Lindy's Stamp Gang January Color Challenge

Hello blogging world....I haven't written a post in over 8 months!! Yikes!! You know how life just gets going at certain times...I have some new posts coming up, but I decided that a fun way to get back into things would be to join a color challenge from Lindy's Stamp Gang. If you have never looked at any of their projects, you have GOT to check them out! Especially if you love shimmer and glitz. They have a huge variety of color sprays, paints, and embossing powders that match! ALMOST everything has shimmer to it, except their line called "Flat Fabios". Anyway, search for YouTube videos also, there are tons of product demos!
I have currently overindulged in their line of pigment powders called "magical micas". They are little pots of powder that resemble some of the other ones out there like the Perfect Pearls, but the difference is that they contain a layer of pigment along with the shimmery dust. So that means depending on the amount of water, paste, etc. that you add to it, you may get more of a concentrated shimmer, or a more vibrant pigment. Anyway, I will let you do the research on that for yourself. The point is, I now have a billion pots of magical micas in my craft room.

So every month Lindy's Stamp Gang does a color challenge. They post an inspiration photo, and a list of their products with the color palette that matches. You can use all the colors, but you must use at least two. This was the color challenge picture this month:

Let me preface this by saying that I have never done a mixed media project before! I am usually a papercrafty type of gal, but I decided to leave my comfort (and talent) zone for this one. The projects featured in their color challenge blog are usually full of work from incredibly talented mixed media artists, so I decided to try it out just for the heck of it. 

I chose to use only two colors: the gray and the pink. I used the magical micas in "Gag Me With A Spoon Gray" and "Bodacious Blush" (they are from an 80's set...don't the names make you giggle?). I started with a small canvas from JoAnn, and brushed some gesso in random places, to see how the micas would absorb differently into primed or plain canvas. 

Then I used some stencils and modeling paste to add raised designs...I liked the birdcage a lot, and left it sort of as a focal point. After it dried  overnight, I used a little palette and a waterbrush to mix up the magicals with some water. I wish I had documented my process a little here, but I did not. Maybe I will do a post about the micas some other time. 

I was initially unhappy with the results, because the inspiration picture had such pretty, light colors, and these particular gray and pink powders created reeeeeally dark colors, no matter how much i watered them down. I actually ruined some other paper flowers that I was going to use, and changed my vision for the project quite a bit. I finally painted the whole thing with color, and then used a squirt bottle to literally wash the whole thing out. I squirted the water directly onto the canvas, letting it run all over it, until I got the lighter colors that I had pictured. 

I have been playing with dies and metal sheets lately, so I used sizzix butterfly dies and rose creation dies to make metal butterflies and flowers. 

I then took a picture of my adorable niece from when she was a flower girl at our wedding this past year. I didn't want to use her face, because I am plastering this all over the internet! But I just love this shot. I played with the tones and saturation on the computer until I got the colors that matched really well. 

I also incorporated some strips of quilling paper. They were white to begin with, and I brushed them with the magical mica powders as well, so they would match. 

So I like the final product, although I clearly need more practice with mixed media art! I think for the next challenge I will stick to some kind of papercrafting. But it was fun to try this time! Happy new year everyone.