First Wanderlust Challenge

Hi all,

What a few months its been, Christmas, moving my Mum from the North East of England to be with my sister and I and a lovely chest infection, oh the joys of winter.

Anyway now that all that is settled I am back to creating in my craft room, sigh of contentment!

My friends and I are participating in Wanderlust 2016 and the first challenge has been posted.  The stimulus was 'Sometimes what you are most afraid of is the very thing that will set you free'

I wasn't very sure what I was going to do until it happened, so here we are:

I added some texture using Golden extra heavy gel, then a coat of gesso to give a little tooth.  Once dry I added mixture of Golden acrylic satin glazing liquid and Golden open acrylic paint, quinacridone nickel azo gold over the surface and rubbed most back off using baby wipes.

I then stencilled another dress form with wings using Prima white crackle glaze and left it to dry and do its magic!  Once nicely cracked I added a 'dirty' wash to highlight the cracks.  I also added little patches of stencilling to the background.  I die cut a dress form and added a little Prima graphite texture paste by dabbing a little here and there. once dry I painted it with DeccoArt quinacridone gold to make it 'rusty'

The wings were die cut using the Tim Holtz Layered Wings die out of Kraft Card.  These were painted with gesso and then the edges distressed and then layered up and set aside to dry.

I edged the page with some of the graphite texture paste and, when dry added the quinacridone over the top of the paste and faded it into the page.  A few splatters of Dylusions Postbox red spray ink finished the page.

I added the text I had printed using an image transfer technique and I'm done!

I hope that now I can get back to regular posts and creations and look forward to the next few months with glee!

Lyn

DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge

Hi all,

Well what with holidays, chest infections and asthma attacks I have had an interesting few weeks, but I'm back now, soooooooo - on with the show.

The challenge was to create something spooky for Halloween using DecoArts products so I decided to do something like a Victorian display case.

Unfortunately the glass dome is really reflective so its hard to see through because of the reflections,so here is a photo of the inside

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To start I cut a large circle of black card to fit the base of the dome to build the scene on.  I die cut Tim Holtz Branch Tree and the D Lites Wrought Iron die twice and also the D Lites Filigree cross die once.  I used a window die to draw round for the tomb stones.    I then made a half coffin from black card and added the letters RIP from the Tim Holtz Spooktacular Decorative Strip.  

This was then painted with raw umber antiquing cream, left to dry then wiped with a damp baby wipe, this gave it a great dusty appearance.  I had a plastic skeleton which I painted with Titan Buff and left to dry,  then added a layer of raw umber antiquing cream let dry again and then wiped with a baby wipe to leave some nice dark shadows.  The skeleton was given a black card top hat with some spiders web and added to the coffin as if it was climbing out.

The grave stones were painted with a mix of white gesso, dark chocolate, paynes grey, and evergreen DecoArt paint in a sploggy sort of way to look like old stone.  One of the trees was given a coat of transparent crackle glaze and after the cracks appeared a little white gesso was rubbed over the top.  For some reason this made the tree go slightly purple but I quite liked that so I decided to go with it.  This tree was mounted slightly off centre onto the other die cut tree and added to the base.

The two fence pieces  and the cross were sploged with paynes grey and white gesso randomly then given a coat of quinacridone gold to give them a rusty look.  The fence was added at the back of the base behind the tree, and the cross behind the coffin.

To make the rough grass I tore some strips of muslin and sprayed them with carbon black and yellow green mixed media mister but to tone it down a bit I also added some grey and brown from another make (sorry).  The muslin was added to the base by scrunching the fabric and gluing it down as I went along.

The base of the dome was covered in white modelling paste and dried with a heat gun to form a skin, then a damp stamp was pressed into the surface, I used a crack stamp and a text stamp, and then set aside to dry.  A coat of Titan Buff was applied and allowed to dry then a coat of raw umber antiquing cream was added on top.  Once dry this was rubbed with a damp baby wipe to reveal the titan buff under coat.

The dome was also given a spooky makeover.  I stencilled some bats onto the inside of the glass, as the dome was curved I needed to stencil some bats onto my non stick craft sheet and when they were dry I peeled them off carefully and added them to the curved part of the dome.  I then made a moon stencil and made some gold stencil paste by adding some metallic gold fluid acrylic paint to the white stencil paste, and added the moon to the outside of the glass behind the bats.

To add a little more atmosphere I added some clouds on the outside of the glass with white stencil paste.

Well there you have it my halloween extravaganza, and as anyone who has visited my blog before will tell you..... my daughter has already claimed this piece for her student house in Chichester!

Oh well

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 34

Hi All

Oh dear I'm so sad its the final challenge, I've had a blast doing these challenges and have definitely been pushed out of my comfort zone at times.  This is a good thing.  Also many many thanks to all those who have commented on my creations I really appreciate that you have taken the time in this busy world to do that.....Thank you.

Anyhoo!  (before I start sniffling)  on to the last challenge:

A Journal page.  I was sorting out the pile of 'scrap' pages I had on my workspace, you know the ones.  The ones from cleaning brayers, cleaning stencil brushes, trying out paint colours, where you think I quite like that I'll save it and use it later.........and never do!  Well now I have used a small amount of the humungous pile, but its a start!

I tore the papers into small pieces and added some Tim Holtz tissue paper and also some tissue that has lovely maps on it (sorry cannot remember where that came from) and covered a double page spread in my journal.  I then covered it with gesso to even it out a little and moved the gesso around so some of the colour was stronger in some areas.

I then began the required technique using page 48 of The Compendium of Curiosities.  The colours I used were ripe persimmon, mermaid lagoon and cracked pistachio, and the stencils were Tim Holtz harlequin, honeycomb and burlap.

Ohh that came out quite bright so I decided to tone it down a bit by edging with black archival ink and a blending tool and adding some stencilling using both black archival ink and white gesso.  The stencils used for this were Tim Holtz schoolhouse and splatters.  I also used a Memory Box stencil rings and puddles to get some smaller splatters.

Next I tore a page from an old dictionary, making sure there were no naughty words of course, and tore this into strips long ways.  These were inked with Walnut stain distress ink and added to the middle of the layout.

For the focal point of my layout I used The Art of Brett Weldele stamp set from Stampers Anonymous.  I stamped the lady, the wings and the rose onto tissue paper and painted them from behind with Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints.  I dried them with a heat gun to ensure the paint was really dry and then put a coat of white gesso on the back to make the colours stand out.  These were then added to the layout using Slap it on Matt from IndegoBlu.  I then stamped the sentiment directly onto the layout using black archival ink.

As usual you need to check out Linda Ledbetters blog to see the great work that the Curiosity Crew have done for this challenge.  They have shown us such wonderful examples for all the challenges, so much inspiration, thank you ladies.

Also a big thank you to The Funkie Junkie for sponsoring this challenge,  and all the other even numbered challenges, thanks guys.

I hope that some of you will pop over to my blog in the future as I will still be getting messy and playing with paper , paint, ink and anything else that I can think of.  It would be nice to hear from you.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 33

Hi all,

Well here we are just arrived back from a fabulous 2 week holiday on a Mediterranean Cruise.  Two weeks of sun, seas and new places, and a few cocktails!  The last few days I was thinking of what to do for this challenge and I think this one came after a few of my favourite Pear-Melon Martinis.

I made the Top Hat from some of the Fleather that I used in challenge 24, this time using an A4 embossing folder from X-cut called delicate flourishes.

I then prepared my altered surfaces as per page 45 of the Compendium of Curiosities:

Yes you may have noticed that I overheated the word on the right but I quite like it, its a little quirky, like me!

I then added some ribbon round the hat and added a nice red feather.  The rose and wording were added on top.

As its now Tuesday evening I have kept this post short and to the point, unlike usual.

Pop over to Linda Ledbetters' blog to see the stunning work of the Curiosity Crew, they really rocked this challenge.  Also many thanks to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 32

Hi all

Frosted film this time.  I have a small (?) stack of 'things' to alter including some mirrors from a certain Swedish superstore so this is what I chose for my project.

 To start the frame I sanded the whole thing and then wiped the dust off.  I then covered the frame with various tissue tapes and masked off the mirror.

I then gave the whole frame a coating of Fresco Finish chalk paint by PaperArtsy in buff, stone and haystack.  Once this was dry I liked the colour but it was too pale.  I forgot to photograph this, sorry.  I decided that distress ink was the way to go so went in with fossilised amber, twisted citron and shabby shutters.  A quick blast with a heat gun to dry this and then a small amount of walnut stain distress ink found the edges and round the mirror, again dried with a heat gun.

Then using the technique on page 59 of The Compendium of Curiosities I cut the elements for my lilies using the Tonic die Oriental Lily.  This die cuts the individual petals and leaves so I could shape them and then construct my flowers.  The butterfly is Tim's Layered butterfly die and embossing folder.

I coloured the petals with Sepia Ranger Archival ink and Sunshine yellow Ranger Adirondack pigment ink, the leaves with Archival ink in olive and aquamarine and the butterfly using archival ink in aquamarine and blue violet.  The markings of the butterfly were coloured with pro markers.

             

I stamped some scrolls onto the frame using second generation black archival ink with a Creative Expressions stamp set called Scrolls and added die cut scrolls in gold mirri card over the top.  These were cut with the Tonic Royal Fern set of dies.  Some of the die cuts had lovely spirals as part of the 'waste' so I used two of these for the antenna of the butterfly and the rest under the butterfly.

I then added some random stamping over the whole frame using a variety of my Tim Holtz stamp sets.  I used second or even third generation stamping for this as I didn't want it to be too dark.  I then placed the flowers and butterfly ion the frame and felt I needed a edge to them so I also gilded the edge of the frame to hide any parts I may have missed with the tissue tape, wonderful stuff gilding wax!

             

There are some wonderful, and patriotic, examples on Linda Lebetters' blog so pop on over for some great inspiration.  Many thanks to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 31

Hi all

During a visit to 'The Spirit of Christmas' last November, a craft fair specialising in Christmas themed items, I spotted a pair of metal wings about 8inches long and decided I had to have them.  I have several pairs of wings around the house and thought these would look good behind my bed side table.  However they sort of disappeared into the decor so I needed to mount them onto something.  There the tale stalled until challenge 31, I decided, mostly cos they fell off the shelf in the craft room onto my foot! that now was the time to make the background for them.  So here we go.....

The wings had a sort of 'old' finish so I rustyed them up a bit with a dirty wash of Deco Arts quinacridone gold and carbon black acrylic paints in lots of water and dried them with a heat gun.  I dry brushed them with some Pebeo Dyna paint in Iridescent Copper and added a little gold gilding wax round the edges to finish off and I then set them aside to work on the background.

Wow, paragraph three and I still haven't mentioned the technique to be used....opps!  Its Layering Stencil, paint resist, page 47 in the Compendium of Curiosities.  I decided to use an A4 size canvas board for the background.  I used a Sheena Douglas stencil, Clouds and Antique linen and  a combination of salty ocean, mermaid lagoon and tumbled glass distress ink for the technique background trying to make the canvas a little darker at the bottom.

I found I needed to add a little more distress ink at the bottom so I used faded jeans distress ink.  I then discovered just how mobile distress ink can be,  I had to hold the canvas while adding the extra ink and ended up with a lovely, LARGE, finger print right in the middle of my work!X@***  I just about managed to shade this out using mermaid lagoon but luckily I decided to do some extra stencilling on the canvas and hid it under one of the stencilled wings! (Breathe... there are no mistakes just happy accidents)

Having decided to stencil the wings I had to mask off quite a bit of the stencil as I only wanted the wing.  I stencilled the wings with faded jeans distress ink.  I used post-it notes to mask the stencil and just about managed it even though it was a humid day and they didn't seem as sticky as usual, yes I know the UK doesn't get that humid but we cannot cope with much anyway!

I added some stamped text for a bit more texture using black archival ink and the Sheena Douglas stamp set Aging Beautifully.  To finish the edges of the canvas I stamped some cracks from the same stamp set in walnut stain distress ink and edged with a little more walnut stain ink.

The bottom of the canvas looked a little empty so I used Tim's stencil, Rays to add a sunrise.  I first used white gesso as a base and then blended spiced marmalade, wild honey and scattered straw distress paint over the top for my sunrise.

Once the background was completely dry I attached the wings and was just deciding on the sentiment when my daughter wandered in to see what I was doing. When I told her what sentiment I was going to use, she said I should change it.  I was going to use 'If life gives you wings learn to fly' but she suggested 'If life gives you wings Flap'  I must admit this made me laugh soooo......

The words were printed onto kraft card and cut out individually and inked with walnut stain distress ink.  I then drew round them with a fine black pen and added a few white high lights, then added them to the canvas.

The Curiosity Crew have been hard at work as usual and their wonderful creations can be seen on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  A big thank you to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

One last thing I bet you cannot guess where this piece is going to end up?  Yep thats right at University with my daughter, I'll just have to find another pair of wings for beside my bed! LOL

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 30

Hi all

Faux cracked glass...hmmmm, I may have lost the plot completely but here goes!

I don't know why a light bulb sprang to mind but there you go.  I followed Tim's technique on page 54 of the Compendium of Curiosities on both the light bulb and the wings.  The wings are cut from acetate using Tims Sizzix die, Layered Dragonfly.  I tried the wings from the Layered Bee but they were a little too small, he is quite a rotund bee after all!

Once the cracking was dry I used Adirondak alcohol inks in aqua for the wings and sunshine yellow for the body.  The end of the bulb was coloured with pitch black alcohol ink.

       

To make the stripes I used some double sided adhesive sheet and cut a circle, using a punch, and then cut into the circle so I could make it into a cone.  I then covered the outside of the cone with black flock and attached it to the back of the bee.  The stripes were some thin double sided tape that I covered with the black flock and then wound round the bee.

To make the legs I wound three lengths of black wire together and formed them round the body of the bee and then glued them with hot glue.  When all three sets of legs were attached I was able to bend them so the bee could stand on his own legs.

The antenna were originally just wire which I bent into spirals at the ends and attached the the head of the bee, however I decided that this looked wrong so I cut off the spirals and added beads to the ends of the shorter antenna.

I love the way the crackle is shown up by the alcohol ink.  I just have to decide where to put my bee, I think I'll put him into my faux orchids, A Faux bee in a Faux Flower  LOL.

A visit to Linda Ledbetters blog will blow your minds with the gloriousness of the Curiosity Crews offerings for this challenge.  As usual a big thank you to The Funkie Junkie for sponsoring this challenge.

Ah well time I buzzed off, bye for now!

Lyn