Mixed media - Stitch/sew journal panel

I created a new journal at the beginning of the month to hold small panels with a sewing/haberdashery theme so here's the first one. If you missed the making of the gorgeous journal with neutral outside covers you can find it here.

Process steps.

1. Tear patterned/designer papers randomly and glue to the panel. Also add some tape measure washi/tissue tape.

2. Dip this in watery gesso and dry a few times until you have a lighter and more cohesive look to the background.

3. Add some black asemic writing and areas of light colours to match the tones of the first papers you used with oil pastels or water soluble crayons. (I used oil pastels, sometimes scribbling 2/3 colours together then I heated them with a heat gun and rubbed them with my finger to blend them). Also distress the edges and blend some  ground espresso ink around them.

4. Cover the surface with embossing ink and cover with vintage beeswax baked texture by Seth Apter and heat emboss. Repeat with a layer of UTEE.

 Heat the surface and add a little of the bone mixed media powder from ranger.

5. Rub a coffee archival ink pad around the edges to frame the panel. Heat gently to dry.

6. Now add a third layer of embossing and again I used UTEE and have your stamps and watering can archival ink to stamp into the molten surface. Hold the stamp there for a few seconds so the the embossing cools down a little before removing the stamp.

7. When it had cooled completely I bent the panel t get it to crack the embossing and rubbed white antiquing cream all over. It needed to dry for 5 - 10 minutes.

8. In the meantime I collected together a few embellishments together and blended DI and dark grey and burnt sienna premium acrylic paints over the metal pieces.

9. When dry I rubbedback the background to give it a more shabby vintage feel.

10. And added embellishments. The hooks and eyes are torn from an old packet I gathered from my Mum's supplies many years ago.

The scissors are flat backed and I added some paints to age them.

I added a little burnt sienna to the buttons too.

I absolutely love the finished effects. It's not at all how I thought it might look and I was very surprised at how dark the vintage beeswax embossing is, but mixing it with layers of clear worked well.

This will now be added to the journal.

Thanks for taking an interest and popping by and ........

xxx

In the Neutral Zone for A Vintage Journey

It's Nikki's turn to host the challenge at A Vintage Journey and she want us to be in the neutral zone. 

Time to banish colour and use blacks, whites, greys, beiges, creams and browns, just what I love for some shabby projects.

I love sewing and haberdashery themed projects but rarely make them so I thought what better way than give me an excuse to get the sewing machine out, a little fabric and dress form and sewing associated stamps than to create a journal. Now I have somewhere to stay fairly neutral and to use collage papers, old patterns and vintage images to fill it.

Having cut one of Eileen Hull's wrapped journals I set about getting the covers sorted first.  I used DecoArt gesso and premium acrylic paints to create some texture and mottled colouring, adding layer upon layer until I was happy with it.

I sealed the whole surface with varnish so it will take more wear and tear.
The products are listed at the end of the post.

I used Stamperia papers to line the inside and yes ok I have included a little colour here but I know I will also use pastel tones on some of the pages I create over time.

Next came the collage front cover. The stamped dress form from Tim Holtz took centre stage and I collected together some ephemera, fabric oddments and used the sewing machine to leave some hanging threads.

I really like the way the dress form stands out prominently having been stamped with white acrylic paint on some dark brown card, it's a fabulous contrast.

The collage layers came together with me sitting and playing with small pieces of papers, ephemera and fabric until it looked balanced. I always know when it looks 'right' and I just have to spend time arranging and rearranging until it fits like a jigsaw puzzle for me.

 I decided to do something very similar for the back cover as I had this dress form left over.

Some more words to inspire me when I look to add some pages.

I added two small but very strong magnets to hold the journal together and covered them with a strip of tissue tape so that you don't see them when you open it.

I'll add my signatures soon, but this is what it looks like standing up.
There's a little button sewed onto the dress form as an embellishment and some words that open up the world for my imagination to run wild.

If you'd like to see more inspiring projects pop over to A Vintage Journey to see what some of the rest of the team has been making and please join in if you choose to use a neutral palette in one of your projects this month.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by - and ....

Supplies

DecoArt Premium Acrylics - raw umber, burnt umber, burnt sienna, dark grey value 3, titanium white, titan buff.

DecoArt Premium white gesso

DecoArt Media ultra matt varnish, matte medium

Tag Friday at AVJ and post number 1500

Woo hoo I can't believe I have posted 1500 times - that really is amazing and an incredible feat methinks. I already have a giveaway going HERE so if you'd be up for winning a set of stamps by Andy Skinner pop over and leave a comment to be included.

It's Friday and a Tag Friday post is up over at A Vintage Journey with the explanation of what it is and some fantastic contributions from the wonderful team of artists and friends who love this opportunity to create for fun.

I'm pressed for time so no process steps today but a couple of process photos which are pretty self explanatory.

That's it my layered collage tag for today made completely from scraps and a beautiful Tim Holtz butterfly.

xxx

No Spring colours - tag

I have a tag over at Country View Crafts Project Blog today and there are no bright Spring colours as I had already started and knew I wanted neutrals ...... 

.... but when the words of 'Spring' appeared when I added some old dictionary paper - I couldn't ignore them.

I still think it all fits together. If you go over to CVC you will see the process steps and more photos and make your own mind up.

Enjoy whatever you have planned this week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Inspired by Dee - shabby dress form

Welcome to an AVJ Tag Friday post where we create a tag with no boundaries, it's just for fun. I was supposed to be in Boston for 10 days recently on holiday but my broken ankle curtailed that so I asked the lovely Di Oliver at Tando Creative if I could go along to the Dare2Create retreat in Coventry to catch up with everyone and give me some 'out of the house' time. Kindly she said yes and surprisingly a space opened up on Andy's workshop on the Saturday and I was able to jump in and take part. I also sat in on the lovely Dee Adams demonstration in the evening and came home so inspired I set to on Monday and this was the result.

Tag

- paint a coat of white gesso - dry

- paint with three chosen colours (quinacridone magenta, blue/green light, phthalo turquoise) and tinting base to keep it pale and shabby

- randomly apply weathered wood in a few areas and leave to dry

- give a random coat of white crackle paint around the edges and over the weathered wood areas. Leave to dry
- seal with matte varnish

- dribble a wash of prussian blue - dry
- repeat with a wash of transparent yellow iron oxide
- dabble on watery white, spritz and dry.

- take raw umber and titanium white antiquing cream and rub them together over the surface (I used 4 white to 1 brown),

 - leave for a minute or two and then rub back very lightly with a damp babywipe

- with a palette knife apply some white modelling paste again random areas around the edges and sprinkle with chunky embossing enamel and heat set, let it completely dry

- dribble through some quinacridone gold and raw umber to give it a worn rusted look

- stamp clouterie label on tissue paper, tear around it and adhere it to the background
- stamp some small text

- triple emboss a piece of card with frantage embossing enamels using chunky clear for the middle layer then stamp the dress form (using coffee archival ink) into it whilst it's hot, let it cool and cut it out

- stamp, emboss and alter other elements to build a collage

- stain some seam binding ribbon with quinacridone and raw umber watery paints

- and assemble

The label was heat embossed with gold onto brown card and a little bottle with some seed beads glued on.

The close up of the dress form shows some of the texture created by stamping into the molten embossing enamels.

I have some altered gems that look downright rusty and added them to give more of the timeworn effect and feel to it.

You can see the postmark stamped with embossing powder and given some watery washes of paint. The lace was just painted with the media acrylics to get the aged effects to it.

True to Dee's style the edges were textured with modeling paste and sprinkled with frantage aged gold embossing enamel and heated to get those lovely effects. This technique fits with her grungy style and this more shabby one. Thanks Dee for the inspiration.

All paints and mediums are from the DecoArt Media line.


Do pop over to A Vintage Journey to see who which of the Creative Guides have joined in with the fun today, there's always a fabulous collection to whet your appetite.

So my mojo seems to have returned and I'm fully inspired to get going on some more projects. I need to get on quickly to be able to catch up with myself though. I am now back in my workroom to create so I know that will help me as well having all my supplies around me.

To finish here's a couple of pics from last weekend.

 Andy in full flow - you can just see me on the table to the right.

Here we are - Susan, me and Sian. I met both of these lovely ladies on the day and because I wasn't expecting to take part they shared their supplies with me which enabled me to fully join in. Aren't crafting buddies just the best?

Of course it was fabulous to meet up with the gorgeous Tracy Weinzafel again - I was just sorry I couldn't do her class on the Sunday. I had arranged for Ken to come and pick me up, but we grabbed a coupe of minutes for this photo.

And here are the two that kept me going (Suz and Dee) with lots of laughs, lots of help and plenty of alcohol lol. (I was good actually as I didn't want to be drunk in charge of crutches!!!!!!). Suz very kindly gave me a lift to Coventry on the Friday too, it was lovely to spend more time with her. This is a photo of them both in Asda trying on sparkly dresses together - what are they like? They didn't buy them even though they were only £3 each.

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off out shopping tomorrow to help Ella spend her birthday money.

Have a great weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx