Blue Butterflies - Mixed Media Canvas

This is my submission for week 1 of The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin at Twinkle, Twinkle. I had so much fun creating this piece. Turquoise is my most favorite color so, of course, my blue piece would be covered in turquoise ;).

I started with a 4x6 canvas board and just started playing. I created my own version of glass bead gel using gel medium and Martha Stewart micro beads and I created the tiny butterflies in the corners using a Martha Stewart butterfly stencil and modeling paste mixed with turquoise paint.

The focal point of the piece is this detailed, layered Chip Art butterfly. Melody Ross' Chip Art collection by GCD Studios is one of the many new creative discoveries I made when I was on my unintentional blogging hiatus. You will see LOTS of chip art showing up in my art now.

I also took an on-line workshop with Christy Tomlinson and used some techniques inspired by her in the piece as well. (More to come on that! Christy is one of my new favorite artists!).

I've decided that I'll be participating in The Summer of Color each week by creating a 4x6 or 5x7 canvas board as the foundation of my piece. By the end of the summer I'll have a very colorful collection of art to display in my studio as inspiration. I'll also be trying new techniques or products in each piece to keep my creative juices fresh!

Thanks for looking! Now I'm off to see what the other participants have created. Remember you can join the party at anytime and you don't have to participate every week. You can read an overview of The Summer of Color, here.