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

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

Vintage journal pages and new Alison Bomber stamps

Hi it's Brenda here today and I'm sharing some vintage journal pages created so that I could specifically use the fabulous new stamps from Alison Bomber. I love using quotes on journal pages and Alison has quite a few sets of different themes - the ones I chose are the new 'Friendship' set - EAB10 from PaperArtsy.



The quotes are varied and beautiful. These were stamped onto media paper and chopped up; I inked the edges with ground espresso distress ink before adhering them to the page.



I started with a layer of white gesso covering the page before adding some collage papers. I then added scrapes of black gesso and more white gesso.

Some subtle stamping creates a little more interest as does some small die-cuts and a couple of tickets.

I finished off with the paper dolls with some cheesecloth and of course the important words that give the pages meaning and a story.

There are some more photos of the process steps over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like to have a go at something similar.

I'll be back next week to show you photos and the project from my workshop last Saturday held at the Country View headquarters.

Happy crafting.

hugs Brenda xxx

Stamperia patterned papers

Hi Brenda here today with a quick and easy card that lies flat for posting. I don't use my papers enough so I really enjoyed putting this together.

Using the Stamperia 'Time is an Illusion' collection ....

...... I cut two pieces to fit a 5 x 7 card.

I also took out my scrap box of papers and pulled out some that complemented and contrasted with the stamperia ones and cut and punched elements to layer up. I also found a piece of ephemera that fitted the bill too. I used several of the Tim Holtz punches which helps in putting a quick design together.

I always ink the edges of my pieces with a dark brown distress ink to frame them and to make them stand out from each other when layering them up.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Great cards using Collage Paper

There are times when you need some simple, quick and easy cards that have maximum impact. The Tim Holtz collage paper can do just that. Here are four made in one sitting.

To start I cut four pieces of Tim's papers 12 x 12 cms to fit a 5 x 5 card.

I then cut four pieces of the floral idea-ology collage paper exactly the same size.

The collage paper was adhered to the patterned paper with matte medium and I brushed a light layer over the top to seal it. The collage paper is very strong when it is dry, not at all like ordinary tissue paper but it needs some gentle handling once on the glued background then it does resemble tissue paper.

I think I needed more glue on the back as it didn't become as translucent as I thought it would. Lesson learned for next time lol.

I also think the striped background showed up more than the neutral text and picture backgrounds.

Next step - mix some white gesso on your craft mat with spritzes of water to create a watery white wash and dip and dry the cards

Roughen the edges of the cards with a paper distressing tool and adhere the background to the card. I usually blend brown distress ink along he edges but decided I wanted it cleaner to create a more shabby look.

I then glued them to the cards and added some butterflies downloaded as free images from the internet and a stamped greeting.
Here are the four finished.

For me making four cards in one day is a miracle - I just loved using the collage paper but be careful when gluing it, it's just as vulnerable to tearing as good strong tissue paper.

There are three patterned designs and one blank one for you to stamp your own images on and they can be found in the shop here.


Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

Working with the new 3D folders by Tim Holtz (1)

Tim always looks to bring us new innovative products and we now have a set of 3D texture fades / embossing folders we can work with. These bring added dimension and texture to the world of embossing so that we can see some amazing details in the design and patterns. At the moment there are four different ones, this on I've used is called Botanical..

I am not going to go through the general start up of using these fabulous folders as Tim says it all on this Sizzix post HERE. Watching this is a great starting point as he gives lots of tips, tricks and ideas for using them. I wanted to to have a play and see for myself how good the detail is and how I could use them.

I love creating collage projects so I took some heavy card brayered over with burnt umber, titan buff,  quinacridone magenta and titanium white before I dipped it in two watery washes of firstly burnt umber and then titanium white mixed with a very little quin magenta watery decoart premium acrylic paints ....

....  and then ran it through the ebosser embossing machine. I lightly sanded the raised areas and rubbed a tattered rose distress oxide pad over it which helped get just the right amount of definition and used it as a background for my cards.

With some Tim Holtz lost relatives and ephemera and some additional bits and pieces from mysupplies I created two cards for the price of one. Both going to different people.

Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to see any cards you make this way with the 3-d texture fade.

hugs Brenda 

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

Card topper or journal panel - you choose

Hi it's Brenda here today with a small panel or topper meaning you can choose how to use it OR just re-create the steps onto larger card for a laeger page or card blank.

Take a piece of media card and scrape some gesso over it and dry. Then take some of the mini Artistic Flair tab stencils - these are so cute and great for small projects - with a palette knife again scrape gesso through it creating random areas on the card.

When dry spritz little areas with water and with a brush dip some of the Amsterdam  Acrylic Ink Cool Grey into it, tip the card to let the colour swirl into the recesses etc. Dry and repeat with Burnt Umber.

Put one small drop of the Burn Umber ink onto a craft mat and smooch it into a smudge shape and quickly before it dries drag the card through it and the colour will transfer randomly.

Distress the edges and blend in ground espresso distress ink. The gather some little bits for a collage or add embellishments of your own and use as a journal panel or a topper for a card. I used a photo booth pic and a type charm with some of my collage scraps.

If you like this design you can find another made in the same way over on my blog - Bumblebees and Butterflies.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tim Holtz inspired background card #2

Welcome and I hope you have been having fun playing with Tim's new Distress Oxides. This is the second card I made after the playtime I had with them a few weeks ago which you can see here and here and if you missed the first, more feminine card, you will find it here.

This is what the background looked like and I love the rusty patina colours in it.

I gathered the collage elements together with a similar colour palette using Tim Holtz ephemera packs and papers.

And I made my own little cabinet card type frame using a round die and using tarnished brass distress paint on the edge of an old credit type card and stamped the stars with the broken china oxide ink.

The guy is from Tim's photo booth set.

I layered up the collage elements ......

.... keeping it all flat so that the card can go in the post easily.

I think that little bird adds extra interest and would hopefully be great for a dad who has interest in birds in the wild.

 The greeting is one I made myself - I tend to print out an A4 sheet of various ones so I can pick and use one fairly quickly. I just don't own many words stamps and sometimes they're just not the right size.

Thanks for stopping bby this month, I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I used the Distress Oxides.

hugs Brenda xxx

Bumblebees and Butterflies

Tim Holtz® - Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Peeled Paint Tim Holtz® - Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Walnut Stain Tim Holtz® - Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Broken China Tim Holtz Idea-Ology - Thrift Shop Ephemera Pack Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Expedition Ephemera pack Tim Holtz Paper Stash 12x12 - Wallflower Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Photobooth

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