Frames for Tando

I am sharing this project over on the Tando blog today, it's one of Di's mini printer trays and I've used it to encapsulate some butterfly images .....

 .... which makes them look as though they are floating in frames.

Process steps
Glue two of the frame pieces together and leave one single and paint all of the pieces with a coat of primitive chalky finish paint.

Cut a cellophane bag (still with two pieces together) to fit the inside of the double frame and glue it down.

Open the cellophane up so that you have lifted the top piece and you're working in the middle of it. Glue on some butterflies. (mine are free images downloaded from the internet).

 Then lay the top piece of cellophane back down adhering it to the outside of the frame and then glue the single top frame over it. You have now encapsulated the butterflies inside the cellophane which makes them look as though they are floating in the frames and are totally protected.

Dip all the pieces in some watery quinacridone gold and add some tissue tape to the outside of the cover.

Stamp alphabet/numbers with black archival ink and scrape gesso randomly down the front and inside left covers.

Create a darker edge to 'frame' the piece by first dabing some watery burnt umber round the edges and spritz with water - heat dry. Then mix some burnt umber with paynes grey and slide the brush around the edges.

Dabble a little burnt umber randomly on the frame, leave to dry naturally - using a heat gun could melt the cellophane!. When dry scrape some white gesso over with a tine palette knife.

Glue the layered frames onto the back cover and add some words on the inside cover .....

..... - mine are computer generated.

Create a butterfly panel as the focus on the front cover, I simply used scraps of patterned papers and butterfly from a Tim Holtz ephemera pack. I added another computer generated saying.

There we have the outside covers ......

..... and the inside ones.

The theme this week over on the Tando blog is frames and I am really happy with my sample and interpretation.

Thanks for stopping by and .....

xxx

Supplies

Mini Printer Tray with cover 

DecoArt fluid media acrylic paints - quinacridone gold, burnt umber, paynes grey

DecoArt media mediums - white gesso, matte medium

DecoArt chalky finish paint - Primitive

Butterfly images

Stamped, bought or computer generated quotes/sayings.

Natural Elements Journal page for DecoArt with lots of layers

The first page in my Natural Elements journal is live today on the DecoArt Media blog. I am soooo happy to be a part of the team again this year and to be able to continue to blog for them using my most favourite go to paints and mediums. We have two new members to the team too so there will be lots of projects, inspiration, ideas and techniques being shared again this year so do bookmark it for your reading list.

I have already made the cover for this journal, in fact it was made at the same time as this page, if you missed it take a peek here, you'll see it has a completely different look, but that is what experimentation is all about isn't it.

If you pop over to the media blog please leave a quick comment so I know you've visited, thanks.

Have a great end to the week and then a wonderful weekend.

xxx

Mixed media card - Tim Holtz new dies chapter 1 2019

I'm with you today to share a card with some of the new Tim Holtz products coming out for Creativation. The dies are sizzix chapter 1, the first release for 2019, there will be three more to come. I've put this card and post over on Country View Crafts project blog too.

Process steps

Dip and dry the die-cut cottontail in a watery wash of burnt umber and dry.

Repeat with burnt sienna, then raw sienna finishing with raw umber.

Darken the edges with ground espresso distress ink.

Cut another cottontail and paint him black and copper.
I just love the shape of this cottontail and there's a bow to go with him too.

Take a piece of worn wallpaper and give it a watery wash of white gesso and dry. Repeat if necessary.

Stencil with a mix of cerulean blue mixed with titanium white and another stencil with  sap green and titanium white.

Brayer a couple of layers of titan buff over the whole background ....

and then dip and dry in the light blue, light green washes with a tiny drop of raw umber in them to vintage them. When dry splatter with some titanium white and  burnt sienna finishing with a tiny amount of monoprinting with watercolour paper using titanium white and titan buff mixed together.

Cut some of the lovely new Tim Wildflowers Stems from media paper and paint/watercolour using fluid acrylics and a water spray.

Make a greetings embellishment and dye some cheesecloth using watery raw umber and titan buff.

Assemble the card.
The Beauty is in the Details

Once I had put the main pieces together I then played with some flat backed glass domes and a mirror star. With some white gesso, raw umber paint. metallic lustres and mate medium I altered them to look like these.

I also used Tim's new 'bone' mixed media powder to die. cut the bow. I sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso distress ink.

Yep I'm really happy with that now.

xxx

Supplies

Dies - Sizzix Bigz - Tim Holtz - Cottontail. Sizzix Thinlets - Tim Holtz -  Wildflower Stems #1, Sizzix Thinlets - Tim Holtz -  Garden Greens

DecoArt Media Acrylic paint - burnt umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna, raw umber, cerulean blue, sap green, titanium white, titan buff, carbon black, pyrrole red

DecoArt Media Mediums - white gesso

DecoArt Dazzling Metallics - copper
DecoArt Metallic Lustres - white frost, cosmic blue and iced espresso.

Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper

Stencils Tim Holtz
Mixed Media Powder - Bone - Tim Holtz
Flat backed glass domes and mirrored star

Mixed Media Winged Heart Tag

I made a heart tag for my first DT sample as part of the Andy Skinner Creative Team for 2019, well it is Valentine's Day coming up fairly soon.

Process steps

1. Take tag and give it a random coat of white gesso.

2. Paint dark grey acrylic paint mixed with a little water over the whole tag. Rub most of it away with kitchen paper and a babywipe if you want to remove more.

Use a small palette knife and scrape some white gesso lightly and randomly over the surface keeping the flat of the palette knife level with the tag. Dry and then repeat again over the same sort of area as you just did. This is to build a little more texture into the background.

Mix a little dark grey 50:50 with glazing medium and paint over the tag and gently rub back with dry kitchen roll and a babywipe.

Mix a little quinacridone gold with water, dribble on one place spritz with water and move around and dab some off with dry kitchen paper before drying. Repeat in another couple of random places.

Mix a little paynes grey with water and dribble around the edges, spritz with water and dry. I worked on about a 2 inch spread at a time.

Taking Andy's stencil and a 50:50 mix of modeling paste and gesso add the number and motif to the background.

Scrape what is left from the modeling paste/gesso mix to a torn piece of media card. Leave it to dry then colour up as we did on the background. Gather some torn muslin and little bits to create a collage ....

.... and stamp Andy's winged heart on patterned paper and cut it out.

Assemble the collage layer ....

.... and it was here I decided to stamp the specimen number - I used the stamp platform and stamped three times with black archival ink to get a good sharp image.

I so enjoyed making this tag. I think it's going to be a quinacridone gold year for me.

xxx

Supplies

Andy Skinner - Stencil - French Elements

Andy Skinner - Stamps - Handle With Care and Skuldoggery

DecoArt - Media white gesso, Americana glazing medium, Media white modeling paste
DecoArt Media fluid acrylics - dark grey value 3, quinacridone gold, paynes grey

Tando Creative - Size 8 greyboard tag

Vintage Mixed Media - Tando Creative and DecoArt

Last November I offered to make some bits for Di at Tando Creative to help her have some samples for a Hochanda show she was planning for. This was the first of three of this new sized tag. It is 26 cms long and 6 1/2 cms wide. I wasn't sure when I first saw them if I'd like the size but I found them so easy to create designs on I soon fell in love with them. She has also designed some new stencils which fit exactly over these tags and are perfect for creating the backgrounds.

1. Seal substrate with white gesso.

2. Dip, drip and dry washes of media fluid acrylics.

3, Stamp some text using treebranch archival ink.

4. Tear some used and dried teabags and add to the background.

5. Seal with matte medium or decoupage sealer.

6. Stencil numbers with white modeling paste coloured up separately with raw umber and quinacridone gold paint paint. Leave to dry.

7. Sand the edges to remove excess tea bags and distress the edges with ground espresso distress ink.

8. When dry add focal, rusted chipboard images, some embellishments and some words

Rusty Patina

a. Pounce over some raw umber, payes grey and cobalt teal hue over the stars, blending the together as you go.

b. With a piece of wet and dry foam blend some carbon black media acrylic round the edges of the star letting some blend over the top. Dry.

c. Spritz the stars with water and paint over a coat of neat quinacridone gold media acrylic and leave to stand so that the pigment pools in various random areas and heat dry. 

d. Repeat again if you want a more rusty look than you have already achieved. Also use some neat paint over the pooled areas to rust it even further.

e. Blend a tiny amount of brilliant turquoise metallic lustre round the edges and randomly over the surface keeping it very light. (You can always dabble a bit more quinacridone gold back onto the surface if you need to - I did!)

"The beauty is in the detail"
This is a saying I often use when teaching my workshops and to me it is so true, I always think about the details whether they be large and important ones or small finishing touches.

Just like these stars that had a lovely mat patina on them but I thought a little bit of metallic lustre would lift and brighten them some more.

 Words are always so important and I have loads of stamps with phrases and sayings on them but I also have a huge A4 file with my own computer generated ones. Then I get something unique to my project and the right size for placing them on.

 By stamping in a lighter ink you can get some lovely subtle details in the background.

So there we have the first of my trio and I was able to use the stars I designed for Di to use on a Ministry of Mixology make and take earlier in the year. Bonus!

Keep your eyes open for the next two long tags to appear .......
and

xxx