Under 30 minutes #2

I'm here to share my second project for the Country View Crafts 'Under 30 minutes' time challenge with a masculine card for this one. Again I dipped into discarded supplies from other projects but when you want to make something quickly that's what you need - I keep so many bits and pieces for just that purpose.

 

I started with a gelli print to become my background, I think it had one pull from the gelli plate and then some brayering over the top from making other prints at the same time.

So how to add the focal elements and more interest to the card? I got out a stencil and the stamp I wanted to use ........

..... and some bits of ephemera and die-cuts ......

...... and then ready to write my recipe like last time.

1. Take a stencil and add shapes to the gelli print background.

2. Use a stamp to add random printing to create more depth.

3. Stamp the focal image on media paper and use distress inks to water colour it - cut the shape of it out and edge with ground espresso.

4. Cut the background to size, round the corners and ink the edges then mount it onto some blue or brown card, rounding the corners again.

5. Create a collage with the focal image, ephemera and border pieces.

6. Add the star and words and hey presto you are done.

Hope you are enjoying the challenge and I hope you can join in. I really need to take this method of card making on board to get something done in less time than I imagined I could.

Have a wonderful weekend. I am off to the Stitches Trade Show in Birmingham on Sunday for a couple of days so that will be fun looking at new products and getting to see lots of crafty friends.

Enjoy your art.

hugs Brenda xxx

From the HeArt Shadowbox

Happy Valentine's Day

How about this for a present to a loved one on this special day?

Cut some patterned paper the size of the back of the frame and using a stencil and modeling paste create a textured pattern.

Scrape through some white gesso, heat dry and then random stamp with permanent ink. I used vermillion with black over the top to get a two tone effect.

Take a greyboard square and scrape some gesso lightly over the top to create a little texture.

 When the gesso is dry paint it with a coat of cadmium red and quinacridone magenta, dry it and give a coat of transparent red iron oxide mixed with raw umber and before it dries flick some water over the surface let it stand for half a minute or so and then gently roll over some kitchen towel to remove the water and some of the paint underneath it. This technique gives you that mottled effect.

Take a small wooden heart (did Elvis pop into your head then? It did mine lol). Daub a little white gesso onto it, turn it over and press the gessoed side onto your craft mat (or something similar). This gives you a very quick way to create a different texture.

Daub a little paynes grey over the heart, dab most of it off and then repeat in a couple of random areas so you get contrasting depths of the colour.

I painted on the reds and raw umber dabbing off with kitchen roll to continue the mixed colour effects ....

..... and dry-brushed white gesso over it to reveal the texture again.

I then swiped over the vermillion red ink pad to bring the reds to life more.

Again I added some white dry-brushing but this time nearer to the edges.

I painted the edge of the heart with white gesso and sanded it back when it was dry, finishing with blended ground espresso distress ink.

To finish the square I sanded over it and around the edges and blended that with the distress ink too.

I took a cheap craft metal frame painted it with a mix of the reds and raw umber paints, let it dry and then blended over some iced espresso metallic lustre.

All I needed to do to complete the shadowbox was to make my own sentient for the metal frame .....

.... and put it together.

No embellishments, no collage just a simple design with lots of technique.

I dipped the white frame into a few watery washes of the colours I had been using but was not happy with the overall finished result ...

.... so that's when it got sanded and grunged up a bit with the sanding block and ground espresso distress ink.

That's better!

Now I'm happier with it.

Enjoy your Valentine's day with special people in your life and listen to your own HeArt.

hugs Brenda xxx

DecoArt white modeling paste DecoArt Mixed Media - White Gesso Ranger Archival Ink - Vermillion Ranger Archival ink pad - Jet black Decoart media-fluid-acrylic paint---cadmium-red DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic Quinacrodone magentaww.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-medi DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Paynes Grey DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Raw Umber Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Ground Espresso

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DecoArt DT project and GiveAway for February

Just popping by with a heads up that I have a new project over on the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog today and it's a little canvas board done in soft colours with rusty elements added to it. I go through all the process steps to achieve the  soft timeworn look. Here's a sneak peek. It would be lovely if you could pop over to see it in all it's finished glory and let me know what you think.

I also have another giveaway up for grabs - again these are double ups in my supplies and are brand new.  There are two different die packs here, one each for two different people. This will end on Tuesday 28th February and if you'd like to be entered in the draw please tell me below which one you'd like if you were to win in the comments section below..

The movers and shapers arches ..........

 ..... or the Moments - word die.

Good luck.

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

Discovery - canvas board

Happy Friday

This board started life as 'let's use up this paste' panel. I had a mix of white modeling paste and sand texture paste left over from another project and just couldn't let it go to waste, so I grabbed Andy Skinner's fossil stencil and one from Seth Apter and just used up the remains and left the board to dry.

Once dry I decided to use this as my February challenge sample for A Vintage Journey where the lovely Jennie has chosen 'Special Words' as the theme for the month. With the stencilled ammonite shape and word suddenly a walk along the beach came to mind and memories of various places where I have picked up shells and discovered beautiful patterns and designs through sea creatures, footprints and the print of the waves left in the sand. So the start of my creation began to emerge in my head and I gathered a few bits together to get me more focussed in.

 The colour combination I have chosen was from a palette I found on Pinterest and I added grey to each one to tone them in with each other. As always by the time I had finished the background I had added more which included some cobalt blue hue and prussian blue.

To get some colour on the board I decided to use a brayer, I haven't used it much for a while and I used several colours layering over the top of each other to get this background.

Then I dribbled, dripped and finger painted in some washes of the same colours to fill in some of the gaps before brayering over with some titan buff and titanium white mixed together to lift it all again.
WHAT DID I LEARN? - That next time I will brayer the paints first and get the background colour on before adding the stencilled texture. Hmm I might be trying that over the weekend lol.

So now I wanted to highlight the textured areas, I decided to replace the fossil stencil and add embossing ink and gold embossing powder. Great but again WHAT DID I LEARN? - I should have brayered over the raised area first with a brayer and a gorgeous deep golden brown colour because the gold has touched most of the texture, not all of it.

So that's what I did with the number and word at the top with prussian blue. But no that didn't work either ....

.... so out came the fine brushes and the titanium white to add to the blue to fill in the gaps. Yay, more contrast this time. So I went over the fossil as well.

Onto to creating the feature and embellishments. First I decided to paint the shells gold.

Next came the little box and I got so carried away I forgot to take any more individual photos but here are some close ups. To make it work with the background I decided the outside needed to be blues and the inside the yellows, I used the fluid acrylics and they blended in beautifully over the wood and kept the rustic  effects.

At this point I changed my mind completely on the design that you saw at the beginning of the post and decided to carry the fossil shape further over on the board, I just laid the stencil down and rubbed over the embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder.

I rubbed a cornflower blue and the coffee archival ink pads around the edges and gave them a good blast with the heat gun before using an embossing pen to add some gold over the numbers nd around the edges.

I assembled the box using some muslin dipped in the prussian blue and adhered it to the canvas and glued the little crustacean piece on the top.

With an easel on the back this stands beautifully.

What do you think of when you read the word 'DISCOVERY" for me it makes me realise that I am still learning new things every day, it might be when I experimenting with my paints, inks and mediums, it maybe in a discussion or chat with a friend, it might be something from the tv or even better when I'm away on a trip or holiday - when I'm exploring and learning about the past history of the place.

Do you think I am now thinking ahead to warmer weather? I could do with some sun on my back right now but that's always the case when January is out of the way.

Looking forward to seeing the entries for this challenge and I highly recommend this post for some amazing inspiration from the Creative Guides.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your art.

hugs Brenda xxx