Happy Dreams

I LOVE the bold rich colors of Autumn! Recently I overheard someone saying that only certain colors were for Autumn! WOW!!! I need to take them on a hike into a grove of trees as they are dropping their leaves. The colors are rich and bright. It is like Mother Nature has put their final drops of color into a single leaf, where each one is as beautiful as the next one. This put me on a mission to try to capture the vibrate colors on canvas. As soon as I found this dream catcher in a big box store I knew it would be the perfect center piece for such a piece.

So I grabbed a big canvas and gessoed the entire front and sides. To add some more elements I had a few pieces of tissue paper and some plain cheese cloth that I added for a visual effect. In my stash I had some printed tissue paper I applied also at this point that I had torn up. Once it was dried I took texture paste and mixed glitter and mica flakes into it. With a palette knife, I smeared my mixture onto a dream catcher stencil that I had, so that my plastic dream catcher would look shadowed, I also used Brutus Monroe Mixed Media Stencils ‘Arrow’ and ‘Chevron’. To dry everything I used my heat gun before moving onto the next step. Make sure you don’t miss applying some of the stencils to the sides also.

Since Brutus Monroe now is carrying ‘Brutus Monroe Colorburst Essentials Pack’ I decided to incorporate several into this project. This is the first time that Colorburst has teamed up with a company and the colors are breathtaking! I was able to use ‘Rouge’, ‘Zest’, ‘Marsala’ and ‘Cornflower’. All I did is squirt some on my dried canvas then spray with water, also spreading with a paintbrush as needed. Before it dried I sprinkled some clear sequins and ultrafine glitter. Then I set aside to dry over night. It could have been dried with a heat gun, but I found this is a better way of not moving the Colorburst more than they should be.

I picked up the stencils I used before and took the Decofoil Transfoil Gel and went over the exact same spots I had done before. Then I heated a spot with my heat gun till it was almost dried and then applied my ‘Penny’ foil. This gave these areas a dreamy look, like the water catching in the early morning dew drops. I liked how this created a raised, shiny, transparent look to these areas on the canvas. Then using Decofoil ‘Mixed Media Adhesive Glue’ to attach the leaves that I had made with the Decofoil Toner sheets and the ‘Amber Watercolor’ and ‘Pewter’ foils and the Minc. The dream catcher was attached with their foam cut so that it was hidden as much as it could be. This gave the dream catcher a 3D look, I also applied the glue to the edge of the dream catcher and a swish under my ‘Dream’ Sticker and sprinkled gold glass glitter.

Using my Misti, I stamped out several feathers from the Brutus Monroe stamp ‘Dreamcatching’ with the Detail Ink. Then I colored them with the Stylefile markers. The transfer gel was lightly touched to the edges of the the feathers and I used the ‘Penny’ foil again. Then I once again attached with the Decofoil foam adhesives. With some spare jewelry pieces that I have at my house I make little 2” jewel bangles. The little fox just seemed to fit perfectly on the bottom of the inner ring of the dreamcatcher. Flat back crystals, bottlecap sequins and gems were glued down in different areas where the light would be able to cause them to sparkle. Hopefully this piece gives you happy dreams too.

Supply list for “Happy Dreams”

Brutus Monroe supplies

-The Brutus|Monroe essentials Colorburst

      Rouge

      Zest

      Marsala

      Cornflower

-Large Media Mat

-Arrows and Chervon Stencils

-Detail Ink

-Dreamcatching Stamp

-Stylefile markers

-Squeaky clean

-Bottlecap sequins

-Flatback

DECO FOIL PRODUCTS

-Toner Sheets

-Penny, Amber Watercolor and Pewter foil sheets

-Mixed Media Adhesive glue

-foam squars

-Transfer Gel

OTHER PRODUCTS USED

-MISTI

-Scissors

-blank canvas

-gesso

-wooden birdhouse

-dream catcher stencil

-sequins

-Ultrafine diamond glitter

-gold glass glitter

-paint brush

-water

-tissue paper

-cheese cloth

-printed tissue paper

-Heat Gun

-leaf embossing die

-gems

-Minc