Summer Heat Mixed Media Project

I am really excited to be a guest at The Frilly and Funkie’s Challenge blog where the theme is ‘Summer Heat’.

Sue is the hostess and her brief is -

“July brings with it the heat of the Summer, so for this challenge we want to see those warm colours in your project. Think red, orange, sunshine yellow and as an added twist you need to include a summer bloom somewhere on your project. Have fun!”

WARNING – LONG POST with lots of photos but you do get a tutorial as well.

I really went to town with the hot colours in the Dylusions inks range to create my background and I used a linen textured canvas board so I can display this through the warmer summer months. I started with a layer of gold embossing paste by Wendy Vecchi. I love this not only for the texture it adds but the gold seemed to shine through the layers of ink and gives a gorgeous warm glow to the finished piece.

 I added some white gesso over the top of the embossing paste, but I think if I did this again I would leave this layer out.

Then I got started with the sprays, putting most of the colours on wet for the first layer and letting them run together a bit – you can just see that I spray into a pizza box which helps protect the small area I have to work in.

At this point I really wasn’t sure which way up my board was going to be – blue for the sky or green for the grass?

But I added more layers of inks by spraying and heat drying in various areas and spraying short bursts of colour over another colour to get mottled effects.

To finish I stamped some texture stamps in both distress paint and fresco finish paint.

The shabby bloom was inspired by Paula Cheney and you can see her version HERE.

I used Dylusions sprays rather than distress stains and you can see how I made my version below.

Paula Cheney inspired flower

I sprayed really hot colours onto a piece of card and pressed another piece into it, giving me two pieces to use for die-cutting.

I used both the tattered florals bigz die as well as the jumbo tattered florals die and chose the size petals I wanted.

Using four of each of these three sizes I inked the edges with walnut stain distress ink.

I then made a hole in each petal and put the two largest sizes together with a brad and curled each individual petal over with using my awl.

Taking the water mister I began spraying each layer and curling the petals upwards and scrunching them as I went along.

I then gave it one more spray of water to make sure it was wet through and really squeezed it in my hand until it eventually looked like the photo above. Using a heat gun I carefully dried and unfurled the outer petals to get the sort of flower shape I wanted.

Next I took the smallest petals and did the same to them and then glued this little bunch into the centre of the larger flower.

Finally I inked some of the edges again with walnut stain again to give the flower a more aged and vintage look. It now measures 12 cms across.

The leaves were made in a very similar way using the Dylusions inks…..

…. and the Garden Greens bigz die.

When I soaked them with water the ink mixed with it and coloured the reverse side of the leaves.

I scrunched them, dried them and inked them as before and added to the board with the flower.

It would be lovely to see you over at Frilly and Funkie if you have time, but thanks for stopping by and thanks for getting to the end of a long post. Apologies to Fliss and Shilpa who left me a message when I inadvertently published this post last week. A slip of the finger, but it has it's consequences duh!!!!!!!

Thank you to Linda and the team for asking me to guest today, I have so enjoyed making this journal board and it’s certainly a project I will do again.

Enjoy the rest of the week and have some fun creative time.

hugs Brenda

Stencils and Texture for Frilly and Funkie

I was so surprised and pleased that my Valentine tag was chosen as a winner at Frilly and Funkie and that gave me the chance to be a Guest Designer for their new challenge – Stencils and Texture.

So here is my multi-layered collage that includes both of those requirements, lots of it in fact :0).

I began with a piece of white card, dictionary and music score paper and tore pieces of both and adhered to the card. I heat dried it and then added borders in both black and white to add some texture. I had already ‘planned’ the layout in my head so I knew where I wanted some of the borders to create part frames round the images. Once the borders were in place I painted a layer of gesso over everything to bring some conformity to all the pieces and heat dried it.

I stamped and painted my images with distress inks and then cut two pieces of paper roughly the same size so I could use them as  markers for where the images would go, and then I didn’t have to keep handling them as I began to build the layers further.

Next I began adding the block pieces of patterned papers’ cutting them to size and edging them all with walnut stain. I always like to do this as I feel it frames each piece and makes them stand out as part of the composition really well.

Once I was happy with the way the design was developing I began to add some tissue tape and then got out two of Tim’s masks and ‘painted’ decoart modelling paste through them, going over some of the patterned paper too.

I also used distress inks through one of Tim’s new masks – Lattice work …….

… and I used walnut crystal ink to splatter all over and drip over some of the textured areas.

The borders weren't stuck down fully so that I could tuck some other pieces beneath them if I wanted.

Then I glued in the images, adding more borders, lace and tape where I felt it was needed.

Now I started to gather metal trinkets to add as embellishments and I added a couple of little flowers from Linda’s shop. Once happy with where they were all going I lightly painted the metal pieces with gesso and stuck some of them together to layer up. I then adhered them into place and brushed treasure gold white fire over them all, this brings some conformity to them as they were all different metals.

Finally I stamped some Artistic Outpost words and used one of my own chatty words, a button, ticket and a glass dome over the #35 to finish off.

I made this piece on white card so that I could start a collage journal. I did a lot of collage oil paintings when I was at college (many moons ago now) and a couple of years ago I did a Claudine Helmuth on-line course in learning more about how collage works. Last year doing a 2 day workshop with Finnabair really ignited my passion for it all over again, so I am going to keep my samples and notes to go with them all in one place.

Thanks again to the fabulous team at Frilly and Funkie for choosing my tag and enabling me to be a Guest Designer, I have really enjoyed creating this. The Artistic Outpost stamps, Tim’s masks and the lace all come from Linda's Funkie Junkie Boutique, if you haven’t explored it yet as somewhere to buy from I recommend you go take a look at the fabulous products and competitive prices.

hugs Brenda xx

Red, white and pink Valentine

……… AND NO HEART

I took some inspiration this week from the fabulous team at Frilly and Funkie with their Valentine’s Day with a twist challenge and this is what came out of it.

A very tonal tag in pinks and reds.

I started by smooshing and dipping my tag into festive berries distress stain…..

… then brayering spun sugar and picket fence distress paint over the top.

When it was dry I stamped over using picket fence distress paint again with the text stamp from Tim’s Love Struck set.

I used some distress stain and distress paints (colours above) on the ribbon and stamped the Love text stamp over the top with black archival.

A chipboard butterfly cut using the movers and shapers dies was covered in worn lipstick distress ink and I then covered it with festive berries and spun sugar distress glitter.

I used my splatter brush with white paint on the stain/paint covered petals and the tag (thanks Trace for the recommendation - it works well) and started gathering the elements I thought I might use,  a cupid cut in corrugated card, painted white and stamped over, a strip of pink fabric like angel hair….

….. and started to layout and add the things I wanted.  I added resin flowers to the crinoline petals, gathered the fabric and when stuck down I sponged over some white paint.

Finding a plaquette with 14 on was perfect, I tied some stained jewellery line through the holes.

When I was happy with everything I cut some patterned card and used it to change this into an extended tag and stamped the sentiment using Tim’s Simple Sayings set.

Thanks Cec and girls for the inspiration, this really got me thinking.

Happy Valentine’s when it arrives.

xx

The Funkie Junkie Bonus Tag #2

Before I show my tag(s) I want to say a huge thank you to Linda from the Funkie Junkie for organising this great seasonal challenge and for providing us with such fabulous inspirational tags to work with. I seem to have lost the ‘need’ to join in general challenges but I really enjoy looking at a project  (like Linda and Tim Holtz provide), reading how it is made taking it apart in my head and then using it as a creative starting point to make my own piece of art. Sometimes I ‘case’ the ideas and design, other times I go completely off at a tangent but whatever the outcome I have enjoyed the process and learnt something about the art or myself.

I love the snow flurries on the edge die, I only bought mine this year, so when Linda used it on her last tag I knew I wanted to use it too. I started with that as my main inspiration but also her larger tag, making mine into a match book thank you card. Like Linda I used some embossing paste through a stencil and the marbling technique using distress stains.

This project also gave me another opportunity to use the clearly for art and frosted film combination and I heated the snow flurries border after I had blended distress paint over it to create some fabulous wintry dimension.

Like Linda I also used some small snowflake stamps and embossed them in silver both on the outside …..

……. and on the inside.

I also used Tim’s simple sayings, stamping two of them in pine needles DI and covering them with silver EP which created this fabulous look.

I cut up a size 8 tag to create the mini one to sit in the pocket.......

...... and am keeping the card closed with a couple of TH mini paper clips.

Linda has the full details of this challenge on her tag 1 post but in essence make a tag or card etc. and take something as inspiration from Linda’s tag for your own make, link this up to her post and originally you had to enter all 12 challenges by December 22nd to be eligible for the draw, but Linda is extended this with two bonus round tags on the 21st and 28th December and everything now needs to be completed by the 8th January. Linda is very generous with her prizes so you could win a $50 or $25 voucher to her on-line store ‘The Funkie Junkie Boutique’ and even get a 15% discount over January 2014.

That's it I have now completed all 14 and have loved the whole experience. Thanks again Linda you have  given me lots of inspiration and it's been such a pleasure joining you on this journey.

I shall be away from my work desk now for nearly two weeks, but I hope to be creating and making as I am staying with my sister. AS long as the lap top allows me to do what I need I shall be around.

Dream your artistic dream.

hugs {brenda} xox