Correspondence 3 x 4s

Having made 3 x 4's using Tim's papers last week I am determined to use up more of these wonderful pieces which are exact replicas of the larger 6 x 6 and 12 x 12 papers so you get just the same amount of detail.

I cut stiff card to adhere the 3x4s onto and

 I have distressed the background paper using Stephanie Ackerman's technique found here.

I stamped the backgrounds with Andy Skinner's new texture stamps, finger painted some white acrylic paint lightly in places and added some tissue tapes.

I collected various pieces of ephemera and a die-cut together and again altered them with white acrylic paint and walnut stain distress ink and glued them to the backgrounds with glue n seal making sure I covered the tops of the pieces too.

After the cards were dry I took a gathered twigs distress marker and added shadow to the glued on elements .......

.... and I distressed and inked the edges.

These are just slightly larger than ATCs and I'm loving creating on this size.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

hugs Brenda xxxx

DecoArt Heritage Board

Heritage Board – Vintage Shabby

Ooooh squeal of excitement, I just had to let you know that I have been accepted as a member of the DecoArt Helping Artist Program.



Susan at Country View Crafts will soon be stocking some of the DecoArt range of paints and mediums and I will be incorporating them into my workshops. I am particularly excited about using the media range, but I also love the chalk paints and want to experiment more with these too.
My Heritage board today uses a number of DecoArt products.

If you know me you know how much I love using Vintage photos in my creations, I have some of my own family on my Mum’s side, I have a collection of free images on my computer and I love the Tim Holtz found ancestors and photo booth ranges.

I have begun making a series of Heritage Boards using some of these fabulous images that are available to us and using DecoArt products to create the back grounds and layers.

This board began by cutting a piece of greyboard (chipboard) to 14 x 22½ cms and giving it two coats of white gesso. When it was dry I stamped one of Tim’s distress damask stamps in Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder – I wanted the white of the pattern to show through my next layer.

I then set about using phthalo green-blue and transparent yellow iron oxide fluid acrylics with lots of water to create this mottled/distressed background. I used brushes, wet wipes and my fingers as tools and I brushed, rubbed, daubed and splattered the paints until I was happy with the effects.

I couldn’t really use the heat gun here to dry my background as I would have re-melted the embossing powder and lost the definition of the design, so I left it for about 20 minutes and came back to it with a wet wipe and rubbed very, very gently over some of the embossed design to take the paint off of it and make it pop again. You can see the colours have blended into the background more. It’s important that you don’t rub the board itself or you could rub away the paints and spoil the watery effects.

I die-cut Tim’s ornate frame twice using thin greyboard and glued them together, gave it two coats of thin gesso and when dry I used a palette knife to scrape on some texture fierro which gives an iron like texture and colour. 

I left it for about 45 mins until dry and then gave it a coat of the media white crackle paint, however I really like the fierro showing through so I applied it quite thinly and therefore did not expect any crackles to appear. Fifteen minutes later and look what was happening, gorgeous fine cracks were appearing so I just left it to completely air dry.

I text stamped the background using potting soil archival ink and gave it all a coat of matte medium and let it dry.

I took my chosen photograph and adhered it to the backing panel that was cut from the frame die-cut and also let that dry before sanding and inking the edges. I then gave it a coat of decou-page to seal it.

Inbetween drying times I began adding charms, wooden and metal embellishments and some flowers to the board and left them to dry as well.

At this point I came back to the ornate frame and used a tiny amount of raw umber fluid acrylic to add touches to the outside and inside edges to vintage them just slightly.

Next up was to paint over the embellishments using white gesso.

Once the gesso was dry I sprayed on mustard seed, picked raspberry and gathered twigs distress spray stains and some water and let the inks run up and down the board. (Can't wait to get my hands on the coloured media misters). I started off the drying with the heat gun but only for a short while to get the board warm and then left it to dry on its own.

When dry I spent some time dry brushing the elements with gesso and different mediums like titan buff acrylic, black gesso, white crackle paint and brown fierro. All the lighter colours absorbed the colours of the inks so I also sprayed with the media white shimmer mister and added a very small amount of snowtex over the embellishments and I am quite please with the overall effects now it’s finished.

To finish off the board I altered some more embellishments, I just play with the paints, gesso and texture mediums to achieve a look I am happy with ......

.... a metal label pull and a metal number ......

.... a metal key .......

.... and a metal decorative bow for the top of the frame.

I love the brighter colours on the background compared to the very shabby vintage effects of the frame.

Thanks for taking a look today. Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Visual Journey #12

Reach for the STARS

Following last weeks pages that reminded me of the on-line 52 card pickup workshop, I decided to find out more about Stephanie Ackerman and found a 'Documented Life' video she made. I enjoyed watching her creative process and although I didn't follow all of her 18 layers but took alot from the recipe and made it my own. The background is similar to Tim's February tag and the two tags I have made recently here and here.

The stamped circles were all one stamp originally but I cut them into individual ones so I could use them singly. They are now far more versatile and great for projects like this.

I added some washi tapes and hand wrote three quotes around the pages.

I used Tim's faded dots stencil to add some texture .........

..... and die-cut some stars in blue card but finger painted them using DecoArt phthalo blue, cerulean blue and white acrylic paints.

Finally I typed and printed the main quote, cut it up and inked the edges before adding it to the page but also created shadows with a distress marker.

I'm loving coming round to your linked blogs and looking at what you are creating. I often come away with an idea or two stored to use another day. Thanks for sharing with me and each other. Please collect this code and add to your post if you want to share too.

get the InLinkz code

hugs Brenda xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Using Tim's 3x4 papers

Inspired yet again by Stephanie Ackerman's 52 card pick up online workshop I did last year I am applying some of the techniques I learnt in a different way. Tim's fabulous paper stacks have several different size papers in them and all the smaller ones tend to get left as the larger ones get used up, so I am on a mission to use up some of these gorgeous pieces - we might even start a new trend with 3x4's becoming the new ATC's or twinchies for 2015.

Here are the steps I used on my first four and of course I am using the gorgeous Wallflower stash.

Adhere paper to strong card with glue n seal, coating the top of the patterned paper as well.

Smear some white acrylic paint in random places.

Use Tim’s small talk stickers to add a quote.

Add some remnant rubs and small dark die-cuts.

Smear some glue n seal over the pieces you've just added and dry, then with a dark colour distress marker, (I use walnut stain, gathered twigs or black soot), create shadows and depth around the quote and small die cuts.

Sand the edges of each 3x4 and ink with walnut stain DI.

Use cut outs and embellishments that go with the theme.

Once it was all put together I went over with the white acrylic and distress marker again to finish off edges etc.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope I have given you some ideas as to how to use up those small papers that we often have left over.

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Pablo Picasso

hugs Brenda xxxx

Visual Journey #11

Dreaming of the summer.

My visual journal today again just came out of nowhere. Is it that I'm off to California soon that my subconscious mind led me in this direction? I don't know. But whatever I was really pleased with the different results again.

I adhered tissue wrap to the double page spread and let it dry.

I splodged and misted picket fence and antique linen distress paints over and heat dried them and then blended mustard see distress ink over – the paints act as a resist so we get some mottled effects.

I have lots of quotes already printed off and kept in a file, so I rummaged around and found one I liked. 

Using the Tim Holtz rays stencil I blended fired brick and ripe persimmon distress inks through and stamped chicken wire in random places using potting soil archival ink.

The sun was cut from scrap inked card and I punched red circles from another piece of scrap inky card and began to design the pages.

The rays seemed rather squat so using my ripe persimmon distress marker I drew some scribbly lines out and rubbed with my finger and I used stormy sky distress marker to add some blue areas around the pages.

In my bits box I found a portion of a TH ticket and adhered another circle on it ........

and I went round edges of the pages with a vintage photo distress marker and added some tissue/washi tapes and remnant rubs.

Finally I finished by using walnut stain distress marker to add shadow and dimension to the circles and ticket.

This reminds me somewhat of the ATCs I made last year after following the 52 card pick up online course by Stephanie Ackerman. I seem to be going back to those ideas at the moment and applying them to larger projects.

Thanks for joining me again on another step of visual journey and if you want to walk along beside me then I would love it if you'd link your latest pages here. There's no pressure, no challenge, no theme, just a chance to see what other people are creating and to find additional inspiration. You can also go find the code to add to your blog post to share the collection with your readers too.



get the InLinkz code




hugs Brenda xxxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Wired Heart

This is my second piece for the current Country View Crafts Challenge where 'Anything Goes'. I thought I would share a little hanging I made when I attended Any Skinner's class at CHSI in Birmingham last month. The reason for choosing to share this here is that Susan will soon be getting DecoArt products in the shop, so those of you who already use this line of crafting paints and mediums might want to keep an eye open for them, I know I will be.

I am not sharing Andy's techniques because he does that brilliantly on a video made at CHA in January where he demonstrated this at the Stamependous booth. You can find the video HERE.

The base is made of chipboard and the rest of it, including the heart, is made from foamboard, so you can imagine this is so light to handle. The paints are from the new DecoArt media line and Andy's new stamps are produced by Stampendous

So watch this space as they say as there will be more mixed media work coming from me with these fabulous products and I will share some exciting news I've had here on Saturday.

I hope we will see you at the CVCC blog where there is a £20 voucher from Country View Crafts up for grabs for a lucky winner, please also pop over to see all the amazing inspiration coming out from the fabulous design team.

See you tomorrow with another double page of my Visual Journey diary for 2015.

hugs Brenda xxx