Rain Forest

It is time for a new month-long challenge at Anything But Cute and this time Samra is our hostess and calls it Earth Day.

Before I tell you about the challenge and my project, I want to let you know that this will be my last post for Anything But Cute.  I want to say thank you to Pamellia for the opportunity to be in from the start of her challenge blog and I want to wish her and the rest of the gals on the team all the best.  

Samra describes the challenge this way:

"Create a mixed media project inspired by this mood board and the beauty of our planet. Please tell us what inspired you. Entries for this challenge can be echo friendly, or even recycled/upcycled items; or depiction of the sea, mountain, river, forest, flowery meadow…let’s celebrate our planet!"

I decided to go to the rain forest for my Earth Day offering and was inspired by a trip I made in 2008 into the rain forest of Costa Rica.  I went on Google to see what kind of snakes live in rain forests since I didn't come across any on my trip and discovered that there are some bright blue species so I added some to my project, which is as close as I want to come to them.  There are lots and lots of trees in the rain forest and I was conned into going zip lining between some of them.  I did it twice that day - the first time and the last time - LOL.

This is a 5"x7" canvas that I picked up at the dollar store.  I coated it with Liquitex Gesso and then I covered it with various die cut and punched leaves, vines and butterflies.  Another coat of Gesso was added and then I painted it with Guacamole and Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paints.  I used some Wendy Vecchi Tree Branch Archival Ink and a stamp from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge set to add a  few splatters.

I used a Dylusions stencil called Leaf Flourish Small and some Wendy Vecchi Fern Green Archival Ink to add the hanging vines.  After the ink was dry I replaced the stencil and added some Wendy Vecchi Translucent Embossing Paste.

I made the branch and bird from Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay and a Wilton Silicone Mold.  The branch was painted with some Folk Art Coffee Bean Acrylic Paint and then inked with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  The bird was painted with DecoArt's Pumpkin and Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint, Tangerine Acrylic Paint by Folk Art and Liberty Blue Acrylic Paint from Accent.  Then I handmade a couple snakes from Crafter's Clay and painted it with Ice Blue Metallic Acrylic Paint from DecoArt.

Next I made a couple of ferns from Crafter's Clay and painted them with DecoArt Plantation Pine Acrylic Paint and inked them with Forest Moss DI.  I picked up a really cheap and really ugly floral pick from Michaels, took it apart and altered it by coating it with some Ceramacoat Acrylic Paint called Leaf Green mixed with some DecoArt Fabric Medium so it would stay flexible and now I had rain forest flora and fauna.

I thought it needed some earth so I mixed some large seed beads with some light molding paste and dabbed that on and then painted it with some Coffee Bean Acrylic Paint from Folk Art.