Thursday, September 25, 2014

Art: It Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

 

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After spending several months getting pieces ready in hopes of being accepted into the Artisan Market, I still had the urge to let a little creativity flow.  But I wasn’t so interested in getting to involved in one piece.

Recently I was walking through my grandchildren’s garden and spotted these leaves left over from their bean plants.  The insects had made many meals off of them, transforming them into botanical lace.  These simple little leaves had already inspired a painting, but I was wanting to do something else with them to show off their beauty and give them more life.

I had also collected yet another moth.  It was just laying there on the floor at work.  I was trying to find something to put it in when a friend offered her snack wrapper.  I was surprised it made it home in one piece.  But it was still in tact enough that I could use the wings.

Anyone could do this, if you like it enough and want to try, here’s how…………….

Build a barn wood canvas:

I happen to have three pieces of barn wood that I nailed together using slats on the back side of the barn wood.

Then simply apply two coats of white gesso to the front side of the wood.

Design:

Arrange the leaves in flower like shapes onto your canvas just like you want them to look when finished.   It doesn’t have to be bean plant leaves, it can be any kind.  They don’t even have to be half devoured by insects.  Leaves are beautiful anyway you find them.

Apply:

Remove one leaf at a time, apply Mod-Podge Decoupage solution with a brush to the spot on the canvas where the leaf will lay and place the leaf back down in it’s spot.  Then lightly apply Mod-Podge on the top of your leaf.  Move on to the other leaves, one at a time, until finished. Look for areas of the leaves that may have popped up slightly, gently brush those areas down.  Allow to dry.

If you happen to have an insect or two you could put on this collage, glue on with regular glue. 

Or if it’s flat, like my moth wings mostly were, use Mod-Podge again.  Apply a pretty thick coat, using tweezers place the wings on top of the thick Mod-Podge Decoupage solution.  Let this dry and then coat the top of the wings with gentle brush strokes using the Mod-Podge solution.  Allow to dry.

Embellish:

I used copper tacks to create the middle of the flowers made of leaves.  I also put one right in the center of the moth wings where they all touched.

Using DecoArt Craft Twinkles Gold and a thin small brush, I painted stems onto the flowers.

 

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Using Plaid FolkArt Metallic Inca Gold, I wrote in script at the bottom of the collage.  Mine says, “It’s the simple things” and then I signed it.  You could letter what ever saying you’d like, there are a lot of great quotes out there.

 

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This took about 30 minutes of work not counting the drying time.

If you decide to try this, I’d love to see your creations.

Don’t forget to visit me on Facebook or follow my blog here for more interesting art projects.

Thanks for stopping in.

 

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