Mixed Media Craft Storage

This started out as a basic round large paper mache box.  

After Christmas I found myself the proud owner of several wine and storage boxes and decided that what better time than to use these not only to actually use them for craft storage but also as an extension of my artistic journey into mixed media.

As you will no doubt have seen in one of my earlier blogs I have started decorating a wine box which you will see in a later box fully completed and co-ordinating to the box I have photographed below.

The lid was decorated by using the same decopatch peacock feather blue pattern adhered using Mod Podge Paper and then sealed using the Mod Podge Silver Shimmer Glue.

The base of the box was painted using Liquidex Acrylic Basic Paint in Cobalt Blue and Daler Rowney Interference Blue Acrylic paint using the dry brush technique and blending together in areas.

This is now going to house my acrylic alphabet, numbers and stamps along with any small scraps and stickers which can be used in my crafting.

I was debating whether to add a peacock feather rubber stamp on to the base of this box either in black or white chalk ink.

I would love to know what you think?

Em x       

CHA Winter 2013 Purchases

Well only being a humble purchaser of craft products it was with much glee that I noticed that Create and Craft had been given an opportunity to visit and film from CHA this year.

I have been following many blogs and tweets especially from Ranger, Dyan Reavely and Tim Holtz but was not aware of some of the other amazing companies that go every year.

So a little highlight into some of the products I have ordered and am counting down until the door bell rings:-

Firstly from the wonderful and award winning Crafters Companion, I purchased the Stamp-It Stamps from their Australian company they are introducing to the uk.
I have attached a link:-

http://www.crafterscompanion.co.uk/shop-by-brand-2159/stamp-it-australia-2269/imagine-2270.html

The stamps purchased are Oriental Delights, Floral Fantasies, Dreamy Daisies and Luscious Landscapes.  These have been delivered today so I hope to get some of my card samples up for you to see very shortly.

I also finally treated myself to the pen storage unit, as I have not yet invested in the "speccies" and have the full set of promarkers I am looking forward to being able to organise my pens and also tidy up my current storage solution.

From the amazing Little Darlings Rubber Stamps how could I say no to some amazing images from CHA, on this occassion I selected Blanche and Zumba Chick and from previous sets I also purchased Candy Canes, Circus Trixie, Ellies Birthday, Isabella, Queenie & Princess and Summer. 

Again these are due to arrive shortly so watch this space for some samples.

My purchases can be sourced shortly I believe upon release either through Create and Craft or the website linked below.

http://littledarlingsrubberstamps.com/ProdList.asp?scat=36

Finally but in no means leastly some amazing products from Indigo Blu using their inimitable style to produce not only amazing rubber stamp images but now decoratable mdf shapes and an amazing clock for decorating using their well known mega flakes and other crafting products to create what I know will be awesome products.

Some of the new items I have purchased include the Live Love Laugh Set of stamps to as I was drawn to the bird image.  I have also purchased the Rococo Frame and matching stamps to decorate and finally the bird money box with blazing poppies stamp.  At this point my mouse finger said yes but my bank account said no.

I will post some of the images and creations I have made from this shortly.

http://www.indigoblu.com/shop/new-releases-c-321_323_347.html

I look forward to sharing all my creations with you shortly.

I would just love a lottery win wouldnt you then I could find a nice hot location with a stunning poolside villa and my crafting stash....heaven.  Instead I hope you are all well as the low temperatures continue to bombard areas of the UK.

Be safe
Em x

Sunflower Part III The Final Canvas

Firstly thank you for stopping by to see the conclusion of only my 2nd 8x8 Art Canvas.

Apologies for the colouring of the photo it isn't quite as dark in real life (late night insomnia photography).

So since my previous blog I added the leaves shapes using Faber Castell Landscape Green Pitt Pens and a Mustard yellow shade to make the petals pop.

Upon doing that I wated to add a little further dimension to the background of the canvas and to tie in the painted images to the background itself.

To do this I firstly used a dylusions stencil with the slanted harlequin design and stencilled through it using the yellow and orange pebeo paints.

Once this was dried I then felt it needed a little more foliage of interest so from the same stencil applied further leaves using a dark green pebeo paint along the base of the canvas.

To bed it all together I then did some over stamping using the cocoa brown archival inkpad and vintage number montage stamp in a few locations and also stamped some text in the cardinal red archival ink.

      

Finally, not only did I get my photographic act together, but I also applied a few finishing touches.  To the centres of the sunflowers I added some glue and attached both clear and gold judikins rocks (from www.stampaddicts.co.uk) for textural dimension.

The sentiment I wanted "Love" are Zig white acrylic alphabet stickers I purchased from www.stampaddicts.co.uk which I colour tinted using the cardinal red archival ink pad blended using kitchen roll and outlined using walnut stain Faber Castell Pitt Pen blended using a damp paint brush, and sealed once dry using Mod Podge.

This has finally completed the canvas for me as I feel anything further will be a step too far.

I hope you like this canvas as I am proud that I managed to produce it.

Em x  

Sunflower Part II

 

OK so as promised please find Part II of my Sunflower 8x8 Canvas.  

As you can see the image was composed of the Stamp Fusion Sunflower stamps from www.crafterscompanion.co.uk which were stamped using an archival ink pad, placed on a thin layer of tissue paper.

Then when I was happy with it I tore it from the sheet of plain tissue paper and placed on to the canvas itself until I was happy with its location before gluing and sealing it to the canvas using Mod Podge.  

Once this had dried I then used the Pebeo Acrylic Paints to fill in the image using the paint fusion technique, with the leaves overlaying each other to give a more natural effect.

I hope you like the current status of the canvas and would appreciate any comments you may have.  In Part III I hope to show you the conclusion of the canvas in its entirety.

Until next time.

Em x

 

Winter is Coming

The title you may feel for this journal double page A4 spread is an obvious one however, the whole idea of this page actually stemmed from the title "Winter is Coming" from the George R. R. Martin books Game of Thrones which I am in awe off and slowly working my way through, before the next tv series is released.

I began the page with a sprayed Dyelusion background which I left to dry for a few minutes before blotting off the excess on to a spare piece of paper to be used later.

I then used some of my stash of stencils to create the next layer using both the positive and negative images (again with Dyelusion sprays).

The focal images of the owls (top right) and robins (bottom left), which to me epitamise winter, were taken from Napkins (purchased at www.stampaddicts.co.uk), I seperated the layers to leave just the printed first layer and tore around the images I required for adhering to the page using Mod Podge Paper and sealing it after the napkin had adhered to the surface.

The opposing corners were decorated with a christmas napkin seperated to the printed first layer and shaped to accent the top left and bottom right corners.  This was applied to the page using Mod Podge Paper (from www.stampaddicts.co.uk) to adhere it to the page.  This gave the birds a setting or grounding but I wanted to add a bit of texture so when sealing the corners I sprinkled some vintage mica flakes in to the glue before drying and before sealing the corners with Mod Podge Paper.

I then wished to add a tad more texture, I did this by using a blue metallic ink pad and some bubble packaging and also some red circles stamped with archival ink using a section of a polystyrene packaging sausage.

Finally to complete the page the title - this was created by using white word stickers again from www.stampaddicts.co.uk which I then tied in to the page by outlining them in a blue Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

I hope you like the completed effect as much as I do.

Feel free to leave any comments or feedback.

Emma xx

Your not old your Retro

OK so like most card makers cards for men are a majority of the time an unexciting prospect however, this image and several others available from www.stampaddicts.co.uk enable your humour and creativity to flow.

My husband Ben turned a milestone this year, the big 40 - to me he still looks as young as the day I met him, just with a few more grey hairs but as I always like to try and hand make a card for him I decided that the above old turtle tickled my humour and inspired the retro back ground.

The Old tortoise/turtle image was stamped on to a high quality stamping paper and coloured using my ever faithful Letraset Flex markers and Pro markers, I then cut the image out and edged it using the light shade of the greens used.

The background was created using a Judikins retro cube stamp, using Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Meadow Green Distress Inks, the lightest textural background was stamped in light grey stayzon.

I used layers of coordinating green and yellow card and placed this on an orange card blank.  The number "40" was cut out on a cricut in the green card with the shadow cut in yellow card stock.  The sentiment is stamped also on the yellow card stock using the sentiment which came with the image.

Finally to complete the card I mounted the comical tortoise/turtle on the left hand side of the card using Pin Flair Glue Gel, with a shadow applied around the image on the background to anchor it to the background.

I hope that you like this image, feel free to leave me your comments.

Until next time

Emma x 

Craft Art Storage (Part II)

So as you will recall from previous blogs I have commenced using mixed media techniques to decorate and utilise storage boxes for my crafting products.

 

As you will see from the picture above of the completed box I used a mixture of cobalt blue and interference blue acrylic ink to pain the inside lip of the wine container.

The edges of the box were decorated Decopatch blue peacock feather papers collaged using Mod Podge and then sealed on the box using Mod Podge Silver Shimmer Glue to tie it in with the piece of paper used on the background of the lid.

This box is now the proud home of 23 rolls of my ribbon and co-ordinates lovely with the pastel blue walls of my craft room.

I hope you like what I have been doing.

Em x 

Happy New Year

This photo is of my first journal page of the new year, it started out on a non gesso'd background with Neocolour II Crayons applied in shades of blue and purple blended together with a wet brush.

I had found a technique in craft stamper that I had tested out in my technique journal that I wanted to apply on this page to seperate a third of the page for the date.  This involved layering torn pieces of masking tape of different thicknesses over each other to produce a border of sorts.  One this had been completed I was keen to highlight the texture and blend it in with my page so masking off the areas that I did not want to have colour on I applied Tim Holtz distress stains in faded jeans and tumbled glass and spritz other area's using the purple dylusions ink.  As this began to permiate into the tape I blotted off any excess using a dried out baby wipe.  To add even further texture I used a palette knife and applied small areas of Golden clear beads paste to the border.  Once this had turned clear, and the inks had dried to ensure the integrity of the border I applied a layer of Mod Podge matt to seal it all.

I knew I wanted to use a rubber stamp of faux string wrapped around some card/paper.  It just seemed to place itself to the bottom left of the masking tape border which I stamped in Cobalt Blue Archival Ink, to then make it look more like a page behind the border I then stamped the same image above the border twice as well before applying a faux shadow round it using graphite and a small wet brush.

The next layer involved stamped text, patterns and images in blue, black and purple inks. 

I wanted to add a further colour to make the page pop and settled on the light green dylusion spray which I applied in an assortment of areas through different stencil's.

With the Crafters Workshop wording and key stencil I applied some pale blue acrylic paint through in random areas.

Lastly the final layer I applied some Golden Crackle Paste mixed with white acrylic through the Harlequin background stencil.  Unfortunately this did not show up well on my camera but I can assure you the cracks give the pattern an aged feel to it.

I hope you enjoyed looking at the above Journal Page and the route to its creation.

See you soon

Em x

Celebration of Christmas 2012

Well I know Christmas is well behind us now however, I have only just managed to get my act together and photograph and upload the work I have been up to over the Christmas break.

This is a large A3 Landscape Journal that I decided to expand into to celebrate some of my achievements and gratitude over the seasons festivities.

This was in fact created on 27.12.12 and the two festive animal images have been taken from the napkins used by my mother with the Boxing Day Buffet and which I felt suited not only my mood at the time of creating but also the colour sceme that presented itself to me when creating the background.

The background started off with a gesso base and then followed with a base of cream acrylic paint in uneven numbered patches across the whole page, this was then followed with the same process using a colour called cotton candy which was more of a peach shade and finally darkened in areas using the pumpkin shade of paint.

Once this had been dried with a heat tool I proceeded to add some background interest using stencils and Dyan Reavely's Dylusion Ink Spray from Ranger in Red and a Crafters Workshop star stencil purchased from www.stampaddicts.co.uk using both the positive and negative sprays to texturise the background.

Next I used one of Dyan's stencils (again available from Stamp Addicts) this time of vine leaves and used a colourised crackle paste from Golden using the lighter green Dylusion to create the colour I required before using a pallet knife to apply it through the stencil on both the top corners.

The remaining paste however was not wasted as I also decided to put it through a circle stencil pattern too in areas to tie the green colour in with the background. The crackle is not clear in the photo however, I can assure you turned out extremely well.

Finally I adhered some acrylic clear stars on to the page using Mod Podge and then applied Flitter Glue and copper foil to create the shining stars effect.

The images of the animals were removed from the backings of the plain napkin and applied to the page using Mod Podge Paper and sealed using the same product.

Finally the journal entry was hand written on a  antiqued piece of scrap paper colour tinted using Tim Holtz distress inks in Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Tea Die inks before adding the text using a Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

I hope you like the result of this page.

Emma    

    

Creative Art Storage (Part I)

So with the aftermath of Christmas and the New Year I found myself the owner of several stunning wooden boxes that once housed wine.  They were so nice in fact it seemed a sin not to up-cycle them into some crafty storage containers that I could paint to match my craft room.  My craft room is a lovely pastel blue so I decided it would be an opportune moment to use the Decopapers I purchased in the Hobbycraft sale with a peacock pattern (something to which I am strangely being drawn to a lot lately).

As you will see from the picture below I decided to firstly decorate the lid.  To prepare the surface I put a thin gesso undercoat so that other Acrylic paints etc; would adhere to the surface.

I then proceeded with a watered down coat of Orchid fresco paint from Paper Artsy.  Once this had been allowed to dry I proceeded using the cross painting technique with Beach Hut Fresco Paint around the outside borders of the lid.  This unfortunately did not give me the effect I wanted so I added a cross painting layer of cobalt blue hue acrylic on to the box lid, this improved the darker patches to where I wanted them so I then added patches of Daler Rowney Irridescent Blue Acrylic Paint in the lighter areas.

When this was finished drying it still needed a little something so using FW Acrylic Inks in Pearlescent Blue and Violet I added further layers of colour and effect to the lid.

Once the last layer of ink etc; had dried I adhered the decopaper to the lid using Mod Podge and sealed it using Mod Podge Shimmer  Silver Glue.

Once this layer had dried I added some over stamping of texture using Cobalt Blue Archival Ink and a antique font stamp and Violet Archival Ink with a block floral print on to the box and over the peacock print to keep it tied in together.

Finally using FW White Pearlescent Acrylic ink I randomly used the dropper to apply the ink and let it run down the length of the box.  The letters are a clear white letter from Zig which I used to spell out the word "Ribbon", which can be purchased from Stamp Addicts (www.stampaddicts.co.uk).  I have one final touch to add to the lid which will follow in my later blog posting along with the completed box image.

I hope you enjoy this entry.  Only one more work day until the weekend.

Emma      

My first Art Canvas

This is my first attempt at an Art Canvas inspired by a DVD from Kate Crane of Craft Stamper fame and using my new (as of July 2012) Paper Arty Fresco Paints and the techniques introduced in the DVD .

As explained in yesterdays post, my delay in posting this is purely down to family priorities and I hope you love it as much as I do.

Further additional inspiration came from Lesley too which enabled me both the confidence and foresight to use some rubber stamps introducing a summer theme (from Joanna Sheen) and the amazing sentiment of Tim Holtz and those all important flip flop embellishments, I had been hoarding for a day such as that day.

As you can see the background was created on a pre-gesso'd 8x8 art canvas.  Firstly I applied the beach hut colour on to the canvas ensuring that it was applied in an uneven number of areas.  I also decided that it would be fun to apply the paint direct to the canvas without using a brush but my fingers which made me feel more linked to the work as I proceeded with it.  

Next came a layer of bright yellow paint again applied in an uneven number with my fingers and blending it in areas with the turquoise shade so there was no hard areas it was softly blended into each other and lastly a few odd patches of white gesso to highlight.

For my next step I used an old piece of bobbly ribbon and wrapped this around my brayer.  Running this through white acrylic paint, I randomly applied this across the canvas to create the white circled areas you can see.

Note: although the sides are not apparent I also used the above on all four sides and dried the paint between each layer with a heat tool before proceeding with the next to prevent a muddy mess.  

From the DVD and Lesley I have learn't that many layers add not only dimension but texture and interest so I proceeded to build this up using the following techniques:-

1. Stamping using bubble wrap and blue ink

2. Applying Archival Cobalt Blue Ink using a pen lid to create
    circled areas

3. Using a clear star stamp image (from an old Craft Stamper 
    magazine) in Archival Cobalt Blue Ink

4. Archival Cobalt Blue Ink applied using the edge of an old 
    credit cards edge to apply lines

5. Finally applied some copper paint purchased as a sample 
    pot from a DIY store and used the edge of an old credit 
    card to scratch this across the surface to create the patches 
    of copper colour. 

6. Stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment on to one thin layer of 
    white tissue paper using Archival Cobalt Blue Ink, tear it 
    from the rest of the sheet and adhere it to the canvas using 
    Mod Podge.  Apply Mod Podge as a sealant over the top of 
    the sentiment once it has dried and it will turn the tissue 
    paper translucent so that the background comes through.

7. Stamp the image of the two girls in bathing suits and 
    colour them in using Promarkers and the limited addition 
    summer set.  Cut the girls out and adhere to the canvas 
    using Pin Flair Glue Gel to give them dimension.

The final flourish was of course the coordinating flip flops.  These embellishments were in fact buttons and so to ensure they would secure to the canvas I first had to remove the back binding and then used Pin Flair Glue Gel again to adhere them to the canvas.

I have to say for a first attempt at an art canvas I was extremely proud of myself and the outcome.

I hope you agree.

Emma xx