Designing Greeting Cards

Well it has been quite sometime since I last did a post….life sometimes just gets in the way, not to mention when you get into a creative slump and I am happy that I am emerging into creative space again.

Today I created a greeting card for my Valley Women’s Network – White Rock Chapter to welcome our new members.  I basically took a number of watercolor paintings I have created and took them into Photoshop Elements, using layers and a few filters to create the image for the front of the card.  We have been using Send-Out Cards to send Thank You cards to our guest speakers and now we  have added new members.  It is great to be able to create images of my original paintings and then upload to Sendoutcards.com so that we have original personalized cards going to our members and I am grateful to have this platform to highlight some of my artwork.

If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur and want to meet other like-minded women to network with in the Fraser Valley, check out our website for meeting dates and locations.  I have been a member for 6 years now and I really love all the new friends and connections I have made over the years.

 

 

Two mediums come together digitally

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I had done a post……much longer than I thought.  But today I decided it was time to get back to it.

I haven’t been creating too much art this past while except for some water colouring in my sketch book but I am starting to feel more inspired to get back to mixed-media.  Over the weekend I thought I would see what I could create digitally and decided to take the water colour painting from my last post and incorporate it with one of the sunset pictures I took while spending time in Mexico this past winter.  So here it is.

Bliss is a beautiful sunset

I used the sunset photo as the background then selected the girl from my water colour painting and then added a photo of one of my Encaustic paintings to add a more painterly look to the sunset along with a couple of little butterflies.  I used a number of different filters to get the effect I wanted.

Here are the image layers I used to create this in Photoshop Elements 10.

     Until next time, happy creating!

Michelle

The Joy of Trying Something New

When I was at the Art and Soul Workshop in Portland I took a No Fail Frescoes Workshop with Sandra Duran Wilson Abstract Artist. ( she is having a huge sale of her art work check her out on Face Book or at http://www.Sandraduranwilson.com) She uses Venetian plaster to add really wonderful texture to the canvas.

I had some scrap wood that I wanted to use for substrates so I covered them with a thin coat of Venetian plaster and texturized with stamps etc.

Joy

I then covered with acrylics and added some little Christmas trees I created out of sheet music and then crimped, added some sparkles etc. and now I have some nice little Christmas plaques.

Gratitude

Love

Peace

They were fun to make and will be good hostess gifts, etc. Now I have sparkles everywhere including my face....it is the season for sparkling.

Happy creating
Michelle

Let Your Light Shine

“Let nothing dim the light that shines from within.” Maya Angelou

This is the latest portrait drawing that I did with watercolour – I then scanned it and created a new digital collage.

Let Nothing Dim the Light from Within.

I had scanned a couple of my background pages from my art journal and incorporated them into the digital collage as well.
I have received my encaustic supplies and gearing up to start creating more with wax….stay tuned for my journey with encaustic.

Until next time happy creating…..

Michelle

Art and Soul Retreat – Portland

I was fortunate to be able to attend some workshops at the Portland Art and Soul Retreat the week of September 30. artandsoulretreat.com It was a wonderful experience and I loved all the workshops that I attended….4 all together.

My favorite was the first one with Serena Barton – Wabi Sabi Encaustics. I have her latest book and had not tried the encaustics until the workshop. I absolutely fell in love with this medium it is so organic and natural and there are so many things you can do. I have included a couple of photos of my encaustic creations – love the earthy colours and being able to add in fibres, fabric, paper, etch into the wax etc. I already love creating collages and now I can incorporate encaustics into the mix of things. I have ordered wax and I am gathering the other necessary tools and I should be creating more with wax soon.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend an art retreat, I highly recommend it as it is a great way to learn new techniques and meet other artists. I do hope to attend again next year.

Until next time
Michelle

Art Outside the Box

I was looking for ways to prop my art canvases up for a display I am going to do and thought why not use some old boxes as substrates and collage them to lean the canvases against…..kind of art on art. I took a contact solution box and covered it with some recycled paper and tissue, using gel medium and then added some clear gesso.

I used one of my face drawings and traced it onto artist tissue and adhered it to the box as well and then proceeded to paint the box with acrylics and oil pastels, add stamps, etc. and this is what I ended up with.

It was interesting using a 4 sided substrate and to see what I could come up with – this works great for leaning a canvas against as well.

Think art outside the box using recycled materials and voila.

Michelle

Your Paradise

Digital collage can be so much fun.  I took this water-colour painting I did in my mixed-media journal while I was in Mexico this winter and scanned it.

You can make the place you are now your paradise….

I then made a totally different looking collage out of it digitally using Photo Shop Elements 10  by adding various back grounds and using a variety of filters such as multiply, hard light and the water-colour filter.

Michelle

Embrace Your Journey

I have been AOL from my blog posts – April was a very sad month, my brother was very ill and passed away mid-April so I haven’t been very focused on my art or blogging.  But I am now ready to get creative once again.

Today I started playing around with a watercolour painting that I did while in Mexico which I scanned and then added some digital enhancement to it using Photoshop Elements 10.

Love. Focus your thoughts. Embrace your journey.

I included some background papers with various filters and then added some grass at the bottom using a Photoshop brush and then painted some grass background.  I added a handwritten quote that I had scanned as well.  I like how it all turned out and most of all it felt so good to be creative after such a long time…art helps your heart heal and feel so much lighter.

Until next time

Be gentle with yourself

Michelle

 

Believe in Miracles

I have been absent from blogging for a while probably because I haven’t been in a creative state of mind for a couple of months because I have been consumed with trying to get my mentally challenged brother the medical care that he requires.

One would think living in Canada that medical care was at your fingertips and easily accessible but that is not the case, wait lists to see specialists are incredibly long as well as to have special tests done such as MRIs and CT scans meanwhile the disease that you are trying to have diagnosed continues to ravage the body.   This has been the case with my brother.  By the time he finally received surgery  the cancer had spread so now his prognosis is not what we had hoped for – but I  have not lost faith and still ‘Believe in Miracles and pray that he will be able to rally and gain strength to fight off the remaining cancer and have some quality of life left.  What ever the outcome he is in God’s hands.

This piece is a 24 x 8  canvas that I was working on for some time and finally was able to put the words to it so I could call it complete.  It is by far one of my favourites and puts me in a happy place.

I used a variety of collage papers, burlap to make the hearts, watercolour, acrylics and some Iinktense blocks for colour.

Until next time

Michelle

Hope

Hope

Courage is like love; it must have hope for  nourishment.
Napoleon  Bonaparte

This post is dedicated to my sweet brother, who is mentally challenged and very ill right now – I hope and pray that he will be strong enough for his surgery in the next couple of weeks and recover quickly so that he can be back  home with his family and friends.

With love and hope

Michelle