{my sweet earth}: Creatively Messy

Hello everyone! I'm excited to join Susan's team as a guest designer over the next few months! Susan and I met a few years ago when she flew out for ScrapFest and I immediately loved her gentle nature and kind soul.

For my first project, I thought I'd better come clean right from the start and let you know that I am NOT a tidy artist. Whether it's scrapbooking or mixed media, once I get going and there's paint and gesso and paper flying, it gets pretty ugly. I have been known to reduce my huge 3'x5' work area to a 12"x12" spot, with product piled all around me!

However, my only saving grace is that once a project is over, I have to clean everything up and put it all away before I can start my next project. The neat freak in me (and she's a VERY tiny part!) needs to have order before the creative me takes over.

So when I came across this quote, I knew that I had to use it to create a canvas for my studio. Here's the finished result:

creative minds are rarely tidy

Supplies used: Artist's Loft canvas; Susan K. Weckesser patterned papers; ModPodge; DecoArt paints; Pink Paislee, Christy Riopel and Deja View masks/stencils; Stephanie Barnard Sprays by Clearsnap; Susan K. Weckesser/Unity Stamps (A Little Bit Washi); Memento, Versamark and Stampin' Up! inks; calligraphy pen and india ink.
There are really a lot of layers on this canvas! I forgot to take photos as I went along, but here's a brief description of my process:
I started out by ModPodging torn pieces of patterned papers to the canvas. Once dry, I stuck my fingers into some coordinating paints and dragged them along the surface, to just add some texture and colour.

Using the washi tape stamps and ink, I laid down some more texture by randomly stamping bits of the stamps all over the canvas.

I then took Christy's stencils and pounced some paint randomly all over the canvas. I used Pink Paislee's vintage doily mask (by Christy Tomlinson) and laid it over the sun pattered paper in the corner. I sprayed it with the yellow Clearsnap mist, carefully removed it and then spritzed the pink and orange mists on a few spots on the canvas.

Lastly, I added my quote, using India ink and a calligraphy pen/nib set from one of the Donna Downey classes I have taken. I freehanded the first part of the title, and used the Deja View alpha stencils to lightly outline the "TIDY" part - and then went over it a few times, freehanded, to make it messy.