Journalling for Success #3 and #4

I had a wonderful day on Saturday at Pickwell Farm teaching a new workshop which was a follow up to one I did earlier in the year. This was the the last in the series exploring texture, colour and  how to meld napkin images seamlessly onto your pages using a mixed media style and also how to use white space to create a more open and less busy page.

These are the pages using napkin images where I tried to recreate the feel of the sea ....

... and here the pages that leave white space as part of the overall design which people said they had the most problem with.

Here are some of the pages created by the fabulous group, sadly I can't find the list I made to tell me which ones belonged to who but in attendance, Becky, Val, Corrine, David, Pam, Di and Helena such a shame that three cancelled at the last minute.

With apologies for the photo quality, they were all taken quickly on the phone and no time to lay them out and line them up nicely but I think you will agree they still did a magnificent job.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be back soon.

hugs Brenda xxx

Shabby crackle card and thrilling news

Well I'm only just under the wire getting this card made and ready for posting today and I needed some help pulling it out of the hat. I was bereft of ideas until I saw my friend Anne's gorgeous shabby album on her blog and I knew I wanted to go pink and pastelly (is that a word or have I just made that up?), so really into my shabby mood I decided to use some Wendy Vecchi embellishments and some very beautiful flowers from Anna Marie Designs. I also had seen the cards produced for the Frilly and Funkie Pastels and Pearls challenge and it strengthened my resolve to create a shabby card for this piece and enter it.

So I got to work.

The background card was in my off-cuts box left over I think from an infusions play session.

Add some stamping, I used a music score but it could easily be a text stamp .....

.... use a stencil and add DecoArt white texture paste and leave to dry naturally.

Take embellishments and have fun arranging them. Don't you just love the postmark disc and the little dove cote?

The crackles give texture and interest to the background and you can see a small white doily die cut shape (which is actually a wedding place marker from Hobby Craft) and a Tim Holtz stamped element tucked behind the beautiful shabby flowers.

Some printed hessian (left over from a Finnabair workshop I attended a few years ago), torn fabric to make a shabby ribbon bow, a couple of foliage die cuts (left from another project) in cream card, a tiny tag blended with antique linen and picked raspberry distress inks with a small pearl added and a word die-cut in brown card to make it stand out all added to the shabby appeal.

So I am off now to enter this into the Frilly and Funkie challenge and would like to thank the four frilly team members for their inspiration. This also fits with the Crackle challenge at Country View Crafts and is a reminder that you can enter a project up until the end of the month.

Before I go I have some more incredible and thrilling news to share with you. This year I have been so incredibly lucky and doors have been opening for me to do new and exciting things. The list includes being asked to join the amazing Andy Skinner on the DecoArt international design team and be part of a very talented group of people using the mixed media line of paints and mediums. Then Andy asked me to teach at Mixology this coming November, what an honour and again what a privilege to be involved teaching seventy participants at the retreat. At the same time I was asked by DecoArt if I would like to do a project for the Craft Stamper magazine for later in the year - but of course I would ..... another honour and compliment and having submitted my project the wonderful Trish Latimer has now asked if I would like to be on the Craft Stamper Design Team too. The badge is securely added to the side bar just so I can believe it as I have to keep pinching myself and checking I'm not dreaming......... Thank you Trish I am so pleased and proud to be joining more very talented artists from around the world and hope I can do you all justice in what I create.

Well after all of that I hope you have a great day and a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned - for me with additional responsibilities that means more crafting. Am I complaining of course not, I love it.

Thanks for sharing my creative journey with me.

hugs Brenda xxxx

Vintage children

I recently did this tag as a workshop and had brilliant results with the participants finished creations which look amazing. (See the end of the post).

The background started off as a mop up whilst making another project using the decoart media acrylics. I love misting them so they are watery and then dipping and drying the card several times to get the watery effects. 

So I cut the card to fit inside a size 10 tag then stamped a new (to me) Tim Holtz background stamp called Nordic. I layered on weathered wood, chipped sapphire and gathered twigs distress inks, spritzed it with water and stamped over the painty background. I did this twice to cover the whole piece of card. The I blended bundled sage and stormy sky around the edges before distressing them and blending the edges with ground espresso.

I took the #10 tag and blended the ground espresso all round and then flicked watery chipped sapphire distress ink with a brush and plain water with my fingers and dried it.

I gathered the elements I wanted to use

... including these sweet girls from the found relatives pack.

And everything just came together.

I have another one on the go that I hope to show you soon.

And I wish I could remember which tag belongs to who????

Thanks for dropping in and for leaving a comment, I read every one and appreciate the time you take to do it.

hugs Brenda xxx

DecoArt tag

Whilst prepping for DecoArt workshops I will use any left over paints and cover tags, pieces of card or media boards and this project today is one that started life in this way.

Please pop over to Country View Crafts Project Blog where it is my turn to post a project.....

.... and it's a great quick one too.

I hope you are planning a fabulous weekend, I would really like the weather to be dry and hopefully sunny and warm. Tonight we are off to an outside concert in Southampton to see Rod Stewart and I am soooo looking forward to seeing him again, he just rocks a stadium so I am sure it is gonna be brilliant. As soon as it's finished we are off to get the ferry over to the Isle of Wight as it's festival weekend there are I can't believe we are going to see the Who and Queen with Adam Lambert - wow what a line up with lots of others like Staus Quo, Mike and the Mechanics and Adam Ant. Unfortunately we are missing Stereophonics Friday night but we have seen them before so I'm not too worried.

Enjoy whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Small mixed media canvas - The Hands of Time

Just a quick, small canvas today - no steps I am afraid as this is a mock up for another project for another day.

Colours used are DecoArt media acrylics - dioxazine purple, phthalo blue, pyrrole red and titanium white media paints and primary cyan, red, white and violet media misters. Mediums are also DecoArt white gesso, modeling paste and crackle glaze. Stamps are from my oddments box and Andy Skinner's Antique collection (that I have had in my supplies for years lol).

A mixed media background ...

... with lots of layers and texture which fits in beautifully with the challenge at A Vintage Journey ....

... and a few embellishments ....

 

... don't you just love the crackle on the clock? Don't forget if you are using crackle there's a challenge with that theme over at Country View Crafts ....

... stamped hands using Andy's old, clear stamp set ....

 ... and quote found on the internet ......

I thought I would add this to Andy's Time Challenge which is open until midnight on the 19th June. If you enter you stand a chance of winning one of two prizes, how about a free on-line class of Andy's or a bundle of Tando Creative goodies plus the top 3 receive a badge for their blog. Just follow the rules and you'll be ok. Hope to see you there. I'm just gonna hop over and link up now.

Have a great week and follow the quote, I seem to be at the moment ......

hugs Brenda xx

Texture paste for AVJ

Welcome to the first Friday in June and the start of another fabulous challenge at A Vintage Journey. The lovely Astrid is our host this month and she describes the theme thus -

"Use any kind of texture paste (home made, crackle, coloured or plain) on your projects. There is an endless variety available, so play, have fun and apply it to your heart's content. Use it through stencils, randomly or in whatever way you want, but remember it should be in one of the vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial or steampunk styles that we favour. Put on your mixed media hat and create some magic!"

For this project I decided to go shabby.

For the first layer I randomly applied some gesso with a dry baby wipe ...

... then I mixed some modeling paste to a thick creamy consistency, applied it with a brush and spritzed with water so that it dripped down the board. Once dry it didn't really give me the depth of texture I was looking for, but it was worth a try and certainly didn't do any harm.

Adding colour - colour mixing. 

This was the palette I chose to use and my college days of studying oils bears me in good stead for having a bit of experience to fall back on ...

... and here's the swatch card I made. By playing with blends I was able to personalise the colours to the shades I really wanted. It's impossible to tell you how much colour was added each time, it ranged from a touch of the wet lid when I opened it (ie pin prick size) to one or two drops from the bottle. The colours in the last column are the ones I used.

The colours were added one at a time with a brush, spritzed with water, allowed to move around and drip and then heat dried. By layering the colours like this you keep both the individual colour tones and the layered ones creating additional depth and interest.

Because there was texture beneath the colour I decided to highlight these in white by using titanium white and a small brayer .....

.... and then more fun with the DecoArt white crackle paste through some stencils, just look at the fabulous textures you get.

I wanted to highlight the word Cafe so I mixed some quinacridone magenta with white antiquing cream but it looked rather vivid and clashed with the more vintagey colours I had blended so I added a tiny amount of the green gold, oh my goodness I would never thought of adding these colours together to get this beautiful vintage rose colour. I replaced the stencil and painted it on, I also added some of  the rose with more white added and some green gold to the moroccan stencilled areas too. I had imagined colouring the cracks but I now wanted to leave it as it is so I decided that before I put the embellishments on I would give the whole board a coat of matte varnish to seal it.

Here it is with all the embellishments on ......

... and from the side - I added one of Tim's easel die-cuts so that it stands and can be used as a birthday card or just a celebratory piece of art.

Thanks for stopping by, for joining me on my own amazing creative journey and for all your wonderful comments. I just love reading them. I would also like to give a warm welcome to all the new followers who have joined Bumblebees and Butterflies and hope you enjoy my creations and process steps.

So will we see you at A Vintage Journey this month? There are fewer stipulations now in who can join in and as long as we can see a vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk genre then you're in and there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs every month. June sees Susan from Country View Crafts joining us again with a £20.00 voucher from her on-line shop.

Have a wonderful month, lets hope the weather is warming wherever you are in the northern hemisphere and that it's not getting too cold for you in the southern hemisphere.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

All paints and mediums are from the DecoArt media range.