Visual Journal - altered book and cabinet card for AVJ

As promised my step by step of the altered book I made to start our new year of challenges is now up at A Vintage Journey. You will see how I prepared this cover and how the embellishments and finishing touches pulled the vintage collage together. To see my original post and my 'Treasure' that triggered this project for this month's challenge click here.

I have already created the first pages in this book so keep an eye here on my blog in May when I will  link to the DecoArt Mixed Media blog when the project goes live.

Thanks for being a reader and supporter of my blog, I do read all your comments and really appreciate them.

Have a great weekend and hopefully enjoy some crafting time of your own.

hugs Brenda xxx

Updated from AVJ

I began by preparing a couple of old books by painting the outside covers with gesso and adding some texture using the gesso with a palette knife when it was dry.

Having chosen the larger book and this cabinet card to use .....

..... I decided that as it was quite plain I would alter it and I found a piece of old Graphic 45 paper and cut an oval shape from it.

I had ensured there was plenty of space around the oval to fully cover the card.

I aged the centre cut by rubbing round with an emery board and blending over ground espresso DI. Then I adhered it onto the cabinet card and used a sanding block to sand away the excess patterned paper. This had then distressed the edges as well and again I blended in ground espresso DI.

I started to gather bits and snippets to make some decisions on the embellishing first. Every piece has been painted, inked and/or distressed in some way. I sealed all the card embellishments with satin varnish before they were added to the cover.

This cabinet card covers quite a bit of the front cover so I felt I needed to create a layered background with textures and neutral covers. I began with a text stencil and texture paste mixed with gesso that I heat dried and then, dribbled, dipped and spritzed my gorgeous decoart media acrylics.

 Using quinacridone magenta, titan buff and yellow oxide I dribbled and spritzed the colours to create a light mottled background.

I stamped with the same colours using a text stamp from the Andy Skinner shabby chic set.

I darkened the background by dribbling and spritzing some raw umber with titan buff and dabbled over some watery titanium white (all the time I am heat drying between each layer).

At this point I decided to seal it and used the DecoArt satin varnish. I wanted it to be very sturdy and ready to take the punishment of it being used regularly and creating and making the new journal pages. I began adding the collage elements in layers ....... getting the base parts adhered and flattened under a heavy box.

Now to add in the collage elements. I used the new clear modeling paste from DecoArt and oh boy does it have a strong bond for the card, fabric and metal pieces.

Looking at the book I felt there was something missing - contrast in the background - so I took a fine brush some quinacridone gold, paynes grey and raw umber ........ and with some dabbling of the colours around the collage elements the shading, shadowing, aging and framing has brought it together more.

Panel 7 - Antediluvian

..... or something ancient, primeval, prehistoric.

This is another of Andy's skulls and comes from the Skulldoggery set of stamps.

Process Steps

1. Paint a layer of brown umber media acrylic paint.

2. Monoprint using card painted with titan buff and rubbed onto the background.

3. Stamp with some numbers/text with coffee archival ink.

4. Repeat step 2 with cobalt blue and titan buff.

5. Lightly brayer some titanium white ver the surface.

6. Stamp text using burnt umber, quinacridone gold and titan buff paints.

7. Stamp the skull and specimen onto tissue paper and adhere.

8. Give everything a coat of satin finish varnish.

I love how striking the images are on this slightly textured background, the tissue paper technique works perfectly if you use a soft white tissue paper and seal it afterwards,

Thanks for stopping by. The weather today has been beautiful, some blue skies, sunshine and feeling quite mild. Spring must be on it's way.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Positivity Panel for Mother's Day

If you saw my post on Friday you will know I have started a Positivity Journal and I thought I would make a panel as a tribute to my Mum. I can no longer make or buy her a Mother's Day card or gift but this seemed perfectly apt and helped me remember her with very fond memories.

I used the process steps almost exactly the same as I had used on the two panels shown on Friday.  I had covered the card with canvas from a canvas pad and stamped onto it using the media acrylic paints before adding the tissue tapes. 

The heart was a Tando one that I soaked and split into four thin ones so it will not be too bulky in the journal. The words were computer generated and to me my Mum is one of the best and most beautiful things in the world. I cannot see or touch her anymore but I certainly feel and love her in my heart.

I hope I haven't got too slushy but I still like to think of her often but even more so today.

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Mums out there.

hugs Brenda xxx

Positivity Journal Panels for Andy Skinner

I have a post over on Andy Skinner's blog today sharing these panels I have made for a new Positivity Journal.

Sitting on a shelf were some offcuts of card measuring 3 1/8 x 4 1/4 inches left over from a previous project and I decided to make up a couple for my DT contribution to Andy's blog this month both using the same recipe but changing papers, images and colours etc and adding an odd scrape of gesso for texture and variation on the second one.

Card 1.

Seal the card with a coat of gesso.

Stamp diagrams onto greaseproof paper and adhere to the card. Sand round the edges with sandpaper to remove any excess.

Add some tissue tape to different parts of the card.

Spritz the surface with water and finger paint some light daubs of cobalt blue hue, cerulean blue and raw umber. Heat dry. The tissue tape will probably lift so seal the whole surface with a coat of decoupage sealer/glue.

Stencil numbers etc using Andy's French Elements stencil and black acrylic paint or black gesso.

Die-cut, punch or tear stars from patterned paper and adhere to the card. (I used some left over painty card and the tim holtz dimensional stars thinlits dies and some watery paint in the crevices)

Add a quote and .......

..... sand back and ink the edges.

Card 2

Follow the steps above and before stencilling Time .... In Action, just scrape a little gesso with a flat palette knife and dry.

The cogs are from Tando Creative and to keep the panel flat I soaked them in water for a while and then split them into 3 or 4. That way I could layer several and it not sit bulkily in the journal I wanted to put them in.

It was only once I had finished the first one that I liked it so much I decided I would use the small panels for the little altered journal I had started. I remember my friend Astrid had started a positivity journal years ago so  thought I would start a new one and add these cards to the pages.

Well I'll have to make sure I make a positivity panel every month so I can fill all the pages.

Take care I hope you have a good weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Faux Wood for Tando Creative

I have a post over at Tando Creative today where I have shown my weathered floorboards technique which you can see over there and here.

I definitely seem to be in pink mode at the moment as here's another shabby grugy project in a vintage rose colour.

When I began this project it was snowing outside and I chose the elements I wanted to use which included that heart so I decided to find a snowy palette with a touch of red. Here it is.

But there isn't a rich dark burgundy red in my media paints range so I had some fun with colour mixing to find the colours I would need to use.

Here is my colour mixing palette and by the time I had tried these all out I just went for it in my paint palette and added cadmium red hue, sap green, paynes grey, pyrrole red, and a little black. It's a little browner than I wanted but I'm happy with it as part of the background.

It would be lovely if you could join me over there and also see what ideas the other team members show us.

I hope you've had a great weekend and hopefully the snow has gone or is going wherever you are especially in the Uk.

Enjoy your week.

hug Brenda xxx



Update from Tando Blog

Faux Wood

Hi it's Brenda here with a project for faux wood week. I have created a faux weathered floorboards effect on card and then added it and some embellishments to one of my large media boards cut by Di.

Floorboards

Paint the card with the base colour of your choice. I mixed some cadmium red hue, sap green and paynes grey to create this rich burgundy colour.

Rub some candle wax in the direction of the boards you will finish with ie for me that's longways. 

Then paint over with titanium white, keep gently swiping the brush in the same direction and slowly some of the paint will be rubbed away by the brush and you can see where you laid down the heavy rubs of wax.

Gently heat and wipe with a dry paper towel (again in the same direction) to remove a little more of the paint.

Repeat the previous two steps using titan buff.

Mix a very small amount of your burgundy or chosen colour again and add some titanium white and a small spritz of water to create a pastel colour. Rub with the candle again and paint your mixed colour over it. You will start to see small patches showing through where the water and candle wax don't mix.

Repeat the drying process. You can see how you are building up the worn and weathered layers of paint. Each new layer exposes some of the individual layers underneath.

To make this look like shabby floorboards I dipped the card first in titanium white and dried it and then in some raw umber to give the top coat that grungy look.

To finish the effect, score lines to create the ‘boards’, distress the lines with a sanding block and rub in a brown distress ink. Adhere to the backing board and distress and ink the edges.

I have painted and altered each one of the embellishments using more of the DecoArt media fluid acrylics. The clock had a layer of dark paint, a layer of weathered wood crackle medium and then I finger painted some white crackle paste that has given me another weathered look.

The heart was painted, covered with clear crackle glaze with titan buff rubbed in when dry and the clock hand was painted with a mix of cadmium red and silver then rubbed in paynes grey and then had ground espresso distress ink blended over the whole piece,

The word label was a left over piece from a workshop. painted, distressed, a word added and sealed with decoupage.

Thanks for popping by to see my faux wooden floorboards.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies

Media board - 12 1/2 x 18 cms 

This size isn't on the website yet but ask Di if you would like some this size.

clock face

heart

clock hands

Treasured birthday at AVJ

AVJ is celebrating it's 4th birthday with a fabulous theme simply called 'Treasure'. I am hosting this milestone and have set the brief.

Treasure can be described as wealth or riches we store or accumulate, a collection of valuable, interesting or useful things, bits and pieces we highly value, articles that we hang onto that we’ve bought or found and might never be able to purchase again. What is in your crafty or artsy treasure trove - those items we squirrel away to keep for something special? Maybe some elegant embellishments, that hoard of ephemera or memorabilia found in a junk shop, a tin of old buttons, rusty keys or diamanté jewels, a paper pad you get out and stroke then put away again, some beautiful fabric or lace you can’t bear to part with. We invite you in this challenge to share a project that includes a part of your treasure trove, just let us know what it is so we can see it and comment on it and remember our focus styles and genres to work in (which can be seen under out blog banner) if you would like to be considered for being chosen as one of our top 3 Pinworthy mentions.

I have lots of crafty treasures, some of which get used occasionally but I have a slowly growing collection of old photographs (not of my family) that I pick up when I see them at car boot sales, antique fairs etc. I have scanned some of them onto the PC and printed out the images to use at times but I have never been brave enough to take one of the cabinet cards and actually mount it on a project so here goes.

I wanted to make a new visual journal using an old book and bought three of them for £1 each. I prepared a couple of them by painting the outside covers with gesso and added some texture.

I altered my chosen cabinet card - you can probably see which one I chose from my treasured collection above.

On the background I created lots of layers with gesso, texture paste, painty overlays and stamping before varnishing to help make the cover more sturdy before it gets thumbed and used when creating the new pages inside.

My collaged embellishments have all been altered in some way with paint and inks to age and distress them to fit the vintage appeal I was trying to establish.

They also got more distressing when I was adding the final details.

I will have the process steps for this project here on the 16th March so do keep a look out if you are interested in how this all came together.

I hope you will be able to pop over to the AVJ challenge blog to see some more fabulous samples to fit with our theme and maybe you will be able to join us.

I hope the snow hasn't hit you too hard, we've had a covering and I had to postpone a workshop I was supposed to be teaching yesterday, I expect it will all disappear very soon.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Unexpected Danger - Media Board

I am up on the Country View Project blog with a media board I made for Stitches using the new stamps from Andy Skinner, particularly the Spooks set from Illusionary Artists available on the CVC website.

This is the little fella and I have used DecoArt media acrylic paints and gesso. 

For those of you who follow me, the background was made using a similar set of steps as the King Spook hanging.

Stay safe and warm in this arctic cold weather we are having in the UK and especially those of you n Scotland as I believe you have a red warning for snow tomorrow.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tando Creative Rust

This week the theme over at Tando Creative Blog is one of my most favourites 'RUST' so I just had to find time to share a project.

Having been at the Stitches Trade Show last weekend I thought I'd use a demo tag I had done on the stand. I had been demoing layered backgrounds and finished off with some crackle paste and one of Andy's new stamps.

I used a little of the stampendous chunky metallic EP on the arch window and experimented with some sand texture paste between the crackle.

Next came the fun bit with rusting it. I sealed the arch and brickwork with matte medium so I could wipe off any paints I didn't want on this area and then set about dabbing over raw umber, paynes grey and yellow oxide media acrylics. It looks a bit messy .....

.... but with rust in a bottle aka quinacridone gold I started adding washes and spritzes of water and was quite happy when I got to this point.

But there's always a but isn't there? There wasn't enough contrast for me, so I just spent a little time dabbling small amounts of the colours and spritzing with water again. I introduced a little prussian blue hue and I darkened the edges more. I also ran a little of the colours over the window and through the embossing. Then and only then was I feeling even happier. As I say to my students 'beauty is in the detail'.

To finish I raided a drawer where I keep lots of left over 'rusted' elements and chose some simple pieces to pull it all together.

And there it is looking nothing like it did at the beginning.

If you pop over to the Tando Blog you will see a whole range of rusty projects that have been posted this week from my gorgeous teamies and they are all brilliant. You'll also see a photo of this tag showing the beginning and end of the process.

I hope your weekend is going well and you are managing some creative time for yourself.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx