Wings and heart, Faux Encaustic Mixed Media - Tando and DecoArt

I thoroughly enjoyed making a series of these long tags for Di at Tando Creative to take to one of her Hochanda shows. I think this ended up as my favourite as well. It's definitely a shabby mixed media piece and I love the look of the heart with it's extremely distressed edges and crackle front and of course the depth achieved with the faux encaustic technique using the DecoArt modeling paste. I am sharing this on the Tando blog today as part of our Love and Hearts week.

1. Seal substrate lightly with gesso using nearly a dry brush so that some areas of the greyboard are still exposed.

2. Dip, drip and dry using media fluid acrylic washes. I used raw sienna, cobalt blue, titan buff, titanium white dark grey value 3.

3. Rub distress ink (Iced Spruce) pad all over the surface and rub with a dry piece of kitchen towel until it's dry

4. Stamp with chalk paint.

5. Collect together embellishments and alter with paint and mediums. I soaked the greyboard items with spritzes of water and pulled at the edges to make them shabby and distressed.

6. Cover the board with clear modeling paste and add some to the back of the embellishments that are going to be included in the faux encaustic layer and settle them into place. The modeling paste acts as a fantastic glue.

Leave to dry for a whole day or night.

7. Paint the hearts, dry them and paint over a layer of clear crackle glaze and leave to dry.

8. Now alter any final embellishments that are going to be added on.

9. When the modelling paste is dry dribble some quinacridone gold around the cogs, splatter with some white fluid acrylic paint, add some writing and add some remnant rubs.

10. Stick the hearts to each other and rub in some white antiquing cream, buffing it off when it is almost dry so you can see the cracks. Add the tiny star brad and some rusty wire

11. Cover with another thin layer of clear modeling paste. Layer in the arrows and heart, again add some modeling paste to the back of them before sticking onto the tag. Put to one side to dry.

12. Assemble all the last pieces to finish your tag.

"The beauty is in the detail."

A word band along yhe bottom, in fact it is a bracelet word band but perfect for a mixed media thin tag. I covered it with titanium white paint, let it dry for a little wipe and wiped it clean leaving the paint in the recesses, then I used some metallic lustres and quinacridone gold paint n the edges.

The stars are some of Di's chipboard pieces, soaked, roughed up, painted and stamped.

I love thr dribbles of rust (watery quin gold) running down the tag and pooling in random spaces. I also added a remnant rub and yes this does indeed make me happy.

I thought when I took this photo that actually the 'skin' on the hearts looks like skeleton leaves - must remember that for another time.

The quote around the tag says -

' Our wings are small but the ripples of the heart are infinite.'

Amit Ray

Perfect. :o) 

xxx

Shabby Autumn Frame

I have a new project and tutorial over on the DecoArt blog today. As it's now Autumn I took that as a  theme with the idea of using leaves and came up with this. More like winter isn't it? - But that's where my muse took me lol.

There's embossing, painty mixed media layers and a faux encaustic finish to the middle of it.

All the details and lots more photos can be found on the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog HERE.

 

xxx

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Faux encaustic with die cuts and chipboard inclusions

I've been playing with lots of different types of inclusions to go into the faux encaustic process I have devised. Here I have tissue wrap, die-cuts, chipboard, ephemera, stamping and asemic writing in permanent pen.

I sealed a media board with gesso, blended titan buff, titanium white, paynes grey and quinacridone gold with a sponge to create a light mottled layer then added the paynes grey and quin gold as deeper colours both by rubbing them in with my finger and by spritzing with water, letting them  move around and drying them. I then adhered a piece of tissue wrap and sealed it with decoupage sealer.

Next I layered a coat of decoart clear modeling paste and grabbed some bits from a leftovers pot on my desk to stick into it and add as inclusions. It's quite an eclectic mix as you can see. I smoothed out the paste with my palette knife and left it to dry.

Then I stamped in black archival and did some asemic writing using a black sharpie pen.

I have to say the writing was a little journaling at the same time as this brought back memories of being in Paris 4 or 5 years ago.

Time to give this a second coat of the modeling paste and leave to dry overnight.

When dry splatter with titanium white watery paint, add a significant word and give it the third and last layer of modeling paste.

I think I'll tone down the splatters next time, these seem to look rather bright in the photos, they're not quite so prominent in real life.

I love the varied tones of color in this piece and the way the tissue wrap has really faded into the background

I hope you have been getting lots of ideas from the series of faux encaustic projects I have been creating and are having a go at your own. Please let me know if you do.

Thanks for being a pARTicipant in my creative journey.

Entomology board for Country View Crafts

You love them or you hate them, all those bugs in the garden but they're totally safe when stamped on a project. I have an easel board over on the CVC project blog today created with the Entomology set of stamps by Tim Holtz and my faux encaustic technique.

If you can spare a moment to pop over and see how it all came together I would love to see you there.

Thanks for stopping by here.

Updated from CVC

I got the bug for this set of stamps - please excuse the pun lol, but the little creatures called to me to use them in a project so here is an easel board and yes my faux encaustic technique again.

Cut a piece of thin greyboard and adhere a piece of designer paper - mine is from the Tim Holtz Correspondence set - using the decoupage glue and seal the top with it too. When dry mix watery media fluid acrylics in three colours and dip, drip and dry random pools of colour and heat dry between each layer so the colours don't mix and produce mud.

Next mix some watery gesso and repeat the technique again.

Stamp three of the bugs - I used Tim's stamp platform and so glad I did as I was able to give it a second stamping to get very clear and sharp images.

I used the same colour paints I had in front of me to mix blends to paint the bugs and I adhered a plate name for each of them. (See my freebies page located just under the blog header to download for you to use).

I applied a thin coat of DecoArt clear modeling paste and left it overnight to dry.

I took some white gesso and transparent yellow iron oxide media fluid acrylic and blended them together to get a very light yellow colour and with blending foam I stenciled using one of Tim's mini stencils. This began to create some depth and interest. I also added a little text stamping using the gorgeous text from the Etymology set.
I also made a watery wash with raw umber fluid acrylic and dribbled and dried some round the sides and I distressed the edges and painted them with the left overs.I splattered a white gesso/raw umber mix covering the insects to begin with so they got barely any on them. I got so involved in the process I forgot to take a photo here.
I finished with a thicker layer of the clear modeling paste.

You can see how the layers are creating some depth.

To help bring the bugs nearer to the surface again and be more prominent I drew round them and added a little of the detail with a permanent black pen and added some asemic writing in white a also a white remnant rub. To encapsulate it all and seal it I gave it another thin layer of the clear modeling paste.

To create the simple background on the canvas board I simply took phthalo green blue, transparent yellow iron oxide, titan buff, titanium white and burnt umber and blended over with a baby wipe. As areas dried off I kept adding more colour and rubbing some away with the babywipe until I had a mottled effect.

Next with a small brayer I rolled on a little of the titanium white around the edges (remember the panel will sit over the centre). You could also add some very light text stamping if you wished, but I didn't want to detract from the central panel being the main focal point.

Create a 'dirty' wash (I use different colours according to how I want it to look) I used burnt umber, raw umber and titan buff to keep it light in colour - I didn't want a really dark one. I also just finger painted and added some darker areas on a few of the edges. If the brown comes out too dark you can always rub it back with a wet wipe even after it has dried for a while.

Finish by adding an easel to the back .....

... and you're ready to send it to someone special either as a gift or add a sentiment as a special easel card.

Wallpaper and dress forms for Country View Crafts

My turn again to share a project over the CVC blog and I had great fun creating an easel board using some of the newer products from Tim Holtz.

If you'd like to see the process steps and more photos please pop over to take a peak at how it all came together.

Updated from CVC

I thought I would make an easel card using the Tim Holtz wall paper and his inventor 3 set of stamps with the lovely dress forms. You could use the composition and ideas to make an ordinary card but I have gone with the faux encaustic again.

Cut some thin greyboard and adhere a piece of the wall paper onto it using decoupage and then seal it with the same product. You will see that decoupage is very versatile and can be used as a glue, a sealer between layers and as a finish (top layer like a varnish). Scrape a thin and random layer of decoart crackle paint over and leave to dry.

I stamped the dress forms using black archival and then took greyish blue and neutral grey Amsterdam inks to paint n some of the dress form bodies and frames.

I distressed the edges of the panel with a distressing tool and blended in ground espresso distress ink knowing it was likely to move and seep a bit with the layer of DecoArt clear modeling paste on top. 

I stamped the scissors onto matte silver card, cut them out and again blended the brown DI around them and then laid them into the top of the paste just very gently pushing them into it.

The next layer I painted the scissors with a little raw umber and yellow oxide to tarnish them a bit, added some words and the gave another coat of clear modeling paste and added half a snap fastener as an inclusion.

I coloured up a canvas board using cerulean blue, light grey, titan buff and titanium white with a wet wipe to blend the colours. I gessoed using a brayer to create some highlights and then gave it a 'dirty' wash using burnt umber, raw umber, cerulean blue and titan budd with some decou-page sealer and water. I'll have a mini tutorial in my next post at the end of the month to see this with photo steps, so keep an eye out for it.

Eh voila, I just needed to add a mount board easel and it's finished.

I love making these easel cards, they don't take much longer than making a card one but they certainly have more impact especially if you can hand it to a friend but even paying the extra postage is worth it for a special occasion.