Jam Jar Lantern

After the disaster jam jar art previously posted I re-visited the idea.

This is how it turned out.

 

 

 

This technique is so easy, even I can do it.

 

After making sure the jars were clean and free from dust/grease, I blotted on alcohol ink straight from the bottle.  A few different colours were used to create a mottled effect, very effective with a light shining through.

 

A few long lengths of wire were twisted together bent around a pointy tool to create waves and curls, this was then bent and manipulated to create a handle a little decoration around the bottom edge.

 

This is were the red/purple jar had a slight detour,  a mottled stamp was used with flitter glue and   silver/gold flakes to add a worn effect.

 

Shop bought flowers were added to both jars to make them into spring home decorations.

 

Here are just a couple more close ups of the flake effect.

 

Hope you like them.

 



Fancy Frock Canvas

I began this canvas on Friday morning just as the eclipse was about to show or not, depending on whether or not you had the special glasses to see it with. 

Here in sunny wolves the sun shone and not a cloud was in sight,  the sky darkened a smudge but that was it. I tried the pin hole technique and failed. oh well, there's always next time.

I have to thank my big daughter (Georgie 14) for the inspiration for this one, as if I hadn't been hunting for canvas's for her for a school project I wouldn't have found the canvas I used.
 

Back to business, I die cut the dress form from grey board, about six layers in all. Snipped the upper layers to create detail and glued them together.  Once dry regular string was wound around the centre of the form and secured in position followed by a coat of gesso..

 

The canvas was primed with gesso to start, paper was layered onto the canvas followed by  texture paste through masks (just two one butterflies and one dots didn't want to overdo it).
Followed  by random stamping.

 

Cogs and leaves were die cut from grey board then coated in gesso, once  dry they were sprayed  with green and black tones of mica ink sprays. 

These were arranged on the canvas and glued into position.

 

Glass beads and black glass glitter were mixed with soft gel and added to the project.

Watered down ink was added randomly to the canvas to run and pool in areas around the dress form, along with white UTEE sprinkled around then heat embossed.

A few shop made flowers were attached to complete the picture, then, I added a tad of white gesso to some of the edges, which absorbed the green ink and didn't remain as white as I'd hoped.

 

There you have it mission complete.

 Here are a couple more photos.

Paint Brush Art

I've been getting messy again.
 

What do you think?
 

Now then, this project began life as something rather different.

It was pink for a start as you can see and although the background was layered and looked ok I wasn't happy with it and it needed something else, boy did it get a revamp.
 

I began by painting it all white with a coat or three of gesso. 

 I found several paper clay flowers from previous projects and a few paintbrushes which basically weren't worth the time of day, just glad I didn't pay good money for them ( they were free with some inks). Everyone knows that a good paintbrush is your best friend.

Sometimes I loose my way and do things in the wrong order, but when you are in the flow of creating   and it's unplanned you  just go with it.
 

Next up I linked the paintbrushes together with string and layered them up with paper clay flowers using 3d gel medium I stuck them down to the canvas. 

Then I decided to add some texture paste so I had to work around the brushes and flowers. A few ugly buttons and a paper clay frame were added, then another coat of gesso was used to cover the piece to neutralise the canvas.

Some random stamping was added to the background in Black and Watering Can Archival Ink so that it wouldn't run when using water colours.
Broken China, Rusty Hinge and Black Soot ink pads were used to add colour to the canvas by pressing the pads onto the craft mat and using them like watercolour paints adding water to loosen the colour and create pools of varying intensity.
Micro beads were added to soft gel medium and added to the canvas, Utee was added in a dull gold and white, this was sprinkled over the canvas and heated from below.
A few blobs of glossy accents were added to the canvas along with some shop bought flowers and twigs.
This is how  it turned out.

 

However, I wasn't happy something was missing and so colour was added to the brushes using a brown silks paint, Treasure gold was also added to give the a bit more definition. 

A few more paint splatters were added too.

That's all for now.
 

Stampotique Girls

Yesterday was grey, wet and miserable.

After doing several little jobs, washing, hoovering, a bit of tidying (hiding stuff, out of sight out of mind) popping to shops for tea, followed by popping out on a secret mission (mums the word),

I found myself back home holding a gift from mister postman.

I had pre-ordered myself a couple of Stampotique girls which I had forgotten about, I now have several in my collection and love them all.

I needed to use them.

So I decided to stamp them in black archival ink onto watercolour card and combine them with an older stamp to create a colourful, teen type card.

Masking fluid was painted over the stamped image to protect or retain the white of the paper underneath. Water/aqua inks were sprayed onto the card in different colours and misted with a little more water to make them run together.

The masking fluid was then removed with a pencil rubber and  the images coloured with distress ink, at this point you need to be careful as the background was reactive with water, as are the distress inks (It could have ended in disaster).

The edges were distressed along with a few places on the painted area. A stamp was used to add a little more interest to the piece.

Tah Dah!

Hope you like it.

Update: After visiting a few blogs I discovered Stampotique were holding a challenge on fav backgrounds, so I am going to attempt to link this post to their blog.
Wish me luck and pop on over to the blog and check out the other entries they are fab.

http://stampotiquedesignerschallenge.blogspot.co.uk

Hanging Decoration

 Today I ventured into the garage.

  It's a regular size garage that used to house a car, now it's full of erm, useful junk.

 Anyhow, moving on.

I was looking for something to make a quick project and came across wooden slats which were removed from an excessively long blind we bought for my daughters bedroom.

With them in mind I looked for a hacksaw blade to cut them with and failed miserably, ( I May be the one responsible for not putting it back where it should live, last used to trim down a long handle on a paint brush).

So out came Tim Holtz scissors, they worked a treat combined with a bit of sanding to.
Next came the assembly, two shorter lengths made the top and bottom edges and five more about an inch longer made up the middle section.  All of which were adhered to a piece of card, this didn't work to well as it moved and I wanted it to be more stable so two more slats were stuck to the back to improve stability.
A coat of white gesso was applied in preparation for the fun stuff to begin.

Next step was to paint opposite corners with a dark blue shade, followed by a little crackle glaze then a top coat of white paint. Sit back and watch the reaction.
A Dylusions mask was used to create the leaf effect by stippling it around the lower edge and adding  an outline with a black pencil.
The edges were distressed with a touch of distress ink and stamped with a random dot background stamp in Watering Can archival ink, the whole project was sealed with a touch of matt varnish.

The Home die was cut from cardboard and a thicker piece of card, then stuck together to make it more robust. The die cut was distressed by pulling the top coat of the card  board  apart to  reveal the ridges then painted with the blue paint. Treasure gold in indigo and classic gold  was added to the edges and the die cut was stuck down. Shop bought flowers were used for quickness and colour was added from a bottle of distress stain (Orange Marmalade).

 

A little bit of blue ribbon and Ta Dah!