It's getting closer!!

 

It's hard to believe that in three weeks the big day will be here! It only seems like a couple of weeks  have gone by since summer!!

 

My piece for Clare Curd Crafts DT blog this week is a mixed media wall hanging, and with Christmas been so close I made it a little seasonal.

 

 

I used a piece of mount board as my base, and firstly covered it in tissue paper to get some good texture. This was then coated in a layer of gesso, and then lots of layers of acrylic paints. Some stamping was added and some bubble wrap-applied paint.

 

Then I added some areas of Flitter Glu and Mega Flakes in Royal Peacock

The small snowflakes and the robin are from the Winter Critters stamp set

 

 

My girl is paper pieced and then paint added to give some depth.

 

 

 

How cute is that robin

 

 



 

 

 



Brown paper and string!

I'm taking part in a Christmas ornament swap over on a Facebook page.

 

Now that my ornament has been received I can show you what I made

 

 

The ornament is made from a layer of paper mache, covered in brown paper, layers of gesso then acrylic paints and stamped images, finished off with some altered embellishments and a piece of string to hang it by.



A Sprinkle of Imagination Monthly Challenge

I get stuck in a rut when crafting as I have a bunch of 'go to' colours that I tend to use, so when I saw the colour pallet of this months challenge over at the Sprinkle of Imaginations blog I wanted to have a go as they are colours I wouldn't automatically go for.

 

 

I've made a small mixed media panel, about 4x4 inches in size.

 

It's a really grey day here so the lighting is terrible so I've found it difficult getting a true likeness of the  colours, but I hope they are close enough to the brief :-/

 

Those little water droplets are from a new set of stamps I treated myself to from Designs by Ryn. I love most of her stamp designs, they stamp fantastic, very crisp and clear, and the customer service is first class!!

 

 

Like the Phoenix she rises

I bought some old but gorgeous stamps from a friend who was having a craft clear out. She has always had a really good eye and a knack at tracking down stamps that are a little bit unusual and different. So when I saw she was selling this stamp I jumped in there quick as it is one I've always loved.

 

The stamp does have a cat on it but for my purposes I cut the cat away when I was cutting the image out.

 

 



Now she is a little saucy, and not to every ones taste so I will warn you there are naked breasts (only in rubber stamp form) in the following pictures.

 

 

The piece is on a mountboard base, about 12inches in height.

Layers of acrylic paints, stamping ink and alcohol ink and gilding flakes.

 

The bee is symbolic of the Empress and feminine energy and I thought it went perfect with this piece.

 

 

 

 

A special canvas

I love having a whole day to play at my craft table and today I got cracking early on a canvas, I showed the background in an earlier post here

 

 

Here is the completed canvas, which I am hoping will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Miscarriage association

 

 

The whole canvas is done in acrylic paints and then embellished.

 

The quote I found online and thought it was so perfect for the theme of this canvas.

 

 

 

 

The heart is a 3D polystyrene heart that I cut in half and then applied a coat of gesso, a few coats of paint and then a bit of silver leafing and some clear micro beads for texture. 



Work in progress

I'm having a lovely morning making a mixed media canvas, here is a sneaky peak of it so far

 

 

~x~x~



Short on time

I, like everyone else, run short on time. What with jobs and housework and family life  and basically life in general we can be left with very little time to indulge in a bit of crafting.

 

With this in mind I made a few sheets of background paper using Dylusion sprays so I would have them to hand when I needed them. I just sprayed a few colours onto a piece of white paper and let them blend into each other and then dried with my heat tool.

 

I needed them yesterday when I realised

I had to put together a blog post as it was my turn on the Clare Curd Crafts DT blog.

 

I was wondering what could I put together in about 30 minutes that was fun and would look good. Then it struck me....ATCs (artist trading cards, for anyone who doesn't know)

I really loved making these little cards but haven't made any for quite some time, so that made my mind up, ATCs it was then.

 

 

I just took a few stamps out of my collection, in fact these are all quite old stamps that haven't been used in ages, but I really liked using them with newer products like the sprays as they have all been given a new lease of life!

 

 

 

 

the 'Discover your passion' stamp from an old set by Indigo Blu, check out the great newer selection Clare carries in her shop

 

 

 

the white dots are done using the Inkssentials white pen

 

I really enjoyed these little pieces of craftiness, just perfect when I only have half an hour to play.

what a day

It hasn't stopped raining (not just a gentle downpour but rain of epic proportions) here all day and with today being my day off I didn't want to waste the day doing nothing so I put on some well loved tunes and set about creating a canvas

 

 

I used layers of acrylic paints, stamping, some bits of paper, texture paste and Dylusion sprays.

 

The bird is a Donna Downey foam stamp that I stamped in acrylic paint. I applied stamps, gesso and rub ons to my birds before attaching them to the canvas with home made mod podge.



Tin swap

My lovely friend Louise (better known as Zuzu in the crafty world) is hosting an altered tin swap on her Facebook page.

 

 

I've never done an altered tin before but I have done many swaps over the years, so I decided to join in.

 

My tin is a small one, and once had mints in it from a well known department store, but now it is unrecognisable as the same tin.

 

 

The whole tin was sanded and covered in gesso, then layers of alcohol inks, acrylic paint, spray ink and UTEE were added, along with some stamping and stencilling.

 

The heart embellishment is one I made from papier mache.

 

Inside of the tin was treated the same as the outside.

 

The birdcage I made from some wire I had in my stash.



Mixed media on acetate

This week I thought I'd visit a love a had years back, acetate! I have made many things in the past using acetate as the base, I just love the look of it.

 

I had the urge to make something girly and pretty so that's exactly what I did.

 

 

 

 

I started out with a piece of acetate, 4x12 inches folded in half (4x6), which I then put the right hand side through my cuttlebug to emboss, bare in mind this will then be the front of your card

 

 

once embossed this is what you will have.

 

Now to start working on the elements for your card. I used some Dylusion sprays to colour my card,

put some of your chosen colour into a pallet and use as paint

 

 

remember to use varying amounts of white to vary your shades.

 

with any paint left cover a sheet of card or paper, you'll need it later if you want to die cut elements to add to your card.

 

Now for stamping, pick your main image stamp and also a few smaller stamps with which to make a background. I used the postage mark stamp from the Crafty Impressions Explore stamp set , as well as a couple of others from my stash.

 

 

cut you background piece about an inch smaller all round than your card base and after edging the sides with some brown ink apply it to the inside of your card. Don't worry about being able to see the glue as you'll cover this up later.

 

Now for the front of the card, place your main focal image where you would like it to be and using decorative elements play around until you like what you see. Clare carries some lovely

elements you could use. Some great items to use are sequin waste, ribbons, lace, paper flowers and die cuts ( this is where your painted sheet of paper comes in handy) ( metal dies )

 

 

My altered die cuts ready to add to my card.

 

Once I was happy with the layout of the elements I glued them all in place.

 

 

Once the front of your card looks pretty you need to pay a little attention to the back and inside as all the glue/double sided tape that you've is visible, so cut a piece of card the same size as the background you stuck inside the card and attach this to the vary back of your card, this also gives you somewhere to write your sentiment.

And do the same to hide the sticky stuff from the front.

 

 



 

 

Having a go

Do you ever see something on your travels around the internet and think 'Oooooo I'd love to have a go at that' ? I know I often do. I first saw mixed  media cuffs a year or so back and immediately fell in love with them and have since then been wanting to have go at making my own. So as it's my turn over on the Clare Curd Crafts DT blog today I decided to have a go with some yummy items she carries in her shop

 

Now those of you who do mixed media know it isn't the cleanest of hobbies and I often have stained fingers, as was the case after making this project, so please excuse my grubby looking nails and fingers in these photos.

 

 

 

I started out with a cutting a length of grunge board that fitted around my wrist and I coated it in gesso then started adding colour, a mixture of alcohol inks and Dylusion sprays.

 

I then added a length of ribbon along the cuff using a good glue.

 

 

The quote is a stamp from the Crafty Impressions Explore set. I stamped this onto a thin piece of metal using Stazon ink and attached this to the cuff using eyelets.

 

The next step was to add the edging ribbons to the cuff. This was done using hot glue.

 

I also added a few flowers to the cuff, just to pretty it up a little, but you could add charms, buttons, anything would look good.

 

 

Finally I added some more eyelets at the back to thread ribbon through to allow the cuff to fastened

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do hope you've enjoyed this little project as I had a lot of fun making it and think I may make a few more.

 

 

There are some great tutorials on Youtube on how to make cuffs if you fancy having a go yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Three little birds

It seems I can only make a couple of clean projects before I'm hankering after something a little bit more messy and so I gave into the urge and for my DT project for Clare Curd Crafts this week I went for it with this canvas

 

 

 

The canvas was covered with a layer of tissue paper then after a good coat of gesso I added layers of paint, Dylusions sprays, stamped images, which included the star stamp from the Crafty Impressions Explore set of stamps, stencilling and rub ons.

 

 

 

Then my birds were cut from some lovely but very old Basic Grey papers.

 

 

the final touches were outlining and adding fine detail with a fine tip black pen and an Inkssentials white pen

Up, up and away

It's Thursday, so that means it's my turn again over on Clare Curd Crafts I can't believe how quick these weeks are flying by!!

 

I made a mixed media panel to share with you today, not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, I may mount it and hang it or I may just add it into my art journal, who knows :)

 

I've used the Carta Bella - Well Travelled Collection 6x6 paper pad and the Crafty Impressions stamp set both available from Clare's store.

 

The background was run through my Cuttlebug to get the embossed texture and then I layered up the acrylic paints and papers from the pack, decorated some tape and applied that and then mounted up my stamped image and quote.

 

 

The hot air balloon was great fun to make. I started off cutting a balloon shape from card then built up the depth I wanted in layers of tissue and masking tape. I then added the ropes by using a length of suede cord I had in my stash, over the top of this I applied another couple of layers of tissue, covering it in home made Mod Podge ( mix equals parts of white PVA glue and water) and making sure the tissue moulded around the 'ropes' 

 

Once the glue was all dry I painted the balloon and added the basket.

 

If you are stuck for inspiration pop over to the Clare Curd Crafts DT blog, someone is posting inspirational stuff on there every day.