Spring Magnets

With beautiful month of May just around the corner, let's feel inspired by blooming flowers and bring them home onto... your fridge. ;)

In the last few months I've been experimenting a lot with a freehand drawing designs.

I've made lots of art journal pages with my drawings, but this time I wanted to make something more "useful" and practical. I decided to make some fridge magnets - something nice and funny to "lighten up" my kitchen. :)

Spring is my favourite time of the year - I feel new power, have plenty of new ideas. I love warm cozy days and everything blooming.

Wild spring flowers on my fridge - this sounds like a very good idea. :)

All the magnets are made the same way - I used an ATC size die and a thick cardboard covered with watercolor paper.

I have my special technique... :) First, I draw my design with black markers then cover it with clear gesso. This way I can be sure that my design will be waterproof and also the gesso is a great base for paints and inks.

My favourite way is to mix different kind of media - here you can find amazing vibrant Dylusions inks, beautiful sparkly Silks paints and a bit of Lindy's Stamp Gang mists.

I like to combine matte and shiny medias - it makes a great contrast.

For the shadows I usually use Stamper Big Brush Pens from Faber-Castell. They are filled with India ink which makes them waterproof, but on a non-porous surface (like gesso) you actually have few seconds before they dry. That is a great moment to smudge them. You can use a cotton stick or... your fingers. :)

When I was happy with the results, I covered all the magnets with clear UTEE. It creates great shiny surfaces, almost like glass or resin. I wanted to have a smooth surface so I used three layers of UTEE. I hope you can see how amazing it looks. :)

I hope you like my spring flower magnets. Maybe you will feel inspired to make your own?

Materials from Mixed Media Place: