Foxglove's Mixed Media

Hello, everyone!  I've been working hard on some trades, but I won't show what I've made just yet.  I want to until the recipients have received them before I show them to everyone else.  In the meantime, I've also been working on some watercolor artist trading cards I've made: For the Lunar Moon (as always, I make two in case I make a mistake), I started off using the Donna Downey Bubbles stencil to draw a large circle. I wet the area inside the circles, and then layers watercolors in shades of red, orange and yellow.  For the 'craters', I dabbed shades of blue and a light purple while the paint was still wet.  When it was dry, I painted in the night sky and used a clear stamp to create the tree branches across the moon.  I finished by using white gel pen to create the stars.  The process for the planet was the same, except that it's all done in watercolors with the white ink splattered around to create the stars.  Thank you

Hello, all!  Thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out my projects!  Today, I wanted to show some insight in how I made some of my previous artist trading cards (ATCs).  Well, one was "previous" and one was completed today.  These are the cards (and altered puzzle piece) that I will walk through. First off, the newest project.  Since this is a new blog, I'm fairly certain that the recipient of one of the card won't see this yet, so I will go ahead and share. As mentioned, I like to make two of whatever I make.  One for me (usually the 'experiment') and one to trade. In the cards above, I randomly spread Dylusion paints onto the card with my fingers - the paints are so creamy, and blends so easily!  Next, I took some background alphabet and number stamps and stamped with Ranger's Archival Ink. When dry, it's permanent and won't smear if you add wet mediums to the card.  I also dabbed gel paint through a leafy stenc

I first heard about Artist Trading Coins (or circles) from the trading site ATCs For All.  A wonderful crafty artist Craftyhodges first posted about it on her YouTube channel here . She explains it, but for the purposes of this blog, it's a 2.5-inch circle that you art up, exactly like Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). I am in the midst of creating some more, so I will eventually share some pictures of the process, but in the meantime, here's a photo of what I submitted to the trading forums. Top Left: I stamped the bird onto Japanese text paper and colored it with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. covered paper with a layer of Mod Podge and set it aside to dry.  I then re-stamped the bird onto plain paper so I could mask the bird.  I then stamped the cherry blossoms and colored them in with Faber-Castelle brush markers. I glued it to a cardboard base to give it some thickness (formerly known as a Mt Dew box) and drew sketchy lines around the outer edge. Top Right:  I don't lik

Welcome to all!  I decided to start this blog to share my mixed media creations, with the goal of showing readers how I create my art and to hopefully inspire others to create (I will also share the occasional kitty pictures). I love mixed media - I love the textures, the various mediums used...it's messy and oh, so wonderful!  I am by no means an expert in anything, and I definitely am NOT an artist. But I am learning, I am improving and I do love to experiment.  Not everything turns out well, but that's part of the journey, am I right?  I have no trade secrets, so eventually I will post pictures of my progress from beginning to end. I trade ATCs For All, a very friendly site for both the experienced and the new creators out there - I highly encourage you to check it out if you haven't already.  I primarily experiment in small art - Artist Trading Cards, Artist Trading Coins/Circles, Inchies, Twinchies...you get the idea.  The largest size I trade are 5x7" canvas