mixed media flower girl

hi all!

i wanted to share something my fabulous friend Somphane said that has been on my mind for the last week.  a bunch of us moms had gotten the kids together to play and we were hanging out chatting and of course the subject of weight gain came up.  and somphane said - why worry about it.  we aren't little girls we are women and we have women's bodies now which come with curves.  she said we shouldn't be worried about the fact that we aren't as slim as we were when we were younger we should be proud of our curviness and proud of being a woman.  that has made such a profound effect on my self image!  she is brilliant!  my entire perspective has changed because she is right!  because in reality no amount of dieting and exercise is going to get me back down to the weight i was in my early twenties! i can be healthy yes - but i will never be the stick figure i was  years ago!

 i decided to take a break from my "work" stuff and just play in my studio the past couple days.  i am really venturing back to my roots and doing more mixed media stuff as opposed to the color an image, add layers, add flowers kind of stuff.  {though i AM missing my die cutting so i need to get back to my black cat next!}

i am taking several online classes right now - christie tomlinson, suzi blu, dion dior - and learning tons!  i am especially loving my suzi blu classes and today's project is a direct result of what i have been learning.

i am entering it in the following challenges:

• creative card crew - vintage
• papertake weekly - for the girls
• 4 crafty chicks - chicks rule

and in the true spirit of going green i did this piece on one of the large wood blocks from a SU stamp - i never mount them on wood.  the best part - i drew this little girl myself!  yep i sure did!  better yet - i am sharing her with all of you - you can get her as a free digi image at the end of this post!

i began by adhering torn strips of a book page to the wooden base with gel medium.i painted the bottom green and the top blue using Luminarte Silks (fern & Sky Blue) - you can get them at SCACD.  the silks are an acrylic glaze meaning there are translucent so the book page strips shows through.  once dry i wanted to tone things down a bit so i swiped on some luminarte Golden Opal primary elements powder mixed with gel medium.  LOVE this stuff - i can mix it into so many things depending on what i am doing.  I layered on some circles & the scallop border using claudine hellmuth's acrylic paints and foam stamps - which i ADORE!  also stamped a wildflower sillhouette from a CTMH stamp set using brown staz on ink.

as i said, i drew the little girl myself then inked her and scanned her - i didn't want to color right on my original in case i messed it up or wanted to use it again.  then i printed her out and colored her with colored pencils (polychromos).  last, i added the embellishments - some glittered skittles, the vintage crocheted border and some teeny prima flowers from 100 years ago :P  i needed something more than just the flowers at her feet so i mixed Luminarte Moss Green primary elements and gel medium to get a thick paste.  i just dabbed it around her feet in a "pile" and then stuck the flowers in it and dabbed some more in the flower centers.

when I drew her i knew i would be putting a flower in her hands so i did not originally draw anything in her hands but i put a little flower in them for y'all!

feel free to download her and use her but do not sell her!  let me know if you use her so i can check out what you did!