Alison Bomber workshop playtime

 I went to Country View Crafts to see my friend Alison Bomber as she was doing a workshop there I didn't participate in the workshop but I have had fun recreating some of the  samples and techniques she did with the participants,with my own twists of course. (I can't provide process steps as these were Alison's steps. not mine)

This part of the workshop was about creating three backgrounds using her berries stencil, three paints - see listed below, and infusions.

Add a collage of snippets, text/titles and paperdolls.

Supplies

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint - midnight, rose, antarctic plus snowflake

Alison's stencil Berries PS 452

Tim Holtz - paper dolls,

Snippets mostly from Love Junk Journals online

Titles handmade.

Uni pin fineline pen 0.2

Wildflowers card for Country View Crafts

I have a card today using the gorgeous wildflower stems from Tim Holtz, I just adore the shapes of theses blooms and the added greenery. I am also sharing it over on the Country View Crafts Project Blog.

Process steps

Spritz the back of the doily stencil and sprinkle over sunset beach infusions. Lay over the card panel and rub over with a dry piece of kitchen paper. Remove, heat dry and edge with age mahogany distress ink.

 Gather together some ephemera pieces to make a little collage .......

 ..... and adhere the flowers and sentiment over the top.

If I were to make another of these now it would take less than half an hour but the thinking time and die-cutting time (I cut 6 different colours of flower!!!) took me several hours to get it right. BUT .... I actually really like it now I've got it done.

Thanks for taking the time to pop by today and ......

xxx

Scrapcosy Radishes

I have another card made with the gorgeous vintage stamps from Scrapcosy and if you's like to see the details they are over on the Country View Crafts Project Blog today.

These are fabulous summer images and this time I have combined them with infusions. If you would like to see the process steps and more photos please pop over to the CVC project blog where I explain how I designed this.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Watercolour powders and oxide butterflies

I have a card to share today over on the Country View Project Blog, in fact I did two very similar ones where I've matched up some left over watercolor powder backgrounds with stamped butterflies using the wonderful oxides again.

So I would love to see you over at CVC if you can make it.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Watercolour Powders 3

Sharing another background and card using the powder water colours, I have bistre's, brushos and infusions in my collection. I love the very mottled and watery effects you can achieve using them with a stencil. If you missed #'s 1 and 2, click on the numbers to be transported over to take a peek.

The background was created by lightly shaking watercolor powders over a stencil (make sure you have a piece of card underneath to create a second background) spritz the stencil with water. (The depth of colour will depend on how much powder you sprinkled on and the watery effect will depend on how much you spritz onto the stencil - play and experiment to see what effects you can make). Take your background piece of card and flip the stencil over onto it, rub over gently with a paper towel and remove the stencil to reveal the first layer. Heat dry.

Dry the stencil, place it back over the the background pattern. Blend distress inks through the arrows, I used pumice stone, stormy sky, and gathered twigs. Remove the stencil, spritz the card with water and heat dry. Press under something heavy to flatten it.

Collect together some items to build up the focus for the card. The cogs had been made before and thee corner had been rusted and not used on a previous project so I like to hold onto these bits and get them out when needed and not waste them. 

I do however also have a 'rusting' session sometimes. Bits from Andy Skinner packs, chipboard pieces and die-cuts. Again I keep bits like the hexagons that are the 'waste' from a die, these look great as bolts.

These were given a rough and random coat of paynes grey, then some stipple burnt umber, a third stippling of cerulean blue, phthalo turquoise, burnt umber and a little tinting base (mixed, blended and changed every time I picked some up from the palette) then a coat of quinacridone gold finished with a wash of quin gold and phthalo turquoise mixed together.

I took this photo just to show how I adhere metal pieces that have a recessed back like this corner. Just fill it with modelling paste which acts as a glue.

The photo is one from my collection.

Hope you're enjoying the watercolor series.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Watercolour powders 2 and GiveAway winner

I'm back with another in the series of watercolour powder techniques. On this one I used the same colours as in the first one (which you can find Here if you missed it) the powders are brown bister, royal blood infusions and grey brusho and they are combined with weathered wood, faded jeans and gathered twigs distress inks.

Step 1. Take a stencil and lay over your card, shake the powders over it and spritz with water. remove the stencil and heat dry. This is the positive image.

Step 2. With the distress inks having been used for another piece and left on the stencil, spritz it lightly with water and lay over the top of the design already made in step 1, carefully matching up the pattern, dab it gently all over with a cloth or paper towel and remove and heat dry again. Now you have added colour to the negative area.

Step 3. Cut your design to fit a card, collect some focal embellishments and a sentiment and assemble.

The lovely Autumn has pointed me to the Stamps and Stencils challenge this month 'Texture, Crackle and Paint' and I think the frame alone qualifies this as an entry so I am hopping over to add this for my entry into their fabulous challenge.

Now for my giveaway winner for January. random Org did the choosing which takes the stress out of this part and the number that arrived was -

- and placed 16 in the list of comments was

Sue Adams

Sue I don't have any more information about you so if you would like to email me your postal address (my email address is on my sidebar) I will get your little prize in the post. Congratulations and thanks for joining in and being part of my blog.

For anyone interested keep a look out for another giveaway being announced in a couple of days along with a DecoArt Mixed Media Design Team project.

Have a wonderful week.

hugs Brenda

Watercolour powders 1

I have a card and the process steps on the Country View Crafts Project Blog today and thought I would make another one for here.

Follow the steps on the CVC blog HERE but mix and match your powders, I used brown bistre, royal blood infusion and grey brusho to show how they can all work together. The two steps needed to create this are so easy and can produce some amazing effects.

Gather some items to embellish the card and create your focal point.

I edged the card with ground espresso and created a small collage with a sentiment.

There we go, a great vintage card in under an hour and a half, well it can be if you just go for it, but if you're like me you'll spend ages choosing your colours and your collage elements lol and take longer.

Here's the one that can be found at Country View Crafts project Blog, it would be lovely if you could pop over to take a look.

Have fun and happy Sunday.

hugs Brenda xxx

Infusions and a stencil

I have been playing with reverse mono printing with stencils using infusions and a stencil.

All the details are over on the Country View Crafts project blog and there I show you how I created this artsy looking background.

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It's the Farnborough air show next week. The planes have all been coming in and validating ready for the trade days first and then the public days next weekend. This was the brand new Airbus A350 on it's descent route to land on the airfield and it came right over the roof and garden.

 We are just so lucky to see the planes coming in and it's something I love watching. I've got loads more photos on the iphone and the camera, I just need to upload them to the PC so I can use them, so you might see some more later.

For now have a great weekend, ours will be quiet but the noise will start again on Monday and I will be out in the garden when I can.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx



Updated and added from Country View Crafts

Hi Brenda here. I love reverse mono printing with stencils so I thought I would experiment with some of the infusions and a stencil.

I used Daler Rowney mixed media paper and a stencil from Country View Crafts.

Place the stencil on the paper and spritz over it with a water mister.

Take the infusions and sprinkle them over the stencil and spritz again with water. (Next time I might try spritzing with tattered angels sprays).

Remove the stencil and place the wet side down on the paper beside the print you'd already made. 

Rub over the back with dry paper towel and lift to reveal the reverse print.

Take a clean piece of paper, spritz with water and lay the wet side of the stencil down again and rub and you will get another lighter print ......

..... repeat to see if you can get another one.

This is what I got. It may be I can use some of these for card making.

At the end of my experiments I had used several pieces of paper and cut out eight backgrounds to make cards. I inked the edges with shabby shutters, broken china and ground espresso distress inks.

I then took Tim's butterfly duo die and cut butterflies and embossed them. I painted them with water and some diarylide yellow media acrylic and when dry added watery abandoned coral distress ink and dried again then rubbed dried marigold and ground espresso distress ink pads over the top. I stamped the sentiment from Tim's perspective set, inked the edges with shabby shutters, broken china and ground espresso distress inks and coloured the word with a broken china distress marker.

Just before I took the photos I pinned a small key onto the bow with a small yellow pin I had in the drawer. This is one finished, I also have most of the elements to now make up the other seven for my box.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like these artsy background and if you try this technique do let me know, I would love to see what you make.