I Haven't Been Idle

I know that not many projects have made it to my blog in the last few weeks - that's because most of them were gifts and swaps with other crafters and I didn't want to show them publicly until they had been received. Well most have now made their destinations so I feel happy about displaying on my blog.

First up is a tag I made as a swap within a group on facebook called Mixed Up Mixer. A mixed media tag with a Halloween theme.
This was the one I made

A greyboard substrate with paint and inked images layered with more (Tando Creative) greyboard cut into an arch and one of Tando's spider webs and (Tando Creative) brick stencil with (Decoart) modelling paste. Some cobweb fabric under a painted plaster cast skull. A few plastic skull beads to finish

I think the dimension is better appreciated here

My second Halloween themed project is now safely in it's new home

This time a little hanging

The skull was painted at the same time as the previous one, so is a similar colour. This time the greyboard substrate was brayered with paint, colours ranging from dark grey through to white. Then stamped with archival ink using stamps from Andy Skinner, high lighted with white gel pen.  The ornate die cut is one from Tonic's mixed media range cut from greyboard. Painted black then a variety of interference paint colours. Layered with another cut from the same Tonic range again brayered with paint then script stamped. The cobweb diecut to give another element in my scene.

Finished off with some white artstones and some twine to hang the picture with.   

Thanks for looking

  

I'd like to enter the projects as one into the challenge at

Bleeding Art Challenges - Halloween Mixed Media

Frangifantastic

Morning all

"What a strange title!" do I hear you say? Well it's one of the words on the stamp set "Perfect Words" by France Papillon for Illusionary artists produced by Chocolate Baroque. It so seemed to fit this tag.

The tag itself was started as a challenge to myself - after seeing the challenge set by the Mixed up Magazine blog design team. Bold colour!! Now for those that know me - this isn't something that comes naturally. I prefer to keep to the muted tones of black and brown. Getting out of your comfort zone once in a while has to be good to expand the creativity of anyone. So with this in mind - I started on this tag.

The tag itself is from the "Tagtastic1" and an element from "Flaming hearts" - both produced by Tando Creative.

The heart shape first because I knew I needed curing time. the main heart shape painted red, then crackle paint and then yellow. The heart frame attached and Decoart ultra thick poured into the hole. Leave alone and don't touch. More on this later.

The main tag
A layer of white gesso. The neat greyboard can be painted on directly but would have reduced the brightness of the colours. The using a soft gel medium to increase flow time more and Decoart media fluids I mixed with up a storm on the tag.

Patience - let it dry.

Stenciling and doodling

adding the stamped word matted onto some sheer orange fabric

There's a smaller tag here to mount the heart onto. The flames are orange and coated with a crackle medium 

The wings are made using hot wax into an Artyco Crafts mould. Coated with perfect pearls before Decoart gold interference paint.

Outside of my comfort zone - for sure. Do I like it? Yes I do. Will I come back into this zone again? - for sure - just don't ask when.


I'd like to enter this tag into the challenge at
Make It Mixed Media challenge - Bold Colour

I am a Winner .......... yayyyyyyy

A very good morning/afternoon/evening to you all. Are you all sitting comfortably? This is going to be a loooooooong post.

If you have been following any of my latest projects on this blog, you will have seen that a number of projects were aimed at the Illusionary Artists challenge being staged, The task was, using either France Papillon's or Andy Skinner's stamps in the Chocolate Baroque Illusionary Artists range, create a project (or seven). Link the project into one of several spots and be judged by both artists. The prize was a feature blog post on the respective artists blogs. No mean prize considering the bragging rights this affords as both are amazing professional artists (as well as being lovely people) and I have had the greatest pleasure in meeting them both and taking more than one class in the Ministry of Mixology weekends.

Well I am ecstatic, to say the least. France loved my little mini book featuring Auntie Margo and co and it was this project that secured this fabulous prize for me.

Please click the link above to read more about this project.

So what new projects to feature in this post on France's blog? 

I made a few, trying to feature not only the stamps but also the fabulous stencils designed by France and produced by Tando Creative. The first two projects because I wanted some storage for some of my goodies.
First was a little book case to house the mini books I'd already made. 

Decorated with crackle paste through the "Rockformation" stencil on the outsides before painting and inside paint through the "crackled" stencil on back and shelves and paint through the "torned circle" on the insides and stamped with crackle stamp from "Rock'n Rust" plate.

Next storage for those stencils.....or for the journals that France both encourages, teaches and inspires with the help of her special team of butterflies both on facebook and her blog.

Purely functional with just the moths from the "Creepers and Crawlers" plate. Stamped onto some brusho-coloured watercolour paper and cut out, with a bit of interest inside with heat embossed owls from Stampendous.

The purely functional projects done - some real playtime.

This acrylic tag went in the box of some very special items to France. I must give a shout out to Nikki Killinger for the backwards crackle technique. Such an awesome way to decorate any clear substrate.
On my tag I used the boy from "Auntie Maud & co." and the little hearts and sentiment from the "perfect words" plate. 

Another tag - just because

From the Tando kit "France Papillon Tags and embellishments", and using "Rock formation" and "Rusted rivets" stencils with crackle paint before painting. A dusting of stampendous embossing enamel. The newt was cut out from tissue paper and adhered with matt medium. The moth was stamped into hot glue, cut out and coloured with mica powders. Both stamps on the “creepers and crawlers” plate. The sentiment is from the "Perfect words" plate stamped onto part of the embellishments kit that was painted, treated with one step crackle and then English red oxide antiquing cream applied and wiped back. Rusty wire "holds" it all together with a little help from some 3D glue.

Finally 

as previously mentioned, France is very inspirational in the Art Journaling field as well as Mixed Media. It is because of her that I actually started my very first art journal after all these years of not understanding "WHY". Anyone who has not done any art journaling and is still dithering really needs to go and get stuck in. The “A layer a day, a spread a week” approach is really working for me and I know I'm not alone. I won't bore you here with my spreads done so far but one of the prompts was "Shadow of the morning". This next piece evolved whilst playing with decoart sosoft fabric paint with this prompt in mind.

You can see the "rusted rivets", "circles", "torned circle", "crackle" and "rectangles" stencils all being used before stamps from "Rock'n Rust", "Perfect Words" and Auntie Margot and co" make an appearance. This piece of fabric has been used to cover a 3x3 signature booklet made from A4 envelopes I have, that were bound, coptic style.

the fabric adhered to the envelopes and machine stitched round the outside

I hope you enjoyed looking at these projects almost as much as I enjoyed making them and I thank you for your endurance.

Once again, I want to thank France for not only choosing me as her guest on her blog but for being such a wonderful and inspiring lady.

All the paints/mediums are from Decoart 

(except the brushos and mica powders)

All the stamps, stencils and more can be found in France's shop

Little Things

Morning all
I hope the weather where you are is better than here, cold and damp is an understatement. Middle of April and anyone would think that spring is still ages away.

More pain management therapy here in the way of crafting. It does help me and I know it helps others.  I made a tag. A mini canvas in a way that is bigger than an ATC so more can be thrown at it.

The tag is from Tando Creative. Their greyboard is second to none, so many mediums can me thrown at it and it always stands up to them. Decoart mediums and paints for me - never disappointed with the quality.

For this one I started out by attaching some corrugated card torn from a packing box. Some grey board strips - had to soak the greyboard with water to get this to tear - with the first layer of modeling paste. Next I mixed up a bit of the modelling paste with some texture paste for the next layer through a France Papillon stencil (Rusted Rivets) then some crackle paste. I had in mind some old tree bark and the mixture of textures that you get on some old trees subjected to years of whatever mother nature hurls at them with a touch of man-made pollution thrown in.

Next - loads of different paint layers - both in the form of neat paint and washes until I had the effect I was happy with. Sealed with three layers of matt varnish

A France Papillon moth stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Illusionary artists range Creepers and Crawlers coloured with water colours.

The words from the same range but the Perfect Words plate. The words were stamped onto cream velum and torn out before attaching.

A faux leather cord and done

Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter my tag into the challenge at

Make My Monday #68 - Things with wings
A Inky Mess - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Broken Time

Morning all
Managed to escape the kisses and cuddles from our dog Nala for 5 mins. As much as I love them, it's hard to type a blog post or craft when 20kg of staffie is needing her fix of her hoooomans on a lap.

Soooooo, what have I got today?
A little plaque. Substrate and bits from Tando Creative with the stamped words from the Andy Skinner side of Illusionary Artists stamps from the Word Up plate made by Chocolate Baroque and the background stamp of the Clock Collage from Stampendous as is the Aged Ochre embossing enamel on the word frame. Decoart paints/mediums used.

The base and frame were first painted with black chalk paint then crackle then vintage and timeless paints respectively.  A little bit of rubbing back to show that black a bit more before stamping the clock collage in sepia archival ink.

The cogs and "clock hands" given various coats of paynes grey and quin. gold media paints. The clock hands started life as keys but as I had no clock hands, I improvised.

The clock dials had texture paste used before the paints.

The word plate - the frame was triple embossed then Andy's word stamp from the stampendous "steampunk" set pressed into the hot enamel with versamark.

To get those words to fit nicely with more control , I pressed the painted greyboard piece onto the stamp as opposed to stamping onto substrate. A couple of brads to complete then all glued together.

Thanks for looking

The Birth of a Journal

Morning all.
The story really starts back in February.  I bought an "Art Journal Starter" kit from Tando Creative at a weekend workshop retreat with the lovely Di Oliver and the equally talented Andy Skinner. The purchase was, in the back of my mind I suppose, prompted by another fabulous artist by the name of France Papillon. She teaches not only mixed media but also how to explore your inner self through Art Journalling.  I have always used my crafting as a means of pain management and I am going to need it following an accident that has me in more pain than my fibro alone. This also followed the death of my father and there were some emotions that needed to come out and I really found that creating a journal page helped me on this. At the time a loose page was created with a view to adding it to a journal when I had one. I don't know if this one page will ever be added to this particular journal as I'd like it to be a happy place and leave that particular page shut in a drawer for now. Time alone will tell. So............

The Birth of This Journal
A daunting task when journalling has not been an avenue previously explored. Where to start? Well to build the book was the obvious starting point. I won't bore anyone with the hows on this. All the instructions came with the kit, including needle and thread to hand sew the signatures up and into the framework.
The next fun part was decorating.
First the cover.
A coat of white gesso - always a good starting point. Various colours of Decoart paints in the green/blue range with a bit of some browns thrown in. Stamping next. The newts in the "Creepers and Crawlers" plate and a stamp from the Rock 'n Rust plate, both from the Illusionary artists range (the France side of the collaboration) from Chocolate Baroque.

The back cover just has no newts. The green at the bottom - that's the octopus tendrils to form some weed.

The inside front cover. The second layer of a piece of napkin adhered and blended in with the butterfly and moth from the creepers set and highlighted with pan pastels

Inside back cover

The front piece of that napkin on a piece of water colour paper to form a pocket. A bit more stuck in to top corner for balance. The pocket is not stuck down here to show the stamping and paint "drippage". The hearts are made using crackle paste through stencils from Tando and France. Again - all paints and mediums from Decoart. The contrasting purple - because that has always been one of my "go-to" colours and a prompt of back to basics was also influencing this area. That stamp "said something to me" - from France's own shop last year.

Back to basics also features in my first and opening page. How far back? Well France also has the numbers 1957 on the stencil used on the inside back cover. It's that one element that sealed the purchase for me. The year I was born. This was done on the "other piece created when making the back cover pocket. 

  

Other elements apart from the paint. Some tissue paper and a piece of washi tape that stamps from France were sent wrapped in last year. Some stencilled areas with crackle paint. Some bubble wrap stamping. A piece of paint coloured cambric. Words and hearts from the Perfect Words plate from Illusionary Artists.

That's it for now in my journal.

Thanks for looking

I'd like to enter this journal page into the challenge at

The Artistic Stamper - Stencils and Masks

Time of En - Light - Enment

Evening all. Just a quicky post tonight.

It has probably become apparent over the course of my last few posts that I have recently bought a set of stamps from the Chocolate Baroque range, Illusionary Artists. These stamps are the brain child of a couple of fabulous artists - France Papillon and Andy Skinner - and I love them. I am on a private mission to use at least one stamp from each of the plates I have before the end of the month.

This post is dedicated to the "Tech Trauma" plate.

A media board from Tando Creative formed the main substrate. All paints/media are from Decoart. First I sealed the board with gesso then painted with paynes grey. Also the remains of a clock face from a previous project. The media board given a coat of weathered wood then crackle paint. Just love the crackle effect of these two mediums together. Before any bits could flake off, I coated with matt medium. Then came the quin gold paint followed when dry with an edge painting of burnt umber. Then stamped with the image. Sealed with matt varnish.

Whilst all this was going on there was obviously some drying time that the other pieces could be treated. The clock face painted with patina antiquing cream, wiped back slightly when dry and a touch here and there of yellow iron oxide then sealed with matt varnish.

The lantern was painted with metallic gold and then black e-z stroke from my years old stash. More matt varnish.

The light from the lantern was effected with titan buff slightly watered and a dab of hansa yellow light.
All glued together before adding the computer generated words.

I wanted the font to be all the same so elected for this format rather than use any of the words in the other sets I have. (A bit of a pun going on here I know)

Thanks for looking

I will be submitting this piece as well to my application for guest DT for either Andy or France. If anyone is interested you still have a week to apply.

I'd also like to enter this piece into the challenge at
A Inky Mess - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Another Tando Creative Mini Book - third of three

Good morning from a wet and dreary Scotland. This is going to be one of the worst days this week apparently following two days of relatively warm sunshine. That's the way the weather flows at this time of year.
Anyway, enough of the weather even though the bad days give me more time in my cubbyhole, onto the third and final little mini book in the set from Tando Creative. This one, again, is different. I tried to use different techniques on all three. 

This time I have dry embossed the cover first then applied crackle paint (Decoart), scraping back over the raised sections so that the size of crackle would vary. When dry a layer of phthalo blue paint applied, slightly diluted, to both sides. Quinacridone violet added to the edges with water towards the centre.  The larger crackled areas had  raw umber antiquing cream applied and wiped back when dry. All then sealed with ultra matt varnish. The embellishments on the front are from the Tando Thins range - Scribbles. These were triple heat embossed with stampendous aged ochre embossing enamel, also available from Tando. The words from Illusionary Artists (France Papillon) Perfect words.

outside cover

inside before pages added

close up of title and crackle

Spine

Once the pages had been made and attached, some beads from stash added as decoration

pages showing inserted tags

Thanks for looking

A Mini Book - second of three

Good morning all. The snow here has almost melted - I hope that's the case where you are and that you are safe and warm.
I have the second of the Tando Creative mini books to share today. Still keeping the theme of using Illusionary Artists stamps from Chocolate Baroque. This time the plates Auntie Margot and co and Rock'n Rust from France Papillon.

Front and back cover - outside

The book base was first sealed with white gesso then various Decoart paints used to colour with similar colours to that on the stamp bord then stamped with the crackle stamp from the Rock 'n Rust plate.

The covers were then wrapped with black netting. The edges were hidden under those stamp bord elements. These stamp bord pieces coloured with distress oxides before stamping with Auntie Margot and her wayward relatives.

Inside cover - similar colours to that on the outside

The pages were made from the same prima pad as the first book in the same way except keeping an opening at the top for some tags.

Showing tags in cover

The netting providing a handy space for tags or what ever takes your fancy.

Inside with tags

Spine

A few beads from stash

Tags showing stamping from the Rock 'n Rust

This looks like noughts and crosses to me.  Noughts to note the positive thoughts and crosses to note down the negative thoughts that might invade the mind.

One more mini to do to complete the set.

Thanks for looking

This is another entry into the guest DT for Illusionary Artists challenge

I'd also like to enter my little book into the challenge at 

We Love To Create - Anything mixed media

A Mini Book - first of three

Morning all. Nearly at the spring equinox and snow falling. No - it's flying horizontally with the wind not falling vertically. Not at all nice out there. Any excuse to spend time in my craft room.
I have the first of three little bendy spine mini books from Tando Creative today. Initially it was a slow process because of drying time for the front.

Modeling paste was applied to the primed grey board book cover and when just dry enough, two of the stamps from the Gothic Grunge plate from Illusionary Artists (Andy Skinner), produced by Chocolate Baroque were pressed into the paste. Then the waiting game before painting

Front cover

I wanted to give the impression of a couple of old terracotta tiles. Various colours from the Decoart media range were used

Inside cover

 Needed to be flat because of the pages. Another couple of stamps from the Gothic Grunge set and a couple from the same range but this time the Spook plate.

Inside with pages

 The drying time for the front was used productively though - making the signatures for the inside. 7.5cm strips cut from 12in Prima paper. folded in half and then sides to middle. taped on these short sides in the middle.

spine front

various embellishments and crystals from stash

spine back

spine centre

One down, two more to go. What style will emerge from my desk next? We''ll have to wait and see.

 I'd like to enter this little mini book into the challenge at
Dream in Darkness - March challenge - anything goes but no cute
Creative Artiste Mixed Media - Anything Goes
Also, the application for guest DT for Illusionary Artists

Creepers and Crawlers

Morning all
I'd like to share my second project using the Illusionary Artists  range of rubber stamps from Chocolate Baroque. This time the Creepers and Crawlers by France Papillon.
 I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I had a few boxes I wanted to change up - this is the second of the bunch. Decoart paints and mediums used throughout.
As always, 3D items mean a few photos as getting all the detail in one is impossible.
I wanted to show the water creatures at the different levels they would inhabit in the wild.

and the top

The stencil used is also one of France's "crackled" randomly applied using modelling paste over the box previously painted white. Then painted.  For those that want to know the paint colours used - Cobolt Teal Hue, Cobolt Turquiose Hue, Phthalo Green-Yellow and Green Gold. 

The octopi and newts were stamped in archival inks onto kitchen roll and fussy cut out and applied to the painted box with matt medium. Some crackle glaze applied over random areas of the top and  down the sides. When dry, white antiquing cream applied and wiped back later with a damp cloth.

All coated twice with ultra matt varnish to seal. 

The dragonflies were stamped 2 times each onto acetate with stazon and painted on the reverse with interference paints. Cut out and paired and wound beaded wire around the body. (Inspiration from Veerle Moreels where she wound wire all round the dragonfly) before attaching to the top of the box.

Thanks for looking

I'd like to submit this box into the guest DT call for Andy Skinner and France Papillon