Shabby Vintage Shadow Box Tutorial

Brenda here with another project for you during our 6th Birthday celebrations using more of the shabby hearts I made sometime ago for my daughter's wedding.

Process Steps

I started with the background and used a 23x23cm piece of watercolour paper and my trusty DecoArt paints and mediums.

1. Take the piece of watercolour paper, raw umber and titan buff media acrylics with a brayer to create the first layers. 

2. Dip, drip and dry with burnt sienna.

3. Use the Tim Holtz ledger script stamp and coffee archival ink to add some text stamping.

4. Take the brayer again and titanium white and roll over to lighten the background a bit.

5. Next use a stencil brush, more titanium white and a harlequin stencil to randomly add another layer. (Note the  bottom left is the part to notice as I nearly forgot to photograph this step and had started the dirty glaze in the top right corner).

6. Paint a wash or glaze of colour all over using soft touch varnish, paynes grey, burnt umber and titanium white mixed with a little water. Then stamp more text using white chalky finish paint.

7. Take the inner frame that comes with the shadow box and cut it down to 19cm square. Brayer over the brown and white paints again and stamp some text using a beige chalky finish paint to echo the background. Distress the edges with brown distress ink.

8.  I found a rusty key and tied it to one of the hearts with rusty wire.

9. Find some words or a quote.

10. Start to place everything where you want it and make any additions and or changes to the original design. So I decided to add some stars that I painted gold, then to add to the gold I found a little crown to sit on the base of the shadowbox. I also experimented with some gold foil on a heart.

11. Assemble together ....

.... and put the crown and wire in the bottom of the frame.

I hope this gives you some shabby vintage inspiration and mounting and keeping your work in a shadow box adds another dimension, especially if you sell your work.

We'd love to see your celebration projects over on the challenge post,  just show us what you are celebrating in your art and craft work at the moment. The doors are wide open for this challenge so please come and join the party.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

Neutrals Project Tutorial - Crackled Pebbles and Mottled Faceted Heart

Hi everyone, Nikki here with this month's project tutorial.  I thought I would share how I created my project for our current Neutrals challenge but also re-created it in different colours too! 

Here is the original:

The base of these projects is an 8inch square piece of MDF - on top of which I have added 4 coaster size altered pieces of greyboard (each 4 inches square).

Although it may not be obvious the coasters were done in pairs, with slight differences between them.

Apologies - I realise the text on the above image is not clear! My first step was to paint the surfaces - 2 in black and 2 in an off white colour. Onto these I then added crackle paste through my selected stencil. I went for a pebble effect but anything should work. Once dry I added Deco Art Antiquing Cream - I added white on the black coasters and black on the paler ones. I wiped away until I was happy and left to dry.

I sealed each surface with matt medium so I could add more paint without the antiquing cream moving, and added watery washes of  black and metallic paint to add tonal differences.

The blue version was an identical process just using varying tones of blues.

The hearts were die cut from heavyweight card stock and the creases burnished to make this easier later. 

I painted the surface with Silver paint and once dry created a resist using hair wax - adding in patches so as not to cover the entire surface. I then added black paint over the surface and allowed to dry naturally, so as not to melt the wax, before wiping away the black paint.

Next I created a watery wash of black paint and covered the surface before sprinkling salt over the surface. Leave to dry and then rub off excess salt.

I didnt add the salt on the blue version but sanded the edges carefully and emphasised with more silver paint.

For both I layered the heart on some altered circles / cogs and added flowers and a word chip.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget our Neutrals Challenge runs until 2nd May and we would love to see your designs. Sandy is here next week with our monthly card making tutorial.

See you soon!

Nikki

Addicted to Art

March Challenge Tutorial - Brenda

I am sharing the process steps for the project I made for the birthday challenge this month. I loved making my shabby piece of home decor and added a word banner I made to fit the title.

Background

The background paper was a piece of a paper mixing palette left over from a brayering session some time ago but the colours are so beautifully neutral and perfect for stamping on. I chose images that represent something for AVJ, the challenge and our birthday. The large gear represents transport, the whole idea of moving on this journey, the clock face is about time and that we have been travelling together for five years now. The typewriter is about the blog posts that we write and how all the Creative Guides share the running and workings of the blog including the communication between us all. Five little stars for the 5th birthday, a shabby border pattern for one of the genres that we like to use and see and part of a map that is representative of the fact that we are a multinational team and you our readers pop aboard from all around the globe too.

Candlestick and box

I used chalky finish paint (heirloom, rustic, relic, everlasting and primitive) and roughly stippled and blended these neutral colors over it and let it dry. Then I repeated with a second coat. I rubbed a little candle wax in random places and then stippled on everlasting, primitive and restore. Before it was fully dry I rubbed with dry kitchen paper to make it look more aged and worn and finished with three waxes clear, deep brown and white, rubbing some away with water before buffing to a beautiful shine.

I did the same to the circular board. 

The Tim Holtz box also got a paint job with similar colours and then some crackle paste trowelled on with a palette knife and when dry I edged with dark grey value 6.

Embellishments

I collected together lots of stamped, die-cut and metal embellishments to use to decorate the top and create a diorama and I made my own word banner.

The suitcases are showing we travel with our supplies and unpack them at every destination and the paper doll is representative of our fabulous team of ladies - The Creative Guides.

The word banner was typed on the computer, printed out and mounted on a strip of greyboard. I covered it with matte medium to seal the surface.

You'll probably see some other bits that were added to the project which is what frequently happens once I start putting things together.

I could have added more to the sides and the back but I didn't want to over do it - less is more they say and I think I have hit the right balance.

I hope you've managed to see the wonderful line up from the Creative Guides and there is some lovely work that has already been entered. You still have time to play along at the AVJ challenge blog, we'd love to see you cone and join in the celebrations.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Bumblebees and Butterflies

Destination Inspiration Arriving at Terminal 3

I'm so pleased that you've arrived at Terminal 3 with me today!  Autumn from SewPaperPaint with you to guide you along with the contents of our travel bag yet again:

Product - any ink or acrylic paint

Technique - brayering

Color - pale blue

Substrate - book

I was in the mood to work with my new PaperArtsy stamp set, and with its hefty size I grabbed a Prima greyboard tag as my substrate, adding the layer of "book" in the pages I adhered with Mod Podge.  I dipped my panel in Vintage Photo Distress Oxide to get an earthy base for my pale blues.

Next I brayered three similar blue hues onto my substrate, drying each layer lightly before adding the next.  The moisture from the paint seemed to pull up the DOX and blend it into my layers - what an amazing effect!  I toned things down a tad with a light brayering of white gesso.  

I added some DecoArt texture sand paste through a dotty stencil and it also pulled up the DOX - I was thrilled!

I had recently won a giveaway from Shoregirl's Creations.  She included these amazing molded caulk lace bits from her tutorial HERE.  Do check it out, as these are flexible and dimensional - a must have for the mixed media artist!  Thank you Esther!  I inked up my butterfly panel with DI, and layered over a section of the silicone lace.  

I stamped my sentiment on a leftover panel and did a wrap around on my tag.  I added a gessoed flower from my tutorial HERE.  Finally, I added a butterfly wing left over from the Mini Album I made for Creativation this year.  You can find the details on that process HERE.

Our Creative Guide's have offered such amazing inspiration this May...

Arriving at Terminal 1 we had S@ndy's fabulous journal spread.

And our last stop at Terminal 2, with Amanda's fabulous book.

All in all, what a winning lineup of inspiration this month!  I hope you've been inspired to play along with our current challenge, Use a Quote.  Perhaps you will be the lucky winner of the That's Crafty gift voucher!  Until next time, Autumn <3

We have a new guest Creative Guide -

Welcome everyone, it's our special invited guest week and we have the amazing Mark Gould with us today. Mark tours the country and venues teaching his amazing projects and loves the grungy style. So let's take a look at what he has made especially for our Create Within A Frame challenge.

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Morning all, Mark here and I am so happy and honoured to have been asked to be the guest designer for the Create Within a Frame challenge set by Julia this month. There is still about two weeks for you to take part.

I still class myself as a newbie to the craft industry and it's been an amazing and whirlwind experience and I'm loving every minute! I live in London and am a landscape gardener by day, but after a quick change into my cape I love nothing more than getting creative in my man cave - (with the help of my 2 cats of course).

My style has been influenced by many things including music, art and sculpture. I love mixed media and seeing how I can be as innovate as possible with colour and texture.

( I got my gf to write this as I'm no good at writing about me ;) )

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For this challenge I decided to go down the Shabby Chic route and up cycle one of the iconic Ikea Mirrors using Decoart's Chalky Finish paints and waxes along with their Media fluids and Media modeling paste.

I used a heat gun to gently melt the glue holding the mirror in and popped it out, Next the frame was given a coat of Decoart Media Gesso.

Using various stencils from Tando-Creative and some modeling paste I added some detail in random places around the frame.

Once the paste is dry the whole frame was painted with Decoart chalky finish Everlasting, I gave it two coats for a nice solid colour.

I also added some Chalky finish crackle medium  in a few spots, You can just make it out as the shiny spots on the frame.

Once the crackle medium is dry I applied a coat of chalky finish Vintage, the colour doesn't quite show up in this light but its a subtle duck egg green colour. You can see where the crackle medium is working as the white paint is showing through.

At this stage I added some very subtle stenciling using a baroque pattern and the light grey chalky finish Yesteryear.

Using a fine grade sanding block/paper gently start sanding across the textured areas and edges of the frame to create a distressed look.

To finish the frame off and to give it more of an aged look I applied a coat of the chalky finish clear cream wax, left to dry and then applied a coat of the dark wax. Once the dark wax is applied take some kitchen roll and start to wipe back to achieve a look you are happy with. At this stage it's best to work light and build up layers of the dark wax instead of going heavy straight away. 

I also added some stamping using a vintage script stamp from Stampendous and some dark brown Stazon ink.

For the inside of the frame I used a 4 inch canvas board and stamped it with a vintage cockerel stamp and some black stazon. 

I added colour by adding colour washes of Decoart Media Fluids,A watered down base of Transparent Yellow Oxide was left to dry to give an aged base and washes of  Pyrrole Red and Green Gold were added allowing each stage to dry first so as not to muddy the colours.

The canvas board was then sealed with some Matte Medium and then given a coat of Decoart One Step Crackle.

The aged effect was finished off with some Raw umber Antiquing cream to age the cracks.

Same frame, this time I added an old Bisque tile I painted as a coaster a few years ago.

Thank you so much to Brenda and the amazing team here at A Vintage Journey for having me play along. The projects I have seen so far have been beautiful and I look forward to seeing more of you playing along in this months challenge.

And thank you for stopping by and having a look at what I have created xx.

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Wow, don't you just love Marks's grungy shabby style and the effects he has created and I love the contrasting coasters in the middle. Mark resides at Spesh Ink blog and there can be found many wonderful samples of his fabulous projects and his class list. I have to say I am really proud to be teaching alongside him and Andy Skinner in Coventry this November, so if you are booked on you'll get to take a class with him and be wowed with what he makes. In the meantime it would be lovely if you could pop over to visit his blog.

Thanks for being such a great guest Mark, see you soon.

*****

As Mark said you still have a couple of weeks to enter the challenge and it would be wonderful to see you there if you are not already. We have had lots of amazing projects entered and don't forget a frame can be as simple as a doodled line, a mount or a proper bought frame, there are lots of ways to interpret it.

It is also a five week month for us so you get an extra Destination Inspiration post and next Friday is Tag Friday when we get to have fun creating a tag in any theme or way we want, so I hope you will come back again every Monday and Friday to see what awaits you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda, Mark and the Team xxxx