Believe in the beauty of your dreams by Betsy Skagen

Eleanor Roosevelt's statement, "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams," is so powerful in my life right now that it inspired me to make this mixed media piece.

While mixed media in its strictest definition is not one of my strongest skill sets, I am always trying to learn more and improve little by little.

I began this piece by painting the Celestial Shape Set moon gold. However, I found it flat and boring.

So I covered it with gold crackle paste and let it dry overnight. Next I rubbed  brown cream wax into the surface, wiping off the excess. Then I applied black Gilders paste wax to the edges. My moon was looking so much better than when I first painted him.

The next step in this process was to prepare the other chipboard pieces. One thing I have learned over the years is that ink is the easiest way to color chipboard black. I applied black ink to both the Street Lamp and the Mini Fence and Gate. What's nice about this is there is no drying time and no paint globs to hide the detailed intricacies of the chipboard.

I also gave the Windows a coat ivory of ivory paint. When dry, I aged them with tan distress ink.

At this point I was getting into the groove of the project. Yep. I was really having fun. A blast even. In fact, I was having so much fun that I completely forgot about taking pictures.

Oops.

Please bear with me as I describe the next few steps without any pictures. Sorry about that. (It really was fun).

I cut a sheet of white glossy paper and used masking tape to attach a floral stencil and then added a geometric stencil to the base of the paper.

Next I dribbled alcohol ink in different shades of blue and green into the stencil holes. More spread under the stencil than I would have liked, but I decided not to fret about it. Besides, what could I do?

After I had completely filled the stencil holes and given the alcohol ink a few minutes to dry, I removed the stencils.

Because of all the bleeding when the ink went beneath the stencil, I outlined the pattern with blue, green and black gel pens. I also drew in a silhouette of a tree branch with a black Sharpie.

Guess what! I finally have a picture for you!

As you can see, I ran into a problem with my tree branch becoming too wide, but I didn't worry about it because I knew the moon would cover it up.

I adhered the moon, windows and vintage girl.

Then I used gloss gel medium to adhere the vellum quotation, fence and street lamp. I drew additional patterns over the vellum to tie the pieces together.

Great Stuff

Celestial Shape Set
Mini Fence and Gate
Christmas Shape Set (Street Lamp)
Windows 4 Panel
Girl from Snarky Ancestors #3
Black distress ink
Tan distress ink
Gold Crackle Paste
Brown Wax
Black Wax
Glossy white paper
Masking tape
Floral stencil
Geometric stencil
Alcohol ink in assorted blues and greens
Gel pens in blue, green, and black
Black Sharpie
Gloss gel medium
Quotation on vellum