Tuesday 30 August 2016

Making Memories frame for DecoArt Mixed Media DT and Craft Stamper news

I have a project  on the DecoArt Mixed media Design Team blog today and it is my second piece for this amazing team. I have chosen to go all girly and create a mosaic frame with some rusted and timeworn trinkets. Here is a sneak peek of the colours and some crackle to entice you over to see all the details and photos..... click the link above to find it.


.... and this is one of the trinkets I added to the frame.


I hope you can find a minute or two to spare to pop over and take a look and I would be very grateful if you would leave a comment over there.

I also want to share my first Craft Stamper project which is on the front cover of this month's issue - woo hoo how exciting is that? It's such a surreal feeling to see your own art work displayed like this and I am one very proud and excited lady right now. Just waiting for my copy to arrive which hopefully should be today so I can see what it looks like on the inside too. There's a tutorial for the background using DecoArt mediums and media paints and I was specifically asked by the DecoArt team to be their representative for this edition, so a double whammy for me. If you get a copy of the magazine please let me know what you think.



I hope your week is going well. I am catching up from the most wonderful and amazing California holiday shared with all the family for 17 days staying with friends and catching up with some of their family too.




Maddie, Tom, Ken, me, Ben, Bev with Ella and Maddison in the front.

Thanks for stopping by. 

hugs Brenda xxx


Friday 26 August 2016

Altering embellishments

I made the background for this tag at Dare to Create with Andy Skinner at the same time as making my altered box (if you missed it you can find it here). That was grungy and this is much more shabby and feminine.


So I had the idea I would add something to it (it is far too pretty and textured to just discard) and to give the post more interest (because I can't share the process steps for the background as it was part of the workshop) I thought I would create a collage with embellishments and give you some ideas for altering them using DecoArt products.


Tinting photos.
The media paints have a number of translucent colours that I used to colour just some parts of this photo, not all of it.


Wikipedia says -
Typically, watercolours, oils, crayons or pastels, and other paints or dyes are applied to the image surface using brushes, fingers, cotton swabs or airbrushes. Hand-coloured photographs were most popular in the mid- to late-19th century before the invention of colour photography and some firms specialized in producing hand-coloured photographs

Coloured gems.
Glass stars and clear gems look fabulous with translucent media paints, like cobalt teal, and some white gesso over them.


Metal embellishment with a shabby appeal.
A light coat of gesso with some gently dabbed off using kitchen roll. When dry spritz with water and drop some quinacridone magenta and titan buff onto it, the colours mix on the embellishment itself creating tones of different pinks. Finish with metallic lustres rubbed gently over - I used  orange flicker and champagne ice.


Chipboard pieces with metallic effects.
(I left out rust ones as I have covered these on numerous occasions)
Give a light dry brush of gesso over the surface (note you are not looking to seal the wood). Spritz with water and dab on paynes grey and silver with your finger, again this produces an uneven coverage rather than a painted one. When dry ink the edges with ground espresso distress ink.


Plastic number.
This is not my technique it belongs to Tim Holtz, he uses distress paint but the process and results can be achieved with the media acrylics. You can find the steps on P.45 of Compendium of Curiosities 3.


Coloured shabby seam binding.
Spritz, dip and dry using the media acrylics. If you are using more than one colour dry between each of them. 





Textured background
Here you can see the colours and textures on the tag and because I kept to the lighter, brighter colours it has more of a shabby feel to it.


When putting it together I added some florals to give that feminine touch.


Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend.



hugs Brenda xxx

Monday 22 August 2016

Travel Journal for CVC

It's my turn to post in the Country View Crafts Project Blog today and I am sharing a travel journal cum album that I made. Until I get it completely filled I'm only showing the covers but in very patriotic colours.


All the details of how these covers came together are over at CVC if you manage to find a minute to pop over.


I also wanted to share these two creations made by my granddaughters inspired by my make.
Ella is just 10 ......


.... and Maddison is just 8.

I thought they did rather well as they made them all on their own with a little advice and a lot of encouragement from me.




Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 19 August 2016

Lighthouse media board

Where else would you rather be than near the water, and especially the sea, if it's in the high 20's or more? I love the sun and the hotter weather and wish I lived nearer the sea so I could walk the beaches when the day is long and stretches into warm, sultry evenings. I made a small media board using DecoArt products to create this crackle background to remind me of the beautiful colours and sights of a coastal walk.

Process steps
Paint the media board with a coat of white gesso .... at the same time dry brush the chipboard lighthouse with gesso too. Notice the different effects you get.


Apply modeling paste through a stencil for texture and to begin background layers. When dry paint over with cobalt teal hue and titan buff. Dry that and then apply transparent crackle glaze over it and leave to crackle naturally. When dry rub over with prussian blue.


Take the lighthouse and add watery washes of cobalt teal, prussian blue, paynes grey and transparent yellow iron oxide and give it a coat of antique decoupage (my new fund vintage product from DecoArt).


Some cheesecloth dipped in transparent yellow iron oxide, some thread dipped in raw umber and paynes grey and some little die-cuts of birds, shells and starfish finish off the design.


Hope you have had some nice sunny weather recently and hopefully not tooooo hot but warm enough to walk by the river, sit by the lake or be by the sea.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Monday 15 August 2016

Framed pen and ink over gesso #2

A quick share today of the second of my pen and ink over gesso media boards which I have mounted in a deep Ikea frame but reversed it to look more like a shadow box. If you missed the first one you can see it here.


Again I have used a Tando Creative media board .....


.... and black sharpie pen ...


.... with DecoArt media acrylics to give me the light colour wash.





I really like the quirkiess of putting the art in back to front , it really works for me.



Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week.

hugs Brenda xxx


Thursday 11 August 2016

Journal pages for CVCC

I'm here with my second DT sample for the challenge over at Country View Crafts where the challenge is Hot Summer Days. I love being out in the garden at home when it's warm and if I am busy in the craft room I will often take myself outside when the sun is shining. One of my neighbours has chickens and I love listening to them cluck away when they are out in the hen run so I thought I would portray not only the chickens but also the warmth of a hot summer day in my journal.


I followed recipe 3 that I taught a while ago at Pickwell Farm (you can see that post here if you missed it) and again a couple of weeks ago to a local group and these was the demonstration pages that didn't quite get completed during the class but I came back to them to finish them off later.
To this point I had coloured the background with media line paints and a babywipe and used an acrylic block to 'stamp' watery colours over it. I adhered the chickens, taken from a napkin, stippled colours around them, stamped some images, applied modeling paste through a stencil and rubbed a distress ink pad over the raised areas when it was dry.


I dripped and spritzed some burnt umber and a mix of pyrrole red with hansa yellow light and dried it. I scribble wrote some sayings -
If I hadn't started painting I would have raised hens.
Do not count your chickens until they are hatched.
You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by mashing it.


I used distress markers to colour in some of the stamping.
I used black and white posca pens on the chicken images and on the raised texture pattern.



I masked the chickens and splattered paints over the background.



Apart from edging the page with some brown distress ink, I used all DecoArt media paints and mediums.


 Hopefully you have been able to join us at CVC for this fabulous summer challenge and if you have then maybe you might be the lucky winner of a £20 gift voucher for Susan's on-line store.


I hope you can feel the warmth emanating from this page, the mix of pyrrole red, quinacridone magenta, hansa yellow medium, titanium white and titan buff certainly produce some beautiful blends of colours.

Thanks for stopping by enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend too.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wednesday 10 August 2016

THANK YOU Give-Away

I feel so proud to have so many followers on my blog and apart from those of you who have my projects come up in your blog reader I know many of you also follow by email, so I thought I would have a random summer give-away - just a little something from me to say thank you for popping in, for taking time to stop and look at what I'm creating and for leaving your wonderful comments.


I have a Tim Holtz Shadowpress sentiments set and a Shadowpress Station and other little bits and pieces for one lucky winner (there might even be a few other bits and pieces make their way into the box). If you would like to be part of the draw please leave me a comment below and ensure you are a follower through google friends connect or google + (both on my side-bar) or an email follower and you might be the lucky winner of this prize which will be drawn in three weeks time on the 31st August. It would be lovely if you could add this give-away to your side bar and help me advertise this give-away on Face Book but it is not a requisite for being entered.

Thank you for being part of my creative journey and sharing the trials and tribulations as well as the successes of this amazing path.


"We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile." 
Earl Nightingale


hugs Brenda xxx

Monday 8 August 2016

Tailor made - Dapper Street

I have a tag today using the new Dapper stamps from Tim Holtz. The full step by step is over on the Country View Crafts project blog if you would like to see all the details. To try and tempt you over here is a peek.


Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Friday 5 August 2016

Stencil It at AVJ

It's the first Friday in the month and tine for a brand new challenge at A Vintage Journey. Today we launch a 'Stencil It' theme hosted by the lovely Amanda and she says - "There are so many fantastic stencils available to us right now and so many ways in which to use them so we would like you to include stencilling in whatever it is you choose to create for this challenge. Don’t forget all the ways in which they can be used – inks , sprays , paints, texture/embossing pastes and gesso are all stencil friendly. So be sure to have fun and embrace your stencils in your vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk projects".


I was recently teaching my Recipes for Success #3 and  #4 journalling workshop with DecoArt media paints and mediums, whilst demoing and joining in I produced this A4 sheet and intended it to be cut into two journal pages but I liked the three main areas so much, with the reverse stencil monoprints, I decided to chop it and make two cards.


I used the two main corner pieces and also cut up the left over piece to add layers.


I found two photos that I have printed using free internet images (usually the Graphics Fairy).


And put them together using sentiments (I think from Crafty Individuals) ....


.... and some stamped and die-cut pieces.


I hope you will be able to join us at AVJ, you can use any products, all we ask is your project reflects a vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style. Please do go take a look at all the wonderful contributions from the Creative Guides, as always they have pulled out all the tops to share their amazing inspirational pieces.

Welcome to new followers and thanks for stopping by. I know I get a huge audience that come through Pinterest and I do appreciate all who pop in to see what I have been creating. I really appreciate each and every one of you who takes the time to scroll through my projects and posts, thank you.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx