A Boy & His Dog; Or, Thankful for Friends

Hi guys! Did you know there's an art challenge over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity running during November where you can win stampy prizes? It's on the theme of thankfulness--details here.

So I thought I'd walk you through this piece I made for the "Thankful" challenge:

I was originally intending for this to be a greeting card, but I ended up liking it so much that I think I'll keep it for Thanksgiving decor! Here's how I made it:

I started with a piece of scrap paper on which I'd brayered off excess acrylic paint left on my roller after Gelli printing. (You can see the sort of vertical stripe effect of how the brayer deposited color in the background.)

On top of that I stamped Georges & Louis from Lost Coast Designs in chocolate brown permanent ink:

(Aren't they so sweet?)

Next, I masked them off and stamped one of the backgrounds from the ATC Grunge Set twice behind the pair of friends, using medium gray permanent ink.

Then I used the awesome Rustic Alphabet Set to set the words "thankful" and "friends," and added the word "for" by hand.

I helped Georges & Louis stand out with a little colored pencil in white and sepia, and added more pencil in tones of honeydew melon and canteloupe to the background, including in the counterspaces of some of the letters.

Lastly, I cut a naive heart from a piece of chipboard and embossed it with powders in verdigris and copper. Here's a closeup of what that looks like. You know I gotta have something shiny on pretty much every piece! LOL

Then I mounted the whole shebang on a couple of pieces of autumnal-colored stock, and was thankful...for friends, for art. And for Thanksgiving celebrations! 🍗  

So get your stampy entries in by November 25, and if I don't talk to you before then, a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Love,

Day of the Dead

We are celebrating the Day of the Dead event over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. Enter your rubber-stamped art by November 18 for your chance to win a little shopping spree at Lost Coast Designs.

Here's my project to help get your creative juices flowing!

It was made with these stamps from Lost Coast Designs: Skull with Wreath, Rustic Alphabet, and Black Flourish (stamped twice). The skull was colored with pencils, and it and the flourish were painted with metallic watercolor. Here's a detail showing the shininess:

Good luck and have fun creating!