A Little Friday Free-style

Hi All! It's FRIDAY!!! Woo HOO!!!

Just thought I'd share a little project I did a while ago for the daughter of a good friend of mine.

Sophia is one creative kid, so for her 5th birthday last summer we threw an art party for her. This was the sign that I made for the party (which now hangs on her bedroom door). 

To make it, I covered an up-cycled canvas in black gesso and LET IT DRY. (We know the mantra right?) I decided to do the lettering using bright and bold papers from my stash. So I got out a variety of letter stencils-masks from Hazel & Ruby and used them to trace the letters, which I then fussy cut. Yes it did take a longish time, but it was worth it to achieve the look I wanted. I then attached the letters with Mod Podge and LET IT DRY.  After the Mod Podge dried, I doodled a couple of daisies on the canvas for interest using acrylic paint. When the doodles were dry, I have the whole thing another coat of Mod Podge and called it done.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the letters and doodles:

And here's one more look at the sign:

I hope you enjoyed a little canvas goodness today! Have a fantastic weekend!

Just Let It Dry....

Okay, so one of the things that I love about mixed media art is that there really aren't many rules. In fact, there's only one: LET IT DRY! For those of us who don't count patience among our virtues, this can be the hardest rule to follow. But OH THE PAIN when we break it!

I'm working on a little piece of subway art for a friend's daughter's birthday. I ran out and got some fabulous Hazel & Ruby stencils and went to work.

Step 1: cover the canvas with Mod Podge and gorgeous paper. 

Step 2: LET IT DRY. 

Step 3: one more coat of Mod Podge. 

Step 4: LET IT DRY. 

Step 5: Set your stencils. 

Step 6: Cover with paint. 

Step 7: Remove stencils

Step 8: LET IT DRY! 

Step 9: Seal with Mod Podge. 

Step 10: LET IT DRY!

Yeah. I went from Step One to Step 3. It didn't work. My soggy paper ripped and was just generally a mess. So I thought, hey, I'll just remove and recover. The outcome:

ARGH! So at the end of it all, I started over. I'm writing this while Step Two is taking place. The other canvas has been placed on the "upcycle"/"repurpose" shelf. (I never throw canvases away.) And now I'm humming a little ditty a friend of mine wrote and set to the Beatles' "Let It Be..."

All together now:

Let it dry!

Let it dry!
Let it dry!
Yeah, let it dry!

Work on something else, and 

Let it dry!