Tuesday, 25 December 2018

12 Cards for Christmas #12 - MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas day, may it be full of festive cheer, family fun and fabulous memory making.

Well I've made it - all 12 cards. It's been a marathon trying to get them all done since the beginning of December but woo hoo I have achieved it.

This is the last one using Tim's gorgeous Wise Men die.


I began by cutting watercolour paper to the size of the card and spending a little time adding layers of blue and yellow/orange/brown oxides and distress inks to get some initial colour onto the background. (I made 8 of these).

I rubbed distress glaze over the sandy layers and tore some paper to create a mask covering them. I stencilled the stars using a mixture of white modeling paste and white gesso then let them dry.


Next I dribbled, spritzed and dried cerulean blue through the night sky Any dribbles over the sandy area were quickly wiped away with no colour left behind. I repeated with prussian blue hue.


Then brayered with silver paint.


I gave the sanded areas a dirty wash of quinacridone gold which surprisingly got sucked into the paper very quickly so I gave it a coat of matte medium and when dry I painted over a dirty glaze of  quin gold, matte medium and paynes grey trying to put back some of the landscaping!


 
I distressed the edges with a distress tool and blended again this time with ground espresso and cut the wise men die using blue coredinations paper and sanded it before also blending the edges with the ground espresso.


I cut two of the stars in gold and just off-set them slightly and added a holiday talk sticker.


Sorry, some of the photos had to be taken without the light box as family were already here when I took them so they are rather dark and not such a good quality, but you get the feel and the look I'm sure.

To finish this is my conservatory Christmas tree this year.


Thank you all for your visits and comments, I really appreciate every one.

hugs Brenda xxx



Monday, 24 December 2018

12 Cards for Christmas #11

Yep, made it to #11 and it's Christmas Eve - have a lovely day with any last minute preparations, or perhaps you have completely finished and have begun some chill out time. Thank you everyone who has been popping in, I'll definitely be using these many of the series designs again - maybe not for Christmas cards but finding other dies, stamps and ephemera to play with.


I did warn you yesterday these were a bit of a cheat - that's because I found the pieces and cards in my box and alI had to do was assemble them. I must have had a production line with them a previous year - so apologies if you remember them from then.


You have to admit though that for last minute cards they work a treat.


Right just need to find something for tomorrow. Thanks for staying with me at this busy time of year and ......

xxx

Sunday, 23 December 2018

12 Cards for Christmas #10

Well here's the tenth design for fairly quick and easy cards for Christmas.

The background is worn wallpaper altered with a wash of gesso and splatters of it too.


A tree line die-cut and a little house from the snowglobe dies and some bits left over on my table with ephemera ....

 .... and more Holiday Talk stickers to finish them off.


I can't believe I've made it to #10 .There's definitely 1 more design tomorrow. I'll own up now it is a bit of a cheat- but worked well for what I needed.

xxx

Saturday, 22 December 2018

Christmas Angel - mixed media frame

I am posting this Christmas Angel project over on Andy's blog today. It's been quite a while in the conception and making but finished at last and I love it.


I have included a few bits from Andy's project packs and used my Tando frame plus lots of paints and mediums from the Fabulous DecoArt Media range.
Unfortunately my notes on the techniques and colours got lost so it's photos and memory only.

Starting with the frame I sealed the base with gesso then scraped what I think was prussian blue, cerulean blue and yellow ochre, dring it before painting on a coat of weathered wood crackle medium. When that was dry I painted over a coat of white chalky finish paint and watched the crackles appear. I had intended to dribble more paints or rub over some antiquing cream but with all the other textures I decided to leave it just as it was to ad some contrast in the background.


I love Andy's 'industrial wings' and decided to use one for the Angel's halo and head printing the face from the Graphics Fairy. I used media gold to paint and seal the halo. added a layer of clear crackle paste and when dry painted over some white antiquing cream and wiped it back to reveal the very, very fine crackles - perfect for the golden halo.


Next I worked on the four frame pieces sealing them with gesso, dabbling on a wash of prussian blue, stamping text from Andy's Textures stamps then using white modeling to create the gorgeous star design. When that was dry I brayered over with the gold paint.


 I used the arch from the 'sacred secrets' kit, sealed it with gesso and when dry scraped more gesso using a palette knife. I then dribbled and dried yellow ochre and quinacridone gold through it.


 Next came the wings which are sizzix die-cuts run through the foundry embossing folder then painted silver, rubbed in random places with raw umber media fluid acrylic and dribbled and daubed quinacridone gold through it to achieve the rusty look.


I collected together some Tando cogs, die cut the border and the burst medallion altering them with media paints and a gold metallic lustre.


 To finish the arched body I stamped some Andy texture using orange blossom archival ink and a stamp from his Industrial set.


Lastly the assembling ....


.... die-cutting the gold star and adding some words.


I was inspired by several artists who I had seen making angels over the past week weeks but using Andy's products makes it look completely different.


The preparations are almost finished in the Brown household and I am looking forward to a fabulous family Christmas. Enjoy your last few days before the big day.

HUGE hugs and ....

xxx



Friday, 21 December 2018

12 Cards of Christmas #9

Well I've managed to squeeze in another two cards and actually have some more to show you on Sunday.
These were literally put together with bits from leftovers from previous projects.


Stitched circles and evergreen tree .....


....  Christmas ephemera,  Holiday Talk words and a fold-up bow.


The backgrounds were found in my Christmas box made last year or even the year before!!!!! I don't throw anything away.


Phew I'm getting there AND there's an Andy Skinner project from me tomorrow so look out for that too, especially if you like angels.

Thanks for popping by and ...

xxx

Thursday, 20 December 2018

12 Cards of Christmas #8

Sleigh Ride

I haven't had time to create any more cards after this one and the Christmas prep is taking up so much of my time but I love it. I may have over estimated how many different designs I could get done!


For this card I found an old flat square stamp and used it to create the blue square by pressing some iced spruce and faded jeans distress oxides onto it, spritzing with water and stamping onto watercolour paper.


I took an old set of Tim's stamps called Deco Christmas and stamped the sleigh with black archival. I used the stamp platform and went over it 3 or 4 times but noticed that the textured watercolour paper was preventing a smooth and filled in print and the oxides could also be seen as if they were coming to the surface of the black prints. You can see in this photo below.

 
I decided to try a paintbrush and some carbon black decoart fluid media acrylic and although it was a bit of a faff painting eight of them it certainly did the trick


So I ended up with a lovely collection of these that went to The Packhouse at Runfold, near Farnham. I need to go and check to see if they have all gone!



xxx



Wednesday, 19 December 2018

12 Cards for Christmas #7 - Festive Overlays

Festive Overlays

Yes I've got round to using both my Stamptember and Overlay stamps by Tim Holtz.


I watercoloured the holly on the side edges using distress markers, cut some stamping card using the stitched circles and stamped the smaller Santa and wreath and then embossed the sentiment over them. With a little more stamped holly and distressed edges they were then mounted on coloured card again cut with the next size up of the stitched circles and assembled.


So there we have #7 of the 12 I'm promising. Have you found any that you are using for insprration to make some cards of your own. I would love to know.

#8 is coming tomorrow.

xxx

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

12 Cards of Christmas #6

Yet more simple designs but still prety enough to use and flat so they can be sent in the post.

I'm sure you can make out the stamped backgrounds using one of Tim's fabulous backgrounds and embossed trees. With some ribbon and a greeting they don't take long to make.



Oh my gosh - one week to go and we'll all be celebrating and enjoying the fruits of our hard work.

Have a great week and ........

xxx



Monday, 17 December 2018

12 Days of Christmas cards - #5

Some more simple designs that can easily be set up for a production line.

Patterned papers or stamped backgrounds with some stamped stags and we're done.


I've had several days break from being at my work desk due to all the Christmas preparations that needed to be finished but I'll be back getting the next designs made soon.

I hope all your preparations are going well.



Saturday, 15 December 2018

12 cards of Christmas #2

Shabby mixed media Christmas cards

No: 2 got missed out of the sequence this week as I had taken all the samples to the Packhouse but I rushed back and managed to photo a couple before they all went.


Process Steps
1. Take a large piece of media paper and give it a quick coat of slightly watered down white gesso - dry.
2. Mix a watery wash of  raw umber and titanium white to create a very light beige colour and dip the media paper and dry several times.
3. Repeat with a watery wash of titan buff.
4. Splatter with watered down burnt umber - dry.
5. Cut the paper to your card size.
 6. With a palette knife drag some gesso over the card.


7. Using patterned papers cut lots of triangles of different sizes and ink the edges with ground espresso DI.
8. Adhere them to the card with the flat bottoms facing up and down along a horizon line. Put this under a heavy box to make sure it flattens out.
 9.Add a border and deer with a greeting to finish it off.

Just a couple of color variations with the border makes the difference with these two ......


 ...... and I cut the deer facing different directions.


So I've kept these two back to send to crafty friends whilst the others went to The Packhouse at Runfold near Farnham and are for sale in my selling space, although I went over recently and I think there is only one left.


I hope you are enjoying the series.

hugs Brenda xxx