Tando tiny mini album

There are some panels that come with the new flexible spined mini album and I've made one up and they are so cute. It is my contribution on the Tando Blog today.

I cut one piece from a canvas pad to make a wrap and adhered all three parts and left to dry and then just lightly distressed it with brown distress inks.

The pages were made with a hidden hinge spine and double, folded pages glued over them.

Once adhered into the album I made 2 panels using Andy Skinner stamps to finish off the look.

Make a hole in the spine and attach a piece of elastic for it to hold the booklet closed.

I simply added some numbers and a vintage photo to finish it off.

These are so quick to put together and would make a lovely little gift for someone.

Thanks for stopping by.

AVJ - Stencil It

I am doubling up on commitments with this project. It has become my contribution to Astrid's fab theme over at A Vintage Journey and also for lovely Lynne Gauntlett this month who was my swap partner for the Let's Be Creative May project. Our challenge was to make something no bigger than 6 x 6 inches with a link to a movie. Now I'm not a film watcher (except those lovely Christmas feel-good rom coms) so finding something that would inspire me for this swap proved quite difficult, but I was under pressure to get it done and in the post asap. I had been searching for a vintage photo to use for another piece I was working on and had had all my lost relatives pics out by Tim Holtz and one suddenly came to mind linked to a film I saw as a child when my mum took me to the Regal Cinema in St.Ives which was then in Huntingdonshire. Look I even found a photo of it. 

What do you think the film is?

I began by gluing paper pieces and a piece of scrim with matte medium and then applied modelling paste and crackle paste through two different stencils. By using the stencils it fits both sets of requirements.

If you look through the layers you can see some of the collage papers I glued down

Here is a further close up. You can see the blending of the colours that appeared when I spritzed with water and added the blue and yellow colours and I also brayered over white gesso before finishing with some quinacridone gold.

Using distress inks and my finger I rubbed light colours on some of the photo just as black and white photos were coloured up before colour film was invented.

The seahorses and starfish were die cut from left over distress inked card.

With all the lovely weather we had last weekend and having already been away for an early holiday to Lanzarote you can tell I'm in summer mode.

Thanks for stopping by. To see what the fabulous team have created do pop over to the AVJ challenge blog to see the line up for June.

Keep creating.

Abstract Christmas Art - DecoArt MMDT

AS my grandchildren said to me yesterday today is Christmas Eve Eve and I hope you are now ready for the festivities.

I have a Christmas canvas over on the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog  which originally started out as an experiment in abstract art and morphed into a Christmas canvas.

If you would like to see all the process steps and photos please pop on over when you have a minute to see how I brought this together.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Fragile Winter Mixed Media Canvas

Last year I made a canvas for the Craft Stamper that I called 'Fragile Winter' and it was in the December issue. I am at last sharing it here and over on the Country View projects blog with the process steps I took to make the canvas background here and the snowflakes steps on CVC.

Step-by-step…

1.    Seal the canvas top and sides with a coat of gesso and dry, wipe over with a wash of magenta, then daub modelling paste in areas that you want to stamp the snowflakes.

2.    Heat dry the paste until a skin has formed, spritz the stamp with water and press it into the paste removing it straight away. 

3.    Paint layers of crackle paste all over the rest of the background and some on the sides and leave the whole canvas to dry naturally.

4.    Lay a darkish watery grey wash over the crackled areas dab off any excess with kitchen roll. 

5.    Layer light pink and grey layers of watery paints, let them drip and move around, drying between each layer. Then stamp snowflakes with watering can archival ink. 

6.    Brayer on white and cream paints, dry with a heat gun and then dribble and spritz white watery paint through the whole background. 

7.    Go back into a couple of the areas of the textured snowflakes with a very watery wash of magenta to create contrast and depth. 

8.    Finger paint thin white paint around the pink areas and lightly spritz the white shimmer mister to bring coherence to the overall design. 

9.    Dab watery colours into recesses if they need it and splatter a watery wash of titan buff and one of magenta dabbing off with a paper towel to further help unify the whole piece. 

To finish the project

·         Seal the background with a coat of Ultra Matte Varnish.

·         Add snowflakes using the same colours but deeper tones so that they stand out. Process steps to make these can be found at Country View Crafts project blog.

If you subscribe to Craft Stamper you may remember seeing it but it's that magical time of the year as Christmas approaches and as I was asked to teach the steps at 'Let's Be Creative' last week, I hope to be back soon to show you the new design I made to take with me.

Enjoy the lead up to December, it's only 26 days to Christmas.

hugs Brenda xxx

canvas board - under the sea.

Oh my our sixth challenge at A Vintage Journey for 2017, that's half of them for the year!!!!

The lovely Nikki has chosen CANVAS for the theme and describes the challenge for us -

"Let's work with canvas this month in our vintage; shabby; mixed media, art journalling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk style. It doesn't matter how as long as some canvas is a dominant feature of your project. Perhaps you may use a canvas in the traditional way or use the reverse to create a shadow box? Canvas boards are fabulous to work on or perhaps you have some canvas sheets which can be cut and adhered to another surface."

As I'm still crafting from the sofa and chose to use a 5 x 7 canvas board that I love to work on and experimented with the doxide inks to create an underwater background. 

Begin by blending the colours over the board.

Flick with water and dry.

Blend the same colours over again in different places.

Flick with water again and dry twice more.

Blend with these two colours - spritz and dry.

Blend with broken china and spritz and dry.

Take the fish and seaweed stamps, spritz them with water and stamp onto the oxides to create this watery scene.

Finish by stamping the octopus onto card and painting it and die-cutting some greenery (I used left over painty card).

I also added some little glass cabouchons.

We're hoping you will be able to join us for the latest challenge and in the meantime |I recommend you pop over to the AVJ challenge to see what all the amazing Creative Guides have submitted as their inspiration projects - there is always an incredible amount of talent on show.

Less than three weeks now until I go back to the fracture clinic, I will be sooo pleased to get this cast off.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Small mixed media canvas - The Hands of Time

Just a quick, small canvas today - no steps I am afraid as this is a mock up for another project for another day.

Colours used are DecoArt media acrylics - dioxazine purple, phthalo blue, pyrrole red and titanium white media paints and primary cyan, red, white and violet media misters. Mediums are also DecoArt white gesso, modeling paste and crackle glaze. Stamps are from my oddments box and Andy Skinner's Antique collection (that I have had in my supplies for years lol).

A mixed media background ...

... with lots of layers and texture which fits in beautifully with the challenge at A Vintage Journey ....

... and a few embellishments ....

 

... don't you just love the crackle on the clock? Don't forget if you are using crackle there's a challenge with that theme over at Country View Crafts ....

... stamped hands using Andy's old, clear stamp set ....

 ... and quote found on the internet ......

I thought I would add this to Andy's Time Challenge which is open until midnight on the 19th June. If you enter you stand a chance of winning one of two prizes, how about a free on-line class of Andy's or a bundle of Tando Creative goodies plus the top 3 receive a badge for their blog. Just follow the rules and you'll be ok. Hope to see you there. I'm just gonna hop over and link up now.

Have a great week and follow the quote, I seem to be at the moment ......

hugs Brenda xx

Shabby vintage burlap panel

Ok so I've started getting back into designing and making at last, would you believe prior to making this small burlap panel on Sunday I had only made one project since before I went on holiday and that was five and a half weeks ago, eek how did that happen?

I found the panel in one of my ikea box units and the background had already been done with what looks like white gesso, torn TH paper with a gesso wash and some crackle paint through Tim's stars stencil.

The small star echoes the background and is an altered gem using decoart media paints and the vintage photograph is a free download I keep on my PC ....

 .... I used alcohol ink on a fragment to help make the face the focal point of the project.

 The quote is stamped from Simple Sayings ....

..... and hemp string tied round to add more interest.

 

I almost forgot the torn snippet of the brown card vintage lace.

Yay, I'm back in the saddle and starting to get the bug back again.

Thanks for staying with me and for popping by.

hugs hugs Brenda xxxx