What I've Learned ......

Being a military wife and moving around as much as I do, I have learned that no matter where you go or what you do, "There is No Place Like Home".  

For today's project I wanted to take part in a few challenges and also challenge myself a bit. 

For the challenges, I'm including this project in these:

1. Frilly and Funky - The challenge is "Thanksgiving" and Lord knows I'm thankful for my home and my family

2. 613 Avenue Create - Their challenge is "Anything Goes"

3. Challenging myself to create something for teaching a class of my own. (this is a huge step for me)

So to begin this project I had gotten my gesso out and was using it for another challenge (that will post tomorrow) so I decided to use it on a 5x7 canvas.

I used the gesso through a stencil and set it aside to thoroughly dry.

While the canvas was drying I stamped some Dyan Reaveley stamps onto a separate sheet of paper. 

I colored them with distress stains by dabbing some onto my craft sheet and using a paintbrush to color the houses.

I also did the same with some mushroom Dyan Reaveley stamps and then I sprayed each item with Goosebumps spray to give them some texture and sheen.

I set those aside to dry. 

I then took some flowers and used distress stain to color the red one. (it was previously white) I then sprayed those with goosebumps and added a black button to the middle of it.

Once my canvas was dry, I used some (Tim Holtz) distress paint  and smeared it onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water and ran my canvas over all the colors. I sprayed my canvas with water as well. 

I wasn't too sure about the colors so I added the green

Once that was dry I used my archival ink to go over some of the brick stencil to make it pop just a tad.

I love how the gesso adds the texture to the background. 

I didn't take a photo but I used a Dyan Reaveley stencil and black archival ink for the borders, I just love how the leaves came out on the background!

I also took a stencil of the one house and used my Prismacolor pen to outline that one house. This way it will pop just a tad more.

Once everything was created and done drying I added everything to the background. 

What do you think? 

A close-up of that gesso'd brick background

Sorry for the difference in lighting in the photos, my studio has such different lighting than the rest of the house.

Lighting in my studio is on my Christmas "wish list" haha!!

Although I won't be using this exact design for the class that I hope to teach, I will be doing something very similar. Wish me luck!!

Thanks again for stopping by, I hope you have a great day!!