Playing with Tim Holtz's new Distress Crayons and Karen O'Brien's new book

I'm still enchanted by Karen O'Brien's Imaginary Characters and decided to give my new Distress Crayons a workout in my art journal to add color to my sketches.  Of course I had to add some stenciling into the mix.

I drew the image with my Stabilo pencil.  When water is applied it creates the shading.  I mixed the crayons with a little water on my craft sheet and applied the colors with a foam brush.  When I liked what I saw I added some rubber stamping with black permanent ink.

Very fun!  I highly recommend her book if you like this style of whimsical characters.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hugs ~ Renee

Please cast your vote for the Coloring Studio book cover!

There is a second coloring book by Stampington being released June 1st and there is a vote to determine the cover art.  Low and behold I did the coloring, not the original design, for one of the covers shown in the Creative Impulse newsletter.  Mine is Cover A.  Click on the Creative Impulse newsletter link if you're interested in voting.


This is my Inquisitive Owl mixed media piece.  I used Ranger Distress Crayons to color it in.

The voting closes on Thursday, April 21st at 10 am PST.  That's tomorrow!!  A friend just texted me this info.  What a surprise!

Talk to you all soon ~ Renee

Working my way through Karen O'Brien's book Imaginary Characters

Do you buy books by your favorite artists and work your way through the techniques in search of the magic that spills out into their art?  One of the artists whose work I truly love is Karen O'Brien.  She has a book out called Imaginary Characters which I adore.  I've been having fun trying to imitate her wonderful creatures.  Her technique tips use all of those hoarded supplies like watercolors, Distress Crayons, acrylic paints and of course my ever present, Stabilo pencil.  Today's project was executed on a wooden canvas from Hobby Lobby that measures 8" by 10" that I first coated in white gesso.  Then I drew my image in Stabilo pencil and painted it with watercolors using a water pen.  When it was dry, stamps were applied with StazOn black ink and the edges were distressed with MementoLuxe Gray Flannel ink.

Supplies used:
Peerless Watercolors
Gesso
Stabilo pencil
StazOn Black ink
MementoLuxe Gray Flannel ink
Delicata Gold ink

Ranger Distress Crayons

Stamps:
Stampendous
Dina Wakley
Stampers Anon

Stencil by Momenta

8"by 10" wooden canvas

Let go of expectations and just dive into a book by your favorite artist.  Use new techniques and tips with abandon, have fun.  We don't need anyone's permission to play and art is a great place to exercise that right.
Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate your visits, leave a comment if you have the time!  Hugs ~ Renee

Mixing Momenta and Hobby Lobby together for a Home Decor project!

I recently received an invitation to create a home decor project using Momenta paints and a base of some sort from Hobby Lobby.  First I received this WONDERFUL box of stencils and acrylic paints from Momenta.

Next I Googled the local Hobby Lobby and found one much to my surprise about 30 minutes from here!  They had all sorts of wooden canvases to offer so I chose a lovely one manufactured by Master's Touch.  This sort of canvas is made of birch wood and accepts nearly every type of paint, it looks great just hung directly on the wall when completed, no framing necessary.

The paints by Momenta are non-drip and offer full coverage.  They are creamy and blend easily with each other, also they mix well with water to provide a delicate wash.  So I began by painting the entire surface of the canvas with the white paint.  Now I started layering the different colors of paints using stencils to create an interesting background.

I knew I wanted to create a vase of flowers on the canvas so the background was a combination of Teal mixed with a tiny drop of brown, I used the lid liners of the copper and gold paint containers to make small circles of color in the area where I would later place the flowers and draw leaves.  None of the paint was going to waste.  The chevron stencil was used for the background and a smaller scroll stencil was used to repeat the blue color on the vase made from old book paper.  The remainder blue paint mixture on my palette was now blended with white paint and used to stencil a "tablecloth" across the bottom of the canvas.

To create the flowers, circles were torn out of the old book paper, then flowers were drawn roughly onto the paper with a black marker pen.

All that's left to do is arrange the flowers, glue them down and then stencil some leaves around the flowers using a Teal and Green paint combination and different tiny stencils to create texture.  The word Blessed was stenciled in Red and the edge of the canvas painted with the leftover Teal and Green paint combo.

The Red seemed a little bold so it was toned down with some white paint and then outlined with a black permanent marker.  The flowers were painted with a wash of Yellow paint mixed with water.  Small amounts of Red were dabbed onto the centers of the flowers.

Now I can call it done.  Here's a list of the products used on this canvas.

Master's Touch Wood Painting Panel from Hobby Lobby measuring 11" by 14"

Momenta Adhesive Stencils

Momenta non drip, all surface acrylic paints:
Teal, Green, White, Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Brown, Copper, Gold

Black permanent marker pen

Old book pages

glue, brushes, sponges

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will take time to experiment on your own with Momenta's new line of paints and the fun wooden canvases at Hobby Lobby.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Leave of message if you have time, I love to hear from you.  Hugs ~ Renee