Ho Ho Ho - Merry Christmas

From all of us at Mixed Media Mojo - we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Barb is sharing one of her canvases for this year.

See you January 1, 2015, for our first challenge for the NEW Year.

Pet Christmas Decorations

Hello all! Niki here (aka Pawsitively Creative) on the blog today and as some of you may know I am a vet tech that loves her furry family members. I make this dog biscuit wreath ornament for them every year, so I thought I would share my process.

First, get your supplies ready.

 Using old cardboard boxes cut out a round wreath shape. The size of the wreath depends on the size of your treats (cat treats work as well). I like to use wired ribbon because it holds the treats better. Cut a very long piece of ribbon (more than you think you will need.) 

Grab your glue gun and attach your ribbon at an angle to the back of your cardboard. 

Next-wrap your ribbon around your wreath and insert treats at every new wrap. Does that make sense?

Continue wrapping and inserting treats until your entire wreath is done. The last wrap will be the top of the wreath so make sure your ribbon is long enough to reach the back of the wreath. We don't want the end to show on the front. Use your glue gun to secure the edge. You can stop here, or to add an elegent touch, use an embellishment or a holiday pick to attach to the front top. I used 2 gold leaves and some gold balls. 

This is an easy way to include your pets in your holiday festivities. TIP-some animals have allergies to certain foods so remember to get hypoallergenic treats if needed. TIP-make sure these wreaths are out of reach of pets! We wouldn't want them to eat the ribbon or cardboard!!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays to all! If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer ASAP. 

Carpe Diem!

Holiday Ornament How To

Barb here - telling you how I made this ornament.  There are many ideas all over the net on how to decorate the glass bulbs you can buy at the craft stores.  This ornament is one I did this year.

This one of the flatter ornaments so the front surface is a good one to do some artwork on.

I first primed the glass with Gesso.  I had bought some clear Gesso and wanted to try that.  Here is what it looks like on the front of the ornament.

Not really that clear.  Hmmmm - false advertising.  I used regular Gesso on a page of a book and then stamped my snowman (Paper Smooches).

I colored the snowman with my Big Brush Pens from Faber Castell and carefully cut him out.  I used gel medium to put him on the front of my ornament.

Oops and once again I forgot to take pictures of what I did so get your imagination working here to see what I am talking about.  I used embossing paste and made a snowbank for my snowman to sit in.  I then used my distress paints and colored the sky.  After it was dry, I used a new stencil and made those random dots with more embossing paste.  I added some snowflake stickers I had.  I brushed the snowman and snowbank with a glitter and glass bead gel from Faber Castell.  I used more normal gel medium over the top of the sky to set the color and the stickers.

I decided I wanted to fill the bulb with some sparkly gift bag shreds.

Lucky me - I found 3 bags of these shreds in my supplies so guess I need to get busy and make some more ornaments.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.  Make sure you enter our monthly challenge.

Mixed Media Mojo December Challenge

Welcome December!  I can't believe it's the holiday season already!  This month we are making mixed media projects for the winter holidays with a twist of ornaments.  Before we get to the beautiful creations of the design team let's announce our winner and Guest Designer for January from our November challenge!

And the winner is:  BECCA from The Damsel of Distressed!!  Becca we would love to have you as our Guest Designer for January!  Please contact Maria at riann1973 at yahoo dot com.

Now let's take a peek at what the DT Created this month:

Barb

Maria

Kim

Niki

Shery

Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to see what you come up with this month!! And this month's winner will be our February Guest Designer!!

Maria

Thanksgiving Place Cards.

Hello again, Niki here aka Pawsitively Creative. I wanted to share a tradition in my family with you all today. This also goes with our challenge this month at Mixed Media Mojo-the theme is THANKS. You still have time to enter!

Every Thanksgiving my Grandma and I make name cards for everyone that is coming to Thanksgiving dinner. My Grandma is a proud 87 years young and she can't craft like she used to so I made these for her this year, with her input of course. Someone has to be the boss right? :) Unfortunately we won't be together for Thanksgiving, I just wanted to keep our tradition alive and well. We all love our traditions right? Here is how I made these. 

I started by painting my heavy chipboard piece with Silks Spiced Pumpkin (love the Silks!). I edged the sides with black Archival ink. Make sure to paint the back as well! 

While that was drying I used some white cardstock and stamped my Give Thanks image with embossing ink. I then brushed Luminarts Primary Elements Sunflower onto the embossed image (new technique?). I had to use what I had on hand because I don't have any gold embossing powder. The results were just what I was going for. Yippee!

Using a small paintbrush I curled the edges of the stamped piece to help give dimension. 

I then added a brown curly "twig", a small piece of wheat, and two leaves. I used dimensional dots to add the leaves. 

The chalkboard sticker was added last. This is where the names of the guests will be. I used a chalkboard pen to write my Grandmas name. I didn't finish the rest of the writing because I don't know the names of everyone going. But luckily my Mom said she would write their names when she got to my Grandmas house and my Mom has gorgeous handwriting! Winning!

Thank you for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!

 What are you thankful for? I am thankful for the opportunity to share my art with you all and to have a warm, safe home that I can go to everyday. I am thankful for my amazing husband and my two lovely/lively dogs-Nanook and Jaz. 

Carpe Diem! ~Niki

Need a Simple Last Minute Thank-you Card?

Hi!

Happy Wednesday!

It's Kim here today with a little "Thank you" idea to make whenever you need a special card.

This simple card can be customized with your favorite colors and sentiment. I used a Tim Holtz Butterfly die to make a card. This die comes with a matching embossing folder to add the details and extra color. But, you could use any die you have on hand or even punches. Just do two or three layers and stack them up! It really makes it POP when it is not all flat.

The "Thanks" sentiment and mini leaves and berries are from the Falling into Autumn set by Newton's Nook. The frame stamp around the sentiment is Unity. The background and butterfly were colored with Distress Ink and Paints. The cardstock is Core'dinations.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving if it is a Holiday for you! It is getting so close and everything is getting so busy! If you find a moment to make a project we would LOVE to have you link up in our Challenge this month, the theme is use "Thanks" in some fun way!

Have a great day!
~kim

How Did She Make That Sunflower?

I am totally in love with the sunflower I created for this canvas.  I will walk through the steps with instructions and pictures so you can create your own sunflower. 

To create the sunflower, I used my Silhouette Cameo to make my patterns.  I then traced the patterns onto lunch bags.  I cut them out by hand.  I was not overly particular if I cut exactly on the lines because Mother Nature is not perfect when she is creating flower petals.

I wanted to add layers of color to the flower.  I mixed acrylic and water and did a wash.  I let it dry and then added another color mixed with just a little less water. 

I then stamped a background stamp on all the leaves with some distress ink.  This adds more depth of color and texture.

Now comes the fun part.  It is time to release all your frustrations from the day.  You need to take each petal and scrunch and crumple it up.  I usually let them sit crumpled up for a few hours so that the texture is embedded in the petals.  The picture shows petals crumpled and then how they look uncrumpled. (I think I invented a new mixed media word.)

The layers of the flower were put together with glue dots.  I had some dimensional glue dots and I used several in the center for each layer.  The glue dots added a little space between each layer and made the flower look more dimensional.

I needed to have a center for my flower and also leaves and stems.  For the center of the flower I cut a circle of brown felt and then a circle of a brown plaid.  I used some lightweight yarn and made French dots on top of the circles.  The French dots resembled the seeds that appear in the middle of the sunflower. 

For the stems, I decided to go with fabric again to add more dimension and texture to the canvas.  I tore strips of the green fabric.  For the stem, I just loosely rolled it and used a needle and thread to loosely tack it in a rounded dimensional shape.  The leaves were done the same way but just used a smaller strip of fabric.  I tacked the leaf together at the bottom and molded it into the shape of a leaf.  The stem and leaves were applied to the canvas with double sticky tape.  The center of the sunflower was added with the dimensional glue dots.

As I put the flower together, I decided it needed something extra.  I was looking through my “stuff” and I looked at a wreath I had taken off the wall.  It was a grapevine wreath and it had those little twiggies sticking out.  I clipped some off and added them in the layers of the sunflower.  I just stuck them into the dimensional glue dots.  These twiggies (another new mixed media word) added more color and interest to the flower.  Here is the close up of the flower so you can see all the layers. 

I think you could use these basic ideas to make any flower.  I don't think you would need a Silhouette to cut your pattern - you could draw it free hand.  I think a poinsettia is next on my list of flowers to create.