Dare to Create

Just popping in to share one of the projects I made last weekend at the Dare to Crate retreat in Coventry with the amazing Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel. These two are just so funny together and kept us entertained all weekend with their banter and jokes and kept us occupied with their fabulous projects.

This is one of those book boxes where the spine pulls out as a tray to hold bits and pieces. You can imagine Andy's background was much darker and grungier but I seem to be in summer colour mode and kept mine lighter and love the mixes and blends I got.

Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes and of course this is Andy's interpretation of him.

Here is a side view and you can see I carried the tones of the colours onto the spine which is actually finely crackled but the photo doesn't pick it up.

The back is painted, stamped and stencilled .......

... and here you can see some of the fabulous texture we created.

Huge thanks to Andy for a fabulous weekend and teaching us the techniques he used to create this box. I love my version of it.

Just before I go I thought I would share the mug I won as a giveaway ..........

Hope you are having a happy and creative week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Pen and ink over gesso

I had this idea that I wanted to do some pen and ink drawings over gesso and decided to revisit the dandelions and seed head drawings I did earlier in the year - (here) and this is what I came up with.

I took a Tando Creative media board and scraped gesso over it with a palette knife and let it dry - I did help it along a little bit with a heat gun 'cos when I when I get an idea I want to get going on it - impatient me????? I then took a thin sharpie pen and set about drawing, I was really pleased how well the sharpie drew over the textured surface.

I took a small text stamp and black archival and stamped over the bottom of the image and even added a little of my own writing to help out the balance of it.

Now came the test - will it cope with water being spritzed all over it? Yay, yep it was absolutely fine and having mixed my own custom colours of DecoArt media paint I just dripped them into the water and they spread around beautifully. In some cases I spritzed a little more and dabbed away with a dry paper towel as well.

I wanted the edges to be vintaged and create a frame around the board so I sanded all round and then blended ground espresso distress ink along all four sides. I flicked on a little water to distress it more before heat drying. 

I finished by painting the stems very lightly and dried it off. When full dry I sprayed with Americana gloss spray.

The frame is one from Ikea which has deep sides and for some reason (I don't know why!!!!) I decided to turn it back to front to add the media board so it sits in the recess with the glass over it and the little metal retainers are on show. You know what I really quite like it.

I think I might try some more and make a set of them.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week and wishing all my American friends a great 4th of July.

hugs Brenda xxx

Have fun with circles for Country View Challenges

I am sharing my second DT project for today, this one is for Country View Crafts and if you haven't seen my monochromatic canvas board for a Vintage Journey just scroll down one or click here to be transported, but please pop back to this post again afterwards.

It's time to use up some paper supplies that are on the shelf and that just seem to sit there just waiting for an opportunity to be used. I had picked up the Prima Engraver pad the other day and really wanted to get out some of the lovely papers to use (and didn't!!!!!), but with a circles theme I knew these clocks would fit the bill.

I began with a mop up tag which had been dipped in left over raw umber, titanium white and titan buff media acrylic paints and I added a couple of more layers by dipping it in watery gathered twigs DI and then walnut stain. Having got my colour scheme and background I set about choosing the paper I thought would go with it.

The clocks and tapes were cut out from another paper from the same pack and the circle of numbers die-cut and mounted on a mount board circle I found in my die-cuts box,

Beginning to think of embellishments I chose a metal clock and altered it a bit with drips of medium grey V6 paint and then gently rubbed on some champagne ice metallic lustre.

I used some champagne ice on a spinner and started layering up the pieces.
 adding a birthday sentiment as well. I really should use papers more often to make cards, they can be really quite quick to make once you've got the design together.

I hope you'll join us this month at Country View Challenges with the circles theme and please pop over to the challenge blog to see what other inspirational projects there are on show.

You won't find me home today as I am off to Coventry to take part in the 'Dare to Create' workshops with the amazing Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel and looking forward to making projects, learning new techniques and being with lots of like minded people, many of whom are already friends. I'll show you what I make sometime when I get back.
In the meantime have a great weekend and a happy July.

hugs Brenda xxx

AVJ - Monochromatic and ombre mixed media

Welcome to another first Friday in the month and now it's July we can truly say half the year has gone and we are now swapping our longer days for longer nights. But the crafting doesn't stop and we have a fabulous challenge at A Vintage Journey where the very talented Tracy is our host and she is looking for monochromatic projects this month. She says - 

'I love monochromatic themes in artwork; I love the balanced look it gives to a design. If you ever struggle with knowing what colours to use this should be right up your street, one colour alone or hues of one colour (plus black and/or white) - simple! Please just check that your entry is vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk to be in with a chance of being a winner or Pinworthy mention.'

I have made a canvas board piece with a mixed media background and ombre effect in my monochromatic and neutral colour scheme and loved playing with the layers of paints to create the effects.

Process steps

1. Take a small media board stamp numbers and text in black archival ink then spread modeling paste across it and add in some gel beads and fragments. Take a piece of card, place over the inclusions and press them gently into the paste.

2. Adhere some torn paper.

3. With a palette knife scrape white gesso over the board leaving elements below randomly exposed.

4. Take raw umber, titan buff and titanium white media acrylics and a babywipe and paint thin layers of the paints ombre style - ie light to dark.

5. Using the left over paints dip the canvas in the colours one by one, allow them to move around on the surface and dry each layer in turn. Take a little translucent white and splatter.

6. Dip the canvas again this time in gathered twigs and walnut stain distress inks and dry. Also use a pipette and dribble walnut crystal ink across the textured band and allow it to dribble down the page, spritz a little water in place to help it move about.

7. Gather some collage elements and a lost relative photo - I cut it down to give me a good image but also maximise the space I had to work with. I painted and altered the metal bits and used chit chat stickers for my message. The hessian and string add that more rustic look.

I hope you will be inspired by this fabulous challenge theme and amazing inspirational projects from the Creative Guides. Do pop over and take a look if you have a moment and of course if you join in you could be in with a chance of winning a $25 voucher from the amazing Funkie Junkie Boutique.

This is my first post for today, I have another coming up for Country View Crafts in a few hours.

Have a fabulous weekend and a hopefully warm (hot???) month of July.

hugs Brenda xxxx

The sky is like a monochromatic contemporary painting, drawing me in its illusion of depth, pulling me up.

John Green

DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Titanium White - See more at: http://www.countryviewcrafts.c DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Titan Buff DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Raw Umber DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Translucent White Tim Holtz Distress ink - Gathered twigs Tim Holtz Distress ink pad - Walnut stain Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Found Relatives Tim Holtz Ideology Small Talk Sticker Book Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Arrows Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Trinket pins

InLinkz.com

Tim Tag June Remix

Discovering Curiosity - explore and inspire

I am so pleased to be joining in Tim's remix this month as I have had to miss a couple due to deadlines etc and today instead of a tag I have made a stand up card.

I don't have all the materials Tim used so it was a real experiment but I did have the plain tissue wrap and stamped my own design using the documented and perspective sets, adding some words to help set the scene.

The tissue was adhered to card with the vintage collage medium that Tim used and then the plaid background is a sheet of canvas from a canvas pad and although it bled a little with the inks I like the effects it made. I used peacock feathers and faded jeans distress inks and then when it was all put together I used a gathered twigs distress marker to edge the edges of the boxes and some antique linen and walnut stain with a water brush to add a bit of ageing to them.

I also used the sewing machine, Tim is getting much more confident in using it now, and I zig-zagged around the card from word to word.

I don't have the dapper die and recently I have been having fun using the mosaic die (that project is not due till late July I am afraid) and using it as a flat mini configurations frame.

All I needed to finish the project were some bits and pieces to fill the boxes and to balance the card. 

I used alcohol inks on the metal pieces, the star and a little on the acrylic blocks over the photobooth ladies.

Mounted on covered mountboard (I used a piece from the Wallflower stash) .....

..... and an easel on the back .....

....  and we have a stand up card for someone special.

All the details of Tim's tag and his remix instructions can be found on his blog and if you're ever looking for a dash of inspiration and some ideas to get you motivated then these tags are the place to go.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comments about my DecoArt project on the last post, also a big warm welcome to my new followers.

Ok I will be back Friday with two posts as it's the first of the month and I will also be on my way to Coventry to join the gang for Dare to Create - if you follow on Face Book I am sure you will have heard all about it. A weekend of workshops with Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel and lots of lovely people I know are going.

Off to get more projects made as I am starting to get behind on my schedule - must get a move on, but first I must also link this to Tim's June Remix post on his blog.

Take care and huge hugs.

Brenda xxx