In the Deep Murky Depths - Journal panel

Just a quick post today with a journal panel made using the fabulous fossil fish that I love - new from Andy Skinner. I put this journal together last year using four panels made to cover the front and back inside and outside covers (see here, here, here and here). So now I want to start making pages/panels for it and am starting with this one.

I created the background more or less following the steps I used for the back cover.

The fish were stamped with white gesso and they have a lovey textured look and feel to them.

Once I had the basic layers down and had the crackle glaze dry I rubbed over the fish and inner part of the page  with distress micro glaze as I wanted to add the black antiquing cream and prevent it from turning everything black. I think it worked a bit and certainly helped me wipe the antiquing cream off of the gessoed fish.

The painty layers merged beautifully to give that deep murky feel to the panel and you can see the crackles in the crackle glaze around the edges.

I finished off by stamping the bubbles by dipping a large eyelet into the paint and stamping with it.

So hopefully I will get to make more of these panels for this journal and get it filled up? Maybe???

I'm off to Stitches on Sunday, picking the lovely Suz up along the way and meeting up with Nikki and loads of other people over the three days. If you are coming please let me know and we can hopefully get to say hello.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tando Creative Mini Album - Ghostly Shadows

This is my project for the Tando Blog today where the theme is Anything Goes.
It has been a busy January and February with DT deadlines and this is one of the brand new Tando mini albums being released at Stitches next weekend.
If you look carefully you will see the ghostly shadows through the arched windows.

This is one very easy album to put together as the spine bends round and there's no gluing or adding pieces, it's all in one. There's no process steps today but those of you who know my work will recognise any paint techniques and the rest is all collage.
So with Andy Skinner stamps on every page - take a browse.

 All the arches were stamped onto tissue paper ........

 ..... then adhered over another of Andy's stamped creatures or skulls from a whole variety of his sets ......

........ the arches were cut out so that they look the same on every page.

I also used Andy'd Words Up and Numbers stamps for the added words - plus a computer generated one on the front cover.

Over the collaged pieces of paper on the backgrounds .....

..... I painted on a little black gesso and daubed some watery white gesso.

I stitched the pages through the album spine slots.

And I added some fabric for a tie which had been dipped in the paints I used for the covers.

 The pages were separate pieces of thin card connected together and folded into a concertina.

 Do pop over to the Tando blog for more ideas on how to use the fabulous Tando Creative products.

Thanks for stopping by again today - I am really appreciating all the comments you are leaving for me, thank you for taking the time to do so.

hugs Brenda xxx

A neutral shabby journal panel

I have a journal panel that fits inside one of the Eileen Hull journals I made last year - in fact it was an 'Andy' one which can be found HERE. You may remember it was the Thoughts and Theories one. Today's panel starts off the inside.

For this panel I created a collage tear up sheet using Andy's stamps and a Stampendous music score stamp.

The panel and sheet was dipped in some watery paints - burnt umber, raw umber, titanium white and titan buff and dried

I cut some small pieces from the collage sheet so they would create layers and inked the edges (they've been resized for the photo below) ....

.... I also die-cut some white cogs and stamped elements for the collage and embellishing.

I used the cogs for tucking inbetween the layers as I stuck them down.

I'm loving all the neutrals again at the moment - can you tell?????

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a fabulous weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Panel 5 - Palaeontological Discoveries

Here's another of the little panels for the Fossil Journal I'm making using the Stampendous Fossils set of stamps and the Illusionary Artists Tech Trauma set, both by Andy Skinner.

Process Steps

1. Stencil the bubble shapes by mixing sap green, titan buff and raw umber media acrylic paints.

2. Paint over a light layer of sating finish varnish mixed with cobalt blue hue paint.

3 Stamp some text with watering can archival ink and dry.

4. Stamp some texture with coffee archival using the same set of stamps. Rub it straight of to get a smudged look.

5. Dip the panel in watery titan buff.

6. When dry - repeat with cobalt blue and burnt umber mixed together. - dry.

7. Splatter some titanium white acrylic paint.

8. Stamp and adhere the fossil.

9. Repeat step 2.

It's only a week and a half before I'm off to Stitches CHSI in Birmingham where I will be doing a couple of demos for Andy and meeting up with lots of amazing friends and artists in the industry. It's fabulous to go and see the stands, new products and chat to people. So as you can guess it's busy, busy, busy here making samples both for Andy and Di at Tando Creative. I can't wait.

Enjoy your week - I hope you can find some creative time for yourself too.

hugs Brenda xxx

King Spook Hanging

In typical Andy Skinner style these new stamps are fabulous to work with and I used them to create a little hanging to share on Andy's blog today.

I've used the little fella in the bottom left and called him King Spook.
Click on the photo for the links.

Roughly seal the substrate (I used one of my Tando media boards) with gesso, leave some of the outer edges exposed.

 Using the dip and dry technique and watery washes start with raw umber - dry. Add a little cobalt blue to it, dip and dry. Add a little more cobalt blue and some titan buff, dip and dry. Add some titanium white to the mix and repeat.

Stamp text using Spooks and Tech Trauma with watering can, give it a blast of the heatgun and then take a little white gesso with a palette knife - flatten it on your paper/foil palette and the keeping the knife flat to the surface of the board drag small amounts over the background so you get a distressed look.

Stamp the skulls onto tissue paper - I wanted a good clean image over the  rough background. Adhere to the background and give the whole board a covering with matte medium.

Mix a very watery wash of quin gold, paynes grey and quin red and apply to the surface spritzing with water if necessary to keep in light in colour tone - just like watercolours.

I chose those colours so it would tone in with the frame as well.

Cut the TH cameo frame with an oval cut out centre from thin greyboard, run it through an embossing folder and seal with a coat of gesso.

Put a little drops of decoart media acrylics silver, quinacridone red, quinacridone gold and titan buff on a flat palette and take them randomly on a brush and mix and blend them on the frame.

Paint over watery washes of raw umber and paynes grey allowing them to seep into the crevices and dry - repeat several times.

When dry sand the high spots on the surface back to the silvery colour and some raw greyboard and then blend a dark brow distress ink over the whole background and with a babywipe wipe it off again leaving the greyboard areas taking the ink and making the frame look much older,

Don't forget to sand the edges inside and out and blend with vintage photo DI.

Take a piece of media card and dip in watery cobalt blue, dry, and then mix a watery rose colour from the quin gold, quin red and titan buff and dip again.

Using the a stencil apply titanium white through it and stamp some text and numbers from the brand new 'Spook' set of stamps by Andy for Illusionary Artists.

Follow up with a wash of quin gold and paynes grey and dips of those colours with titanium white to get an etheral layered effect.

I stamped the image using aterng can archival ink but because of the stencilling and layers it didn't come out as sharply as i thought it would.

But I knew I was going to paint it in and with some paynes grey and a very fine brush I was able to add the detail in.

Stick King Spook to the back of the cameo frame and adhere it to a second one to give it some substance and dimension .... 

.... and assemble the hanging.

Thanks for stopping by and a especially to those of you who leave me such lovely comments - I really appreciate each and every one.

Don't forget to stay tuned to Andy's blog to see all the wonderful inspiration that gets posted.

hugs Brenda xx

Melt It for AVJ

I have a large wooden tag today which has been layered up with gesso, stamps and acrylic paint splatters and lines to produce the design for the next stage ..........

But before we move on let's take a look at the AVJ challenge brief from the lovely Julia.

This month we're asking everyone to MELT IT! Get out the UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel), beeswax, encaustic wax, embossing powders or good old wax crayons and a heat tool and get melting to create something in a vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style!

I started by sealing the wood with a coat of white gesso and when dry I dipped it into some watery burnt umber media acrylic paint.

To get some clear stamping using Andy Skinner stamps - including some of his new ones- I stamped using black and coffee archival ink onto tissue paper. Mixing in some text as well gives this a fabulous collage feel.

I adhered it to the tag, dried it, sanded the edges to remove the excess tissue paper and then splattered it with titanium white and the the white mixed with some burnt umber and dried both layers separately before using an old credit card to dip into the left over paint and print some overlapping lines.

 This provided some depth  ......

..... and interest to each of the main images .......

... and to help unify the whole piece.

Once this was dry I pondered my next stage whether I should seal it with a coat of varnish or not? I decided not to and went straight into a coat of UTEE. I pitted it with a paint brush before melting it and then rubbed walnut stain distress ink into it and dabbled on some walnut crystal ink to give it a more sepia and aged look.

I hope you will pop over to the AVJ blog to see what other fabulous 'Melt It' inspiration my lovely teamies have come up with - you know you won't be disappointed.

Have a fabulous weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx