Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #4 - Color Challenge

Welcome to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #4 - Color Challenge!

We want you to be inspired by the colors in this photo. Feel free to use as many or as few colors as you like. Just be sure to mention in your post how your project reflects the inspiration photo colors. 

We are thrilled to have you with us for our fourth challenge!! We are so lucky that the awesome store Ellen Hutson is sponsoring our challenge this month. They are generously offering a $25 gift card for our Random Winner!!

"Ellen Hutson LLC was established in November 2006 and is currently located in Issaquah, WA. We are an on-line retail store that caters to the needs of paper craft artists. Ellen Hutson, LLC is always looking to provide our customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for each of the products we carry."

Lynn Adams

Hello! It’s Lynn A. here to host this month’s challenge, and I am so excited! I love color, and it really inspires me when I am making a project. I often find that, if left to my own devices, I sometimes choose colors that really don’t work well together, and I create “mud”. So many times, I will use a palette or photo for inspiration. Lately I have been trying to use brighter colors in my projects, so I found this gorgeous photo to use:

Inspiration photo

When I started my project, I honestly didn’t know exactly what it would look like at the end,  but I knew I somehow wanted to re-create a flower from bits and pieces, and make it yellow and pink.

I had a major find at Walmart with several of these min canvases for a dollar each:

 I didn’t want that princess showing through (as cute as she is), so I covered it with notebook paper from an old planner using gel medium.

 

 Next, I took a page from last month’s challenge, to use modeling paste through a stencil. I actually used the “waste” from my Big Shot alphabet diecut. I love using things like that, because I don’t have to worry about cleaning off the stencil afterward—can you tell I like to make a mess?

At this point, I covered it with a lot of blue. I tried to vary the shades of blue using different paints and sprays, but honestly it all kind of blended together. That’s ok, though, I like how vibrant it is, and at this point you can start to see the background texture showing.

While that was drying, I worked on my flower. Usually in an altered piece like this, I would glue everything on first, and then paint, but I knew that I didn’t really want my colors to mix in this one, so I painted the pieces separately. I had to use gesso on the Prima bottlecap first:

Then I painted it yellow (not shown). I gessoed the buttons before gluing them inside.  Then I painted and sprayed with a variety of media to get the two-toned appearance.

Finally I put it all together and I love the happy end result!

I hope you get inspired as well. You don’t have to use the exact colors, you don’t have to use flowers, but you do have to somehow use this photo for inspiration. If it’s not immediately apparent, just explain a little bit how you were inspired by it!  Thanks for looking!

We are also excited to introduce our September Guest Designer - Julia Stainton!! Julia is an amazing paper crafter who is also on the Ellen Hutson Design Team. 

Guest Designer - Julia Stainton

Hi I’m Julia Stainton and I’m thrilled to be guest designing for the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge. I love paint and ink and layers and just having fun getting messy. My family and I live in Ontario Canada. Hubby and I will be celebrating 25 years next month. Our five kids and one dog mean there’s never a dull moment. I’ve been paper crafting for over 15 years now and been freelance designing since 2007. I love being part of the Maya Road, Ellen Hutson LLC, Spellbinders and Case Study Challenge Design Teams. In my spare time I love to read, knit, and spend time with my family.  

Now more inspiration from our amazing Design Team!

Donna 

Rachel

Lalo

Lynn Kopas

Melanie

We don't have many rules, but ask that you do follow the ones we have! 

* Mention in your post how you used the colors in the inspiration photo

* Your post must link back to the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge post

* Add a link to your direct post, not your entire blog
*You can combine with as many other challenges as you want.

* You can enter up to 5 times, create whatever you want, and HAVE FUN!

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