Painted Collage

Remember that collage I did for Craft-a-Palooza? Well, I finally decided what to do with it. One of my favorite animals is a duck so I decided to paint a duck on my collage! Since I used mod podge (AKA shiny, school glue based paste) I needed to use acrylic. Oil could've worked as well. Using a small paint brush, I free handed the outline of a duck. First I tried black but that just blended into the background. Then I decided to go with white. I covered the black outline with white then filled it in.

I had to paint a couple of layers to completely cover up the background and blend in the brush strokes. Easy beezy cute collage!

Triptych Completed

This week I finished up (mostly) my triptych. I like how it turned out!

I couldn't get rid of the glare. The blue is actually more of a denim blue.

Here are some close ups of the third piece. I couldn't get rid of the glare.

For the middle piece, I made a collage (which I loved and hated to see go!) and then masked off the tree. Then I gave it a good coat of paint followed by modpodge.

I haven't hung them up yet, but I will.

Maybe I will try for some better pictures later--
til then, enjoy.

Triptych, part 1

Jasmine made a collage I just loved at our craft-a-palooza last December, and I have been wanting to try it myself. I have pondered and wondered what I should do. Finally this week, with the help of a friend (thanks, Alisa), I made a decision.
Today I will show you part 1 of the triptych (a three paneled artwork) that will hang above my mantle. I hope Jasmine doesn't mind that I am going to steal her collage for my craft.
So... I decided to have 3 collages with a branch crossing all three. I may put a bird on the branch of the last one. For the first panel, I used all black and white prints from magazines for the background. I used Modpodge to adhere them to a 12" x 12" flat canvas.

Next, I found a picture of a branch I liked. I was too lazy to go outside and take one myself, but that would have been cool!
I told my printer to print it on multiple pages (3 x 3). If that doesn't work for you, you can crop out sections of the picture one at a time and use the Paint program to make them the size you want.

Next I cut out the branch and laid it across the three canvasses. It didn't fit exactly, so I stretched some pieces and added some smaller branches here and there. (I decided to use a different branch, as you can see.)

Take a picture so you can remember how it goes after you create the stencil.

Now, create the stencil. I used my Xyron machine with a temporary adhesive. It was a little hard to see exactly where the clear laminate was on my canvas, but it worked ok. I also used masking tape.

I carefully dabbed on the paint and let it dry. I added a quick coat of Modpodge over the paint. I carefully removed the stencil and did some touch up. It isn't perfect, but I like it!

Stay tuned. Next week I will show the finished triptych.

Craft-A-Palooza: Collage Painting

So I made the collage for Craft-A-Palooza and then I made another one. This time I wanted to do something I saw on Pinterest but not exactly copy it. They took a collage, covered part with a stencil and then panted over the rest. It was quite pretty but I didn't want a bird. So I chose a bear. I Googled animal silhouettes and found one I liked. I adjusted the picture to the size I wanted (print preview helps you gauge the size) then printed it out.

Then using my mom's sticker maker machine thing-a-ma-jig I made it into a sticker. Strategically placing my bear silhouette, I stuck it to the dry collage. Side note: I spent a lot of time and effort to make one spot on my board look good since the rest was going the be painted and wouldn't show. I just left the part I knew would be painted boring.The mod podge glue was slick enough the sticker would be easily removable.

Then I painted over the whole board. I could've been a little more careful around the edge of the sticker. A little bit of paint went under the edges but oh well. After the paint dries (either mostly or all the way) I took off the sticker. And voila, a collage painting!

Here's a tip:
If you want texture when doing mod podge, allow there to be air pockets or wrinkles in the paper. If you want it to be smooth, good luck! Just kidding. Apply the mod podge all the same direction (to the left or up or whatever.) Also, apply smaller piece since it's easy to get air out if it gets under there. When applying pieces, start from one side and work to the other. If you do all the edges then the middle, you're going to have some air under there. When you paint over the collage you can see the texture a whole lot better.

Craft-A-Palooza: Collage

The first craft I did during Craft-A-Palooza was a collage. Since I still had some old gossip magazines, I thought it would be perfect to rip them up and use them. Collages are pretty simple to do. I decided to rip pieces instead of cut them out to give it a different look. I also went the long time consuming route and organized all my pieces by color to make sure I evenly distributed colors on my canvas board.
All you need (is love) is mod podge or watered down glue, a canvas board, and lots of ripped pictures from magazines. Fashion magazines or magazines covering red carpet events are great because they offer a lot of different patterns and fabrics that you could use. I avoided using people's faces or body as much as I could. First, I covered the board making sure to get the edges. Paint a layer of mod podge on the board then lay down your pieces. Try to get all the area coated in mod podge to avoid air bubbles. I chose colorful pages in case the background showed some after covering the board.

 (yes, that's Zac Efron's attractive little face)

After letting that dry I started putting on the pieces one at a time first applying mod podge then placing the pieces over the wet area. I painted another layer of the pieces to make sure they stuck and other pieces would stick if they overlapped.

I filled up the whole board which took quite a while since I was being very meticulous. And just like that, you have a wonderful collage.

You could also do it in a color theme (ie warm colors, cool colors, secondary colors etc.) I think maybe I'll do that next....when I get a break in homework!

Summer silhouette painting: rough draft (project in progress)

Happy Memorial day! We're grateful to all those who have helped to preserve our freedoms.

Don't forget: today is the last day to submit your version of Jaime's scrapbook sketch!

Some people in our family have natural talents with the visual arts. I'm not one of them.

I'm okay with that. But every once in a while (Who am I kidding? I'm Wayward! This happens all the time!) I get an idea for a craft in my head and I want to make it whether I really know how to use these media or not.

In this case, I've had a vision for my daughter's room basically since she was born. I haven't gathered the courage to do it yet, but after seeing this silhouette painting tutorial on Sisters of the Wild West, I'm inspired to make it happen.

What I want to make:
A framed silhouette painting. Since it's the unofficial beginning of summer, the painting is inspired by the carefree whimsy of summer and childhood. I want to paint it in the colors of my daughter's room: cream background with a rose pink silhouette.

I've been planning to make a computer graphic of the picture I had in mind and use a computer project to project it onto a canvas to paint.

Here's the rough version of my image, a collage of Creative Commons licensed Flickr images:

I'm still thinking about and tweaking the individual elements, of course. I've been consulting with Brooke, resident painting expert, on exactly how to make this happen. She advised me to use a pre-stretched canvas (which is a lot cheaper than I thought if you're using a standard size) and said that the latex paint we used on the walls would work fine as long as it dries between coats.

I'll keep you posted on my results!

What do you think? What would you put in a summer silhouette painting?

Photo credits from the collage: water—Lois Elling; sitting person and his other leg—Chris Palmer; 

tree—Laura Nolte; tire swinger—Amit Kotwal