Wherever you go .... Exciting news

At last I can make the announcement that I have been waiting to do for a few weeks. Whilst at Stitches in February, the amazing Andy Skinner invited me to be part of the DecoArt Media Team and of course I wanted to shout it to the world straight away but I can now officially put this fabulous badge on my blog side-bar.

Thank you Andy and DecoArt for this huge accolade and invite to be part of an incredibly talented team and to share my art using the fabulous media range products.

To celebrate I thought I would share a postcard I have just finished. It strangely fits with how I feel not just about travelling the world but being on this incredible creative journey I am on and beginning this new voyage of discovery and affiliation to a world of inspiration, talent, imagination and creativity.

So this piece started whilst demoing at one of my journalling for success workshops using decoart products ......

I used the steps from recipe 2 using DecoArt paints and gesso. I can't share the steps at the moment as I still have classes booked but the media paints work so well to create translucent layers and I love the misty, moody effects of the gesso.

The globe metamorphosed into this quite naturally coloured atlas type state by accident, in fact as I was 'playing' with the media paints and gesso it just appeared. I know I dipped it into watery washes of sap green and diarylide yellow to begin with and I stamped across it but the following dipping and daubing steps weren't documented. I do however love the effects. 

I stamped and painted the aeroplane and the postcard heading which included paynes grey and quinacridone gold ....

.... and used label letters for the quote.

The quote really resonates with me as I love going back to some of the same parts of the world I have visited as I really feel I belong there, particularly California in the US and I know that being part of the DecoArt team will definitely become a part of me and my motivation and enthusiasm for mixed media art work.

 Thanks to all of you for sharing this creative journey with me, it always amazes me to see how many visit my blog when I look at the stats and many thanks for the comments, I love reading them and getting a feel for what you particularly like. I am also proud to share the start and forthcoming journey not only with the established members of the DecoArt team but with Joi at Texas Ranch Retreat who also begins this leg of her journey with me. These are exciting times Joi and as you said - hand in hand together.

Take care and listen to your heART.

hugs Brenda xxx

DecoArt clear matte medium DecoArt Mixed Media - White Gesso DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Paynes Grey DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Sap Green DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Quinacridone Gold DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Prussian Blue Hue DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paint - Diarylide Yellow Sizzix Thinlits Die - Globe by Tim Holtz Tim Holtz Cling Mounted Stamp Set - Postcards Tim Holtz stamps - Air travel - CMS102

InLinkz.com

Celebrate Spring

I am trying to get some cards made for my box and thought I would challenge myself to find a set of stamps that hadn't been used. I have a small tub of stampin' up stamps that never see the light of day and I chose the Nature walk set - now I think I may have used one or two of these many moons ago but I used a fair few of them to create a card that will be perfect for a man. (Hmmm I may know someone with a birthday in July who would like this).

I stamped the images on card that had been dipped in distress inks and found a piece of notebook style paper in my collage box and cut the celebrate from Tim's thinlits dies.

 I used Bisters in Tim's flourish embossing folder to create the background - you can just see some of the flourish pattern showing.

I didn't want to add embellishments because of posting but I am pleased with the collage feel it has to it.

Whilst I had the bisters out I played with a couple of more backgrounds and you will see those cards another day. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda xxx

Parisienne Industrial Chic

'Industrial' has certainly been on the agenda for a couple of months with both AVJ and CVC having it for their challenge themes, so for my second CVC sample today I decided to mix it up a bit and created what I hope you will think is an industrial chic feel to my canvas board card.

I began by adhering some tissue wrap in the top right hand part and then used two stencils and decoart white modelling paste to add texture.

I often gather the pieces I think I am going to use and lay them out in the design that seems to fit the pieces best - but rarely does my finished piece look exactly the same.

I also chose the paints I thought would provide me with the best shades for both my chic and industrial elements of the background.

Then onto my background. By the time I had mixed, blended, spritzed, dribbled and dried the colours on the canvas and also added some light text stamping using the watering can archival I had created this .....

.... to me it need some white contrast brought back in so I lightly brayered some white gesso over the high points and stamped a letter stamp over them too.

Next I set about altering the frame, I got into this rusty effect before adding clear crackle glaze .....

... and then grey antiquing cream and because the crackle glaze leaves a shine I gave it two coats of ultra matte varnish.

I also altered all the smaller metal embellishments and I stacked the Eiffel Tower and Paris sign with additional layers of the die-cuts and then painted in various areas with gold paint.

You will see I changed the design by the time I had finished but still used more or less the same elements.

Industrial Chic? Maybe, but I had great fun with the paints and mediums rusting and aging the embellishments.

As always every few days there is another inspiration post for you to see on both the challenge blog and the projects blog.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Give Away winner and mixed media ATC #1

Hi Everyone

As promised I am sharing the winner of my 6th blogaversary give away prize and at the same time want to say a huge thank you to all my family, craft friends and facebook friends for their wonderful birthday wishes for my birthday today. I am overwhelmed to have so many lovely people who are such a big part of my life in the craft world.

So the winner is .......

 No 16 - and that is

Rachel from Fisher's Cards and Crafts.

Thank you everyone for commenting and congrats Rachel if you email me your address I will get your goodies in the post next week.

So onto my ATC and after teaching my DecoArt Texture Board workshop I had a number of little demonstration boards left over with the different techniques on so I decided to use them to make little ATCs. Actually they are half an inch bigger on width and length but a lovely little size to play with and of course I didn't want to waste them. They had all been left at different stages so I gathered them together and started collecting little bits I could use with them and put them all in separate envelopes to come back to. As you can see from the photo below I gathered vintage photos from the Tim Holtz photo booth collection as well as his papers and even had a character for them.

So this is the top hat scientist, he loves nothing more to be in his lab cooking up new experiments but when he's out on the town Boy George doesn't stand a look in!

And this is the background, layers of papers and then daubs of DecoArt media paints and spritzes of water.

Just a few embellishments were needed to pull this one together .....

.... with a sentiment found on the internet by Frank Sinatra.

And attitudes are everything aren't they?

Have a great weekend. I am off to Portsmouth today with Ken to do a little retail therapy shopping and we have a table booked at Jamie Oliver's to eat later. Couldn't be better.

Thanks for sharing in my creative journey and for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Dandelion inspiration

I promised to show you how my muse took me off onto a completely different path after covering Beckah Krahula's Wanderlust lesson. If you missed my tangled journalling post you can see it here.

 I have been saving photos, paintings and drawings of dandelions, aliums and seed heads to a Pinterest board for quite some time and the shapes of these natural beauties intrigue me.

So I used my new found motivation and interest to doodle draw some of these shapes on small pieces of card ....

and made a new folder for them. 

As you can see there is no zentangling but that's where the inspiration came from to sit and have fun with pens, line, shape and perspective.

I even made my own reference drawings and notes on the back for future use.

I had made the cover from some paper that I had dipped and sprayed with bisters so I did the same to some good quality card that take the washes well and cut them up into the same size as my little learning cards and I am now playing with my designs over the top of the colour wash backgrounds ....

.... and I have plenty cut ready to pick up this little folder when I am sitting quiet and wanting something non-messy to do.

Who knows, you might see some of these turn up on my journal pages sometime.

If you are inspired to have a go at doodle drawing do let me know here or on facebook as I would love to see what you create.

See you tomorrow to find out who is the winner of my little give-away.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wanderlust Tangled Journaling

Part of the Wanderlust journey is to look at zentangles, a perspective from Beckah Krahula and although I don't consider myself to be a zentangler in any way, shape or form I was very interested in her processes and ways of keeping her zentangle experiments and ideas together. She uses what she calls decks and going through the videos I was totally taken in by her love of line, colour and experimentation creating little 'packs' of cards that remind her of a time, place or feeling in her life as well as the practice she puts in to create her wonderful work. She is a teacher and author and her work can be found on the internet. If you like doodling I recommend you go find out about her.

 

I've made several of her folders and added a cover to mine ....

 ... it fits right round the folder and allows me to put a belly band over it to keep it closed.

I've been playing with Beckah's ideas making a little pen guide and experimenting with a study in line to begin with .......

 I got so involved I ended making a whole deck of cards from her teaching.

... even adding my own notes on the reverse so I can just pick up the little folder and have  a way to remind myself of the learning.

 I think these study cards and practices will be useful when I want to pick up some pattern making and doodling again.

 And here is the little folder, closed up and ready to keep in a folder for another day.

Now as I said I am not a zentangler but I love little drawings and this work inspired me to go off in my own direction of creating another little folder with some simple designs I could use on journal pages. Pop back on Friday to see what I have been playing at....... oh and don't forget Friday is the last day to enter my give-away - see the details on my side bar.

Thanks for reading and sharing something different for me.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Collection of 3 and CVC Workshop

Good morning from a bright and sunny Surrey - what a beautiful few days we have had - such a lovely change to the grey skies and rain.

Today I am sharing my reverse canvas here and doing a 'show and tell' at Country View Crafts project Blog of all the wonderful canvases made at my workshop on Saturday.

 This was a rework of a canvas I made last year but transposed to a different size and with some modifications.

 I still love making these flowers that Tim Holtz produced back in the Compendium of Curiosities Book 1. It's great to revisit some of these oldies which are still very effective.

And I love new discoveries too. Whilst playing with ways to create these butterflies I re-discovered another oldie but goody, the TH distress embossing powders. They are not made any more so if you want to grab some before they have all gone then pop over to the CVC shop where Susan is doing 10 for £20 - that's less than half of the original price.

If you would like to see the wonderful interpretations of my canvas then please pop over to the project blog post today they really are all beautiful.

I would also like to share this at Frilly and Funkie's latest challenge which is called 'Let's make it a Trio', where hopefully my collection of three butterflies will fit in well.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Mixed media canvas board - Dress form card

Here is another of my canvas board cards. I love the 5 x 7 inch size and with Tim's easel on the back they make a great card for someone special. The first one can be seen here if you missed it. It's a little more shabby and fussy in style. This one is more mixed media but kept simpler.

For this one I began with some gesso scraped on, dried and then texture paste  added through a stencil.

Then some paper pieces adhered over the top and I gave them two coats of gesso.

Using peacock feathers, mermaid lagoon and picket fence distress crayons I added small marks, spritzed with water and rubbed the colours to achieve a watery wash and flicked on some peacock feathers and white ink.

I added some more paper pieces giving them only one coat of gesso and edged them lightly with ground espresso and frayed burlap distress markers. Searching through one of my bits boxes I found all the embellishments and glued them on lifting the dress form to create added dimension and allow me to slip pieces underneath.

 Here you can see the easel on the back of the card which means my friends can keep their card as a small personal work of art from me.

 

 You can see I used the same dress form that I used on my AVJ wall art last week (see it here if you missed it), this one got discarded for that project but I didn't want to see it go to waste and am pleased how it fits with the lighter colour background.

 Now I wonder which friend will receive this for their birthday?

Having seen the challenge at Craft Stamper I thought I would enter this as the theme is 'Take A Stamp' Anything Goes as there is some stamping somewhere on the project. Stamp sets I have used are Wendy Vecchi - a form of art (the cut out dress form), Tim Holtz - purely random (the Paris ticket) and Tim Holtz - ledger script (stamped onto the heart and border at the bottom).

I hope you are having a good week, we are catching glimpses of Spring arriving in the garden which is wonderful to watch.

Take care and don't forget my give-away which is available till next week. Details are on my side bar.

hugs Brenda xxx