DecoArt tag

Whilst prepping for DecoArt workshops I will use any left over paints and cover tags, pieces of card or media boards and this project today is one that started life in this way.

Please pop over to Country View Crafts Project Blog where it is my turn to post a project.....

.... and it's a great quick one too.

I hope you are planning a fabulous weekend, I would really like the weather to be dry and hopefully sunny and warm. Tonight we are off to an outside concert in Southampton to see Rod Stewart and I am soooo looking forward to seeing him again, he just rocks a stadium so I am sure it is gonna be brilliant. As soon as it's finished we are off to get the ferry over to the Isle of Wight as it's festival weekend there are I can't believe we are going to see the Who and Queen with Adam Lambert - wow what a line up with lots of others like Staus Quo, Mike and the Mechanics and Adam Ant. Unfortunately we are missing Stereophonics Friday night but we have seen them before so I'm not too worried.

Enjoy whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Small mixed media canvas - The Hands of Time

Just a quick, small canvas today - no steps I am afraid as this is a mock up for another project for another day.

Colours used are DecoArt media acrylics - dioxazine purple, phthalo blue, pyrrole red and titanium white media paints and primary cyan, red, white and violet media misters. Mediums are also DecoArt white gesso, modeling paste and crackle glaze. Stamps are from my oddments box and Andy Skinner's Antique collection (that I have had in my supplies for years lol).

A mixed media background ...

... with lots of layers and texture which fits in beautifully with the challenge at A Vintage Journey ....

... and a few embellishments ....

 

... don't you just love the crackle on the clock? Don't forget if you are using crackle there's a challenge with that theme over at Country View Crafts ....

... stamped hands using Andy's old, clear stamp set ....

 ... and quote found on the internet ......

I thought I would add this to Andy's Time Challenge which is open until midnight on the 19th June. If you enter you stand a chance of winning one of two prizes, how about a free on-line class of Andy's or a bundle of Tando Creative goodies plus the top 3 receive a badge for their blog. Just follow the rules and you'll be ok. Hope to see you there. I'm just gonna hop over and link up now.

Have a great week and follow the quote, I seem to be at the moment ......

hugs Brenda xx

Texture paste for AVJ

Welcome to the first Friday in June and the start of another fabulous challenge at A Vintage Journey. The lovely Astrid is our host this month and she describes the theme thus -

"Use any kind of texture paste (home made, crackle, coloured or plain) on your projects. There is an endless variety available, so play, have fun and apply it to your heart's content. Use it through stencils, randomly or in whatever way you want, but remember it should be in one of the vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial or steampunk styles that we favour. Put on your mixed media hat and create some magic!"

For this project I decided to go shabby.

For the first layer I randomly applied some gesso with a dry baby wipe ...

... then I mixed some modeling paste to a thick creamy consistency, applied it with a brush and spritzed with water so that it dripped down the board. Once dry it didn't really give me the depth of texture I was looking for, but it was worth a try and certainly didn't do any harm.

Adding colour - colour mixing. 

This was the palette I chose to use and my college days of studying oils bears me in good stead for having a bit of experience to fall back on ...

... and here's the swatch card I made. By playing with blends I was able to personalise the colours to the shades I really wanted. It's impossible to tell you how much colour was added each time, it ranged from a touch of the wet lid when I opened it (ie pin prick size) to one or two drops from the bottle. The colours in the last column are the ones I used.

The colours were added one at a time with a brush, spritzed with water, allowed to move around and drip and then heat dried. By layering the colours like this you keep both the individual colour tones and the layered ones creating additional depth and interest.

Because there was texture beneath the colour I decided to highlight these in white by using titanium white and a small brayer .....

.... and then more fun with the DecoArt white crackle paste through some stencils, just look at the fabulous textures you get.

I wanted to highlight the word Cafe so I mixed some quinacridone magenta with white antiquing cream but it looked rather vivid and clashed with the more vintagey colours I had blended so I added a tiny amount of the green gold, oh my goodness I would never thought of adding these colours together to get this beautiful vintage rose colour. I replaced the stencil and painted it on, I also added some of  the rose with more white added and some green gold to the moroccan stencilled areas too. I had imagined colouring the cracks but I now wanted to leave it as it is so I decided that before I put the embellishments on I would give the whole board a coat of matte varnish to seal it.

Here it is with all the embellishments on ......

... and from the side - I added one of Tim's easel die-cuts so that it stands and can be used as a birthday card or just a celebratory piece of art.

Thanks for stopping by, for joining me on my own amazing creative journey and for all your wonderful comments. I just love reading them. I would also like to give a warm welcome to all the new followers who have joined Bumblebees and Butterflies and hope you enjoy my creations and process steps.

So will we see you at A Vintage Journey this month? There are fewer stipulations now in who can join in and as long as we can see a vintage; shabby; mixed-media; art journaling; industrial or steampunk genre then you're in and there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs every month. June sees Susan from Country View Crafts joining us again with a £20.00 voucher from her on-line shop.

Have a wonderful month, lets hope the weather is warming wherever you are in the northern hemisphere and that it's not getting too cold for you in the southern hemisphere.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

All paints and mediums are from the DecoArt media range.

Crackle for CVCC

I am often asked what is the difference between the DecoArt crackle mediums so I thought I would take the four that I use most and give you an explanation of each one. Each of my coffee cups on this media board have been crackled with one of the four and the board itself and the saucer are a double up (see below). So four products and five outcomes. This was a brilliant opportunity to have fun with crackle so thank you Evelyn for the fabulous theme, which is the new challenge over at Country View Crafts Challenge Blog.

Crackle Paint

Fast-drying Crackle Paint crackles as it dries naturally to create an eggshell pattern in just one step. Apply with a soft brush over a sealed surface and as the paint dries, it will begin to crack, showing the base colour underneath. The size of the cracks are governed by the thickness of the application - ie the thinner the paint is applied the smaller the cracks and the thicker the application the larger the cracks. White Crackle Paint is tintable and can be coloured with up to 20% of the media fluid acrylics or can also be painted. It is also available in black.

1. Base colour - Raw Umber. White Crackle Paint

Crackle Glaze

Clear Crackle Glaze is a fast-drying, acid-free topcoat that will crackle as it dries to create an eggshell pattern in one step. It should be applied over painted, sealed surfaces, its clear finish allows details and colours to show through and it is self-levelling. Apply with a soft brush and again the the size of the cracks is governed by the thickness of the application. Once dry, the cracks can be antiqued with Media Antiquing Creams, apply your chosen colour, let it dry and then wipe back with a soft damp cloth. You can also stamp over it.

2. Base colour - Medium Grey Value 6.  Clear Crackle Glaze
Antiquing Cream - white

Crackle Paste

Dimensional Crackle Paste is a white paste that creates an eggshell cracking pattern as it air dries. It can be used alone or as a stencil paste. It can also be used with a palette knife to build texture, and will give bigger cracks with thicker application and shows the base colour underneath. Media Crackle Paste can be tinted with up to 20% Media Fluid Acrylics or painted with them.

3. Base colour - Paynes Grey. White Crackle Paste through a cracked stencil

Weathered Wood crackle medium

Weathered Wood is from the DecoArt Americana range  Apply this medium after base coating with the colour you want to appear through the cracks. Top with the final coat of paint and it will crackle almost immediately as it dries to create an eggshell pattern, giving a vintage, distressed finish. DecoArt advise that you let this product dry naturally but I have had good results by drying it with my heat gun and heat drying the top coat of paint too. You can also change the way the cracks appear by painting the top coat in different directions. Take a look at Andy Skinner's video here.

4. Base colour - Dark Grey Value 3.  Weathered Wood Crackle Medium

Top Coat - Titanium White

Mega Crackle
Mega Crackle is achieved by combining two DecoArt mediums, weathered wood and white crackle paint. Really large cracks can be achieved with this technique as can be seen on this media canvas board and yes it works on canvas too. See how it is achieved by watching Andy's video here.

I used the same technique on the saucer too.

Here they are all together.

I distressed the cups .....

.... found a quote I like and typed it out on media paint distressed card  (this saying could definitely be me lol) ......

.... and stamped and stencilled and sealed the background with ultra matte varnish .....

...... and finally completed the project.

I hope you will be able to stop by the Country View Crafts challenge blog to take a look at the fabulous projects from the rest of the team and maybe enter one yourself.

For now have a fabulous week with whatever you have planned.


hugs Brenda xxx




Products for this project

DecoArt White Crackle Paint DecoArt Media Enhancer - Clear Crackle Glaze DecoArt white crackle paste DecoArt Weathered Wood crackle medium Sizzix Bigz Die - Tea Time by Tim Holtz DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Raw Umber DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Medium Grey Value 6 DecoArt Antiquing Cream - Titanium white DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic - Paynes Grey Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Shatter DecoArt Mixed Media Fluid Acrylic 1oz - Titanium White - See more at: http://www.countryviewcrafts.c Tim Holtz distress ink pad - Ground Espresso DecoArt Media Enhancer - Ultra Matte Varnish Tim Holtz Cling Mounted Stamp Set - Zigzag & Diamonds Stamp

InLinkz.com

Road trip card

I got the new TH vintage cars stamps recently and lo and behold a couple of days later the amazing Pamellia from My Little Craft Things posted a fabulous shabby vintage car card which totally inspired and motivated me to get my stamps inked up straight away. I stamped the whole set and the new newsprint background not quite sure where I was gonna go with this one but after watching Pamellia's video I knew I wanted dimensional layers. I love the new vintage designs but once I was into the card making process I realised all the cars faced the same way which is a little disappointing when trying to create interest, so I got out an old Crafty Individuals stamp and used that too.

I was also inspired by my great friend Astrid who the very same day had a post about using up 'old stock' that has collected in the craft room and not been used, so out came some old paper stacks.

Tim's new cog thinlits came out to play too giving me some more of the masculine feel and interest .....

.... a street name, number plate and clock from a Tim stash ....

... and some washi tape build the collaged and dimensional look.

The background has been dipped in pumice stone DI and all of the papers have distressed edges inked with ground espresso.

I quite like the look and the effects and huge thanks to Pamellia and Astrid for inspiring me and helping me get my mojo back.

I always appreciate your visit thank you for taking the time to stop by.

hugs Brenda xxx