Halloween Journal pages

I couldn't let October go past without recording Halloween in my visual journal, so here is a double spread to mark the occasion.

You might remember that my journal is in fact an old book called the 'Roadmender' and to get started I pasted in some tissue wrap using matte medium.

I painted on DecoArt media acrylics and before it dried properly I rubbed over with a babywipe to remove the intensity of the colour but still leave enough on to create a darkish background. See how you can still see the book text underneath?

I dried with a heatgun and then finger painted over some contrasting colours,smudging them to create interest.

Next I dipped the pages in watery picket fence distress paint, let it move around the page and heat dried......

.... and then randomly stamped some cobwebs using black archival ink and stencilled the arrows using gesso and a piece of sponge.

 Now to introduce some further colour - I applied water soluble wax pastel over the arrows, dabbed with water and coloured over with chalk pastel pencils.

Taking a sketch and wash pencil I added shadow around them and darkened the edges more with woodless charcoal pencils, this created more interest and focus.

Onto filling up the pages and die-cuts seemed my best option to create the atmosphere and give me the bold images I wanted. Once adhered I set about using white and black charcoal and aquatone pencils to shade and colour until I was happy with the balance and depth to the pages.

I stamped 'beware' and used black modelling paste and a stencil for the 'halloween' and then added more texture with silver embossing paste and the dot fade stencil.

Did you notice the lights are on in the house?

 Having used Ranger, DecoArt, Studio 490 and Derwent products and had fun painting, daubing, rubbing, colouring and texturing the pages I am pretty pleased with the results. This is #37 in my Visual Journal, there is very little room left in the book and the pages are bulging but it is the first ever one I have completely filled so I am feeling rather proud of myself too.

Thanks for stopping by on this wet and miserable day here in Surrey, have a gresat weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Adding texture at CVC

This is my second sample for the texture challenge at Country View Crafts and  I have two more Christmas baubles for you today that fit with the two I showed at the beginning of the month (see that post here).

The texture was laid down as the previous two were with gesso and texture paste but I had fun playing with different media and colours on these two.

You may remember 

I started by covering all four with gesso and to start the texturing whilst they were still wet I pushed some of them down on the craft mat so that the gesso texturised when I pulled the bauble away.

The second layer of texture is created with texture paste through a stencil and letting it dry.

This first bauble has Tim's snowflake stencil added to it with grey and prussian blue brushos and a little decoart silver acrylic paint to create the base layer. Over that I spritzed water and 'painted' in some of the blue around the snowflakes so that the colour collected in the gaps. 

When dry I gessoed over the snowflakes and also dripped some walnut crystal ink in the gaps to achieve this mixed media background before lightly and very gently applying ultra matte varnish and letting it dry. To finish I laid the stencil back over, gessoed again and when dry painted glue over the snowflakes and sprinkled on crystal glamour dust.

For this next experiment I wanted to try sprays on the background and I wanted the poinsettia to look fairly realistic but still be vintagey. 

So I began by squeezing some decoart cadmium red hue, transparent red iron oxide and prussian blue on my mat in tiny, tiny amounts. Placing the stencil back over the flowers and using a sponge I daubed on the cadmium randomly trying to keep to just the petals, I mixed in a tiny amount of the blue and sponged some shadows and the centres and them mixed a tiny bit with the red iron oxide and sponged a few places to create more texture and colour variation. I then sprayed fired brick distress spray stain, misted it with water and let it run off the sides. It created a few lighter areas so I sprayed antique linen over again spritzed a little water and heat dried. Mmmm I really quite like the effects and you can see the textured gesso. 

I finished by painting the dots gold and the leaves green and edging the bauble with potting soil archival ink.

I hope you've liked the series of baubles and you can see from 1 to 4 how my choices of colour, media and layers improved - well I think they have....

Having finished the texture posts I think I maybe back before I publish this one .... I have an idea.

Yep I'm back. I decided to add some embellishing to brighten up the baubles. 

Tim Holtz greenery and poinsettia, sparkly berries, moss, dried flowers and decoart snowtex.

Thanks for stopping by today. Do pop over to Country View Challenges to see lots of inspiration from the team and hopefully you will find inspiration for your next project.

hugs Brenda xxx

Old Fashioned Christmas Card for CVC

It's my turn to share a make at the Country View Crafts Project Blog and I have an old fashioned collage Christmas card, here's a sneak peek.

It's quite a simple one to make using patterned papers and ephemera and a lovely vintage style that I love.

More photos and details are available on the CVC project blog if you would like to see the whole card.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Workshop layered cards 1

I love teaching locally at the Art of Craft as I have to think outside my comfort zone and use products that I might not usually buy but I cannot stray from putting a vintage or shabby stamp on things. My samples for a recent layered cards workshop gave me an opportunity to design and create cards using kaiserkraft papers (sample 2) and dies from the shop. Both cards are exactly the same design I just used different papers and colours and I placed some of the elements differently.

My initial card was designed with papers I had at home ....

... and then with the kaisercraft pad.

You can see the dimension from using foam pads to help the layers build up.

I taught this to two classes and managed to get some photos of the results.

Thanks ladies for a great couple of workshops with fabulous results and each card stamped and elements placed in different ways. I always love the end of a session seeing all the similarities and differences, some of them are subtle but they make your card original to you. 

There are some more to come as I have taught four workshops in the last week so if you haven't seen me about much you'll know why!!!! I am hoping to get around to your blogs again in the next few days.

Wishing you all a happy weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Memories Box at Pickwell Farm

Saturday saw me teaching a memories box at Pickwell Farm and what a fabulous day we had. Eight lovely ladies attended and who worked so hard to create a book style box from scratch, they did so well with the measuring and construction that we actually finished a bit early. They were pleased as it gave them more time to shop for crafty goods.

This is my latest version of the box starting with the front when it is closed.

The inside with the secret box and a pouch for adding other memorabilia.

Inside again with the flaps of the secret box open to reveal the photos or treasures being stored inside it. I found some copies of old photos of some of the family but I will dedicate this box to my Mum and Dad and put bits in I have of theirs.

The outside showing front, back, sides and front flap. I used Tim Holtz dies and papers to provide the embellishing

Standing slightly open.

Now for some of the workshop photos.

Helena and Maggie.

The long table with Di and Becky this end.

 Denice, Pam and Di along the left side .....

... and this time you can see Val too.

Becky. Maggie, Helena and Jackie along the other side .....

... and a close up of Jackie totally involved in her papers and getting them the right size.

And Val too.

Di has got her book box made and is embellishing now.

Here are the finished projects with their names on. They each had a bag of the stamped images and diecuts I had used and they had choices to make regards the papers and other embellishments available in the workroom.

Wow aren't they amazingly different and reflect each of their individual styles. Well done everyone.

Update Di has just sent me a photo of hers now finished.

And somehow Helena's got missed off so here is that one too.

My thanks to Carolyn for the invitation and also to this fabulous group, Jackie, Helena, Maggie, Becky, Di, Pam, Denice and Val for such a great day.

My next workshop at this venue will be in January 2016 - yikes another new year.

Thanks for staying to the end.

hugs Brenda xxx