Quirky Bird rough sketches done with a pencil and ball point pen.

For the second week of the the 30 Days of Creativity Challenge 2013 I wanted to try a few new things as I made my second character The Quirky Bird.

The Quirky Bird started off the same way as The Bumble Skull did with a rough sketch of a character idea that I had been thinking about and wanted to try to create in 3D.

Quirky Bird mixed media art in my art journal.

The Quirky Bird was going to be a little more complex than most of my other forays into sculpting because of all the finer details and features I wanted to include such as the plume, eye stalk, beak, legs and feet.

I wanted to add the captured worm like in my drawings, but that would of required more work than was realistically possible to accomplish in the week.

Also, I had friends visiting which took priority over the lowly and unfortunate worm.

Foil and wire armature.

Like the Bumble Skull, I started off by building an armature to support the clay using aluminum foil to add bulk to the areas the body and extremities would need some fattening up.

Unlike the Bumble Skull the Quirky Bird’s armature made use of a wire inside the foil and was going to be freestanding. Well at least that was my initial intention.

Plasticine clay built up around the armature

After the first rough sculpt of the basic body I was pretty happy with the way the armature was working out, however the legs were a bit plumper than I had wanted.

I figured I could always sand them down once the clay was cured to make then thinner or just live with them the way they were.

Also realized at this point was that I should’ve made an armature for the feet.

The figure was already heavy in the back end and I hadn’t even added the wings yet so the legs needed to be adjusted.

However, trying to do so with clay already in place made it impossible to adjust the wire frame without smashing the clay or having to remove it, fix the legs and then start over with the clay.

I also didn’t want to run the risk of jacking up the whole body so decided I would try to compensate for the bodies weight when I modeled the feet.

Quirky Bird with final details added.

This thing’s feet ended up being more problematic than I had thought and were the toughest part of this sculpt.

The clay I was working with was very soft and I did not make any kind of support for the feet so modeling and adding to the legs was a bit of a challenge..

The idea of using the feet to help support the bird’s backside weight went south at this point because the feet would of had to extend way too far back and would not look right.

So their was no way this figure was going to be free standing and it was going to need to be glued to the base.

I was cool with this because that was my plan to start, but I still would of liked it to have been able to have the model stand on it’s own.

Cured clay that has been painted with acrylic paints

After the fiasco wit the feet did build up the plume, beak and wings around foil instead of trying to do it without any internal frame.

Once the figure was smoothed out and dialed in, I baked and cured the clay and then set myself loose with the acrylic paints.

Another thing that I did differently on this sculpt was to give the clay a primer base coat of gesso rather than paint directly on the cured clay.

I ran into some issues with the Bumble Skull’s paint peeling up in areas so I wanted to see if I could avoid that problem with this dude.

To give the Quirky Bird a really muddy and messy sort of look, I painted it first with flat colors.

Then when first layer of paint was dry, I covered the entire thing in black paint and then wiped the paint off before it dried leaving the figure with dark cracks and smudges.

I used an acrylic paint pens for the eye and the patterns on the wings and some bumpy paint for the collar around the eye stalk.

Quirky Bird perched on his mixed media base.

When the paint was all dry I gave the entire figure a few coats of Ceramcoat matte varnish too seal and protect the figure.

For the base, I used the top of the lid that was part of the hexagon box I used for the Bumble Skull’s base.

I painted it with acrylic paint and decoupaged the sides with pages from an old book.

The black wash technique was also used on the top along with grunge stamps, alcohol ink and smeared gesso to make it look old and weathered.

The entire base was then coated with matte Mod Podge too seal it up proper.

It wasn’t till I was attaching the Quirky Bird to the base that I noticed a crack in one of his legs.

Fortunately, the armature helped too keep the leg from breaking off completely and I was able to use some of Aleene’s tacky glue to hide the crack and alos to glue the finished figure to the base.  

Quirky Bird gif made with the Gif Boom app.

So you wanna know more about this Quirky Bird character do ya? Well read on friend

The Quirky Birds are another one of the strange critters that call the Lost Islands their home.

They are a quiet and shy creature who’s only sound is the bubbling noise they make when their muddy bodies are submerged in water in the swampy wetlands they inhabit.

Since they spend so much time in the damp climate of the swamps, their bodies turn a greenish blue from the moss that grows on them and emits a moldy scent.

With their bodies submerged they use their eye like a periscope to observer their surrounding and watch for prey.

Although they have wings, the Quirky Birds are flightless beast but they are pretty good swimmers and can run like the dickens.

The swamps provide them with all their favorite foods that include bog bugs, small reptilians and mammals that they sneak up on and snatch up with their powerful orange beaks.

There are rumors of flocks of them attacking larger critters and humanoids but these stories are dismissed as stories to frighten the local native children.

If you want to see the progress pictures of next week’s characters visit my 30 Days of Creativity 2012 photo album on Facebook or my board on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading, checkin’ out the pics and giving me your feedback. I really do appreciate it!

Products mentioned above are Amazon affiliate links.

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

Rough Sketches for the Bumble Skull drawn with an simple ballpoint pen in a plain old notebook.

Well the first week of the 30 Days of Creativity Challenge 2013 has flown by (pun intended) and I would like to present to you The Bumble Skull, which was also given the name Zom-Bee by my friend Stephanie.

My intention for this year’s challenge is to create a total of four characters, one for each week of June, and develop them over the course of seven days from rough sketch to a finished sculpture.

Over the last week, I was able to keep up with the daily schedule that I had initially planned out which went something like this:

Monday- rough sketch.
Tuesday- cleaned up sketch.
Wednesday- final inked drawing.
Thursday- start of sculpt.
Friday- finished sculpt.
Saturday- written Description.
Sunday- completed character profile page.

Final pencil sketch of Bumble Skull over acrylic paint background.

This first week I had a few extra days to work on the Bumble Skull because of how the days of the month landed.

But from here on out, I am going to have the remaining three characters completed in seven days time.

After this first weeks progress I have chosen to modify my creation schedule as follows:

Monday- rough sketch.
Tuesday- final painted drawing.
Wednesday- start of sculpt.
Thursday- sculpt day.
Friday- sculpt day.
Saturday- Finish sculpt and display.
Sunday- Progress report, brief character description page and blog post.

Bumble Skull finished art. Mixed Media in my art journal

I learned over the course of this last week that the sculpting and making a proper display for the figure took more time than I had initially thought.

I also realized that I could bundle up my creative efforts for Tuesday and Wednesday therefore giving me more time to work on the sculpting and display.

First step of sculpting the Bumble Skull using plasticine clay.

Although, I didn’t have any real problem with the sculpting of the plasticine clay really it just to me longer than I expected since I didn’t want to skimp on the small details.

Also, some of the materials I had on hand didn’t work out as planned. Such as wire for the arms and antennas being to thick and not looking right which left me needing to run out and find a suitable thinner replacement.

Bumble Skull with eyes, hands, wire arms and antennas.

The other change I decided to make to my schedule was to Sunday’s task. Instead of explaining the characters details, I will be doing a round up of the week’s progress and only giving some basic information about the character.

You see, all these characters that I will be creating will be part of a larger creative project that I am working on. However I do not have it fully planned and figured out just yet.

So I don’t want to get too deep into the storytelling and run the risk of leaking any spoilers or paint the characters or myself into any corners that may prove difficult to get out of.

Bumble Skull with acrylic paint job.

I will tell you though that they are part of a what is becoming a serialized sort of story that I have been outlining and working on over the past 6 months that takes place on a fantastical island archipelago called “The Lost Islands.”

These islands will be inhabited by some of these characters that I will be developing over the next few weeks.

Some of them will be integral to the main plot and storyline, while other will only be ancillary and there to add depth and enhance the ambiance and setting of the main plot line.

Bumble Skull with wings made from the thin plastic lid of a bento box.

So what is the dealio with this Bumble Skull you ask? Well…

The Bumble Skulls, which are a mysterious bee like creatures, arrive on one of the Lost Islands from out of nowhere and are observed by the natives performing strange and puzzling activities.

Although they are not aggressive towards mammals, they are terrorizing the flora and fauna growing on the island.

The Bumble Skulls have been seen pulling plants and flowers out of the ground roots and all then flying off to unknown locations as well as using their stingers to inject others for reason unknown.

All of this is very strange and a mystery that needs solving because these actions are having a detrimental and disruptive effect on the balance of the islands delicate ecosystem.

Has that caught your attention?

Bumble Skull attached to a honeycomb base made from a wood box that I found at the first thift store I looked in!

The final sculpt attached to the base came out to being 5″ tall with a wingspan also of 5″.

The only real issues I had with this bugger was with attaching the wing and keeping them rom moving as the glue dried.

The masking tape I was using to hold the wings in place had a tendency, if not removed slowly and very carefully, to pull the paint off of the clay which then had to be repainted and sealed again

At one point I took the Bumble Skull outside to get a photo when the glue was not completely dry yet.

A strong gust of wind pulled one of the wings off and sent it twirling off into a tree and far out of my reach so I had to go back inside to make and glue on another wing!

I was kinda pissed at first since I was having quite a bit of trouble with this step finally got it on and in postion only to have the wind rip it off the bug’s body.

But now looking back it was actually pretty funny to watch the thin light wing fly up and away then disappear into the canopy of leaves never to be seen again.

If you want to see the progress pictures of next week’s characters each day, visit my 30 Days of Creativity 2012 photo album on Facebook or my board on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading, checkin’ out the pics and giving me your feedback. I really do appreciate it!

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

For VLOG#27 I wanted to dip into the third dimension and touch on the very basics of working and sculpting with plasticine clays.

This video is aimed at the beginner (which is what I pretty much am) who wants to get started in clay modeling and learn about the tools and materials that are used.

Please feel free to share any tips you have that relate to plasticine clay and clay modeling and sculpting in the comment box below.

More creative, tips, tricks and techniques can be found on my website: http://www.chongolio.com

Thanks for watchin’

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

Hooray! Here comes June again which means it is time again for the 30 Days of Creativity Challenge hosted by the folks over at http://30daysofcreativity.com.

This is their fourth year of encouraging people to get out and create whatever they want in the medium of their choice for each of the 30 days in June.

My commitment has been made on Twitter and you can do the same by tweeting “@createstuff I pledge to create something everyday for 30 days in a row.”

They will be maintaing a board on Pinterest. So if you post your submission on the Pinterest site and use the hashtag #30doc they will add your pin to the daily board.

You don’t have to be on twitter or Pinterest to play along, you can also join in by emailing your submissions to submit@30daysofcreativity.com.

One of the big reasons I like participating in this challenge is to reconnect to my own creative commitment.

I also think this challenge is a super awesome way to share and receive inspiration while supporting others in their various artistic endeavors.

Last year I even won a Moleskin journal in a drawing they hosted for people who joined the challenge!

My world is already chocked full of creativity and hardly ever does a day go by when I do not exercising my right hemisphere in some form or another.

But this year I am going to take this challenge a step further and also choose a specific theme to work with and stay within.

As of yet I have not picked out anything to commit too nor have I decided if it will be a theme using a certain medium, subject, style or topic.

Do you have any suggestions for me? If you do let me hear um’ in the comment box below.

Also, during the month of June I will also be dedicating my post here on my website to the topic of themes, their benefits and the hows and whys of using them. So I hope you stick around for all that!

Hey, you know what would be really cool…?
If you joined me and made the commitment yourself to making something everyday for the month of June.

Now you don’t have to follow a theme like I am, all you got to do is make something, ANYTHING and share it with the folks at 30daysofcreativity.com in any of the ways mentioned above.

You could bake a cookie one day, write a song the next, plant a seed or whatever you want to do that helps you express the creative soul that lives inside you.

Of course I would like to hear about what you are making too! So keep me posted by sharing your daily submissions by using the hashtag #chongolio if you are on Twitter or Pinterest. Or You can also post them on my Facebook page.

I hope to see you make this simple commitment to your own creative process. As they say on the 30 days of Creativity Website:

“Your brain is like a muscle. When you exercise it, it gets stronger.”

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

A few things needed for the last layer to be added to the canvas.

Picking up where I left off last week with the first layer of resin applied and dried, I am now ready to add a few more embellishment then pour one more layer of resin over it again then hopefully call this project done. Or as we say in Hawaii… All Pau!

For this step, I will be using a wee dab of Mod Podge, some gold foil, a paper printed with some lightning bolts I made in Illustrator, gold Stickles Glitter Glue and more EnviroTex Lite Resin along with the plastic cups and stirrers mentioned in part #4.

Lightning bolt ready to be cut from foil.

Using just a bit of Mod Podge, I lightly glued the corners of the paper to the backside of the gold foil (which I saved from an airline meal on my way to California) to hold them in place and use as guides to cut the foil.

Once the bolts were cut out, I gently peeled the paper from the back and used more Mod Podge to glue the foil bolts directly to the canvas and on top the layer of resin.

This took a little bit of patience because the bolt were thin and small. I had to be really careful not to use to much Mod Podge and have it smear across the top of the resin.

I used a cotton swab dampened with a squirt of window cleaner to wipe up any smears and excess Mod Podge.

An exacto blade also came in handy to manipulate the little lightning bolts into place.

I purposely made the bolts extend slightly over the purple foil frame to help add the three dimensional look of this piece.

The canvas before Stickels are applied.

After my foily bolts were pretty dry, I cracked open the bottle of gold Stickles and put little dots of sparkly gold all over the top side and a few over the purple foil border for even more 3-D goodness.

I applied the Stickles directly from the bottle and did my best to give them a fairly random pattern.

Canvas after Stickels have been put on.

The Stickles too about a 1/2 hour or so to dry, when they were the canvas was then ready for a repeat of a resin pour over everything the same way I did in step #4.

I paid extra attention to areas that did not get fully covered during there first pour and made sure that I got the resin spread out nice and even over the all the surfaces.

Since this is an identical process as before I skipped adding pictures of this step. So lets skip ahead 12 Hours.

The canvas after the second layer of resin.

Well in the spirit of honesty and transparency, I will have to admit flubbing my batch of resin. After letting the resin sit overnight I woke up to find it still sticky when it should of been totally smooth to the touch like glass.

I made the rookie mistake of not mixing the two parts equally…doink!

What this means is I will have to mix up another batch of resin and pour a third coat to cover the coat that did not cure properly.

This is OK, since there were a few more areas that could use a little more coverage although ideally I would like to get future projects down to only two coats. It’s all about the learning and the process right!

I am not going to go document that next layer and because I am pretty sure you have gotten the picture of the process and what this project looks like after the resin has been applied.

The only thing really left to do after the next coat of resin has cured is to carefully remove the masking tape for the bottom of the canvas and sand down any resin bumps that may have formed on the bottom.

Using a light sanding with medium grit sand paper, I will give the bottom edges of the canvas to help free the tape and make it easier to remove.

All the while being super careful to make sure that I don’t tear the foil in any areas where it can be seen once the canvas is hung.

And there you have it… A super shiny three dimensional altered canvas that will make eyeballs pop like dang ol’ corn!

There are a few areas where I could see some improvement in my technique and process, but overall I quite pleased with the result.

I will be for surely making more of these types of projects in the future so keep your eyes on my Etsy shop if you are interested in purchasing one from me.

I hope you enjoyed this series and the project that I made in it. If you did let me know in the comment box below and share it with any of your family, friends or any one you know who might dig it too.

Here are the links to all the parts of this series:

(Links to products above are Amazon Affiliate links.)

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

Super Star with some sparkly bumpy paint eyes waitin’ for a resin coat.

Alright, so I am back now after my short VLOG break and ready to move along to the next step in the multidimensional mixed media project that I have been workin’ on.

In part 4 of my series, I am now gonna show you the process coating the entire project in two part resin.

This is pretty much the meat and potatoes of the project and will give it a really crazy cool super shiny three dimensional look.

The only thing that I have done to the piece since part #3 is use some sparkly blue bumpy paint to make some eyes on the Super Star character.

I decided to ditch the idea of using plastic bead for eyes because they just looked to big and buggy.

Some of the supplies I will be using for this step.

Before getting knuckle deep in resin, I am going to get my work space cleared off and covered in news paper then gather all my supplies.

The materials I will be using is as follows:

Masking tape.
EnviroTex Lite Resin
small plastic cups.
A Sharpie
Wood stirring stick (coffee stirrers, popsicle sticks, chop sticks. )
Card board squares or chip board
a thick lid that is smaller than canvas. (I used a peanut butter lid.)
a straw.
Rubber gloves. (Well I didn’t actually use them but I would of if I had them.)

Bottom of the canvas after it has been taped off.

First thing I did was put a thin coat of Mod Podge along the bottom edge to create a barrier between the tape and foil to keep the tape from pulling the foil up when I remove it later.

I then taped off the bottom of the canvas with some masking tape. This will help keep any drips of resin from drying to the bottom side of the canvas and make it easier to remove then once the resin has dried and eliminate some sanding time.

Two plastic cups for measuring and mixing the resin.

This is a high gloss pourable resin that is made up by mixing up equal parts of the two bottles which contain the resin in one and the hardener in the other.

There is coverage formula that comes in the kit, however, I generally just estimate how much resin I think I will need and try to error on the side of having to much.

I will keep handy a small side project where I can use any excess resin. Bottle cap art and jewerly works awesome for this.

Two plastic drinking cups are used for mixing and measuring, one of which I mark with a sharpie to use as my fill line.

I pour the resin to the line of the marked cup and give it a good mixing using a wooden stick before transferring it into the second cup making sure to scrape the sides and bottom pretty good to remove all the resin.

Next, I will fill the hardener to the fill line of cup #1 and also give it a good mixin’ up before pouring into the cup #2 with the resin then I thoroughly mix the two for at least a minute.

It is crucial to mix equal amounts! Otherwise you will end up with resin that never completely cures and remains sticky.

If this happens you are going to have to mix another proper batch of resin and pour another coat over it.

Pouring the mixed resin directly on the canvas.

A lid is used to lift the canvas up off your work surface so that any resin drips can easily be scraped from the bottom edges and this will keep the canvas from sticking to the work surface.

A level surface is also essential to make sure the resin doesn’t collect in one area. A level is the best way to double check this.

The other thing I do is work on a small piece of wood that I can move into a safe out of the way while the resin cures.

If you have a pair of rubber or latex gloves put them on. Otherwise, try and take every precaution you can to keep the resin off your hands. The stuff can make a sticky mess pretty fast. Having a rag handy is a pretty good idea too.

Cardboard square spreading the resin around.

What I try to do is pull the resin towards the edge of the canvas one side at a time and use the cardboard to spread it around.

This is when it starts to get messy because that resin is gonna start dripping along the sides.

Use the cardboard to scrape along the bottom and redeposit the resin back on the top surface.

This step can be tricky and needs a certain amount of finessing. A wood stick can be used to help hold the canvas in place while spreading and scraping with the cardboard square.

Its kinda like frosting a cake but with really sticky and watery frosting.

A straw is used to remove air bubbles…Imagine that!

Ok, so now that the resin is now spread around evenly I am gonna pick up my straw and blow across the surface.

The nitrogen in my breath will cause any air bubbles to rise and pop and not get trapped in the drying resin. SCIENCE!

Areas that need focusing on are around the embellishment edges because that is where trapped air bubbles like to hide.

This is also a good time too look for any crumbs or junk that may of gotten into your resin while mixing and pouring.

The tip of an exacto knife is good for fishing them out but you want get them out before the resin start to set.

Bottle cap art for pouring any extra resin into.

When I as satisfied that my resin is spread around evenly and all the air bubbles removed I am gonna pour any extra resin into the bottle caps.

I have cut out and glued small images into the caps and will use them later to make into pendants, magnets or use in other art pieces.

Next I will cover everything with the lid to a box and put it somewhere safe and out of the way to dry overnight.

This will also help you avoid any temptation of touching it with your finger to see if it is dry after being left for only a few hours.

Generally it takes about 8 hours to completely cure.

Resin covered art after being left to dry overnight.

The next morning the resin should be shiny, hard, smooth and glassy.

Sometimes, you may get areas that didn’t get coated properly or a stray air bubble. Those can be taken care of in next step which I will show you next time in part 5 which will also be the final part of this series.

Here are the links to all the parts of this series:

(Links to products above are Amazon Affiliate links.)

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

This is a kind of part 2 for the light bulb terrarium project that I made in VLOG#25.

In this episode, I show you how to make a cool looking industrial style embellished stand to hold your light bulb terrarium.

This technique can also be used on all kinds of other projects to give them an interesting surface texture and feel.

If you make this project or come up with a cool idea on how to use this technique on your own project, let me know by leaving me a comment below.

For this project you are going to need these tools and supplies:

A light bulb Terrarium (Although I recommend building the base before planting the bulb.)

A block of wood that is slightly longer and wider than your light bulb and about 3/4th” thick

4″ or so of 1/8th” diameter copper wire.

Aluminum foil

Scissors

Black acrylic paint

Gold metallic paint (I use Lumiere metallic paints by Jacquard.) or Rub and Buff.

A Paint brush

Plastic beads, nuts, bolts, screws or other flat low profile embellishments. Check out VLOG#16 for more embellishment ideas.

Tacky glue

Mod Podge

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

Printed stars ready to be cut out with the scissors and used as a template.

Here are the steps I took to go about making it:

Using Adobe Illustrator to make a 2″ star shape, I then printed out a couple of them on regular printer paper and cut one out using a some scissors to use for my template.

A variety of colored plasticine clays and a jar which can also be used for storing, rolling and conditioning the clay

The brand of clay I used for this project was Sculpey which comes in a bunch of different colors.

I picked yellow because I figured that it would work best as a base for the gold paint I would be painting it with later.

This clay was already pretty soft and malleable but I went ahead and spent a few minutes conditioning it anyhow for good measure and because it feels neat.

Glass jam jar used as an DIY rolling pin.

Sometimes older plasticine clay can get dry, hard and crumbly and needs to be conditioned to make it soft and manageable.

A rolling pin or any kind of long cylindrical object, along with other substances, can be used to help revive stiff old clay.

Before I had bought a clay press, I used a thick glass jam jar to roll the clay and make it more soft, pliable and easier to work with.

However, I have sent that jar flying across the art table more than a few times leaving a path of spilled containers of paint and water. Also, the thought of the jar shattering in my hands has left me feeling a bit uneasy.

My Darice brand clay press doing it’s thang-a-majang.

So I spent some bucks and purchased myself a clay press which is also called a pasta machine. This was a solid investments once I decided to jump into working with plasticine clay regularly.

I had picked up a Darice Polymer Clay Press at the local craft store for about $20.00 and it has saved my hands from getting sore and cramped while cranking out clay in a nice uniform thickness.

If you are serious about working with plasticine clay I would totally recommend getting a press, it will make your efforts way easier and you will also see much better results!

Paper star template cut out and placed on rolled and conditioned clay.

An exacto knife works really well for cutting through clay easily.

A clean, up-cycled, glass refrigerator shelf was used for my work surface which helped to keep the clay from picking up dust, crumbs and other junk that is all over my art table.

The basic rough cut of the plasticine star. It looks like dang ol’ cheese man!

Once I had my star shape cut out, I used the exacto knife to lift and gently peel it from the glass surface I was working on and transfer it to a piece of aluminum foil.

This was to prevent it from sticking to the glass and possibly tearing after I applied pressure to it while I softened the edges and smoothed out the rough spots with my fingers.

Roughed out and cheesy looking star sitting on foil awaiting a baking.

Although still a bit on the rough side, my star is ready to be baked. Following the instructions on the clay’s package. I set the oven temp and timer and cooked that sucker.

What I have learned from past experiences is to keep a watchful eye over my cooking clay, especially when it is thin like this.

More times than I care to admit, I have pulled smoking, crunchy, stinky, burned and bubbly ruined shapes out of the oven.

Baked star with first coat of metallic gold paint.“

After the star had cooled off, I went over it with some medium grit sandpaper to clean up any remaining rough spots and to round off the top edges a little more.

For the star’s paint job, I used the same Lumiere metallic paints by Jacquard that I painted the foil and buttons with in part #2 but this time I used a gold color.

Two coats of paint was applied with a small damp flat bristle brush was all that was needed to give the star a super cool looking shiny metallic finish.

All purpose glue will be used to attach the star to the canvas.

Aleene’s Tacky Glue is my go to adhesive for all my simple, fast and quick drying gluing needs.

That is the stuff I used to attach the painted star to the decoupaged canvas from part #1.

Now I am just waiting for the glue to completely dry before I go the next step, and part #4 of this series, which is going to be the pouring of the first layer of resin.

Super Star trying some plastic bead eyes on for size.

Just for kicks, I placed a couple of the unpainted plastic beads on the star to see if they would make for a good set of peepers.

I kinda like the way the look! The other option would be to paint them on with black acrylic paint. Leave me a comment down below and let me know what you think?

The other parts of this project series can be found using the following links:

(Links to products above are Amazon Affiliate links.)

Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints and a bag of plastic beads.

During the past week I have started adding some more color and zazz to the mixed media piece that I have been working on using Lumiere metallic paints by Jacquard

Also used are for rivet like embellishments were a handful of black plastic beads that are usually used in clear vases in flower arrangements.

Using a regular small flat bristle brush and just a tiny bit of water I painted the aluminum with a few coats of the purple metallic paint making sure the first coat was plenty dry before adding the second one.

The lumiere metallic paints are not cheap but they go along way and are super cool to work with. They are also available in sampler sets so you can get an idea of what each of the colors looks like.

While the paint on the aluminum foil was drying I began applying the first layers of paint to the plastic beads.

Some of the beads were hit with some fine grit sandpaper to smooth out the edges and remove unwanted bit of thin plastic around the edges.

The beads also needed a few coats of paint put on them so I used a small flat brush to apply the Lumiere paint.

A wooden skewer helped me to keep the beads in place and under control while they were getting their paint jobs.

I purchased the bag of beads in a local craft store for a few buck and were found in the flower arrangement aisle.

After the paint on the foil and the beads were all dry I used some good ol’ Aleene’s Tacky Glue to attach the beads to the top side of the project where I had glued the printed photo paper to the canvas in part #1

The next step will be to add another element to the center of the decoupaged canvas which I will be making with plasticine clay. So Hang tight for that niftyness coming at you in my next post.

If you are following along with your own version of this project, Let me know how it is coming along in the comment box below!

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Are you diggin’ my content? If ya are, help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.

4 x 4″ canvas ready to be altered.

So I really enjoyed showing you my progress and process while I was making the “Tune Into Your Uniquency” booklets, so I have decided to do another series of post on how I am putting together a mixed media altered canvas which is something I have really been getting into lately.

I pick up these wee 4 x 4″ stretch canvas at the Ace/ Ben franklin store for about $3.50 making them a really inexpensive way to experiment and try new techniques and mediums without having to bust into my coconut monkey bank.

The canvases are available ready to go and are primed with gesso, stretched and all set to hang which makes it even easier to crank out wall ready creations without having to deal with hassles of frames!

Photo paper print out of background image I will be using.

Rather than paint a new background on the canvas, I am simply using a photo of an acrylic painting that I did on paper and have taken a high resolution digital photos of.

Of course you can paint the canvas too, however by using a photo it will leave me a nice smooth finish which will make using other mediums like pens and markers easier later down the road.

After using Adobe Photoshop to do some basic editing such as cropping and making minor color adjustments, I will then crop the background image to the 4 X 4″ size of the canvas and at a resolution of 155 ppi.

Next I import the photo into Adobe Illustrator where I set it up an 8.5 x 11″ page and lay the photo “four up.” I am printing out four just to have extras for later projects or in case I mess the one up that I am working with.

I have a Cannon iP6210D photo printer and used glossy photo paper for making my prints which hold up pretty good to water based mediums and the Mod Podge that I will be using in the next step.

Printed background photo trimmed and glued to the canvas.

Once I have my background image cut out to the size of the canvas it is ready to be glued down.

Using a brush to apply the Mod Podge, I slap down a layer of glue on the backside of the photo paper making super sure to hit the edges with the glue.

Once coated, I stick the paper on the canvas and use a brayer to flatten, smooth and work out any air bubbles under the paper.

The choice of brush is a matter of preference or what you have on hand. I have used cheapie foam and bristle brushes as well as my paws to spread Mod Podge around. Half the fun of Mod Podge is peeling the dried layers off of your fingers!

I will recommend that you don’t use your good brushes for this step, because once Mod Podge dries in the bristles that brush will pretty much be needing to be put to pasture.

Aluminum foil cut into strips and Fiskar paper edgers

For the edges of this mixed media project, I am going to use aluminum foil on the sides and to create a tattered border for my background image.

I have cut some foil into roughly 4″ long pieces that are just slightly over 1″ wide. Two of the strips are just a wee bit longer that 4″ so that I have some overlap for the corners.

Fiskar paper edgers were used to cut the foil on the side that will make up the borders and give this project a cool looking raggedy edge. You can also just rip or use regular scissor to do give the foil a rough edge.

Foil glued to the sides and edges of canvas.

Once again Mod Podge is brushed on the backs of the foil strips and then stuck to the sides of the canvas with about a .25″ of the rough edge wrapped around the top.

I glued the foil down so that the shiny side is facing out. Also, I first glued the two shorter pieces down on opposite sides of the canvas. Once dried the longer piece were glued and wrapped around the corners. The wrinkles in the foil helped to hide any seams.

Wrinkles and crinkles in the foil are totally welcomed and once painted they will add to the beat up and weathered look that I love oh-so-much.

Topside of canvas with foil wrapped around the sides.

Once again a brayer will come in handy to help get the foil to lay flat on the canvas. The foil took a little bit of finessing but I used plenty glue and have learned to just leave it alone and let it dry. Once the Mod Podge is dry I can then go back and glue down any uncooperative edges that may have lifted up.

During the course of this week, I will be adding more layers to the top using several different mediums and doodads. So stay tuned for a progress report of all that snappy art action coming at you in part #2.

I would be super stoked to see you follow along with me on your own project. If you do, be sure to give me a shout in the comment box below or come find me on your favorite social media hang out. If you take pictures I would dig seeing them, so send them on over to chongolio@gmail.com.

Here are the links to all the parts of this series:

Are you diggin’ on my stuffs? If ya are, you can help support my creative addiction by purchasing some niftiness out of My Etsy shop. I also have been known to take on commission for those who want some custom art made in the Chongolian style.