Catching up

First, I hope everyone went to the polls either yesterday or earlier and voted! Whether or not you voted for Obama, I'm sure we can agree we are experiencing an historic moment - I certainly wasn't expecting to see an African American in the White House during my lifetime.

While watching (or, rather, listening) to the election results yesterday and last night, a friend and I worked together catching up on art projects. I finished several Christmas cards, some of which may be a class I will teach.

Last week I finished a small canvas using some grungeboard pieces. When my friend saw it laying on my work table, she asked for one like it. So she went home with the canvas!

The canvas is 4"x4" and gessoed and painted with acrylic paints. Then I stenciled through a paper doily with ivory acrylic paint on the top right portion. An antiqued torn book page was added to the left side, Love stamped with Archival black ink and flourish rubons added. The grungeboard heart was inked with Fired Brick distress ink and Stickles wiped over. The grungeboard wings were crackled using Elmer's glue and ivory acrylic paint since I didn't have any Tim Holtz crackle paint in that color. The grungeboard crown was painted with gold paint and the tiny key added with a brad.

I'm now working on 26 paper Christmas stockings for a swap this month. These are to be between 6"-7" high and 2"-3" wide. Once they are swapped out we will each have a darling Christmas stocking book held together with a ring in the upper left corner. Can't wait to see the different shapes, styles and techniques that are used!