It's Brenda here with a fairly quick panel which is now in my Nature Journal.
If you haven't seen the new releases from Andy Skinner you might like to pop over to the shop to take a peek at them.

Process steps

On mixed media card stamp distressed wallpaper as a panel using cobalt ink.

Dip, drip, dribble, splatter and dry sap green and cerulean blue watery paints drying between each layer.

Stamp texture using the enigma stamp with olive and watering can.

Stencil the word CREATE with cobalt and coffee inks.

Acrylic watercolour a couple of leaf stems and one bloom from the wildflower stems, distress the edges.

Assemble the panel adding a little piece of torn brown paper with distressed edges and the enigma stamped on it.

Mount it on kraft card and blue coredinations paper.

Thanks for popping in.
hugs Brenda 

xxx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Andy Skinner stamps - distressed wallpaper, enigma

Andy Skinner stencils - inspire

Andy Skinner Quick Grab Glue

DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints - sap green, cerulean blue, prussian blue hue, phthalo turquoise, carbon black. yellow oxide

Ranger Archival Inks - cobalt, olive, watering can, cfee

Distress inks - faded jean, ground espresso

Tim Holtz dies - wildflower stems

Blended background using acrylic paints

I love my DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paints and I have blended them for this journal panel using blending tool and foam.

I took quinacridone violet, cobalt teal hue and transparent yellow oxide which are all DecoArt Media transparent colours and translucent white which is semi transparent and blended them over a textured gesso background blending with a blending tool and blending foam and rubbing back with dry kitchen paper. When I was happy with the pale colours I then sanded lightly over the surface to reveal some of the white of the gesso below. Using ground espresso distress ink I blended around the edges of the card to give it a more vintage appeal and rubbed a little in the centre too wiping it back with a damp cloth.

These gorgeous transparent butterflies are from Tim Holtz. They are shiny and because I wanted it matte I painted a coat of DecoArt matte medium over it which dulled it down beautifully. I love how the background and particularly the text shows through.

I die-cut some wildflowers and used one of the photobooth vintage photos in my collage along with some bits and pieces I collect to use for putting my collages together. I also love adding natural elements to them.

The quoteid from one of Tim's sets of stamps called 'Nature's Wonder'.

I shall now add this to my 'Nature' journal I am slowly filling up.

hugs Brenda xxx

Bumblebees and Butterflies

Available from the shop

Tim Holtz stamps

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics

DecoArt Media white gesso

Distress Inks

Transparent Butterflies

Wildflower stems #1

Wildflower Stems #2

Using Andy Skinner stamps and DecoArt media paints and mediums

Hi it's Brenda with you today. I love using the Andy Skinner stamps and DecoArt products so here are all the steps to make this plaque.

Backing board

Using a piece of mountboard I sealed it with gesso, dried it, sprayed with water and quinacridone gold mixed, laid on washers with neat quinacridone gold on the back of them sprayed and dried.

Next I blended raw umber round the edges, spritzed with water and dried again before dipping in watery paynes grey.

When this was dry I stamped using some of Andy's Illusionary Artists Tech Trauma background stamps ....

 ... and then spread crackle paste through Andy's Old Film stencil (which I have cut into pieces) and left it to dry.

Later I rubbed in some english red oxide antiquing cream and rubbed it back to blend it in more with the background.

Arched frame

I took the frame from the Sacred Secrets set and sealed the frame itself and the backing with gesso, dragging a piece of plastic down it on this second piece. When the frame piece was dry I brushed on some white crackle paint and left it to dry.

On the backing piece I spritzed with water, painted on some paynes grey and spritzed it again before drying it, then stamped the arabian arched window from the Gothic Grunge set restamping the edges with just the wall parts of the stamp.

Later I painted in a little colour to give it more definition.

I took the frame painted on patina green antiquing cream, rubbed it back and then sanded and distressed the edges with ground espresso distress ink.

I stamped King Spook (from the Spook stamp set) on a leftover piece of painty card and cut him out.

Flowers

Taking a large piece of watercolour paper I spritzed splattered, dripped and dried quinacridone gold several times. I also dipped some steel washers in the paint and laid them on the paper to get the circular marks.

When fully dry I die-cut the tattered florals bigz die and a couple from the thinlits small tattered florals to make up the flowers. I dipped the reverse side in some water quin gold and then rolled and scrunched each one and left them to dry before unrolling them and layering them up.

Once I had assembled them I stamped using Andy's text stamp from theTech Trauma set and dribbled and spritzed more quin gold to give them light, dark and contrast.

Flourish

I use a bigz die to cut the flourish from bubbalux foam, daubed it with texture sand paste and a mix of quin gold, raw sienna, paynes grey and raw umber paints. 

I love the way this product softens and moves and can be formed into bends and shapes before it goes cold and hardens again - please be careful when it is hot, handling it can cause burns.

I lengthened the flourish .....

... and bent it to fit the space I wanted it to go in.

I assembled everything together adding some of the washers that had been textured and rustified.

It came together really well although this was not quite like the hazy picture I had in my head to start with lol, but I'm still pleased with the outcome.

I hope you like all the textures on this.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Vintage Santa cards - Brenda

Hi it's Brenda with you today and I have been using the fabulous Yuletide stamps by Tim Holtz which are available in the shop.

I made a set of 7 cards in different colours and I'm sharing the green ones with you today. The original set which are blue can be found over at Bumblebees and Butterflies here and I will be posting a pink and grey set on my blog as well on Wednesday.

These don't take too long to make and I'v kept them flat so they can easily be posted.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

The wonderful Visible Image world of Wonderland

Good morning, it's Jane from Jane's Journal here today and I am delighted to be showcasing the brand new Alice in Wonderland Visible Image release. It is being released today and is available on the Country View Crafts website here. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the stamp sets a few weeks ago, being on their design team. 

There are 7 stamp sets and 2 brand new stencils

If you have followed Visible Image for some years you may recognise 6 of the characters, as these were available a few years back. However every character now has brand new extra stamps with them and the words have been re designed ..making them perfect for mixed media work too. The characters are a really good size, easy to colour in and also to cut out. The stamp quality is second to none, they are really thick clear stamps which stamp perfectly on every inking.

Today I am showcasing a few of the new sets with samples I have made. You may have seen some of them already on Facebook and on my own blog, promoting the new release. I have put the shop links to the products within this post, just click on them to be taken to the Country View Crafts website. If anything is out of stock just add your email address and Susan will email you as soon as she has new stock in. Remember too that postage in the UK, for anything on the website is absolutely free.

Have you spotted the newbie set...

Meet The Caterpillar

Isn't he amazing...he is so laid back that he is nearly sliding off his toadstool. The toadstool and caterpillar are separate stamps too. I can see myself also using the toadstool alone in my autumn crafting.

Here is my version which I coloured with Promarkers, but any inks, pencils or paints work perfectly.

This is the sample I made with him...with a distress spray background

I added glossy accents to his glasses and spots for more effect.

Next up is my sample for the lovely Alice set.

I even shrank her using shrink plastic..she must have drunk that potion! 

I also used the distorted chess stencil (which I know is out of stock at the mo but if you add you email Susan will let you know when she has restocked) as the background. I used black soot distress oxide

Next up is the brilliantly Bonkers Mad Hatter

My sample uses the  distorted chess stencil again but in the reverse colourway using white ink

I love the little teapot with skull...full of magical potion obviously!

Next up is the White Rabbit..always in a hurry

This set has all the larger number as separate stamps..perfect for ages etc.
I used the time tunnel stencil too.

This is my sample with an Infusions and Brushos background.

All the number have been individually stamped and embossed. I also added glossy accents to his fob watch.

Finally here is the sassy Queen of hearts 

I made a mixed media wall hanging for this sample.

The playing card stamp is such fun to create with. I added a ribbon to her dress and glossy accents to the hearts.

Today I am sharing a step by step here for my very first play with the awesome Dark Hearts stencil. 

I masked the stencil into sections and added candied apple and  black soot distress oxide

I worked on the centre first in red and then moved the tapes over to add the black. 

To make this cool background

I then added red Christmas red stickles to the eyes for a very dramatic effect...

 such fun!

I decided to use this background for a Queen of hearts card but I can see this being used at Halloween...I have so many ideas for this fab stencil.

This is what I got up to with my card. I coloured the Queen and 2 cards with Promarkers, adding some shadows and highlights with pencils. I then fussy cut everything out.

I stamped and embossed some slices of cake and keys from the Alice set, the teapot from the Mad Hatter set and some fish from the Cheshire cat set. I used red and white embossing powders

and gold ink for the keys.

I also stamped out the just the words "treat me or else" from the Queen of hearts set.

It was then time to put my design together....here is my card.

You can see that she means business...you had better offer her a treat or she might feed you a slice of that cake laced with the magical potion..or is it poison?

She has those keys jangling too...ready to lock you up perhaps..if the treat you offer is not up to her royal standards!

If you think this is just an idle threat take a look at what happened to the poor fish 😂

And if you look closely those skulls are keeping an eye out too....from under her arm!

Here is one more photo

Thanks so much for reading to the end.  I hope you might be inspired by some of my ideas to make your own Wonderland projects. This new release is such fun. 

 I will be back to share some more Visible Image samples soon. 

Bye for now,

Jane x