Back To Just Me

The grand kids and their parents pulled out for Memphis around 7:30 this morning...leaving me and Rufus and my hubby to adjust to the quiet. Rufus seemed to be at a lost...he followed me around and every time I sat down he was all over me...he definitely misses the girls as they played with him all the time. I thought that I would run upstairs and start playing in my sewing room...but I was just really lazy today.....yesterday while the gang did their last big fling at the beach I did finish one of my Sea Turtle postcards for an upcoming swap, I tried something different and was really pleased with the results. So thought I would share. I did the background fabric as usual on muslin using my watercolor crayons (I wish I owned stock in these as much as I praise them), then attached the background fabric to the card. Then I drew my turtle lightly with pencil...and here is where the experimentation came in...I mixed my watercolor crayons with Gesso....would rub the crayon on card stock and instead of using water .... dipped brush into Gesso...applied color....it was great...no running...easy to shade...also could paint over mistakes. Then went in with permanent black thin marker to add detail lines. I believe that there are a lot of uses for this quart of Gesso that I found under my cabinet....it works great on canvas, wood, or card stock...so why not just plain fabric.

Here is my first card....no stitching yet but you can see how well the Gesso allowed the color to lay on the fabric...it really was easy to paint...now thinking about mixing it with just pure watercolor from tubes...or even use it with watercolor pencils...Gesso....Gesso....Gesso!