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Guest Post – Cecily from Craftopotamus!

Please help me welcome our 2nd guest blogger for the month of August! Take it away, Cecily!

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Hello Scrap Shoppe friends! My name is Cecily and I am guest posting from Craftopotamus. I define a craftopotamus as anyone who indulges regularly in three or more crafts. I quilt, sew, paint, knit, crochet and make jewelry and I particularly like to make gifts of my art.

A couple of months ago I redesigned my craft room and made this piece of art for my wall.
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I wanted to put art on the walls that would inspire me so I looked up tons of inspirational quotes. When I found this quote from Emerson it really hit home. And as I read all those quotes I felt uplifted and wanted to try and show that feeling of soaring on inspiration. I started with a canvas and knew from the beginning that I wanted it to hang from a corner rather than the usual direction. I painted it with some acrylic paints, then decoupaged the quote on top. I used craft wire to shape the wings and then hot glued them to the back. I sewed on a layer of tulle and another layer of a sheer lining and then glued a whole bunch of feathers around the outside of the canvas.

My sister loved the quote and asked me to make her one for her office, but a canvas with wings wasn’t quite right for her or her office. She also wanted something that she could frame. So after some thought, I came up with this…

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It’s mixed media: water color, oil pastels, paper collage, paint markers and gel markers. It wasn’t as complicated as you might think… you just need to “build” it in layers.

I started with a 12″x16″ piece of water color paper and marked off the edges so she could mat it to 11″x14″ easily. I played with some water color paints just to start some colors for the background. If you don’t have paint, you can start with any great scrapbook paper. Then I copied out the quote in a word processing program and played with the size and font until I was happy with it. I printed it and cut out the words ransom note style and the found some awesome images from The Graphics Fairy. Here you can see the quote and images at this point:

100 1851Once I was happy with the layout, I used a glue stick to glue it all down with a few more random pieces cut from magazines and catalogs.

I added some depth to the background with some oil pastels, but you can use markers or crayons too – whatever you like. Just play.

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To finish it off, I had fun with some paint markers and gel pens and VOILA!

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I also recently finished a quilt for an old friend. I designed, pieced and quilted it myself. It’s called Muddy Prairie and you can get the whole scoop on it here.

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Thank you, Michele, for letting me write a guest post for your fabulous blog! It was a pleasure!
Cecily @ Craftopotamus

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I’m pretty sure I apply as a craftopotamus! I like the sound of that better than eclectic crafter. 😉

I just love the mixed media canvas! The colors are great and its so whimsical. And how about that quilt? Cecily has many more of those on her blog. Be sure and check them out!

Thanks, Cecily, for sharing this great project with us!

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Beverly @ FlamingoToes.com

Thursday 12th of August 2010

What a great blog title! I really like her projects. I've always thought those mixed media canvases were so great and I love that quilt!!

leyla / Too Much of a Good Thing

Thursday 12th of August 2010

I'm definitely a craftopotamus! Crochet, paper crafts, make jewelry, sew (but only straight lines cuz i'm scared of the sewing machine)...the list goes on :)

Sassy Sites!

Thursday 12th of August 2010

I love your blog! SO cute! I would LOVE love LOVE to be added to your blog list... you are already on mine!! :)

...visiting from Sassy Sites!(cause your blog is a Sassy Site!)

Tammy@ Not Just Paper and Glue

Thursday 12th of August 2010

What really cool pieces of art!

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