Mix-Ability - RELAX

It's my turn to host the Mix-Ability challenge at Splitcoaststampers. I thought with recent cold weather trends, we'd warm up the gallery by using warm colors (2 or more) on our mixed media projects. Here's mine...

I'm pretty sure this started as a block from a set of shapes meant to be used for learning letters. Our kids are all past that stage, and we'd given the set to the pre-K here, but this piece got left out. I've been meaning to alter it for a while, and decided I needed it to function as a reminder on my desk. To relax!  I need it to yell at me. And occasionally rap me across the knuckles. (Maybe if I relaxed once in a while I wouldn't have accidentally packed up 2 of Lydia's markers, which are in that pen holder too! I've had them for 2 years now.)

I started by coating the block with gesso, then gave it a layer of matte varnish, and layered yellow tissue paper over it while the varnish was still wet. The next few layers of color are acrylic paint and Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink.

I used some stamps from Impression Obsession and also my favorite poppy from Crafter's Companion, then stippled through a stencil from Crafter's Workshop. The black elements are all Versafine ink, and the 'relax' stamp is from Impression Obsession.

Hope you'll join us for this week's challenge!