The voice of the sea

Simon Says Stamp and Show this week has been asking us to think about water and how we could represent it in our projects.

I made a tag where the background is a mixture of white acrylic paint and prussian blue decoart traditions paint, smooched together on the craft mat and the tag run through to get that lovely watery feel to it. Later I dipped in picket fence DS and water to acquire more depth.

Because this reminded me so much of the sea I used Crafty Individuals Seaside Treasures stamps and added sea themed embellishments.

The background for the sentiment is the wrinkle free distress technique using vintage photo, chipped sapphire and bundled sage DIs spritzed with blue patina perfect pearls mist.

The lady who has the voice of the sea is stamped from Crafty Individuals 'Beside the Seaside' plate, added to a little frame from eBay and covered with crackle accents - only it didn't crackle!!!!

And look what we woke up to this morning in Surrey. This is the view out of my workroom window with my conservatory below. This was most unexpected!!!

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope those of you further north in the UK are not being adversely affected by the blizzard conditions and snow drifts which seem to be causing much disruption.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Alice Palace at Crafty Individuals

Some more Alice Palace stamp cards from me today and these are new ones just released at the Crafty Individuals on-line store.

I love experimenting with the distress inks and images that are so far out of my comfort zone and these are all made with wrinkle free distress backgrounds.

I used a mixture of distress markers and Inktense watercolour pencils to colour the images in.

To finish I simply distressed the edges and mounted on some backing papers and onto white cards. no embellishments, I am going to let the images speak for themselves.

I love the bright colours  so different for me and they remind me of Spring coming, especially the Live, Lovely Life card.

Do pop over to the CI Blog to see lots of inspiration from the team using the whole range of CI stamps.

Thanks for visiting.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Challenges to have fun with -
Bloggers Challenge - Think Spring (Love lovely life card)
Stampotique - Spring (Love lovely life card)
Simon Says Stamp - Easter/ Spring

Speckled bunnies - Easter tag

Just wanted to post a little Easter tag today and to say thank you to lots of friends who have left me birthday wishes on Facebook or sent me cards. I have been spoilt with some gorgeous pressies too from my husband, family and close friends.

Anyway I wanted to share this tag as I have been playing with my PanPastels again and found another new technique to use, on here it is speckled bunnies, but I want to try this on eggs too, perfect for that I think.

A very easy effect to achieve - heat embossing powder on the image, have some pastels scraped into little containers ready and when the EP is molten sprinkle the PPs over the top and heat again so that they bake in. See I said it was easy.

I die-cut extra bunnies and popped them up at different levels.

Let me know if you try this technique I would love to come and see what you do.

Enjoy your day, we are out for a meal later which will finish my day perfectly.

Thanks for visiting and for so many lovely comments I receive,

hugs {brenda} x0x

Workshop make

Doing workshops are such great fun and last Saturday I had a group of lovely ladies who enjoyed getting very messy hands using lots of glue and paint. We altered one of those paper mache book boxes that has a drawer in it.

I took along the box we were making and some samples of possible other embossed backgrounds and colours they could use when they try it out for themselves another time.



 We managed to prep and paint the box in three and a bit hours and a few people stayed to finish off with another coat of sealer and some wax rubons.

These are some of the finished boxes made by the class.

The group learned a great deal about how to prepare card substrates for lots of layers of paints; the thickness of paints when wanting to add a coat or a wash and creating textures.

Thanks ladies you worked so hard and produced some magnificent results.

Quote for this week.

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

Vincent Van Gogh

Have a creative week.

hugs {benda} x0x

A journal type piece from me today for the new challenge at PanPastel UK.

I used my pritt stick technique with PPs over the top and added texture paste through a mask and let it dry.

There are numerous layers of PPs and acrylic paints finishing off with pans through some masks to get the journal background effect and promarkers over the top of all the layers on the bulrushes.

The quote I found on the internet.

We are sponsored by Your Creativity Store who kindly provide the winner with a trial set of PanPastels.

Hope your Sunday is good, have a great day.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Family History and Vintage Fan

A new Tin Holtz die for me straight from the CHA and inspired by a burlap panel made by Jim Hankins I set about to design a piece where the vintage fan fitted in. Here's my antique room display.

To begin I covered a thick piece of greyboard 23 x 25 cms with hessian and stuck TH tissue tape round it to cover up the staples.

I had great fun designing this piece and originally I had used a photo from Claudine Hellmuth's collection that she sent to those of us who did her on-line collage course last year, but wondered why I was doing that when I have some fabulous old photos of my grandparents. My cousin has set up a family genealogy site that has even more so I have quite a few to choose from going back to my great, great, great grandparents.

                    

This is my Grandpa on my Mum's side, John Albert Victor Axon. I don't remember him very well, I think he kept out of our way when we went round to their house, but one memory sticks in my mind and that is sitting in my classroom by the window at primary school and watching his funeral go past. I was considered much too young to be allowed to attend.                                                                          I have added the years of his life written by hand and added to a cog case from an old clock.

 Do you like the writing desk? The old typewriter, pen nib and telephone. I made the little bottle of Quink ink using one of those very small corked bottles, black alcohol ink and a handmade label.



I think the fan worked really well. It was die cut four times, firstly in silver metallic card which has been embossed with the riveted metal embossing folder and then alcohol inked. The second time cut in black card, the base cut off and heat embossed with clear EP. The next two layers were cut from idealogy packaging and I cut the fan out twice again using alcohol inks on it including snow cap which gives that lovely mottled effect. You can see the shine on it when angled towards the light.

The vintage green backing panel was made in a William Morris style wallpaper.






This was so that I could join in the fabulous Frilly and Funkie challenge chosen by Jenny, which is such an original theme to choose. I used a Sizzix embossing folder to get the pattern I wanted and then added layers of different green and brown paints to get the worn vintage effect, finishing off with treasure gold highlights over the raised designs.

A tribute to Grandpa.

Supplies 

Dies - Vintage Fan, Cameo Frame

Metal embellishments

Tissue Tape

Wall panel made using Sizzix embossing folder

Distress inks - Rusty Hinge, Pine Needles. Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain, Black Soot.

Alcohol Inks - Copper, Ginger, Pitch Black

Rock candy Crackle Paint

Treasure Gold

Plastic packaging for fan

Thank you to those of you who have commented or contacted me about my win at Simon Says Stamp and Show last week. I am very lucky not only to be drawn out of the hat for the $50 prize but was also chosen in the Top 3 with my Vintage Photo Wheel. A huge thank you to the team over at SSSS, it's always a privilege when you are chosen by your peers and is something very special. 

I hope you are having a good weekend, I shall be round to see what everyone is doing.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

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.