Eileen Hull House Ornament Die Bunting

Hi Everyone, just wanted to share the versatility of Eileen's new Ornament House Die. If you've been to Country View Crafts HQ before, you will know how much I love bunting and fairy lights and as soon as I saw this die I knew it would be one for me and to top it all, today my sample made it's way on to Hochanda thanks to the lovely Katie Skilton

 A really simple project. I used A4 Vellum sheets.

 Each sheet cuts enough for one house. Before cutting I decided that the vellum needed a little something and used the Andy Skinner Distressed Wallpaper Stamp (if you've not already got this, it's a must have and very versatile)

I cut each sheet into A5 and this fits nicely onto the BigShot with the die

As this a matboard die and I was using vellum, I replaced the top cutting pad with a crease pad so it did not cut through the fold areas on the die.

This is my little pile of stamped die cuts - ready to be folded and stuck together.

I used some spare ribbon and cut short lengths for each house. Thread through one of the holes, poke the fairy light in and then pass the other end of the ribbon through the other hole and tie. This secures the fairy light in place and that is it. It is really effective in the evenings but could not get a good enough picture but hopefully you saw them on the telly when they turned down the studio lights

Susan x

Altered book pages for journalling

A friend had some books in her car ready for the charity shop the other day and one was A Country Diary birthday book, certainly not old at all but the illustrations are all of flowers and are hand painted prints so I decided to take it off her hands and have a play at using some of the gorgeous flower designs in some journal pages.

This is the first one stuck into my nature journal.

       

To age the illustration I stamped with some text and gave it a light coat of watery gesso and distressed the torn edges.

I painted some of the Tim Holtz wildflower stems .....

.... and drew round one of Tim's transparent butterflies on watercolour paper, dipped it in some pinky paint washes, glued them together then covered the surface with glue to make it matte. I also added a Tim Holtz crochet die border and a quote.

Altering book pages is a great way to get an initial start to a journal page and then add your embellishments to add more interest and finish it off with a good quote.

I hope you enjoy trying your own pages like this.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz wildflowers die and crochet die

Tim Holtz stamps Nature's Wonder

Tim Holtz Transparent acetate wings

Seth Apter Stamp Storage Box

An upcycled storage box 

To celebrate the launch of the new Seth Apter stamps from Paperartsy, I have upcycled a fruit box. We had this mdf cherry box lying around at Country View Crafts headquarters, and it was calling out for a bit of Seth treatment. 

I started off by priming it in DecoArt black chalk paint. You could also use the black gesso or any black acrylic paint. The box had a plasticy finish so the chalk paint was ideal to cover this. Then I dry brushed a couple of Paperartsy Fresco chalk paints in Double Denim and Chalk

….and printed a few more layers with textured wallpaper. (Glacier Ice, Butternut and Double Denim). As with most of Seth’s style, it’s all about the layers!

Then came a bit of stencilling with some brighter colours to add even more texture. (Butternut, Magic Moss and Blue Lagoon)

So...here are the new stamps! They’re all mini’s, so ideal for layering up and adding little bits of interest. (From here) I used black, orange, turquoise and white ink to stamp in some more details.

I then painted a layer of mat medium, to protect all the layers and also so that if I smudged the stamping with Versafine, it's easy to wipe off without damaging the layers underneath. Lastly, I used EM44 and EM45 to add some focal points with embossing powder, using Emerald Creek Baked Texture Patina Oxide and Rustic Indigo. Also Ranger fine copper and black detail.

And here's the finished box - 

As we needed somewhere to keep all the new stock, the fruit crate makes a perfect container!

I hope you feel inspired to do a bit of upcycling! Thanks for visiting,

Celia  x

AT Squares and Box

  

AT Squares and Box

Hi, it's Celia here. Today I'm trying out the Artist Trading Squares from Creative Expressions. (here) They are made from thin mdf, so they are light yet sturdy and will take a lot of products. There is also a dinky little box to keep them in! (here)

For the first square, I painted it in black Decoart gesso then dabbed on Andy's new Lava Paste, dabbing it on thickly with a pallet knife. Then I made a few circles with bottle lids and sprinkled on a few of the new embossing powders (Super Nova and Funky Cold Patina) and also some by Ranger. I also pressed in a washer while the paste was still wet. All kinds of magic happens when this is heated up - I never tire of watching it!

I should really have embossed the washer first, but I got round this by painting on Emboss It Dabber and sprinkling on some bronze powder.

 Then I went in with some other colours (Decoart Dioxadine purple, PaperArtsy Spanish Mulberry)and some of the Decoart Metallic Lustres to make it nice and shiny. I finished this off with a smaller washer that I embossed with the Funky Cold Patina.

For the next square, I stuck on the steam punk cat from Antonis's Stamperia Paper and added a few bits of torn paper for extra interest. I grunged it up a bit with ink pads and some stamping then added a couple of coats of Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax baked texture powder. While it was still hot, I sprinkled a few other colours of embossing powder.

For the last square, I went a bit shabby chic. I gave it a base coat of PaperArtsy Chalk, then a layer of Stamperia Turche Indiano, wiped back while it's still wet. Then a wash of Decoart Prussian Blue. I  used Tim Holtz' Entomology stamps set, with the text stamped in Watering Can. I decided to do the bee in black detail embossing powder so it would stand out well, then added a few bits of Decoart interference paints and some gold paste round the edges.

The box is first primed in black, avoiding the tabs, and then assembled with Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue. This held the mdf well and set nice and strong. 

Then I stencilled some Decoart crackle paste through a background stencil. This might have been better done before assembly, as I had to wait for each side to dry! I threw on lots of washes of Decoart fluid acrylics in purples, turquoises and Interference paints. 

I wanted to make the crackle paste bits darker so I brayered over some Dylusions purple and a turquoise paint. I finished it with some gold gilding paste, some Decoart metallic lustres and a few blobs of gold embossing powder round the edges. To finish, I added a Tim Holtz Adornments butterfly that I coloured with alcohol inks.






So here are the finished squares, which sit quite happily in their little box. I hope you feel inspired to have a go at some AT squares!

Celia  x

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

A Fabulous Weekend At Country View Crafts by Sue

Good morning and happy Bank Holiday Monday. A week ago I made my first trip to Country View Towers for a weekend of workshops with the fabulous Antonis Tzanidakis  These were such fun and friendly classes and I learned loads of new techniques, (which I'm not going to share as Antonis is still teaching them) These are my projects.

This was Saturday and we made an altered A5 hardbacked book. All of the stamps, stencils, and papers are from Antonis' own range at Stamperia, and are available in the CVC shop. If they are not there at the moment it's because all of us ladies and gentlemen (yes crafting isn't just for the girlies) swooped on them on the day, but they are on order so keep checking as you NEED everything.

Look at these gorgeous papers from the Mechanical Fantasy collection - they are amazing!

All of this stiching was done by hand which was quite hard at the time, but we all agreed that it was worth it in the end! When we'd all finished our stitching it was time for lunch - Antonis had discovered the delights of the Tesco Meal Deal so he couldn't wait for his lol.

The inside of the book also held a secret, this is another page from the Mechanical Fantasy pad and the stamps are Steampunk News and Mixed Media Gears.

On to Sunday when we made this beauty. It's HUGE, it needed it's own car seat on the way home.

 This is made with lots of lovely Stamperia mediums. There's  modelling paste, texture sand paste, and crackle in there, and the Spiders Web stencil is a must have.

 Loads more stencilling, and a wonderful chipboard house and gears made this such a fun piece to make.

And just to prove that I was there here's me with the man himself. 

A huge thank you to Susan and her family, I had a brilliant time, caught up with some old friends, met some lovely new ones, and the great news is I get to do it all over again next year 'cos Antonis is back in May 2020.

My teamie Miriam will be here soon showing you her amazing project, so keep checking back.

Have a very happy bank holiday, and thanks so much for looking x