That’s cool, Kara, thanks!

I used wet gesso and watercolor. It easily got a little muddy looking but I think that helped me make it a quick little project as it needed to dry if I wanted to do anything else with it.

Hi Andrea:

I get the impression that you have really used the challenge as an opportunity to tap into your best self-care habits and skills. I am so glad that you are able to show us. I will have to take your advice and go straight to my art table the next time something is just not working.

CHEERS!
Amy

Hi Laura:

Wow – it sounds like you are just having a great time playing with art. How fabulous. Hm….mixed media. Well, let me speak from my own experience and say something about what mixed media means for folks who are not familiar. Mixed media is just mixing any two or more types of art materials. So, for example, adding marker to a watercolor painting, or mixing scraps of paper and paint and then also using marker or gel pen to add more color or text. Mixed media can also be 3-D – adding beads to a page in a journal and sewing them to the page. This is also mixed media. So my favorite ways to mix up media are some of the ones I mentioned:

– Sewing onto paper – either to create designs, attach special papers, cloth, beads, whatever. You can do this by hand or with a machine.
– Mixing different wet and dry media – For example, stamping (with ink) and then putting a watercolor wash over it. I might then also go back in with thin tipped sharpie marker to lay in layers of color in a little pattern. A paint marker might also be a way to then add text over all of this.
– Layering papers, cardboard, etc.
– Using natural materials like sticks and covering them with paint, metallic marker, glitter, paper, text, etc to make a SPIRIT STICK! You could do the same sort of thing with a shell and create a little altar – get the ideas flowing – the sky is the limit.

I think part of the trick is to have a heating element to help set glue and paints so that you can keep working. I also like to have more than one piece going at a time so that if there’s something that I can’t completely heat set in the moment, I can set it aside and work on something else without interrupting the flow too much. Here’s a link to http://www.papersource.com/item/Embossing-Heat-Tool/48888801.html heat guns from one of my favorite stores, The Paper Source.

Let us know what you come up with! What’s on your self-care menu for today?
Cheers,
Amy

Teresa – It sounds like you are able to “flow” with your paints. The piece sounds lovely. Feel free to share it on the FB page if you are comfortable. Thank you for taking so many chances with us this week.

See you tomorrow when I announce the winner!
Amy

Hi Kara –

That sounds like so much fun. Did you combine wet gesso and watercolor? Or did you “prep” your page with gesso, let it dry, and then use watercolor? I think breaking self-care into baby steps is such a great idea, especially for a larger project. Like, taking the paints out and putting them on the art table. Or, going to the store to get some needed supply.

Thanks,
Amy