Monday, July 9, 2012

It's a "Sparkly" Day

<shameless self-promotion mode on>
Look what I discovered in my mail today:
click here

I've been nominated! Very few of you notice me over in my little corner of cyberspace, so you might say I was a little surprised. You might say you could have knocked me over with a feather :-) 

<Shameless self-promotion mode off. Returning you to your regularly scheduled post.>


Have you seen the video for Maria's new tangle AuraKnot? The Diva challenged us to use it and has a link on her blog. I saw it Saturday night and have been going wild for this tangle. I won't bore you with my first dozen or so attempts, but I thought you might like my latest.

Yes, this is the same piece! I used Lumiere paints and it is remarkable how different they look when the light changes. I wish you could see it in person because the iridescence is amazing.

Last week I did a piece using metallic gel pens on this same paper for a dear friends' 50th wedding anniversary.  I had so much fun that I did it again.

As soon as I did the two AuraKnots, they just screamed, "We're sea stars," so I made them a nautilus friend.  I wanted the nautilus to be iridescent, so I finally had a reason to crack open the Lumieres.

I mixed Pearl Violet, Pearl Blue, and Metallic Olive paints on the shell and blended them with a bit of Pearl White. The golden star is done with Metallic Bronze and Super Copper, and the other one is done using Pearl White and a mixture of Pearl White and Metallic Olive. I also "shaded" with a turquoise prismacolor pencil and added some highlights with my white Gelly Roll Pen. It is so sparkly!

Wishing you a sparkly day also.

Cris

PS - If you want to try these paints yourself, you can find them on Amazon for less than I paid at an art store that was going out of business. Go figure.     (This is an affiliate link, but I won't be insulted if you don't use it.)

15 comments:

  1. Cris, Congratulations on your nomination and good luck, I wish you to be a winner. Your tangles are beautiful.

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  2. It is a gorgeous example of how wonderful auraknot is when used by Cris!

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  3. Wow! I love your sea stars, and your nautilus is inspired. I especially like the feathery strokes you made at the top right of the piece.

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  4. Your sea theme works perfectly with auraknot Cris.
    Congratulations on your nomination..such fun!

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  5. Love it -- love the feathers too! Congrats on your nomination.

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  6. Great! I love feathers too, but never used tem this way. Thanks for sharing the idea.

    Annemarie Huijts

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  7. They DO look like starfish - very cool!

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  8. Whoah!!! Your ZIA is stunning! Thank you for showing how it looks in different lights, and for elaborating on the products you used. I love Lumieres, but have never used them with my tangles. Today I tried some cheap pearlescent watercolors...not nearly as rich and exciting and lusciuos as the Lumieres.

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  9. Congratulations! What an accomplishment! I love your nautilus and its' beautiful colors. I like one rounded "auraknot" and one pointy. Thank you for the info on supplies. I am just getting started in an on-line class with Dion Dior using watercolor pencils. I started two weeks late and just picked up supplies yesterday!

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  10. Thanks, everyone. It was fun to experiment with different mediums.

    It cracks me up how many people commented on the "feathers." I will tell you a secret: I didn't have enough paint on my brush to do what I had planned :-) You never know what works and what doesn't until you try.

    Have fun experimenting!

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  11. What a gorgeous zia. When I first looked at it, I thought you had added some real feathers to the top right corner. They literally jump off the page and look three dimensional. BTW, congrats on your nomination. Where do we go to vote?

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  12. Thanks. The voting starts on the 15th. Will put up a link then (if I can figure out how!)

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  13. Wow!! Really pretty--the colors and feathers are gorgeous!! And congrats on your nomination! So exciting!

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