Astro Girl - When I Grow Up Collection

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That question was asked of me a million times growing up. Truthfully I wanted to be a cop or an astronaut, though I became neither one. Luckily though, my daughter, just for a day - a few hours (for now) - got to be an ‘astronaut’. Christopher Alan, the owner of Brutus Monroe, asked her play the little girl in the video for the ‘When I Grow Up Collection; Astronaut’. She was excited, nervous and yes a little shy. But he told her to come as she is and bring HER things to the set. So when watching the “When I Grow Up Collection” video you will see her in all of her glory. The teal/green art canvas is her art that she created, the drawing on the tablet she did, the goodies used (including the dress form) are ALL hers, even the shirt she was wearing she created. I hope that when she grows up she truly can be what she wants to be.

To prep for creating the set there was one piece that I got to create and that was the mixed media piece you see sitting on the desk. As the “Creative Coordinator” and “In House Designer”, I don’t have as much time to create as I would like, so much to do, so little time. But luckily Christopher invited me to the studio to play with the new releases, you might have seen the Periscope. I took the little astronaut girl stamp from the collection and stamped her with my Misti using Brutus Monroe’s Raven embossing powder and embossing ink. Next I colored her using Zig markers and a water brush, lastly fussy-cutting her and her helmet out. Then I attached a yellow piece of wire to the back with a foam sticker and set aside.

I took a 10”x10” blank white canvas and a 4” half Styrofoam ball and coated them both with black gesso. The ball you have to more or less pat the gesso on. Before the canvas dried, I ran my fingers in a circle pattern on it to mimic movement. Some of the bits of Styrofoam came off on the canvas and I left them to add texture. After this dried I sprayed several of the office Brutus Monroe Color Burst Exclusive Colors set (in collaboration with Ken Oliver) on the canvas, spritzed with water and dried with a heat gun. Then I used re-inkers of ‘Alabaster’, ‘Suede’, ‘Cornflower’, ‘Rouge’ and ‘Aubergine’. I tried to keep the ‘Alabaster’ and ‘Suede’ more towards the center. I sprayed the whole thing again with water. Added some sequins, Ultrafine diamond glitter, glass glitter and dried with the heat gun. I made a little puddle of ‘Raven’ and ‘Alabaster’ re-inkers and water, then using a paint brush made splatters on the canvas. Once again drying afterwards with water. I took the ‘Alabaster’ re-inker and dripped bigger drops onto the canvas and then ran a papertowel in those circle grooves that were created in the gesso. I kept adding layers with these steps until I achieved the look of the “Galaxy” I liked, probably 2-4 times. (Remember when doing this not to forget the sides.)

Remember that Styrofoam ball, well I took it and with the ‘embossing ink’ re-inker I drew circles and big dots on it, then I poured ‘Sterling’ embossing powder over the whole thing. The powder didn’t completely come off where it wasn’t placed, but that added to the metallic look I felt. Though I used a heat gun, you have to do so carefully to avoid melting the Styrofoam.

Since mixed media really is using anything that one has on hand. I had found a broken wooden rocket birdhouse at one of the big box stores. I ran several pieces of Ranger inkssentials foil tape sheets through a Big Shot using the ‘Riveted metal’ Sizzix texture fades embossing folder. I then applied to the birdhouse and ran a brayer over it to make it smooth as I could. On the fins of the ship I used silver paint I had on hand. On the edges of the fins and the edge of the top part of the birdhouse I applied ‘Bo Bunny’s silver glitter paste and let dry.

Literally the pieces came together, very easily once they were all dry. One could even play with the pieces in this mixed media project. But it was also fun to create in the Brutus Monroe Pittsburgh Studio Store with Christopher. The “When I Grow Up Collection” is truly amazing and I for one plan on getting each and every one!

You can watch Christopher's interview explaining the collection here:

Supply list for “Astronaut Girl”

 Brutus Monroe supplies

-Embossing powder ‘Raven’ and ‘Sterling’

-Embossing ink

-Embossing reinker

-Water Pen

-Brutus Monroe Color Burst Exclusive Colors set (in collaboration with Ken Oliver)

-water mister

-Reinkers of ‘Alabaster’, ‘Suede’, ‘Cornflower’, ‘Rouge’, ‘Aubergine’ and ‘Raven’

-Large Media Mat

-Squeaky clean

Other Materials Needed:

MISTI

-Art Mat

-Scissors

-10”x10” blank canvas

-4” half stryrofoam ball

-black gesso

-wooden birdhouse

-Ranger inkssentials foil tape sheets

-’Riveted metal’ Sizzix texture fades embossing folder

-yellow wire

-Zig markers

-brayer

-Bo Bunny silver glitter paint

-silver paint

-sequins

-Ultrafine diamond glitter

-glass glitter

-paint brush

-water

-Big Shot