A Starry Sky

 A second inspiration project for the Country View Crafts Challenge on Facebook where Zoe set the theme as Snowflakes and Stars. I decided to use a mop up piece of card with TH Tiny Stars embossing folder and his Sizzix Dimensional Stars dies.

1. Dip, dip and dry card with Chipped Sapphire distress ink.

2. Put card through the cutting machine in the Tiny Stars embossing folder.

3. Apply foundry wax with finger over the star tops .... 

4. ..... and heat.

5. I wish I'd stamped over the blue, so I stamped now to get some more interest in the background.

6. Cut three stars. (see supplies below)

7. Take a new piece of card and cover in the star washi tape.

8. Mount the background onto dark blue paper and add a narrower washi tape.  The blue pieces I made myself.

 

Supplies from Country View Crafts  

Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Chipped Sapphire, Ground Espresso    https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Tim Holtz Distress Archival ink - Ground Espresso                               https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-archival-ink-1235-c.asp

Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits dies Dimensional Stars                          https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-152-c.asp

Tim Holtz Idea-Ology - Deco sheets Sparkle Classic in gold,      Word Chip   https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp

Tim Holtz Foundry Wax Statue                                                            https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-accessories-storage--and-mediums-855-c.asp

Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous - Ledger Script CMS241                        https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-stamps-by-stampers-anonymous-193-c.asp

My own supplies

 Golden washi tape   and   Fabriano watercolour paper 

Be Inspired

Embossed panel collage - Be Inspired

A new collage for my 'Mixed Media Collages' art book. I love combining papers and other elements to create what I feel is an interesting and balanced work of art.

The layers on this collage include texture created with an embossing folder,

a heat embossed pattern mounted onto grey card,

 ephemera pieces, a printed royal mail frank from an envelope, royalty free images from the internet,

 

punched and diecut pieces, washi tape 

and stamped images.

If you have visited today,

thank you for stopping by.

xxx

Let's use more words

 So today's project is using words again for the challenge at Country View Crafts and Challenges FaceBook page which lasts the whole of January.

Hello Winter

I decided to use the same stamp as I did on my first project but use it in a completely different way, this time it was stamped onto vellum paper. 

I used a background that I had made for a frame that was my project for a workshop at CVC before Christmas, 

plus a photobooth vintage photo, 'Hello Winter' from a set by Creative Expressions and a small flower.

I die-cut foliage, some of which I wanted white and the other pieces were cut from an inked background, coloured randomly with watercolour pencils, washed over and when dry sponged lightly with white gesso to create a wintry effect.

I chose to use the card frame from an Ikea small box frame and later added embossed card to it.

Having cut the strips, I covered the frame and gave it a coat of gesso to fill in the cracks where the strips were glued down.

Once the background and frame were added to the box I adhered all the other elements to finish it off.

I put the foliage together ....

.....and I am really in love with the extra grungy Eucalyptus leaves .....

..... the flower gained an addition, a shabbied medallion inspired by Stacy Hutchinson .....

..... and don't forget the photobooth photograph by Tim Holtz.

Thank you for stopping by. 

xxx

Using an embossing folder mixed media style

I'm up on the Tando Creative blog today and this week the theme is 'embossing folders'.

I keep some offcuts of embossed card and thought I would experiment  with creating some random textures on a media board. Andy got me onto this when he did something similar on a project many years ago but I've taken it and changed it quite a lot.

A great distressed background using combined with rusty elements looks fab. I hope you can pop over to see the process steps.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx


Updated from the Tando Blog

I thought I would create a textured media board for embossing folder week and I liked it so much I decided it would become my 'Make and Take' project at Ministry of Mixology last month. (I was well ahead of myself with projects as I had a holiday coming up and wanted to get loads of projects scheduled well before hand).

I adhered a few pieces of torn/cut left over embossed card randomly onto a media board using matte medium and left it to dry between wax paper under a heavy box.

Don't worry about gluing the pieces over the edges, you can remove these when it's perfectly dry.

Next I scraped over some texture sand paste and heat dried it.

Paint a coat of white gesso to give it some tooth for the next layers and then spend quite some time spritzing water, dipping media acrylic paints into it, letting it move around a little and drying it. I repeated this step lots and lots of times using raw umber, quinacridone gold, burnt sienna and carbon black.

I wanted to highlight the textures a little more so I took a palette knife and white gesso and lightly scraped it over keeping the blade flat to the surface.

The White gesso is very stark so mix a dirty watery wash of paynes grey and quin gold and paint over the whole surface, dry it and seal with a varnish - I used soft touch.

I took some elements I had already rusted and a word (I have no idea why I chose the word 'waiting' although there is something special we are waiting for later in the year - that's my unconscious mind taking over perhaps!) and I put it together to finish it off. I'm really happy with this.

The textures from the embossed card are random and give a completely distressed look to the background.

Create inside a frame at AVJ

Wow it's the first Friday of the month and it just so happens that it's September - hey who stole the rest of the year away and especially the summer?
Anyway, it goes without saying that there's the most amazing post over at A Vintage Journey today with lots of inspiration to tempt you to join our new challenge called 'Create inside a frame'. Go read the details and hopefully you will join us.

I used a small 15 x 15 cm balsa wood type frame that is only £1 from the Range and although it is only little it took me days to get it to a point where I am now happy with it.

Process steps

1. Cut card to size to fit inside the frame.

2. Give the card a coat of gesso to seal it and when dry apply white modeling paste tinted with burnt umber through a stencil. Dry for a 30 secs to a minute (depending on thickness of paste) then spritz an embossing folder with water and press into it. Let it dry

3. Take a piece of card and emboss whth the same embossing folder. Scrape over some texture sand paste and dry. then give three separate layers - burnt umber, paynes grey and dripped raw umber. This will be cut up to form the frame.

4. I then played with lots of colours and layers both dry brushing and spritzing until I had something that looked quite Moroccan in style. To seal it and enhance the colours I gave it a coat of gloss varnish.

5. Take the frame, mix some black and white gesso and paint the frame with the grey that you've made. Then add washes of the same colours and some dry brushing that was used on the textured card.

6. Dry the frame and give it a coat of transparent crackle glaze.

7. Take the embossed card - drip titanium white and titan buff paints through the textures, dry and then dry brush with burnt umber.

8. Sand the edges, blend ground espresso distress inks around them and then spritz ground espresso on the mat with water and dip and dry the card. 

9. Take a couple of moulds, I used resin plaster for them, and paint with viridian, blue green light, transparent yellow iron oxide, titan buff, burnt umber and raw umber paints and also both paint and rub in champagne, iced espresso and lavish green metallic lustres.

10.  Collect together other embellishments and alter them using rusty and painty techniques so they fit in with the style you are creating.

11. Assemble and give everything a thin coat of matte varnish.

Rather different again for me isn't it but I love the way it turned out.

Have fun with the 'create inside a frame' challenge, I hope you will be able to join us over there and be in with a chance of winning a fabulous DecoArt prize.

Have a fabulous weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

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