Busy Gift Making

Busy making gifts; the hardest part is waiitng for the glue (mod podge) to dry!!  Some days are still more humid than others so it is taking forever and I am not always the most patient person on the block.

I am enjoying this one.  He has a butterfly on his shoulder!  This is still a work in progress.  I wanted to crackle the paint but I learned that you can't crackle over metallic paint.  I wound up with an umber, bronze and white acrylic paints.  Then sanded to distress it, then added the picture with mod podge, let it dry and coat the whole thing 2 times with a foam brush.  When it was dry, I used a regular paint brush with mod podge just on him, using regular brush strokes as if I were painting.  When that dried, I cut a new sponge into small wedges, dipped in umber and dabbed around the picture edges and wood.  I did this a couple of times to get the look I wanted.
THIS IS WHAT I STILL WANT TO DO:  I am in the process of sanding around the picture edge and will dab again with umber paint.  I am trying to get a look that the picture and wood are one.  To finish, I will coat again with a last coat of mod podge, put in a box and mail off to his Mom for Christmas... so ssshhhh don't tell!

This is scrapbook paper on stretched canvas and an actual photo on top.  I need to fix some spots of the overlap but stepping back for now.   shhhhh another secret gift!

and doing lets of tiles.