Mixed Media Monday - A few of my favourite things

I often joke that I'm an "art tart" because I love some many different mediums, techniques and styles, so it wasn't difficult to find a few favourite things for this week's challenge. I chose a stretched canvas, vintage papers, texture, tissue paper, a chipboard house and key and water soluble oil pastels as my favourites for this piece. The texture was achieved by spreading texture paste over the canvas, so that everything on top had some texture. I rubber stamped on the tissue paper so that it had a pattern but still let the texture shine through. The piece is 25x20 cm or 10x8 in.

Mixed Media Monday - Play Things

I've chosen "play things" as the challenge prompt on Mixed Media Monday this week. My play thing is the gorgeous little vintage bisque dollhouse doll from my stash that was dug up from a doll factory in Germany. She was made around the early 1900's. The piece is made from a cigar box, and the inserts were cut from balsa wood, which I painted. I also used different papers, lace and German scrap, a little shell, a minature bottle filled with beads, a minature wooden spool which I wound with gold metallic thread, and a rusty old vintage key.

Mixed Media Monday - Something Blue

Here we are at my fourth and final "wedding saying" themes on Mixed Media Monday - something blue. When I was thinking about what I could do for this challenge, two things kept coming into my mind - the blue bird of happiness and Neil Diamond's song - "Song Sung Blue". So I decided to use them both as my inspiration for this piece. The painting is done on a stretched canvas 20x25 cm or 8x10 in approximately. It is done in acrylics and some charcoal, and the words were printed from my computer and then glazed with acrylics.

Mixed Media Monday - Something Borrowed

It's "something borrowed" this week on Mixed Media Monday but I still wanted to play with my new Pan Pastels. I decided to "borrow" the quote from my favourite Quietfire rubber stamp, which I made bigger on the computer then printed it out and separated the words. The rest of the piece is done on pastel paper in my pan pastels and charcoal. The piece is mounted onto a stretched canvas, which was painted with acrylic paint and is approximately 20x25 cm or 8x10 in. I really LOVE working with the pan pastels!

Mixed Media Monday - Something New

On Mixed Media Monday this week I chose the theme "something new" to follow on from last week. My piece is done on a stretched canvas which is about 20x40 cm (8x16 ins). The new part for me is the pan pastels that I used to colour the face and hands, plus this is a very different style of collage for me. Apart from the pan pastels and pastel paper, I used tissue paper, acrylic paint, printed paper and plain, some ribbon and different pieces of German scrap and a some artificial flowers. This piece was inspired by a couple of pieces done by Deirdra Doan in the latest issue of Somerset Studios, and by the artist Gustav Klimt, who also inspired Deirdra's pieces - during his "gold" period he liked to use gold leaf.

Mixed Media Monday - Something Old

It's my turn to host a challenge again on Mixed Media Monday, and since it's my birthday today, I have chosen "something old" as the challenge :-) For this piece I used the back of a stretched canvas and glued some canvas around the sides to cover the staples etc., to make a neater surface to work on. After I painted the canvas with acrylic paint I added some gold star tissue paper with encaustic medium. I love how the wax made the tissue transparent - much more so than gel medium. I used a Victorian scrap butterfly for the wings and the stars and bird are chipboard painted with gold metallic paint. The something old is the adorable little bisque doll - she was dug up from the ruins of a doll factory in Germany, and is over 100 years old. I was amazed when I was going through my doll stash to find her - she looks just like my gorgeous little granddaughter, Lucy! So I think this piece will be going to hang on Lucy's wall.

Mixed Media Monday - Vintage Ads/Labels

Rosie is generously hosting yet another challenge on Mixed Media Monday. This time she has challenged us to use vintage ads or labels in our art. I'm hoping a label printed onto it's vintage tin will count :-) It was a golden opportunity to make another fun Dada style doll. My daughters tell me she's a little scary, but I still love her, grin! Apart from the vintage tin, I used parts from an old plastic doll, a gorgeous little light that my daughter grabbed for me when her boyfriend was fixing her car and silver charm hands. The "arms" were modelled out of a resin clay and painted to resemble the cherries on the tin. Just a bit of a fun play this week :-)