Tag Friday

It's the fifth Friday in May and we have a Tag Friday post over at A Vintage Journey today showcasing lots of wonderful inspiration tags, so worth taking a look.

Process steps

Layer of gesso using a palette knife.

Dips and drips of sap green and cerulean blue drying between each layer.

Blend over hickory smoke and gathered twigs and splatter with water - dry off water with a piece of kitchen towel.

Spritz lightly with water and heat dry.

Stencil with coffee archival ink.

Stamp the Imperial Rover bicycle with hydrangea, coffee and black archival inks and leave to dry. (I used a stamp platform).

Mask the words and bicycle and stamp over some gears and text from the Tech Trauma set using watering can archival ink.

Add the vintage photo and mini collage with Secret Journey stamped and cut from the Word Up set.

There we have a stamped and stencilled collage of images on a painty/inky distressed background.
I wonder who the cyclist is and where he has been journeying to?

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you get a minute to go walkthrough the amazing line up of fabulous tags over at AVJ, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy your weekend.

Supplies from Country View Crafts

DecoArt Media - Fluid Acrylic Paints - burnt umber, cerulean blue, sap green, titan buff.

DecoArt Media - White Gesso

Stamps - Andy Skinner - Imperial Rover, Tech Trauma, Word Up

Stencil - Andy Skinner - Inspire

Vintage Photo - Tim Holtz - Vintage Photo Strips

Handle With Care - New Andy Skinner products

I have a tag today which has lots of the new Andy Skinner products on it which have just been released (see products list below). 

Process steps

Take a palette knife and drag some white gesso down the tag and dry it. Then blend in some acrylic paints.

Stamp with the new gorgeous distressed wallpaper stamp, I used cobalt blue and watering can archival inks.

Splatter with titanium white and medium grey watery paints.

Stamp some text using a stamp from Andy's older tech trauma set, sand the edges of the tag and blend in ground espresso distress ink.

Stamp the lovely gypsie queen moth and cut out adding some colours to it and also the Fig number.

Take and add some embellishments and you're done.

I really love the shabby distressed wallpaper and to have such a beautiful moth stamp is great

The title is from Andy's mixed media transfers and they rub on beautifully.

Hope you like the new products and have found some inspiration from the tag. I am sharing it on the Andy Skinner blog and there will also be lots of other great projects from other team members there to explore.

Supplies All available from Country View Crafts

Andy Skinner - Creative Expressions Stamps - Distressed Wallpaper and Gypsie Queen.

Andy Skinner - Creative Expressions Mixed Media Transfers - Poe Diversity

Andy Skinner - Illusionary Artists - Tech Trauma

Tim Holtz - Crochet die

DecoArt Media Line - Media Fluid acrylics - Medium Grey Value 6,  Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Titanium White, Titan Buff.

DecoArt Media Line - White Gesso

Shabby Mini Album for DecoArt and Tando Creative

An 'Encore' Post

I made this little album for Di as a sample to take to her Hochanda show at the beginning of March and this was also my DecoArt Media Team Project too. I know some of you will have seen this already but I always like to bring my work back into the fold here at Bumblebees and Butterflies.

It was fun experimenting with painted lace covers and some small collage panels inside.
I am also sharing it over at Tando Creative.

Using lace as the texture for my front cover proved to be a great way of getting the shabby chic effects I wanted and it really didn’t take too long. 

Process steps 

1. Take the mini boards and using matte medium some lace onto the outer covers. Let dry naturally or speed the process up with a heat gun.

2. Add a fine layer of texture sand paste in the gaps between each row of lace and again dry.

3. Take the cover boards and the page inserts and paint everything with a coat of white gesso on both sides.

4. When everything is bone dry sand the edges and any rough spots then use a natural sponge to blend over a neutral palette of media acrylic paints mixing the colours on the project spritzing and blending them together with a babywipe as you go. Dry each layer before adding another. I used burnt umber, titanium white and titan buff.

5. Because I wanted the next layer of watery paint to seep into the recesses and not into the lace I gave the covers a couple of coats of matte medium. When they were dry I dipped and spritzed the washes over them then took some time to add the colours directly into the recesses with a small brush heat drying as I went.

6. Now came the time to add embellishments to the front cover…..

7. …. and to add some collages to each of the pages and some uplifting words.

Here are some close ups -

8. Once assembled I added some American seam binding to tie it together.

Thanks for popping in today and -

xxx

Supplies

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - Raw Umber, Titan Buff, Titanium White, Burnt Umber 

DecoArt Media Speciality - Media White Gesso, Media Texture Sand Paste, Media Matte Medium

Tando Creative Mini Album/ Journal 

Lace and embellishments 

Vintage photos and collage fabric scraps

Acrylic Paints blended background and collage journal panel

For this panel I took quinacridone violet, cobalt teal hue and transparent yellow oxide which are all DecoArt Media transparent colours and translucent white which is semi transparent and blended them over a textured gesso background blending with a blending tool and blending foam and rubbing back with dry kitchen paper. When I was happy with the pale colours I then sanded lightly over the surface to reveal some of the white of the gesso below. Using ground espresso distress ink I blended around the edges of the card to give it a more vintage appeal and rubbed a little in the centre too wiping it back with a damp cloth.

Stamp text stamps using watering can archival ink before splattering with a watery wash of paynes grey. Add a collage with wildflower stems and some dried natural accents, ..........

...... a transparent butterfly coated with matte medium to take the shine off of it, .........

......... vintage photo and quote.

I am also sharing this at Country View Crafts project blog today.

xxx

Supplies available from Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz stamps
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics
DecoArt Media white gesso
Distress Inks
Transparent Butterflies
Wildflower stems #1
Wildflower Stems #2

Spring Flowers Mini Album for Tando Creative

Here is another little album made for Di to take to Hochanda with her. This time I was inspired by seeing all the beautiful flowers at the garden centres we had visited in March.
I am sharing it on the Tando blog for the Anything Goes theme this week.

Process steps. Pages

1. Cut panels from patterned paper, ink the edges and adhere to the album.

2. When dry sand back the edges and ink again..

3. Use snippets of Tim Holtz  botanical collage paper with decou-page  mate sealer/glue on each panel,sealing the complete surface of each one

4. Sand off any over hangs.

5. Paint the flowers and leaves with watery media fluid acrylics.
6. Add some tiny flowers and words.

7. Repeat the same process steps for the front and back covers.

I used small buttons and thin black elastic to make the closures.

Finished front cover

Finished back cover.

 This is such a cute size 8 x 9.5 cms and feels lovely to hold in the hand and I adore the hand painted flowers and leaves



I am adding this to the mini album makers challenge and happily linking to where there is a wealth of album making inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and ....

xxx

Book It! A Vintage Journey challenge and Eileen Hull Passport Book

I Just love creating handmade books, mini albums and journals etc and as  a child I was an avid reader but all I seem to read about these days is new techniques and craft ideas etc. :o) x

There is nothing better than curling up with a good book to take us away to another place! This month over at A Vintage Journey we'd like you think about books - perhaps you will make a book, or a journal, create a journal page showing a scene from one of your favourite books (do please tell us what book!) or a card showing someone reading or made using text stamps, stencils or word stickers. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.

I attended a workshop with the lovely Antonis Tzanidakis last weekend and bought some of his papers and stamps to play with. I decided to use these to make a little grungy, mixed media passport style book.

Process steps

1. Cover some black card with patterned paper - I used Mechanical Fantasy from Stamperia by Antonis. Cut two covers from the die.

2. Cut a spine from mountboard, stamp it with the typewriter from Tim Holtz Inventor set.  Daub some paints over it, stamp it and dip in some watery colour washes using the same as you just used.

3. Add some additional colour to the papers and spine, seal them with matte medium and give a coat of clear crackle glaze and leave it to dry naturally.

4. Paint the back of the covers with the titan buff paint. With a palette knife drag over cobalt blue and quin gold and dry. Stamp. Repeat the dragging over with white gesso. Seal with a coat of matte medium mixed with both the quin gold and cobalt blue and when that is dry again give a coat of the clear crackle glaze and dry naturally.  Also crackle glaze the spine.

5. Brush everything (inside and outside of the covers) with oil paint to get into all the cracks, then rub back with a baby wipe and dry kitchen roll to leave the cracks and crevices aged with the paint.

6. Stick the covers to the spine and add embellishments to the front. It was here I swapped the inside and outside covers over. I prefer the painty layers to the patterned papers.

7. Die cut pages with patterned papers and watercoloured papers and insert them as three signatures  into the booklet using elastic.

My book is now ready to use tor any "Stuff, ideas and things"

I hope you will be able to pop over to AVJ to see some other wonderful creations from the members of the team posting this month and maybe we'll see you joining in as well?

xxx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Stamperia Mechanical Fantasy paper pad - Antonis

DecoArt premium acrylic paint- titan buff

DecoArt Media acrylic paints - Cobalt Teal Hue, Quinacridone Gold
DecoArt Clear Crackle Glaze, Matte Medium

Tim Holtz stamps - Inventor
Eileen Hull dies
Tim Holtz supplies