The Gold that Glittered - Media Tile

Inspired by Sid Dickens
Another media tile framed.

Process Steps

1. Seal the board with tinting base.

2. With a small brayer very lightly roll on burnt umber and white mixed together,; repeat with medium grey,

3. Stamp text.

4. Take white modeling paste and a drop of burnt umber mix a little together scrape through a small area of a stencil, repeat by mixing quin gold with the modeling paste and repeat by getting different shades each time you scrape through. If necessary dry the surface of the modeling paste before repeating in a different area of the tile.

5. Sand and distress the edges blending in brown distress inks.

6. Take the mould and seal it with gesso/tinting base or chalk paint. Drip some burnt umber and quinacridone gold mixed together into the channels.

7. Finger rub some quin gold over the raised areas.

8. Give wishes of paynes grey and quin gold.

9. With a small piece of sponge dab carbon black around the edges.

10. When dry finger rub some metal leaf size over the raised surfaces and leave to get tacky for at least 15 minutes before adding the gold foil.

11. Add the mould and some words and frame it.

Supplies from DecoArt

White Tinting Base

Media Fluid Acrylics - Burnt Umber, Medium Grey, Quinacridone Gold, Titanium White, Raw Umber, Paynes Grey, Carbon Black

Dear Santa, I can explain ...

Hello from Santa

I made this stand up card as a sample for my demonstration session at Ministry of Mixology and I'm also using it for my project sample for Country View Crafts. Di at Tando Creative cut me the boards the exact size I wanted them and I'm hoping she will be able to make me some stands too.

I had decided to use decoart chalky finish for a change and for this technique I pulled out the brayer and had some fun layering the colours thickly so that I achieved alot of texture. Of course all the colours are opaque so we have to be careful where we brayer the colours as each one blocks out the one below, but by being careful and using less of the colours as we go we can achieve texture and colour. I finished this one with some subtle stippling using a natural sponge and then lightly brayered some white over the top.

I sanded the edges and inked them and dipped in some vintage photo DI before stamping with the chalky finish paints.

I brayered some white card with titanium white, titan buff, light grey and raw umber to achieve a light and slightly textured look for Santa's beard. This is the St Nick bigz die by Tim Holtz.

A shabby bow, stamped and cut out holly and some berries with a self generated sentiment and we're done.

I love the retro look to this card.

Thanks for popping in, how are your Christmas preparations going? We're still in the throws of decorating the bedrooms and have also done the dining room and changed it round as well, so I will get to Christmas preparations at some point!!!!

Take care and have a great week ahead.

hugs Brenda xxx

Products used -

DecoArt Chalky Finish paints

St Nick Bigx die

Seam Binding

Discovery - canvas board

Happy Friday

This board started life as 'let's use up this paste' panel. I had a mix of white modeling paste and sand texture paste left over from another project and just couldn't let it go to waste, so I grabbed Andy Skinner's fossil stencil and one from Seth Apter and just used up the remains and left the board to dry.

Once dry I decided to use this as my February challenge sample for A Vintage Journey where the lovely Jennie has chosen 'Special Words' as the theme for the month. With the stencilled ammonite shape and word suddenly a walk along the beach came to mind and memories of various places where I have picked up shells and discovered beautiful patterns and designs through sea creatures, footprints and the print of the waves left in the sand. So the start of my creation began to emerge in my head and I gathered a few bits together to get me more focussed in.

 The colour combination I have chosen was from a palette I found on Pinterest and I added grey to each one to tone them in with each other. As always by the time I had finished the background I had added more which included some cobalt blue hue and prussian blue.

To get some colour on the board I decided to use a brayer, I haven't used it much for a while and I used several colours layering over the top of each other to get this background.

Then I dribbled, dripped and finger painted in some washes of the same colours to fill in some of the gaps before brayering over with some titan buff and titanium white mixed together to lift it all again.
WHAT DID I LEARN? - That next time I will brayer the paints first and get the background colour on before adding the stencilled texture. Hmm I might be trying that over the weekend lol.

So now I wanted to highlight the textured areas, I decided to replace the fossil stencil and add embossing ink and gold embossing powder. Great but again WHAT DID I LEARN? - I should have brayered over the raised area first with a brayer and a gorgeous deep golden brown colour because the gold has touched most of the texture, not all of it.

So that's what I did with the number and word at the top with prussian blue. But no that didn't work either ....

.... so out came the fine brushes and the titanium white to add to the blue to fill in the gaps. Yay, more contrast this time. So I went over the fossil as well.

Onto to creating the feature and embellishments. First I decided to paint the shells gold.

Next came the little box and I got so carried away I forgot to take any more individual photos but here are some close ups. To make it work with the background I decided the outside needed to be blues and the inside the yellows, I used the fluid acrylics and they blended in beautifully over the wood and kept the rustic  effects.

At this point I changed my mind completely on the design that you saw at the beginning of the post and decided to carry the fossil shape further over on the board, I just laid the stencil down and rubbed over the embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder.

I rubbed a cornflower blue and the coffee archival ink pads around the edges and gave them a good blast with the heat gun before using an embossing pen to add some gold over the numbers nd around the edges.

I assembled the box using some muslin dipped in the prussian blue and adhered it to the canvas and glued the little crustacean piece on the top.

With an easel on the back this stands beautifully.

What do you think of when you read the word 'DISCOVERY" for me it makes me realise that I am still learning new things every day, it might be when I experimenting with my paints, inks and mediums, it maybe in a discussion or chat with a friend, it might be something from the tv or even better when I'm away on a trip or holiday - when I'm exploring and learning about the past history of the place.

Do you think I am now thinking ahead to warmer weather? I could do with some sun on my back right now but that's always the case when January is out of the way.

Looking forward to seeing the entries for this challenge and I highly recommend this post for some amazing inspiration from the Creative Guides.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your art.

hugs Brenda xxx

Harvest easel card

It's my turn over on the Country View Crafts Project Blog today and I made this quick easel card with a resist background.

It is a fairly quick background process, but what made it even quicker is the central panel was my test piece for the upcoming workshop on the (1st October details - HERE) and I didn't want to waste it or hide it in my bits box - I think it works well on a card.

Please stop by the project blog to see how I did the background if you have time.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

hugs Brenda xxx


Updated from CVC

I'm going to show you a quick background using DecoArt's Decou-page glue/sealer. I got carried away making an easel card on a canvas board with my technique practice piece for the upcoming workshop (details can be found HERE if you would like to see more about it) and forgot to take photos, but here are some using card.

I began by using a baby wipe to blend over a light cover of hansa yellow medium fluid acrylic paint. The canvas board I used had been sealed and I should have given the card a coat of clear or white gesso before I started and would recommend you do so if using card as your base.

Give the background a quick blast of the heat gun to dry it off and then brayer small amounts of the decou-page randomly over it.

Again heat dry, lightly spritz over with water it and still using a babywipe gently rub over cadmium red hue. You can see how the decou-page has acted as a resist.

Repeat the deco-page layer again and the last step this time using quinacridone burnt orange. You can see the yellow and red through the darker orange colour.

Finish by lightly brayering titanium white over the top to create a bit more depth and some added interest.

So here I caught up with the same steps I had followed on the canvas and you can see how different it looks. The canvas took the colours in a completely different way and the results are paler and more subtle. You can also see the linen texture of the canvas itself.

I finished it by inking the edges and simply with some autumnal berries and flower. I was tempted to add some background stamping but as I had done that on the mini harvest board I left well alone. You know that feeling - should you add something more or not??? But I was glad to be using my little practice board and not letting it go to waste.

A few simple autumnal embellishments and we're done.

I hope you enjoy having a go at this quick background and if you do, please let us know.

hugs Brenda xxx 

TOP TIP

Don't forget to wipe over your roller with a clean babywipe after each time you use it with the decou-page otherwise the glue will dry quickly and gunge your roller up.

Friends share coffee

Here is the third of my mixed media background cards, if you haven't see the others they can be seen here and here.

This background started as a bister mop up over which I applied crackle paint through a stencil and let it dry.

The colours weren't vibrant enough for what I wanted to I took a couple of dylusions misters and gave a couple of fairly quick sprays.

Still not happy with it I then brayered over a little white gesso lightly so that it mostly caught the raised areas, but you can see it picked up some of the coloured inks and created an effect I really quite liked. I gave it a coat of matte medium to seal it.

To finish off I made up one of Tim's take away coffee cups, added some collage bits and die-cut the friends celebrate words.

 

All I had to do then was put it all together.

Again I know just the person for this card.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #26

Yikes you know what week we are on????? Yep you got it, half way through the year (in fact that was last week as I am one behind at the moment).

We are all going away as a family in August and our minds are turning to the sun, sea and sangria of Lanzarote. I combined those thoughts with a workshop I did recently on brayering techniques and decided on a sea theme with a brayered background and I really quite like the end result.

I began with three dark, opaque colours of fresco finish paint using Leandra's monotone look.

I then added more opaque and translucent colours until I achieved this (and guess how many colours I used in the end - 12!!!!).

To get my class started on our workshop we talked briefly about adding household items to the brayer including elastic bands and this technique reminded me of a watery effect - so using chipped sapphire distress ink we got this - .......

.... and then repeating with snowflake ff paint we got this -

I also added some 'bubbles' using Tim's stencil and mermaid lagoon distress ink.

Next I stamped the nautical blueprint stamps using scraps of leftover inky pieces of card and cut out the shapes and names.

Finding a left over sample of the monotone brayered paint technique from the workshop I dipped it in walnut stain distress ink and began putting the pages together. Finding a shell stamp from an old Craft Stamper magazine, I added that and a tresaure collage stamp using white pigment ink.

When I was happy with it I actually added some journalling about our impending holiday in Lanzarote and the memories it invokes.

Are you in Summer mode at the moment or are you in winter mode (according to what part of the world you live of course)?

Well I definitely want to start packing now, but will have to wait another month I am afraid.

Enjoy your holidays and breaks wherever you are.

hugs Brenda xxx

 As always if you would like to share the visual journey collection you will find the code to add to you post here -

get the InLinkz code

... and I look forward to sharing in your pages through the linky below.

Thanks for taking the time to share your work with me and each other.

An InLinkz Link-up