Bring Me Sunshine by Fliss Goodwin

Hi there, apologies from me if you're now singing a certain duo's signature song but I couldn't resist this title for my mixed media panel which came about after I took one look at the stencil I used and saw rays of sunlight - this happy creation was the result.

Here's what I did:

I took an mdf panel and painted it with white gesso for a good undercoat. I then used the random rectangles stencil with texture paste to add slanting rays of sunlight across the panel from the top left corner, finishing just below the half way mark.

I then took my pot of texture sand paste (I really love the gritty texture of this) and applied it to the remainder of the panel with a spatula, spreading it with my fingers to roughly cover the surface and adding some between the rays of sunlight.

I then painted the panel with teal, green and yellow multi surface paints to resemble a sunny sky above a green meadow. The yellow on the sun rays needed a couple of coats for a stronger emphasis and when dry, I brushed on some yellow shimmer paint to make them shine more. It doesn't quite show in the photo so hopefully you can imagine it.

I next made my flowers and a bit of ingenuity came in here as my flower stamps are quite large (so that decoupage can be done) and whilst cutting up sections to layer up a flower for another project, I realised that the centre section makes a lovely flower on its' own. So, what I did was to stamp just the central area on some scraps of yellow and orange Gelli prints from my bits box and then cut them out.

I stamped some leaf sprigs on some paper painted with watered down green and evergreen multi surface paints (this gives a lovely watercolour effect) and cut these out - I used 5 on my panel, cutting one to add leaves where necessary.

I then created my bird by stamping him on the matching white/greyboard with black ink and heat embossing it with clear powder. I then coloured him with pencils and markers, using a hummingbird photo for reference.

I then began assembling my panel, adding the leaves first, cutting the final sprig into separate sections for adding leaves at the base. I added the flowers with dimensional glue, cutting one in half to add on either side.

I finished off with one of Lynne's Affirmations stamped on mixed media paper with green ink and cut into word tiles before gluing on the panel.

Supplies used:

That's Crafty! Surfaces - MDF 8 x 8 Panel
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Fanciful Flowers Sets 1 and 2, Lynne's Affirmations Set 3
That's Crafty! White/Greyboard Matches - Fanciful Flowers Set 2
That's Crafty! 8 x 8 Stencil - TC8031 Random Rectangles
That's Crafty! Mediums - White Texture Paste, Texture Sand Paste
That's Crafty! White Gesso
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints
That's Crafty! Yellow Shimmer Paint
Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black, Fern Green
VersaFine Ink - Onyx Black
Clear Embossing Powder
Orange, Yellow and Green Gelli Prints or make some painted papers to stamp on
Coloured Pencils
Marker Pens
Dimensional Glue

Neil's on Hochanda TV today at 11am and 4pm with some of the gorgeous new releases, including stamps, stencils and some more amazing substrates so the shows are not to be missed! If you did there's always rewind so do take a look as you'll love the new products as much as I do.

Have a great weekend and see you next week.

Hugs,

Fliss x