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Welcome to my blog. Over the years that I have been stamping and paper crafting, I have so often been inspired by the ideas on other sites and blogs. I hope I can pay that back in some measure with my own. (In between laughs -- or cackles as my son calls it!)

August 20, 2014

Rocks in my Head?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I started volunteering at an art class at the People's Resource Center.  The co-teacher is Cheryl, who has been giving of her time and spirit here for four years.  Anyway, she came up with an idea to paint little rocks, and we wanted to try it out by making samples, to see if it would be good for the class.

Well...(hangs face in shame)...I couldn't be satisfied with the little rocks.  I went on a walk and got some bigger rocks :-)

I ended up decoupaging napkins with ModPodge to them, instead of painting them.  I LOVE how they turned out.

First up is a large and heavy rock.  In addition to using a Monet-inspired waterlily napkin, I added some butterflies on the front.  The butterfly napkin was in a goody bag of collage materials that I got in Liesel Lund's class last week.  Both Liesel and Helen Shafer Garcia used stamped or cut out words in their work.  Since I had decided the large rock would be a doorstop (I like to leave my front door open to catch the breezes, but often it blows shut), I built on the word idea and stamped words like "Welcome, Home, Family, Love, Hearth, Shelter, Haven" with black StazOn ink on to tissue paper.  All of my instructors last week at Create had emphasized the virtues of translucent materials for collage.  After the Monet and butterfly layer dried, I tore the stamped words from the tissue and decoupaged them on, both top and bottom.  I made sure that the words Welcome, Home and Family were visible on top.  I then added two coats of poly varnish.  For this project you need to be patient and allow drying time before you can do the top and bottom surfaces of the rock.  I really like this piece -- and it will be used as a doorstop in my front hall.


 

My second rock was medium sized.  It's actually pretty heavy, so it might work as a doorstop, or a giant paperweight.  But, I think I'll end up placing it by some flowerpots on my front porch, just as a decorative element.  For this, I used a sunflower-patterned napkin.  I used gold Smooch paint to add a bit of a glimmer to the petals.  Then I finished it with poly varnish also.  This one was hard to photograph due to the shine; it looks prettier in person.


My third rock was smaller.  I used a black floral print napkin and stamped my name on tissue.  The tan part of the design is the natural rock color showing through.  This will be a paperweight on my home office desk.

I love how the mixed media techniques help me transform these rocks into little art pieces.  The alphabet stamps used are retired Stampin' Up sets.  Whether or not we actually do this project with the class, I had fun playing and love the end result.

3 comments:

  1. What a great idea. They look amazing.

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  2. These are wonderful, Marge, and would make beautiful gifts, too.

    RS

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