Rusty and Crusty at AVJ

Rusty and Crusty - what a great theme and one I think I've gone to town on lol ...... but it took me ages and many designs to get this finished. Do you ever get one of those projects where you really can't find a way to finish it off? But I got there.

So the lovely Autumn is our host this week at A Vintage Journey and she says -

"Many of us love rust and enjoy looking for new ways to get that authentic look of crusty peeling metal. For this challenge include some rust in your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk project, whether it be the real thing, a faux technique or just a rust colour on your project."

Start with my media board which is 12 1/2 x 18 cms.

Edge the media board with heavy gel medium and sprinkle in some art balls and micro beads for different sized textures.

With a palette knife spread over some thin texture sand paste, blast with a heat gun and leave to finish drying. 

Paint a good coat of black gesso over the media board getting into all the little recesses and dry. The edges looked a bit sparse after I took this photo so I added some more texture sand paste inbetween the small art balls. 

Daub and stipple raw umber, burnt umber and paynes grey media acrylic over it. This looked better.

For the next layer I took a piece of embossed card, adhered it to thin greyboard and scraped sand texture paste over it.

I then used one of Andy's quick rust techniques as a starting point but bringing in some lighter 

patina colours as well for contrast. I sealed the surface with grey gesso (black and white gesso mixed) dried it and then added washes of yellow oxide mixed with raw umber and cobalt turquoise mixed with raw umber on the surface together and dried.

Next came a watery coat of quinacridone gold, some neat painted around the edges and then a layer of ultra matte varnish.

To finish I gathered some bits and pieces to embellish the two boards having more rusty fun with a wooden heart and white crackle paint.

I also added some remnant rubs for more interest.

There we have my contribution to the Rusty and Crusty theme and I hope you like the different ways I achieved the rusty and the crusty effects lol. I'm sure you will enjoy popping over to see what else the Creative Guides have created for you.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Photo Booth Collage - mixed media style

I thought I would share this small journal panel made in the same way as I have created a photo booth collage over at Country View Crafts Project Blog today - both are mixed media style. Once made up these can be used for journal pages or card toppers - you choose.

This one was made using DecoArt media fluid acrylics which is slightly different to the CVC one. 

I used very little in both collages and even less on this one.

The steps are the same though although I used watery raw umber to edge this panel, just dipping the sides into it and drying as I went along.

If you would like to see how you could put one together similar to these using your own products and colours the please pop over to the CVC post where I explain how to do it.

Thanks for popping in - I hope you are having a good week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Updated from CVC

Take a piece of media card and scrape some gesso over it and dry. Then take some of the mini Artistic Flair tab stencils - these are so cute and great for small projects - with a palette knife again scrape gesso through it creating random areas on the card.

When dry spritz little areas with water and with a brush dip some of the Amsterdam  Acrylic Ink Cool Grey into it, tip the card to let the colour swirl into the recesses etc. Dry and repeat with Burnt Umber.

Put one small drop of the Burn Umber ink onto a craft mat and smooch it into a smudge shape and quickly before it dries drag the card through it and the colour will transfer randomly.

Distress the edges and blend in ground espresso distress ink. The gather some little bits for a collage or add embellishments of your own and use as a journal panel or a topper for a card. I used a photo booth pic and a type charm with some of my collage scraps.

Spring like colour theme at Tando Creative

There's colour themed inspiration on the Tando Blog this week and I have used the inspiration photo to make a grungy looking tag in Springlike colours using the ever fabulous DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints and some white crackle paste.

A full step by step is over at Tando if you would like to see how this came together.

Thanks for popping in to see what I have been making.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tag Friday AVJ

It's a Tag Friday post over at A Vintage Journey

I began by stamping the salamander from France Papillon's Illusionary Artist set of stamps Creepers and Crawlers using distress oxide, spritzing it with water and drying it before cutting it out.

For the background I die cut a tag using media paper tag and stamped with gesso to get some immediate texture and interest on my tag and then dipped in spiced marmalade and worn lipstick distress oxides. When that was dry I rubbed in some vintage photo around the edges and spritzed with water and heat dried and later towards nearing completion I stamped lightly with an old text stamp and splattered both titan buff and titanium white media fluid acrylic paint.

I used the same distress colours plus walnut stain and barn door DI to get another background from which I die cut a robo bar frame by Seth Apter. This was a little smaller than I wanted so I have saved it and cut the outside piece into a larger frame in which the salamander can sit.

I sewed round the edges of my tag and then mounted it onto some brown card. I also sewed down the sides of the frame.

These are the elements I collected for embellishing, the button actually got left off when it came together it just didn't work.

The Salamander is mounted over some chicken wire .....

... and the book plate is being recycled although the inner part is new.

 For more information and inspiration pop over to A Vintage Journey to see what the other amazing Creative Guides have added for us to peruse.

Happy Easter.

hugs Brenda xxx

Entomology tag for Easter

I have a pretty Spring like tag over on the Country View Crafts project blog today and I think it's a perfect gift tag for that Easter egg or present for someone special. 

I have outlined the steps with photos if you fancy taking a look at how it came together.

Easter is only a few days away. I love getting out my seasonal decorative pieces for this time of year.

Hope you have a good week.

hugs Brenda xxx


Updated from CVC Project Blog

Begin with distress oxides in spiced marmalade, broken china and cracked pistachio and create a dip and dry background.

 Stamp some flying bugs, I used the Entomology set of stamps by Tim Holtz and used his stamping platform to get a strong outline ( I stamped it twice using coffee and black archival inks)

Take forest moss, pine needles, tea dye and rusty hinge ordinary distress inks and with a paintbrush paint in the wings. I also used some white linen ink spray by dylusions to highlight the bodies.

Next take some scraps of paper and tear pieces to cover the butterflies and stamp the text stamp, also from the etymology set, with broken china doxide.. 

Before removing the paper lightly spritz over with water and heat dry.

Stamp the small butterflies from the classics 17 stamps and remove the little Fig. numbers, cut, distress ink the edges and adhere. Also stamp the special delivery from the correspondence set directly onto the tag.

I always 'frame' my tags, cards etc and didn't want to rely just on the normal distress inked edges so I searched my boxes of old unknown stamps and found a fabulous forgotten distressed border stamp which I used with cornflower blue archival ink.

Finally I covered the winged bugs again and splattered some white gesso and then finished with the distress inked edges.

A lovely gift tag with springlike images and colours don't you think?

Positivity journal panel for CVC

I am over on the Country View Crafts blog today with a panel for my positivity journal and using some of the new Aall and Create stamps. More photos and a description can be found over there.

Thanks for popping in.

hugs Brenda xxx


Updated from CVC Project Blog

The background was made by laying down some gesso applied on the back of a palette knife and left to dry before adding in some colours - primary cyan, cerulean blue, titan buff, raw umber and burnt umber, taking time to add some dips of watery washes of these colours and finishing with a brayer and titanium white to bring some brightness back. 

The stamp set has 11 stamps in it, so there's plenty to help make up a composition with the brush which has written around it -

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

The stamp above says - Creativity takes courage.

The little arrow and dots make a nice fill in piece and the circles make up a great border.

I love using text so I added some very light random stampings of one of my own small stamps.

I used the quotestamp on paper so that it stood out more and shaded round it after I had finished and sealed it all with matte medium.

To get the finished look I splattered some raw umber and white paint and dried it and took my white posca pen to add some small dots in the circles and a black one to add some squiggly border additions. I sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso distress ink.

Mini Book Storage for DecoArt Media Team

I am up on the DecoArt blog today with  a storage shelf kit from Tando Creative to house their mini books.

I have as always used layers of paint but this time used the new Premium range of acrylics which are absolutely fabulous to use.

If you would like all the details please pop over to the DecoArt Media Blog to see all the process steps with plenty of photos.

The little books and the shelf were made for Stitches so you will be seeing more of some of those little cute albums, just keep your eyes peeled here on the blog.

Thanks for being here, enjoy your week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tando Tiny Mini Album - Vintage style

I have a super cute mini book over on the Tando blog today. It measures about 6 cms square and is just such a sweet little thing to hold in the hand.

There's more details on the blog although I didn't have time to do the process steps as it was for Di as a sample to use at Stitches last month and she has kept it lol. There are a few more photos as well though.

I hope you can pop on over. Thanks for dropping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Visual Journal - altered book and cabinet card for AVJ

As promised my step by step of the altered book I made to start our new year of challenges is now up at A Vintage Journey. You will see how I prepared this cover and how the embellishments and finishing touches pulled the vintage collage together. To see my original post and my 'Treasure' that triggered this project for this month's challenge click here.

I have already created the first pages in this book so keep an eye here on my blog in May when I will  link to the DecoArt Mixed Media blog when the project goes live.

Thanks for being a reader and supporter of my blog, I do read all your comments and really appreciate them.

Have a great weekend and hopefully enjoy some crafting time of your own.

hugs Brenda xxx

Updated from AVJ

I began by preparing a couple of old books by painting the outside covers with gesso and adding some texture using the gesso with a palette knife when it was dry.

Having chosen the larger book and this cabinet card to use .....

..... I decided that as it was quite plain I would alter it and I found a piece of old Graphic 45 paper and cut an oval shape from it.

I had ensured there was plenty of space around the oval to fully cover the card.

I aged the centre cut by rubbing round with an emery board and blending over ground espresso DI. Then I adhered it onto the cabinet card and used a sanding block to sand away the excess patterned paper. This had then distressed the edges as well and again I blended in ground espresso DI.

I started to gather bits and snippets to make some decisions on the embellishing first. Every piece has been painted, inked and/or distressed in some way. I sealed all the card embellishments with satin varnish before they were added to the cover.

This cabinet card covers quite a bit of the front cover so I felt I needed to create a layered background with textures and neutral covers. I began with a text stencil and texture paste mixed with gesso that I heat dried and then, dribbled, dipped and spritzed my gorgeous decoart media acrylics.

 Using quinacridone magenta, titan buff and yellow oxide I dribbled and spritzed the colours to create a light mottled background.

I stamped with the same colours using a text stamp from the Andy Skinner shabby chic set.

I darkened the background by dribbling and spritzing some raw umber with titan buff and dabbled over some watery titanium white (all the time I am heat drying between each layer).

At this point I decided to seal it and used the DecoArt satin varnish. I wanted it to be very sturdy and ready to take the punishment of it being used regularly and creating and making the new journal pages. I began adding the collage elements in layers ....... getting the base parts adhered and flattened under a heavy box.

Now to add in the collage elements. I used the new clear modeling paste from DecoArt and oh boy does it have a strong bond for the card, fabric and metal pieces.

Looking at the book I felt there was something missing - contrast in the background - so I took a fine brush some quinacridone gold, paynes grey and raw umber ........ and with some dabbling of the colours around the collage elements the shading, shadowing, aging and framing has brought it together more.