Journal panel - Brenda

Here is a small jurnal panel that I made to go in an Eileen Hull wrap around journal I made at the beginning of the month. If you'd like to see it you can find it here.

This project uses old stamps from PaperArtsy but also the fabulous vintage beeswax baked texture by Seth Apter and a word band by Tim Holtz.
Newer PaperArtsy stamps, Seth Apter products and Tim Holtz products can all be found in the Country View Crafts on-line shop.

Process steps.

1. Tear patterned/designer papers randomly and glue to the panel. Also add some tape measure washi/tissue tape.

2. Dip this in watery gesso and dry a few times until you have a lighter and more cohesive look to the background.

3. Add some black asemic writing and areas of light colours to match the tones of the first papers you used with oil pastels or water soluble crayons. (I used oil pastels, sometimes scribbling 2/3 colours together then I heated them with a heat gun and rubbed them with my finger to blend them). Also distress the edges and blend some  ground espresso ink around them.

4. Cover the surface with embossing ink and cover with vintage beeswax baked texture by Seth Apter and heat emboss. Repeat with a layer of UTEE.

 Heat the surface and add a little of the bone mixed media powder from ranger.

5. Rub a coffee archival ink pad around the edges to frame the panel. Heat gently to dry.

6. Now add a third layer of embossing and again I used UTEE and have your stamps and watering can archival ink to stamp into the molten surface. Hold the stamp there for a few seconds so the the embossing cools down a little before removing the stamp.

7. When it had cooled completely I bent the panel t get it to crack the embossing and rubbed white antiquing cream all over. It needed to dry for 5 - 10 minutes.

8. In the meantime I collected together a few embellishments together and blended DI and dark grey and burnt sienna premium acrylic paints over the metal pieces.

9. When dry I rubbedback the background to give it a more shabby vintage feel.

10. And added embellishments. The hooks and eyes are torn from an old packet I gathered from my Mum's supplies many years ago.

The scissors are flat backed and I added some paints to age them.

I added a little burnt sienna to the buttons too.

I absolutely love the finished effects. It's not at all how I thought it might look and I was very surprised at how dark the vintage beeswax embossing is, but mixing it with layers of clear worked well.

This will now be added to the journal.

Have a great week.
hugs Brenda 

xxx

Good Times with Wildflowers - Brenda

I have soooo fallen in love the new wildflowers from Tim Holtz I decided to make another card with them. This one is rather bold and striking, definitely not my usual colour palette.

Process steps

Spritz the back of the doily stencil and sprinkle over sunset beach infusions. Lay over the card panel and rub over with a dry piece of kitchen paper. Remove, heat dry and edge with age mahogany distress ink.

 Gather together some ephemera pieces to make a little collage .......

 ..... and adhere the flowers and sentiment over the top.

If I were to make another of these now it would take less than half an hour but the thinking time and die-cutting time (I cut 6 different colours of flower!!!) took me several hours to get it right. BUT .... I actually really like it now I've got it done. I hope you do to.

Have a lovely April.

hugs Brenda xxx

Bumblebees and Butterflies

Sacred Secrets

I was incredibly fortunate to join a talented bunch of crafters at the recent Andy Skinner workshop at Country View Crafts. I have found that the best way to put into practice what you've learned is to do the techniques at home. So this project is the sum of what I learned!
The original kit I used was the Sacred Secrets kit. The picture on the front of the packaging shows what's in the kit but as there's no picture of it made up then you can really use your imagination! In writing this blogpost I've seen that there's a sample on the website so if you'd like more inspiration click on the link above.

I started by making pieces look rusty:

1. Use a watery wash of Paynes Grey
2. Add a coat of Quinacridone Gold
3. Use a very watery wash of white paint
4. Add another coat of Quinacridone Gold

Then for the background (and sunburst up to step 2)

1. Paint the background generously with Chocolate Pudding
2. Paint a thinner layer of Caribbean Sea. When dry, sand and add a very watery wash of white paint
3. Use a watery wash of Paynes Grey and allow some drips

To make the frame more interesting, glue the off cuts from the cogs to the frame. Make sure it's very dry before making it look rusty.

For the heart I used gold paint and some numbers left over from the workshop kit

The finished piece looks like this:

Thank you, as always for popping by and thanks for the tips Andy!

Misted Ink Background

There's something really satisfying about making different backgrounds for your projects. There's a quick and easy background that you can make as easy, or funky as you'd like!

Simply draw squares in your journal (I used the small Dylusions journal block as  I like the wavy lines). It should look like this - don't worry if, like me, you need to go over a few lines!

Add some stencilled shapes. I used circles with a stencil like this one.

Then the fun starts! Fill a water brush with Black Marble Dylusions Ink. Colour in the background on one square and the shapes on the next, making a chequerboard effect. It's very therapeutic!

This is the finished effect.

You could leave it just like this. But knowing the ink reacts beautifully with water then I just couldn't help misting the page until the ink started to run.

You can, of course, use any combination of colours you like to make the background. Also, don't just do squares, you can use stripes or any other shape you like!
To finish this off I used the new Darcy stamps for PaperArtsy. I added a few gold lines and white painty circles for added interest.

Thank you, as always, for popping by

ATC inspiration

I have blogged recently sharing my gel prints and I just can't stop using my plate! Today I thought I'd share three quick ATCs that you could easily turn into a card, journal page or a host of other ideas! If you would like a reminder on how to use your gel plate, please see this post: Flowers are smiles

Using my gel plate I printed this A4 card in the following order:

1. Print a layer of Caribbean Sea
2. Print a layer of Snowflake
3. Print a layer of Granny Smith
4. Print a layer of Snowflake
5. Add Banana using the Tracks stencil
6. Add Bougainvillea using the Gothic stencil

Cut three ATC sized pieces from the page (reserving the rest for a future project!) An ATC is 2.5" x 3.5"

Decorate! 

This little chap is from the fourth Zinski Art set. I stamped the chap on a piece of white card and the ATC so that you don't have to cut out his antenna!

This ATC was finished in the same way as the first. The quotations on all three are from Chatter Design Tape - I cut the phrase from the tape and adhered it to the ATC.

To tie the three together I used a black pen to frame each ATC, white pen for the highlights and the circle stamp.

Thank you, as always, for joining me!

Gabrielle x

Faux Encaustic Mixed Media

Today I would like to show you a new way to use the DecoArt clear modeling paste and I am using some Andy Skinner stamps and an old PaperArtsy one too.

Scrape medium layer of modeling paste over the board.

Heat dry until a skin forms but the paste must not be dry right through. Take your stamps. spritz them lightly with water and press into the modeling paste to create texture. Add some inclusions to add height. (Leave space for your fish to be added on).

Either heat dry or let the board dry naturally so that the inside of the paste is totally firm then paint it with white gesso.

Use colour sprays or paint washes to add some colour to the texture and again dry the board.

 When the board is completely dry again take a palette knife and spread a layer of clear modeling paste. Let it dry - I left mine overnight.

This is what it looks like when you come back to it. The modeling paste has given it a milky almost encaustic look.

All I had to do was add some something on top. I found an old PaperArtsy stamp which I thought was quite apt as I hadn't put any fish in the water. As the surface is rather uneven the stamp didn't quite come out as crisply as I wanted it to I went round the letters in pen.

If you fancy having a try at this technique you can find the clear modeling paste on the shop website HERE.

I hope you like the faux encaustic idea and if you use it please let us know.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Artist Trading Coin and more!

Hello! I'm sharing some more adventures with my Gel Plate today! An Artist Trading Card has been around for ages - the definition might be: a small piece of art (2.5" x 3.5") that can we swopped (traded) with others. An Artist Trading Coin is the same idea but is 2.5" wide and is the very latest thing!

I started by covering my gel pate with Caribbean Sea and printing on two ATCs. Then I added Snowflake (the picture shows the blue and then the blue with a white overprint).

Then add a layer of Granny Smith and a layer of Snowflake.

Follow that with a little Banana and Bougainvillea through a Splotches stencil. Finally add Slate through the Flames stencil.

I then sanded one ATC to reveal the colour beneath; die cut the other one into a circle 

and edge both with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink. The coating on the ATC means you can achieve a really interesting finish when you sand it!

(Sorry about the odd colour of this photo!) Stamp the bottom of the circle with the line stamp (from Zinski 01) and line up the stamp so you can position.

Then I added a figure and a saying and my ATC/ATCoin combo is complete!

Of course I couldn't limit myself to just an ATC so I made a tag alongside the ATC using the same techniques.

Thank you, as always for popping by!

Gabrielle x