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

Using Tim Holtz Bookboard Frame and Paper Dolls

Hi it's Brenda with you again today with a board I created during a crafting Skype session with some friends. I love the Tim Holtz frames and paper dolls and they suited the project I ended up making.

There were lots of steps to get to the finish line and each of us chose the next step in turn.

I also used mostly decoart products both paints and mediums. They are my favourite go to things to use when I sit down to make something.

You'll see I also incorporated some of Tim's quote chips. They are so easy to use on bigger projects like this.

I used several metal embellishments that had in my supplies and added some Tim ribbon too.

I found the dress form die-cut was hiding in a box, it is an die also from Tim. I used DecoArt texture sand paste on it before adding some acrylic paints.

|At the end I felt the overall design didn't quite balance so I added a little tissue tape and remnant rubs (the stars) to achieve the composition I desired.

I was so happy with the final results. I hope you like it too.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

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

Tim Holtz Crochet Die by Lynn Bean

Today we are sharing the Sizzix Chapter 2 new release from Tim Holtz, Crochet die

Lynn Bean has created this beautiful project using this die

Lynn also used the Wild Flower Stems #1, Texture Fades Embossing Folder, Washi Tape, Lace & an Old Button. Using her sewing machine to add some texture and Tea Dye Ink Pad to add some light watercolour.

Lynn likes the fact that it doesn't have an end cutting edge so you can make your lace as long as you like

Wow Lynn - this is really gorgeous, thank you for sharing. The die is available at Country View Crafts along with all the other Chapter 2 Sizzix dies

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