Monday 30 July 2018

Entomology board for Country View Crafts

You love them or you hate them, all those bugs in the garden but they're totally safe when stamped on a project. I have an easel board over on the CVC project blog today created with the Entomology set of stamps by Tim Holtz and my faux encaustic technique.



If you can spare a moment to pop over and see how it all came together I would love to see you there.

Thanks for stopping by here.




Updated from CVC

I got the bug for this set of stamps - please excuse the pun lol, but the little creatures called to me to use them in a project so here is an easel board and yes my faux encaustic technique again.


Cut a piece of thin greyboard and adhere a piece of designer paper - mine is from the Tim Holtz Correspondence set - using the decoupage glue and seal the top with it too. When dry mix watery media fluid acrylics in three colours and dip, drip and dry random pools of colour and heat dry between each layer so the colours don't mix and produce mud.


Next mix some watery gesso and repeat the technique again.


Stamp three of the bugs - I used Tim's stamp platform and so glad I did as I was able to give it a second stamping to get very clear and sharp images.


I used the same colour paints I had in front of me to mix blends to paint the bugs and I adhered a plate name for each of them. (See my freebies page located just under the blog header to download for you to use).


I applied a thin coat of DecoArt clear modeling paste and left it overnight to dry.


I took some white gesso and transparent yellow iron oxide media fluid acrylic and blended them together to get a very light yellow colour and with blending foam I stenciled using one of Tim's mini stencils. This began to create some depth and interest. I also added a little text stamping using the gorgeous text from the Etymology set.
I also made a watery wash with raw umber fluid acrylic and dribbled and dried some round the sides and I distressed the edges and painted them with the left overs.I splattered a white gesso/raw umber mix covering the insects to begin with so they got barely any on them. I got so involved in the process I forgot to take a photo here.
I finished with a thicker layer of the clear modeling paste.


You can see how the layers are creating some depth.


To help bring the bugs nearer to the surface again and be more prominent I drew round them and added a little of the detail with a permanent black pen and added some asemic writing in white a also a white remnant rub. To encapsulate it all and seal it I gave it another thin layer of the clear modeling paste.


To create the simple background on the canvas board I simply took phthalo green blue, transparent yellow iron oxide, titan buff, titanium white and burnt umber and blended over with a baby wipe. As areas dried off I kept adding more colour and rubbing some away with the babywipe until I had a mottled effect.


Next with a small brayer I rolled on a little of the titanium white around the edges (remember the panel will sit over the centre). You could also add some very light text stamping if you wished, but I didn't want to detract from the central panel being the main focal point.


Create a 'dirty' wash (I use different colours according to how I want it to look) I used burnt umber, raw umber and titan buff to keep it light in colour - I didn't want a really dark one. I also just finger painted and added some darker areas on a few of the edges. If the brown comes out too dark you can always rub it back with a wet wipe even after it has dried for a while.


Finish by adding an easel to the back .....


... and you're ready to send it to someone special either as a gift or add a sentiment as a special easel card.

Friday 27 July 2018

Grungy canvas board for Andy Skinner

I love using making easel boards and sometimes use the canvas boards so that they create that lovely textured look in the background. Today I've teamed it with Tando greyboard shapes, Andy's stamps and stencils and DecoArt media line paints and mediums. I think this has a shabby appeal to it with the neutral colours - what do you think?
This is my contribution the Andy's Creative Team schedule and also over on his blog today.


Drip a few drops of  Dark Grey Value 3, Titan Buff, Burnt Umber and Titanium White Media Acrylic paints on a flat palette and with a sponge take time to rub and dab them blending them together to get a lightish mottled background on your canvas board. It dries quickly so you can almost immediately scrape some decou-page sealer over the surface randomly and leave it to fully dry.


Take the small panel, stamp the bird with embossing ink and heat emboss with black EP. When cool rub over the crow with phthalo blue, raw umber, burnt umber and then some titan buff over the beak and feet. Take the colours over the edge of the embossing to give a strong coloured outline in most places - you will see some of it showing through the next layers of paint you are about to put on.


Take a piece of sponge and a babywipe and blend the brown and grey colours over the canvas board until you get a darker effect on the background, rub with your fingers and and keep wiping back, adding more etc until you are happy with the darker colours over the light and you should also have a darker edge keeping the centre lighter. Leave to dry.


Rub the colours off the bird with a babywipe and piece of kitchen towel. With the sponge and a babywipe mix and blend lighter shades of the browns and grey with titan buff and titanium white (like above) layering them so that again you keep the lighter colours in the centre and end up with darker ones on the outside. Paint the edges of the board. Finish by using carbon black and raw umber on the scrubby side of the sponge and lightly dab to get a random splatter effect.


Give it a coat of clear modeling paste using a palette knife to drag it across the surface. Leaving ridges and texture in the surface is good.


I had added a little black pen to the design as I had some white splattery spots appear, the pen was supposed to be permanent but looked what happened. I think it totally adds to the effects. 


Take a round chipboard piece triple emboss it with stampendous ancient silver embossing enamel and stamp with the number wheel from the Curiosity set of stamps using cobalt archival ink.


Use texture sand paste and the browns and black paints to get this rusty effect on the sun wings.


Come back to the canvas board and use stamps, stencils and black gesso to grunge it up a bit.


Now assemble to create your finished design.


You'll see that during the assembling process I added part of a Tando clock to the design, once put together I felt the composition was a little unbalanced.


The blue medallion is raised quite a bit off of the background and stands out beautifully.


I finished with an easel on the back so this can stand on a shelf.


Thanks for stopping by.




Products


Greyboard shapes, clock



Stamps - Stampendous - Curiosity, Handle With Care, Skuldoggery, Birds and Bones
Aged Silver Embossing Enamel


Stencil - Usual Suspects
Kit - Industrial Wings


Media fluid acrylic paints - Dark Grey Value 3, Titan Buff, Burnt Umber, Titanium White, Phthalo Blue, Raw Umber, Carbon Black
Mediums - Clear Modeling Paste. Decou-page Sealer, Texture Sand Paste

Monday 23 July 2018

Tando theme - Layers - Mini Book Storage - pink shabby vintage

Creating mixed media acrylic paint layers in a shabby style.

This was a piece I made originally for the DecoArt Media blog but I wanted to share the steps here for the Tando Blog too where today the theme is simply 'Layers' and so this fitted in perfectly.


I wanted to create a shabby look to this storage shelf and keep to a vintage feel at the same time, it's often at this point I will look at my paints and get stuck!!!!!!!! The best way out for me is to go to my colour palette pinterest board and find something I like. I found this and it became my inspiration to get started. I also decided to have my first foray into trying out the DecoArt Premium acrylic paint range.


I used the pinks, red, white and buff colours to start the process of adding the layers - this first coat is so important to seal the substrate and to get you a good start but often very little (if any) of it shows through when you have finished but it provides your focus to the colours and ensures full coverage to begin with.

Stamp sets used - Andy Skinner
Skuldoggery, Spook, Tech Trauma Textures and Shabby Chic

Here are the colours I picked from the box.


 I often don't mix my colours on a palette, I just grab some of the various paints on my brush and mix on the substrate itself as I did here. It's very bright to start with but my next layers will tone it all down.


Using some of the stamps from the sets above I added plenty of stamped texture.


Here I used the monoprinting method of adding random distressed paint. There are three layers using titan buff, dark grey and burnt umber - I know it looks really messy but don't worry!!!!


For the next layer I mixed up some primary magenta, burnt umber and titan buff and made a gorgeous deep vintage rose colour. I spritzed it with lots of sprays of water to create a wash and then dipped each piece in separately and dried the pooled paint with a heat gun.


Repeat the last step but this time add some white to make the pink even lighter and dip again. This time my wash was a bit thicker ....


Repeat once more with even more white and you can see with each layer you see less and less of that messy background but some of the stamped elements are popping through as are interesting distressed areas of texture and colours.


By adding more and more layers your background is getting more depth to it and a more shabby look. Just keep adding until you are happy with the results.


You are probably now at a point where you have lost all definition of the original stamped layer but small areas and ghostly shadows are creating some lovely interest in your background so far. You could just leave it here before going on to the next main step or you can add some random partial stamping back in before moving on.


I decided to add just a small amount not mounting the stamps on a block and only partially inking them so they became distressed images and text. I decided to just use the text and the postmark and watering can archival ink whereas I had used black in the original.


OK now onto the next layer and take a little white premium gesso with a palette knife - flatten it on your paper/foil palette ...


... and then keeping the knife flat to the surface of the board drag small amounts over the background so you get a distressed look. You can see the depth the layers have created and when you look deep into it you can see a little of the original pink, some of the other colour tones where we added the monoprinting and the changes of pins where we added the dip and dry washes. You can also see some of the original stamping as well as the text and postmark we added on the last layer. Neat!


Before I vintaged it up I wanted to see what it would look like put together and where I would add some decoration. I had already thought I would add some of the shabby chic stamps but I also realised it really needed a dirty wash to tone it down a bit before I went onto that.


I first stippled all the outside edges with some pink and white paint so they blended well with the overall design and put the storage back together again glueing the inside edges to make sure it all stays together.
Mix together some brown and grey paints with premium matte media and spritz some water into it to get a dirty wash and paint all over allowing some of it to sit in the crevices.


Stamp images onto tissue paper and tear round the edges and adhere using decoupage glue.
Gather some embellishments together, paint chipboard pieces and I also found some flowers and rafia to finish it all off.


You can never recreate exactly the same background again as it is such a random process. After I've dipped the substrate into a wash I'll just let it settle and pool for a few seconds before I start to dry it, this helps to give more variation in depth of colour. I'll also have a piece of kitchen towel in my hand to dab of some bits of the wet paint which gives me more control over how much is laid down and how much can be seen peeping through.


Thanks for staying with me for such a long post but I hope you have enjoyed the visit.