Shabby Chic style canvas

This is my DT piece for the current Pic 'n' mix challenge at Country View Challenges. We are now two weeks in and have had an incredible response for the first monthly challenge, thank you so much for supporting us.
Don't forget there is a fabulous Give-Away as well, click the link HERE to be transported there and you don't have to enter the challenge to participate in it. You could win a £25 voucher from our very generous sponsor Susan at Country View Crafts on-line shop. The same prize will also be given to the lucky winner of the challenge at the end of the month too.

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I think this canvas has a number of influences but particularly Anna Dabrowska's work. If you haven't seen what she creates it is so well worth a look at Finnibair, she does some fabulous mixed-media, journaling and scrapping to inspire you and whet your appetite to create something similar.

I had a number of challenges in mind this week when creating it, Tim Holtz Tattered Florals challenge; Simon Says Stamp and Show want to see some Shabby Chic and The Artistic Outpost Referral Program - Anything Goes using AO stamps

This piece has numerous layers of paper, paints, sprays and embellishments. take a look at the process in pictures.

Canvas primed with gesso and a layer of white acrylic added over the top.

Papers and textures added.

Used paint with masks and dipped canvas into watered down colours heat drying between dips to begin adding colour.

Texture detail with colour over it.

Added some distressed design papers and covered everything with another layer of white acrylic.

Began to add more layers with image and doiley.

Then added perfect pearls sprays and embellishments including some glittered letters and numbers.

I used the Tattered Florals die with muslin and linen, painted the petals with acrylic paints and picket fence distress stain. The texture is amazing (even if I say so myself lol). Tim has this amazing challenge for March and links to some incredible inspiration from other designers.

The image I used is Artistic Outpost from the 'Think and Wonder' set..

Well this week has disappeared real fast but the weekend starts here. Have a good one.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Other challenges to have fun with -

Make My Monday - Heat embossing. I covered the image with clear EP to bring out the tones and make it shine like a photograph.

Artful Blooms

I made most of this piece when I attended Leandra's workshop at the NEC last month. It showcases the lovely new PaperArtsy stamps both from Jofy and the lovely Lin Brown.

All I have done is added the sentiment and the dragonfly to finish it off.

You can see Lin's stamps were used in the background using Fresco Finish paints.

The dragonfly and sentiment are from an old set called Tops and tails.

I love finding new art quotes and this is so true.

"There is no must in art because art is free."

Wassily Kandinski

Enjoy the rest of the week and hopefully you have some 'free' time.

hugs {brenda} x0x

WOYWW 197

Not much to post today, but my work-desk contains bits from last night and something to carry on prepping this morning for my workshop on Saturday. The box is one of those paper mache book shapes with a drawer in it, so we are going to have fun with textures, glue and paints. I don't think my lovely group will know what has hit them as this will be the messiest workshop I have done with them.

If you would like to see work-desks from around the world then go join in What's On Your Work-desk Wednesday at Julias blog and have fun seeing what our creative spaces look like.

A big welcome to new followers, I am still truly amazed that so many people pop in to see what I am up to. Thank you for taking the time, I hope you find some inspiration from my work.

Here, the sun is shining, some fluffy white clouds are rolling in and the birds are singing. Sure signs of Spring.

Have a GREAT DAY.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Happy Anniversary Tim and March Tag 2013

Congratulations to Tim Holtz on his 10th anniversary of working with Ranger. For many of us he has been a truly inspirational person sharing his creativity and encouraging us to find our own.

Happy Anniversary Tim and here's to many more years of continuing the journey.

The vintage Easter theme for Tim's tag this month is wonderful, I just had to do mine as close as I could, I love learning from the maestro himself.

The full details are on Tim's blog

I had to make some changes, the colour of the rabbit, which then influenced the colours of my ribbons. But otherwise I more-or-less stayed totally in the same vein.

Supplies

Alcohol Inks - Ginger and Copper

Dies - Styled labels, Mini Bunny, Tapered Fringe, Tattered Banners

Brown tinsel twine

Paint - Peeled paint Distress Paint,   Claudine Hellmuth acrylic - Landscape Green, Dab of Yellow,   

Eco-Friendly - Waterfall, Peony, Clamshell.   Basic white acrylic.

Papers - Seasonal stash, kraft core

My favourite bit? These gorgeous painted metal flowers stuck on memo pins. 

Hope you had a great Mother's Day yesterday for those of you in the UK, especially if you were treated to some special pressies and surprises. I had some lovely plants in baskets and some money for some new crafty supplies. With all the family round for dinner, it was a fabulous day.

Snow is in the air as I write - what happened to the signs of Spring????

Enjoy the week ahead, I hope you get some crafting time.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Something Girly at PanPastel UK

Another week has passed and we have a new theme at PanPastel UK, we want to see something girly so get out those girly bits and pieces and show us what you create.

I chose a beautiful stamp from Crafty Individuals and used PanPastels for the background and Graph'It markers to shade her in.

Pans used - Magenta Shade, Burnt Sienna Tint, Titanium White

Graph'It Markers - Camellia, Light Caramel, Mocha, Pink grey, Steel and the blender.

I found a fabulous way to create a shimmery PP background by scraping a little of the pans onto my craft mat and mixing it with Biscotto Perfect Pearls mist, then I dipped and dried my tag several times to get the effect I wanted. I sprayed it with colourless fixative before moving on.

I stamped some text around the card using archival inks before stamping the main image, leaving space for her in the middle.

Because the pans had left a residue on the background the markers gave a chalky effect to the dress but still blended brilliantly.

Some lace, ribbon, music paper, die-cut lock, flower, pearls, mini tag & heart finish it off.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Swirls at FSC

I wanted a girly card for my DiL's birthday and came up with this. 

Pretty papers, the new Tim Holtz Cameo die, a chipboard dress form and other feminine pieces came together in a shabby vintage card.

I used the text stamp from the Tim Holtz Papillon set over white acrylic paint on the dress form and another of his stamps to create the little swirls on the cameo background, these I painted in with a Vintage Photo Distress Marker. There are also swirls printed on the pink backing paper as well.

We would love to see your swirl projects for the next fortnight at Fashionable Stamping Challenges, so please do pop over and while you are there have a look at all the other fabulous inspiration from my DT sisters.

Have a great Sunday and thanks for visiting my post.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Pocket Envelope Give-Away Result

Hi Bloggers, as promised I have made the draw for my little give-away and the two people who are going to receive one of the double pocket envelopes are -

That is Brenda B - no not me another one - Well done Brenda.

This is Terry - Enjoy my friend.

Terry I have your address somewhere but Brenda if you would like to email me yours (my email addy is on my sidebar) and I will get these in the post early next week.

Thanks to those who took part, it was just a bit of fun but it was great that people played along.

Right got to go and get ready for visitors coming this evening.

Have a fun weekend. I will see you tomorrow with posts for both Fashionable Stamping Challenges and PanPastel UK.

hugs {brenda} x0x

WOYWW 196 - Distraction and GiveAway

It's ages since I joined in with WOYWW, mostly because I didn't have my craft room to use, but I am now back in and nearly re-organised  -   pics of that next week. If you would like to take a trip around the world to see other people's creative spaces then pop on over to Julia's blog at The Stamping Ground and be amazed at what you see.

This is how I left my desk last night with the potential of four different projects in all these bits and pieces. The paints show the colours of a piece I am in the middle of making for Tim's Tattered Florals challenge, the box has been painted ready to alter but I keep changing my mind as to what I am going to put on it, but it does hold an experiment of creating a little bird's nest for something Eastery lol. The little caddy is another idea I have currently discarded and the two pieces in the front have been the distraction this week. You know when you can't make up your mind about something and the inspiration hasn't truly hit you so you go off on a complete tangent and do something so totally different? Do you get that feeling sometimes? Well those are the result for me.

Here they are enlarged. Two double pocket envelopes. Don't ask where the idea came from I just don't know but I quite enjoyed playing with different colours and papers for a change.

This is the reverse side.

They can easily hold two fairly flat ATCs, some die-cuts perhaps or even a gift card and a little note.

Here you can see I stuck two envelopes together. I had used the Tim Holtz Pocket Envelope die and used the Papermania Happy Days paperpad and some Bazzill core dyed cardstock.

These bottle tops were made using Tim's new movers and shapers die. Great effects and keeps your card fairly flat for posting too.

Well I decided as these came from absolutely nowhere I would make them a give-away this week to two commenters who would like to receive one of them. Just add your URL to the Linky below and I will do the draw on Saturday afternoon.

Enjoy the rest of your week and thanks for visiting. I will visit all the WOYWW blogs with the same end number as mine and more if I can.

hugs {brenda} xox

Photographs - the Vintage Picture Wheel

I had great fun creating my photo wheel and making up this size 10 tag.

It all started with a beige wheel (Tim Holtz Picture Wheel die) that I distressed using walnut stain and tarnished brass DSs, defining the edge with walnut stain DI and then covering it with clear EP to give it a shiny effect. The photos are all from Tim's Lost and Found paper stash and fitted the little apertures perfectly.

The tag was smooshed with picket fence, antiqued bronze, tarnished brass and vintage photo DSs, sprayed with water and dried and then I dipped and dried using up the last remnants of the ink. I collected together a number of Tim Holtz stamps, The Boys, Odds and Ends, Curiosities and Little Labels, stamping over the tag with black archival and then made up the little clock, ticket and main word label 'Photographs' as I want to enter the 'Layers and Word' challenge at Frilly and Funkie. I also noticed that Simon Says Stamp and Show wants to see numbers this week and this fits beautifully with the clock, ruler and other numbers.

I collect vintage bits and pieces when I can find them and last week I found an old lotto set in an antique store so I have lots of fabulous old number pieces to add to my work, the nib is from a set of old nibs I bought off Ebay and the clock has an old watch part that I got from a car-boot sale - love it.

The tissue tape layer is from Tim's new set - Elements and I have added part of a bingo embossing folder, some filmstrip and a spinner. Gosh I think there's enough layers and numbers here don't you?

Right I've got some 'real' work I have got to get finished and out, then I shall be back at my craft desk later.

Have a productive week whatever you will be doing and thanks for stopping by to see me.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Other challenges to have fun with -
The Artistic Stamper - Tags
Wow - Anything Goes embossing (the picture wheel)

Country Cottage for Crafty Individuals

Why is it that my cards and projects never turn out like I envisage they will? Take this for example. I had seen me using the country cottages with beautiful bright colours and portraying a lovely summery card, thinking great this will show the promise of warmer weather to come. But what did I get? A very vintagey (I've checked the spelling in Wiktionary and it's a real word) piece that really depicts night time or twilight when the colours are more muted and there is a stillness in the air.

I have used CI-263 stamp plate which gives these four gorgeous country cottage scenes. I did in fact use some lovely bright colours using my water pencils and wish I'd taken a photo of them at that stage, but by the time I had used vintage photo distress ink round the edges and all over the colours became more subdued.

The background is from the CI trees background papers book and had two thin coats of white acrylic wash over it plus I stamped some bubble wrap in white too and added small strips of dictionary paper.

The birds and flowers are memory box dies, cut in dictionary paper and given a treatment of distress ink and white acrylic paint, dried then given colour with the watercolour pencils  spritzed with water and dried, then finished with brown and white pens.




Love these little birdies together.



I now will be giving workshops using Crafty Individuals stamps and I am soooo looking forward to doing them. Four have already been planned for after Easter.

I would like to say a big welcome to many new followers who have joined me recently, thank you for choosing to share this creative journey of mine. Unfortunately when some people sign up to follower they don't leave a trail of where they 'live' so I am unable to come and look at your blogs, such a shame as I really appreciate the time you take to look at what I do.

I hope you all have a lovely day and find a bit of creative time.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x