Sustainable Souls for September

Fossil Fuels

Hello everyone!  It's that time of the month again for the Sustainable Souls Project.  When I first saw the topic for the month, Fossil Fuels, I first thought of black "muck".  My second thought was of the fossilized bones of some sort of animal.

I visited the wonderful Stencil Girl Stencils website and knew I would be able to find something (because they have every stencil you could ever want and need). I came across the perfect "Fossil Fish Stencil" L094 and knew I could make that my centerpiece.

 I rummaged through my stash of cardboard (because every crafter has THAT stash) and cut a piece that was the same size as my other pages.  I applied some Liquitex Gesso to the cardboard and let it dry.  

 

I knew I wanted some crackle, so I pulled out my Antique Silver Crackle Texture Paste from Finnabair and a Pallet knife.  I laid the stencil over the gesso'd cardboard and scraped the crackle over the stencil.  You will see, some of it oozed under the stencil (don't you hate when that happens?), but I went with it and let it dry

So that I could get my "goopy" black that I envisioned, I messaged my dear sweet friend Susan Brown and asked her if there was a black dye she could recommend for my Amazing Casting Products Clear Resin.  She said "of course", Alumilite has dyes.  Once I got my hands on some, I poured out equal parts of A and B of the clear casting resin, added some drops of the dye to one of the parts (more than I really needed), then mixed them together in a larger cup.  Once all of the bubbles were gone, I gently poured it over my fishy.  Since it was a lot darker than I wanted, I had to scrape it away from the fish so I could see him.  I did like that some of the resin got into those cracks and crevices.

Once this dried, I had to think of a title with my word of the year "Be".  The perfect one came to mind, "Be Efficient".  I grabbed my rub-ons and applied the words to the side.  When we can, we really need to be thoughtful and limit our fuel use, whether it is fuel for your home or your car.  Turn your thermostat down in the winter so it is a little cooler and bundle up with blankets if you need to.  Limit your trips to stores and destinations.

 

Fossil Fuels are considered a "non-renewable" source because they take millions of years to form and the known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being made.  The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.  It is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, being a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year.  Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming.  A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Wikipedia.org Fossil fuel

Links to above products used:

Liquitex Gesso

Finnabair Antique Silver Crackle Texture Paste

Alumilite Amazing Clear Cast Resin

Alumilite Dye

Mixed Media Moods Board

Happy September!  Bring on Fall!

Today's blog entry features a project that I created for the Mixed Media Moods Board Facebook group.  This fantastic group is lead by DeeDee Catron and Jenn Engle.  Each month they create a new Mood Board that usually has 6 images that inspire you to create any type of Art.  You can use 1, 2, or even all 6 images if you want.  I love these because it gives me a starting point of inspiration.

September was a beautiful display of Summer.

I started by pulling out an 8x10 canvas and added some golden tones of Lindy's Starburst sprays and Adirondack color spray and let it run down the canvas.

 

After this dried, I was drawn to the turquoise fish net on the board.  I remember I had saved a plastic netting tube that came on a bottle of wine, PERFECT!  I cut it in half and applied white spray gesso to both sides so that paint would stick. After this dried, I painted both sides with a turquoise colored paint.

The greenish teal images of the scales and jellyfish were gorgeous, so I pulled out some alcohol inks and dropped some green and blue colors on the canvas.  They weren't spreading as I liked so I grabbed the blending solution and dropped it over the inks.  That did the trick!  It was coming out a little bluer than the mood board, but I like it!  

The next images I wanted to use was the boardwalk and wooden images.  Awhile back I had saved some unused wooden coffee stir sticks and figured this would be the perfect time to give them a little color and use them on this piece.  I glued a few together and attached them to the canvas to act as a boardwalk.  Then I took the netting and screwed it onto the canvas and dyed the screws with alcohol ink.

I proceeded to go through my "nature" piles of supplies and pulled out some Coconut Fibers and attached some at the bottom with heavy gel.  I knew I was going to be adding some shells that I picked up in Hawaii, so what do shells need?  Sand!!  I grabbed my jar of Prima Mini Art Stones and added some to a small container with some heavy gel.  When it was a good consistency, I spread it above the Coconut Fibers with a pallet knife.

Once everything was dry, I dripped some amber colored alcohol ink over the Art Stones and blended the color with the Blending Solution.  Then I added a few sea shells and sea glass to finish it off.

I felt as if the "blobs" of blue needed some more drips so I added more alcohol ink and blending solution to get longer drips.  I really like how it came out.

Check out the final project and close-up images below.

Thank you for stopping by!