Botanical Whimsy

Every month, my on-line art group holds a lottery. April's theme is BOTANICAL WHIMSY. Just what, I ask ya, could be more perfect for a girl trying to 'lively up herself'? This is my piece, done on a base of thin wood that was used as packing for a painting shipped from Italy -- so she's got a bit of Continental Glam underneath, too! Whimsy Girl is 10-1/2" x 12-1/2", too big for the scanner at work so I had to take her out into the sunshine and shoot some pictures. Miss Whimsy stands proud on a background of something like 7 layers, from gesso to paper flowers to stencils to textured gel medium to clear gesso with foam stampie imprints on/in it to lift the paint and reveal the colors underneath. The 'trellis' is actually pieces of a broken picture frame. I used rub-ons for the black flower 'bits' that show on it, then painted it with irridescent glaze. For the longest time, I've been using that picture frame border as a stencil, but it had seen better days, so I snapped it all apart for this piece.

My friend Beth (HERE) is the creator of these Big Head Journal Girls -- ever since I saw hers, I've been dying to make one. This seemed a perfect occasion. Her dress has real pressed flowers on the hem, set with Diamond Glaze (ditto the two purple flowers on her head). The flowered panels of her dress were white, but I painted over them with Citrine Yellow paint jewels.

Origami bird. Try number 611 to make a BUTTERFLY, not a bird at all. Zoe was in bliss, though; I was raining paper wads down on her!!

Spring is most definitely here, in Phoenix -- and since it lasts all of 12 minutes before we go to plus 100-degrees, I'm BASKING!!! And wearing flip flops every possible second.