Beyonce

I believe I have found my niche.  I am really getting into mixed media.  I love the freedom to use whatever, however I want.  Carly had this canvas ready to go in the trash.  It was something she did a long time ago.  She removed pictures off it and all the embellies.  So I grabbed it.  It is a 12x18 flat canvas.  Since she had already put holes in it, the design had to be landscape.

The internet surfing I was doing earlier today led me to youtube and a video on making your own masks/stencils using your hot glue gun.  Ummm...yes, had to try it!  So I went upstairs, pulled out my craft mat and plugged in my glue gun.  I made a squiggly circle with lots of rings - probably about 3" in diameter for one and another one of assorted size circles connected together.  The YouTube video was by Southerngalsdesigns.

I grabbed five different color acrylic paints (plum, surf blue, lemon, bright pink, orange) and of course black and white.  First I covered the canvas with gesso then randomly applied the acrylic paints.  I used two of the masks that I just made with the hot glue gun.  You can see the bright pink squiggly circles (they almost look like roses) and the circles in the lower left corner.  LOVE!  The hardest part was waiting for each layer to dry.

Canvas is all covered and this is it:

Random supplies I used:  hot glue masks, packing tape roll (for large black circles), perfume lid for small white circles, coffee cup sleeve, microwave rice steamer tray (for black starburst), old gift card.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  I thought another she art and then thought, I'll put some birds and that led to a beehive and bees.  With that comment, Carly suggested we do a Beyonce quote since she is called Queen Bee.  So she searched for a quote, we liked a few, but then we thought the quote "Don't Worry Be Yonce" was hilarious.  So...

I grabbed my sketch book and drew a bee hive and some bees.  The hive is made by cutting yellow scraps and stacked.  I added some washi tape, ink, markers, etc to dress it up.  The bees are painted yellow and stamped with black ink to mimic a yellow/black bumble bee.  The wings are painted with lt. blue and gold opal paint.  Then swept some Wink of Stella for shimmer and a bit of dk. blue to each wing.  The antennaes are drawn on with markers.  I just glued them on the canvas.

The quote is stamped on using some old foam stamps I had forever and never used.  I think they are from Making Memories.  I used white acrylic paint for each letter.  Then used a violet watercolor marker to give a shadow to each letter.

The complete canvas:

I'm proud to say that this is hanging in Carly's bedroom.  She has never asked to hang something of mine before so it is quite an honor.

I love it.   It's fun...it's whimsical...and unique.