Follow In My Footsteps - Fossil panel plus.....

Firstly, although she doesn't read my blog I wish my gorgeous daughter a wonderful and happy birthday.

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I used the instructions for one of the panels I made for Stitches, back in February, and created this Andy Skinner fossil fish tile with a computer generated caption to go with it. To follow the footsteps you need to see the panel I made here. This panel was made around the same time as the linked one and has been sitting in a box so I decided to give it a second lease of life and used it to make a hand made / hand bound sketch book / journal. The paints and mediums I used are all DecoArt media line and the stamps are by Andy Skinner.

I revamped an old technique that Tim Holtz got me into I think in 2011. I revised it when I first started teaching workshops but now updated it again.

I started with this previously made panel.

Using my technique it changed to this ......

.... and then this.

I call this Pitted Enamel and I'm keeping the written steps for a DecoArt Media Team contribution which will be sometime in November, so please keep your eyes peeled for an update.

Once the front cover for my sketchbook/journal was finished I moved on to making the insides. I cut media paper to size, folded the pieces into folios and put two folios to make a signature. I repeated this four times and then sewed the signatures together making a text block using a kettle stitch
binding. I found this video HERE pretty useful but I didn't go on to gluing the edges of the signatures.

 I covered the spine with a gaffa type tape before adhering the front and back pages to the front and back covers.

Just some simple coloured twine for holding the book together ......

.... and what started out as a simple panel has become the cover of a useful sketch, watercolour, note book and is in my shop space to sell.

Thanks for stopping by.

Trust your wings

Back to Nature with AVJ

It's a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and the lovely Jennie is hosting this month and she has asked us to celebrate natural elements in our projects. I've focussed on some real nature with my dried seed heads, dried grass and twig from the garden and used a flower stamp, metal embellishment and worn wallpaper to depict these wonderful elements as well.

Base

Take a canvas board and blend dip and flick distress oxides to cover it.

When dry brayer a very light coat of white gesso over.

Stamp flower with embossing ink and heat emboss with weathered wood distress powder and repeat over the same place with vintage gold to give a textured embossing effect.

Sand the edges and ink with ground espresso DI.

Panel

Cover an mdf or greyboard panel with worn wallpaper, sand the edges and ink with ground espresso DI.

Seal with DecoArt decoupage sealer or matte medium.

Paint over with a layer of gesso and  immediately rub some of it away and leave more of the gesso around the edges.

Tie a distressed ribbon around it.

Frame

Take a small Tim Holtz frame - again sand the edges and ink with ground espresso DI.

Assemble

Offset the panel and frame to provide space for the gathered natural elements tied together with string. This becomes the main focal point.

Add a small paper doll photo to add as a secondary focal point.

Alter some small metal embellishments to add as decoration and additional interest

The sections build great layers and height.

For some more amazing inspirational projects on this theme please pop over to the AVJ challenge blog to see what the other Creative Guides have made. As always there's a brilliant line up.

xxx

Colour theme for Tando Creative

We start the new week with a colour scheme over on the Tando Creative blog.

Here is the inspirational photo for the colour palette.

These are the DecoArt colours I picked out of my media acrylic paints.

Brush white gesso onto the tag and squidge it onto a craft mat or some acetate to get some texture for the background. (I will admit here right at the beginning that this is my third try at getting something I liked and each time it went wrong I gessoed over and squidged it again. Waste not want not!)

Dip, dip and dry several times using watery washes of mixed tones of dark grey, medium grey, sap green, titanium white and titan buff media acrylic paints to achieve a misty background and foggy day.

Stamp some grassy foliage using the same colours as used for the dipping above and dry. Then repeat with mixes of pyrrole red, yellow oxide, titanium white and titan buff using the same foliage stamp.

Sand the edges and blend in ground espresso distress ink.

Dab a little of all the colours, bar the greys and black, onto a mixing palette and using mini leaves 3 drag several of the leaves through the colours and dry and then stamp over using a textured leaf stamp .....

and edge with coffee archival.

From the 'Textures 1' sheet extract the word 'imagination' and part of the 'harlequin' shape. Paint the word black and the harlequin a dark burgundy (the 3 colours you will need to mix it are red, blue and black) and stamp with the light grey paint.

Time to assemble - gather any other bits you want to add, especially some nice natural elements.

I also added some washi tape to the bottom.

Eh voila!

Once I'd got the first stamping done I knew I was going to be happy with this, I really quite like it. You may have noticed that I even took the photo as well as the colours for my inspiration and I loved grunging up the natural elements.

 If you'd like to see more fab projects inspired by the colours keep your eye on the Tando Creative blog this week.

xxx

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

Stamperia patterned papers - card

Using patterned papers from Stamperia I have made a simple flat card for posting.

Cut papers from the pad to size.

Find other similar and contrasting papers in your stash and cut and punch elements to build a layered collage. Pieces of ephemera are always useful too.

Assemble

For the papers and other wonderful card making supplies visit Country View Crafts.

xxx

Andy Skinner Creative Team sample

It's my turn to share a project for the Andy Skinner blog today and I have made a plaque that simply used mountboard as the main substrate for the backing.

Backing board

Using the mountboard I sealed wit with gesso, dried, sprayed with water and quinacridone gold mixed, laid on washers with neat quin gold on the back of them sprayed and dried.

Next I blended raw umber round the edges, spritzed with water and dried again before dipping in watery paynes grey.

When this was dry I stamped using some of Andy's Illusionary Artists Tech Trauma 

background stamps ....

 ... and then spread crackle paste through Andy's Old Film stencil (which I have cut into pieces) and left it to dry.

Later I rubbed in some english red oxide antiquing cream and rubbed it back to blend it in more with the background.

Arched frame

I took the frame from the Sacred Secrets set and sealed the frame itself and the backing with gesso, dragging a piece of plastic down it on this second piece. When the frame piece was dry I brushed on some white crackle paint and left it to dry.

On the backing piece I spritzed with water, painted on some paynes grey and spritzed it again before drying it, then stamped the arabian arched window from the Gothic Grunge set restamping the edges with just the wall parts of the stamp.

Later I painted in a little colour to give it more definition.

I took the frame painted on patina green antiquing cream, rubbed it back and then sanded and distressed the edges with ground espresso distress ink.

I stamped King Spook (from the Spook stamp set) on a leftover piece of painty card and cut him out.

Flowers

Taking a large piece of watercolour paper I spritzed splattered, dripped and dried quinacridone gold several times. I also dipped some steel washers in the paint and laid them on the paper to get the circular marks.

When fully dry I die-cut the tattered florals bigz die and a couple from the thinlits small tattered florals to make up the flowers. I dipped the reverse side in some water quin gold and then rolled and scrunched each one and left them to dry before unrolling them and layering them up.

Once I had assembled them I stamped using Andy's text stamp from theTech Trauma set and dribbled and spritzed more quin gold to give them light, dark and contrast.

Flourish

I use a bigz die to cut the flourish from bubbalux foam, daubed it with texture sand paste and a mix of quin gold, raw sienna, paynes grey and raw umber paints. 

I love the way this product softens and moves and can be formed into bends and shapes before it goes cold and hardens again - please be careful when it is hot, handling it can cause burns.

I lengthened the flourish .....

... and bent it to fit the space I wanted it to go in.

I assembled everything together adding some of the washers that had been textured and rustified.

It came together really well although this was not quite like the hazy picture I had in my head to start with lol, but I'm still pleased with the outcome.

Products

The Arch from the Sacred Secrets set.

Stamp sets by Andy Skinner

Tech Trauma

Gothic Grunge

Spook

Stencil - Old Film

Kit - Sacred Secrets

Media fluid acrylic paints - Quinacridone Gold, Raw Umber, Paynes Grey, Raw Sienna, Cadmium Orange

Mediums - Decou-page Sealer, Texture Sand Paste, White Crackle Paint, White Gesso, White Crackle Paste, English Red Oxide and Patina Green Antiquing Creams.