.

Here is a list of the products I used:

• acrylic paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic)
• aluminum foil
• card stock (for bunting)
• chipboard
• dictionary pages
• embroidery floss
• gesso (white)
• mod podge (matte)
• pattern paper (for bunting)
• sand paper (to sand away some of the paint and expose the aluminum foil)
• sewing pattern

painting on canvas

The weather here has been really great which was perfect for painting outside. We bought 11" x 14" canvases and just used inexpensive acrylic paints. I watered down the paints so that they would run and also to be a bit transparent, since toddlers love to paint the same spot over and over. We let each colour dry and then painted the next colour.  The paintings turned out great and the girls had lots of fun painting them. What a great activity.

canvas painting

There was a garage sale down the street from us yesterday and we had to see what deals we could find.  I found a canvas wrapped picture of a tiger for $0.50 (can't buy a new one for that price) but I bought it for the canvas. We painted the picture with some gesso, it did not cover as well as I had hoped but by the time we are going to be done with things I'm sure that it won't matter.

We will hang this 'masterpiece' on one of our walls with 3M picture hanging strips. Have you ever used these? These are amazing, we just love them. I plan to paint over this masterpiece some time down the road and with these strips it makes it so easy to remove the canvas from the wall and put it up again.

painting with our feet

It's time to paint with our feet again, a thing my daughter loves to do. I tape down one of those plastic sheets you would use you under a high chair typically.  Then I tape down a piece of paper on top of that, I used the paper from Ikea that comes on a roll called Mala but you could use anything really. A few paper plates with Crayola washable paint and we are ready to do.

As a word of caution, the paint is a bit slippery so make sure your child is up for the challenge.

a June birthday

June is a busy month for my family, many birthdays.  Here is a card that I made for my Mom though it has no sentiment on it, making is useful for any occasion.

I recently bought a bottle Golden Fluid Acrylic in Manganese Blue Hue and I absolutely love it, not just the colour but also the consistency. I thought I would one colour first before purchasing more and now that I know how great this product is, I can't wait to get more colours.

Here is a list of what I used:

• acrylic paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic)
• alcohol inks (silver mixatives)
• card stock (dress of girl)
• chipboard
• dictionary pages (background)
• gesso
• pastels (hair of girl)
• perfect pearls (on dress of girl)
• stamp (text in background)
• stencil

Happy Father's Day

Here is the Father's Day card I made for my Dad.  It turned out a little more feminine than I had hoped, I'm still trying to get my colours right.  I used a combination of acylic paints, papers, washi tape and inks to create this card.

Happy Father's to all the Papas our there.

painting on a big canvas

I saw this idea and thought it was worth a try.  I was initially planning to check out my local thrift store but my father generously gave me this canvas for the project....perfect.

I took washable paint and watered them down slightly as I wanted the paint to run. My daughter tends to paint the same spot over and over so I figured if the paint ran a little, it would give a different look.  I used sponge paint brushes (that's all had in the house) and gave her 2 colours any more would have been too much. I also rotated the canvas so that more of the canvas would be covered. She had so much fun painting and now we have a great piece of art hanging in our hallway.

marble painting

It was a rainy day today which makes for the perfect opportunity to paint.  I can not recall if I saw this idea somewhere but needless to say, it is a fun idea.  My little girl is 2 and loves to paint and thought showing her some different ways of painting might be fun, so out came my childhood marbles.  

I taped a piece of construction paper to the bottom of a cake pan, I wanted to make sure that the marble would not roll on the floor.  Next  I painted a marble with some washable paint, make sure that the paint is not too runny otherwise it can be a bit of a drippy mess.  Now let the marble roll where it may.

The 'artwork' in process. We ended up using lots of different colours and I just love the way it turned out in the end.