I believe in Angels.....Mixed Media Wall Art

Hello Friends,
Well I finally did it....I faced my "fears" and have been working on a Mixed Media Wall Art piece for my bedroom over the past few days.  I recently purchased a new turquoise quilt (with green stitching) for my bedroom and when I saw the colors for this weeks Mixed Media Color Challenge #3 I knew I would make a "FAMILY" piece to hang in my room.  Here is the inspiration photo:

For me this became a very personal piece representing our family. Our beloved "Papa Stuart" is represented with a pair of glittery wings way up in the sky and the saying..."I believe in Angels!".  Today marks 1 year and 5 months since he passed away from brain cancer.   When someone who is such a huge part of your life is no longer present it changes absolutely everything!!  I hope that the personal nature of my post doesn't bother anyone.  For me making this type of mixed media canvas is very personal and therapeutic.  These past 3 years have truly been the hardest of our lives as we journeyed through cancer with him and lost him in February of 2012.  I thank each and every one of you that has offered support to me and my son when I have shared some of the things he is going through and that we have had to face together. Your warmth, kindness and empathy are truly a blessing to me!

Here are some process photos of my canvas - you can skip to the end if you are not interested... : )

 Getting started was the hardest part....all that white space staring up at me. (In hindsight I wish I had gessoed a bunch of background papers to the canvas to get it started and then painted over them before adding my house etc.

 After creating my house from patterned paper and the fence from a die I decided to work on the sky.
I started with some cheese cloth at the top of my canvas and over-layed it with die cut clouds.

 Here you can see that I have added a tree made from tissue paper and some green cardstock leaves that I had trimmed by hand from some stamped cardstock.    I have also added gesso and some brown, aqua, and green paints with my finger and paintbrushes to several areas to begin to create dimension.  A scalloped border helps to define the roof of the house more. 

 This photo shows how I have added some roses with dimensional paste as well as some stamping using the chicken wire distressing stamp created by Mona for MFT.  I have also used some Glitz roller stamps and started adding some rub-ons too.

 

I couldn't find an angel charm or my stash of tiny silk wings in my stash last night so I hand-cut a tiny pair of angel wings to represent my sweet husband Stu as I know that he is watching over us in spirit.  I will probably change these out when I find them.

Here is Mama Bird watching over her eggs...next time I will distress the cheesecloth and color it before gessoing it!  Oops!  I need some PITT artist pens or something like them....

 I printed my sentiment on a piece of digital gingham paper because I couldn't find any stamps the right size for my canvas.  I smeared the word "where" when adding some gesso and aqua glimmer paint over the top today to seal the canvas one last time.  But really it is just distressed - right! :)

 Here is Papa Bird standing on the roof line of the house made out of buttons with some diamond Stickles added.  I may add some more shading to him as I think he still needs more dimension!

A close up of my "paste" roses.  I unfortunately don't have the right kind of "paint" markers yet for mixed media and couldn't draw in my flower between the roses because the aqua glitter paint by Martha Stewart still wasn't dry yet.  I opted to stop and take my pictures as I wanted to get this posted today.  I will finish the flower later tonight when I fix a few other shading/doodling issues.  My son's fever spiked again today to 103 degrees so we are headed to the Doctor this afternoon after a talk with the nurse.  He has been sick for 8 days now.....and Mommy is a wee bit on the worried side!

Thanks for taking a look at my first ever Mixed Media Canvas Wall Hanging.  I created a wired hanger from some trim I got at Michaels and hot flued it to the sides of my canvas so I can hang it.  I then added a beloved gingham bow to finish it off.

I learned SO SO much during this process.  I know what supplies I need to buy now and have a list of what NOT to do next time!!!!  LOL!  I made a lot of rookie "mistakes"....though there are truly no mistakes when playing at mixed media art from what I have observed on the You Tube videos I have watched!  It always comes together in the end - and most importantly it has meaning in my heart!

 I would love to hear what you think of my very first attempt at a canvas/wall art item!  I never think of myself as doing anything truly artistic with paint as I have family members who are very talented in this area.  I am more of a stick-figure girl myself with a lot of "crafty" in my heart.
 
Until next time...thanks so much for looking!
:) Jill

P.S.  The woman and boy pictured in the house's windows are my son and I.  They were hand cut from a roll of Prima Washi tape if you were wondering.....