A house is a home - altered wood block

I thought I would go all shabby vintage with my altered make for the new challenge at A Vintage Journey. The lovely Alison has chosen Altered Art and would like you to get creative with recycled objects in a vintage; shabby, mixed media; art journalling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style. Turn something unloved and unwanted into a work of art. Try some repurposing - make something new out of something old, or incorporate an unwanted object into your artwork. Think tin cans and jars, old bottles, toothbrushes - the more inventive the better.

So my block started as this house shape with these words on it but I worked on the reverse side.

The recipe -

Tear some paper and adhere to the block coating the top of the paper to seal it.

Brayer over white gesso.

Paint dark green onto some card or watercolour paper ............

.................... then monoprint it onto the wood block.

This is what happens - 

Next scrape some white gesso over with a flat edge I used a palette knife..

Apply some random patches of white crackle paint and leave to dry.

Blend white modeling paste mixed with white gesso through a stencil.

Drip and spritz sap green, raw umber, burnt umber, white and titan buff media acrylic paints through the textures. Sand the edges and blend in ground espresso distress ink.

Brayer over white tinting base over the raised areas, seal the surface with the DecoArt matte sealer/varnish .....

 and then gather your embellishments together.

I kept to flowers and natural elements with an altered metal butterfly to finish it off.

I used Tim's tattered florals and a sizzix daisy to make the large shabby flower using

The smaller flowers are a mixture of bought ones.

Tims greenery die cut with white card, some bundled sage and ground espresso distress inks

Some cheesecloth, frosted berries and a metal butterfly altered with gesso and treasure gold.

All finished off with a jute bow and some natural dried flowers

Hope you like my piece of altered art which makes a great piece of home decor I think.

I hope we'll see you over at the challenge blog and even if you can't join in for September, you should definitely pop over to see the amazing inspiration from the rest of the team.

Have fun and listen to your heArt.

hugs Brenda xxx

Technique Tuesday # 7 - Marbling with Fluid Media Acrylics - DecoArt.

 #7

For this technique I used one off the tear-off palettes which has a lovely slippery smooth surface.

Add a drop of 2 colours quite near each other - here I used cadmium red hue and Hansa Yellow Medium.

Spritz with water and let colours gently come together.

Dip your card into the mix quickly before the colours blend and mix .....

..... and reveal some marbling effects.

This is one I tried with green gold and phthalo turquoise.

This just goes to prove you can get watery marbling effects with just water but I will admit the patterns are not so intricate as they are with other methods.

If you want to pin - here is the graphic.

Thanks for stopping by on another technique Tuesday and all the lovely comments you left on the Weathered Wood Crackle last week.

See you soon.

hugs Brenda xxx

Emboss resist Journal Panel

It's my turn over at the Country View Craft Project Blog and I am finishing the month continuing the blues and greens challenge theme with another technique and journal panel.
This is how I left it over there ........

But I wanted to grunge it up some more for my journal so I edged all four sides with raw umber blending it over with a blending tool and foam then I mixed a dirty wash of quinacridone gold and paynes grey and painted that round the edges.

I had used some card to mop up some of the paints as I had been using them and I stamped the old Tim Holtz quote on some, coloured in the letters with some Pitt artist pens and edged it with ground espresso distress ink before adhering it to the panel.

Thanks for stopping by.

Listen to your HeArt

hugs Brenda xxx

Eileen Hull Travel Journal

Eileen's HeArtfelt Journal die has been shipping around the world and I thought it was time to make another, this time to take to America with me when we tour around California starting in Garden Grove just outside LA, Arizona - Sedona, New Mexico - Albuquerque. Colorado - Mancos, Utah - Monument Valley (Goulding) and Kanab - Bryce Canyon, back into California and Mammoth Lakes, Sacramento and San Francisco before driving back to the LA area. It's gonna be a 'mammoth' drive and we have allowed ourselves just over two weeks to do it in.

First die-cut two journal covers and take some tissue wrap and cover them both. I used decoupage glue and when dry I sanded the edges of the covers to get a good clean cut and smooth finish.

Adhere the spines of the journal together - I used red line tape ....

.... and use modeling paste and stencils to add texture - I chose some stars and stripes stencils from DecoArt.

So I chose my paints, mixed the blends of colours one at a time and then spritzed, dripped and dribbled them through the texture drying before adding the next colour. Knowing we will be visiting canyons and seeing some amazing scenery I chose to use neutrals with browns and greens, It looked horrible!!!! So I made a vintage orangey red and brayered all over it and then brayered and sponged white gesso to bring it back to a surface I could work with. I liked the orange so I brayered that over the stars and mixed a vintage blue and brayered over the stripes - now to think what next?

I sealed it all with matte medium

Next layer some washes of similar blues and brown/orange colours and stamp words/text and when dry I again sealed the layer in and this time used decoupage and when dry applied a coat of clear crackle glaze not too thickly.

Start to gather some embellishments together. The two images are free downloads from the Graphics Fairy and printed on an ordinary inkjet printer. I used one of Andy's techniques of applying a coat of matte medium and when it's dry apply a coat of transparent crackle glaze. I think I probably kept it too thin as there wasn't much crackle but just enough to help age the two pieces.

Here are some other bits.

Having left the cover to dry and the crackles appear apply a layer of white and raw umber antiquing cream, leave for a while to dry ......

..... and then wiped it back with a wet wipe and paper towel and sealed with ultra matte varnish to remove the sheen and make the antiquing cream permanent.

Add the embellishments ......

..... use layers of paint dabbled and dripped. a brayered layer of white titanium and some stamping to start the inside covers.

Then brayer a deep vintage blue and add some white to lighten it for another layer ....

... then make watery washes of the blue dip and dry and repeat with titanium white before stamping with a crackle stamp to echo the front cover crackle glaze.

Lastly I made some signatures, added the elastics and a closure. I love to tie tactile, torn fabrics to mine.

I think I may change the tie I don't think it is in keeping with the design and probably seam binding ribbon would look better, but there's still time.

Thanks for stopping by today and for all the lovely comments that you leave.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Technique Tuesday #6 - Weathered Wood Crackle - DecoArt

#6

1. Coat the substrate with gesso to seal it and then apply a coat of tinting base and cobalt teal mixed together.

2. Apply a layer of candle wax and then paint a layer of tinting base mixed with cobalt teal and yellow green light, heat dry and rub with a piece of kitchen towel to expose some of the colour underneath.

3. Mix some quinacridone and paynes grey together to create a 'dirty wash' and paint it over the surface. You will see the wax repel it but take a heat gun and a piece of kitchen roll and dab and dry it at the same time to create these dirty speckles.

4. Apply a yer of weather wood crackle medium which will also be repelled by any wax residue, let it dry naturally or help it along with some gentle warmth from your heat gun held high and away from the surface. You'll see where it is from the shine left on the substrate.

5. Apply some more candle wax randomly over the surface - remember the places that you rub hardest will be the areas that should be exposed. Now apply a layer of titanium white. You'll almost immediately see some cracking appear from the weathered wood. Leave it to continue cracking naturally for a few minutes ......

6. .... then repeat the drying and rubbing process as in #2 above. I didn't get as much cracking as I wanted and I think there were two things that prevented this - one is I probably rubbed in too much candle wax and should have kept more of the area free from it and two, I overworked the titanium white when I painted it on - but practice makes perfect.

7. I finished by blending over some ground espresso distress ink and spritzed it with water ....

8. .... before dabbing and drying it at the same time to achieve a more grungier look.

But of course you could leave it nice and shabby clean looking as in step 6 if you wanted to and seal it with a coat of ultra matte varnish. To seal the grungier one use a spray dealer like the DecoArt Americana spray sealer.

Here's the graphic if you are pinning the series.

Products used are mostly from DecoArt - 

Tinting Base

Media Acrylics - Cobalt Teal, Yellow Green/Gold, Titanium white, Quinacridone Gold and Paynes Grey.

Weathered Wood Crackle Medium

These can be bought from Country View Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by today and for all the lovely comments you are leaving on the techniques each week.

See you again soon.

hugs Brenda xxx