Eclectic Elements–Wooden You for UPA

My article for Unruly PaperArts this month is about using wood in your projects and I chose the title ‘Altered Wood'. It is my last article as I am intending to spend more time on my own projects but I am so pleased it is not closing and will continue as a featured blogozine.

If you are anything like me you will have a box of things that you have collected with the intention of altering at some point. For me some of these have been collected at boot fairs, charity shops, left over containers or things I have specifically bought (like shadow boxes), but for this project I chose to use two of the boxes that the small wooden embellishments come in and I knew I wanted to make them into a configurations type box, hinged together.

Here are some of the photos from the article which you can read over at UPA today.

I would love it if you have the time to pop over to UPA to read the full article and step by step and perhaps leave me a comment over the there as it’s my last article for them. I’d like to wish Nicie and Zoe the best of luck in taking over, without them the blogozine would have had to close.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and for sharing in my artistic endeavours.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Using wood for UPA

The new Unruly PaperArts blogozine is published today and it is all about using wood in your crafting projects. There are the usual Reader’s Art Quests (RAQs) and columnist articles over the month. But sadly this will be the last month for UPA as Shar the creator and editor can no longer find the time to keep it going. It is such a shame.

This is my RAQ sample using a flat wooden birdhouse and a couple of wooden embellishments.

These birdhouses can be picked up quite cheaply and I got mine from the Range in the UK.

I had seen a video made by Leandra at PaperArtsy and decided to use her techniques to colour up and get some texture going. You can find the video tutorial HERE, where the process is described in detail and is very easy to follow.

I also painted the back using Fresco Finish paints and a piece of foam.

I gathered some wooden embellishments together, not sure which ones I was going to use at the time and I painted them all with white acrylic paint.

I decided to use the large bird and small dragonfly and painted them again with FF paints, then over-stamped the bird with a Tim Holtz stamp.

Using a small piece of twig also painted up I glued in a perch..

You can see the textures and layers of paint here.

Have fun working with wooden pieces this month and please enter your projects into the two RAQs which are 1. To use wooden accents and 2. Make a 3D wooden project. I think I have covered both with my birdhouse lol.

Thanks for joining me today, have fun.

hugs {brenda} x0x

UPA - What is shabby chic in art and craft RAQ

Welcome to Bumblebees and Butterflies, this is my second post today and if you haven't seen it yet I would love for you to scroll down one post to see a cabinet card album I made for Country View Challenges.

However over at Unruly PaperArts this month the focus is on 'Shabby Chic' (SC) with lots of information and inspiration during the month from the columnists, plus there are two Reader's Art Quests (RAQs) around the theme, one is' pink, cream and brown' SC projects, the other is 'SC in 3D'.

For my RAQ project I have used many elements to achieve the shabby chic look I wanted in a 3D dimensional project..

Pastel colours - mint green, pale pink, white, cream and walnut stain.

Flowers with glitter and butterflies with script stamping over them.

Some sewing elements keeping it feminine and a crackled heart.

Distressing the balsa wood box which has been painted white, rubbed down and brown distress ink added to give it an aged feel.

The pretty shabby paper has been edged with walnut stain to create the old and worn look.

Butterflies.

Pretty bottles and a cherub frame.

Tickets and cream roses.

Although not shown on these photos this box also has a slide-in lid which will keep all the cubby holes dust free whilst it is on display. Such a neat thing and it was a workshop I did last week, we barely had 3 hours to do it in, but the ladies took home the last little bits to finish it off, they loved what they made and they did a magnificent job.

I would like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week, 'Into The Woods'.

I hope you have a great month of June and that the weather is kinder to us all in the northern hemisphere.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Eclectic Elements ATC Extravaganza at UPA

Firstly I just had to share that I have got a place for a 2 day Workshop with Anna Dabrowska at the end of August.
Woo hoo how exciting is that? And I see from the email list that I know quite a few of the other participants too. I am soooooo looking forward to it.


............................

Right onto other little exciting things.

The new publication at Unruly Paper Arts this month is focussing on ATCs and there have already been some brilliant ideas in the articles published.

I have made a little concertina book using three ATCs and some phrases which could be given to someone as a gift or just kept because you like it lol.

If you would like to see more please click the link and be taken across the the UPA blogozine.

Thanks for visiting me today.

hugs {brenda} x0x

HEADS UP

The Country View Anything Goes Challenge finishes this 

SUNDAY so you still have a couple of days to enter if you haven't already or if you want to enter a different type of project. 
ALSO there is a fabulopus GIVE-AWAY to enter, no strings attached. Have you put your name down for it? Look HERE.

Add an ATC at Unruly PaperArts

It's the first of the month and a new issue of Unruly PaperArts is published and it always starts with two readers Art Quests that you can get involved with.

My contribution is to 'Add an ATC' on a tag.

Using the Tim Holtz mini blueprints 2 set, I stamped the little Easter Bunny twice inking him and the background with some distress inks and adding chit chat stickers. 

The background was embossed with the new blueprint embossing folder and I used the diffusers to keep it to the edges. Just a little gold scrap is all it needed to finish it off.

The next stage was to add it to a tag. This was painted first with acrylic paints, stamped with the egg and spritzed with cappuccino perfect pearls.

Some ribbon and old book paper with some other small elements created the collage effect for the ATC to be mounted on.

ATCs can be very versatile little works of art. If you read the UPA blogozine over the month of March you will see lots of ideas from the columnists of how they might be used. I have a column that will be published in a couple of weeks.

Take care, thanks for reading and have fun with your ATCs.

 hugs {brenda} x0x

Fleur de Lys UPA RAQ - The Paris Issue

Happy New Year Everyone - I hope it is everything you want it to be.

Today at Unruly PaperArts sees the start of a month inspired by a wonderful city and we travel to the City of Light to be inspired by the beautiful and stylish Paris of today and yesteryear.

To start us off I have made a small frame with a Fleur de Lys theme.

The frame was painted with two coats of emulsion and when dry covered with a mix of Fresco Finish metallic glaze and cranberry Adirondack ink and later rubbed over and painted with ripe persimmon. To make it look older it was sanded in places and inked over with walnut stain.

The backing board was covered with music paper then clear embossed twice and inked over with dried marigold, picked raspberry and cranberry.

I stamped a Fleur de Lys on green coredinations paper and cut out mounting the metal charm in the middle of it.

The embellishment on the backing board is a spellbinders fleur de lys accents.

Well having had the family, friends and neighbours in last night to celebrate and see in the new year, Ken and I spent the day clearing up and then getting all the decorations down and put away. Now I can focus on getting some serious time in my little craft room. I hope you had a good evening too and are ready now to have fun exploring new techniques, styles and ideas over the next 12 months.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Eclectic Elements column - UPA

Today I have a new column up at Unruly PaperArts showing how I made a canvas using texture and dimension. 

This new canvas shows my gorgeous daughter when we were at The Grand Canyon in the summer. I love the silhouette photograph. 

Scrapping on canvas is something I now love and will be making more of these to hang on the wall. The previous one you can find here, which is of my grandaughter who is having all the medical difficulties and who has now been in hospital for over a month.

hugs {brenda} xox

UPA - Add dimension to your canvas

It's October, can you believe????? with a new monthly theme at Unruly PaperArts and we are looking forward to seeing how you use canvas in your projects.

There are two RAQs (Reader's Art Quests) for you to enter, the first being a painted project and the second is about how you add dimension. My piece for the RAQ introduction is for the second one.

The addition of texture adds another dimension to your canvas. Textures can include gesso, modelling paste, fabrics, string, chipboard pieces, tissue paper, just anything you want to add really.

Here is my collection adhered to the canvas before I added a coat of gesso. We have muslin (fabric), kitchen roll, book text, paper lace, string and decorator's jointing tape.

This is glued to the canvas, once it was dry I covered it with  a coat of gesso, stippling in places to blend the pieces and creating more texture where needed.

You can see the changes in texture and some of the stippled gesso behind the butterfly.

This is my grandaughter, taken while we are at Disneyland this august and before she had to have that emergency op a few weeks later.

She is a star, so there had to be one on the canvas somewhere.

I feel like a Prima lady with all these flowers, but I really enjoyed making something different for a change and I am going to hang this on the dining room wall. It was recently painted and needs some new things to decorate it.

 I will be doing a step-by-step on how I add dimension and texture to my canvases which will be on my Eclectic Elements column for Unruly later in the month.

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things." 

Have a creative week.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Anything but a card - shiny, sparkly, blingy (lots of bits and pieces on here to meet that requirement).

Totally Gorjuss - Punches and dies

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes