Stampotique - Favorite Colour

Cobwebs at Night

I love purple! especially with black!! So Gothic!!!

I painted my background with DecoArt Lavender and the tiniest amount of orange just to add some contrast

Then stencilled with Dioxadine Purple and moved the web stencil and added a little white each time

also applied dots with the dark purple and Desert Turquoise 

Stamped Magda's Night with Stazon Royal Purple and Jo's Web with Silver ink

Happy Halloween x

DecoArt Halloween

I love Halloween and found this amazing plastic skull, it was on a plain metal stand so the dremel had to come out, I found a cheap candelabra and removed the central candle holder so that the skull could stand in its place

He now sits atop a more fitting structure

 I started applying DecoArt Media Texture sand and crackle paste, followed by a coat of Matte Medium to seal

The outside was painted with Carbon black and dry brushed with Dazzling Metallic Rich Espresso which gives a finished effect similar to cast iron

 The inside of the skull was painted with DecoArt Elegant Finish Glorious Gold

 The candelabra was painted with Multi Surface Satin followed with a coat of Carbon Black which was rubbed back to reveal the colour underneath and the metallic finish

 I finished dry bruising the candelabra and skull with Dazzling Metallic Rich Espresso

 The wings were cut on a Cricut and covered with Texture sand then Painted with Carbon Black and dry brushed as before

 An artificial candle sits within and I decorated with a plastic painted chain

 Happy Halloween

Jools : )

Products

A Vintage Challenge - Bountiful Harvest

Fabulous new challenge over at A Vintage Journey

Sandy is the host and here's her challenge description

With Halloween's passing we step into fall.  For this challenge let's think about the harvest.  

It seems that pumpkins, wheat, corn and even the Harvest Moon could be in order. 

For us in the US -  a Thanksgiving theme could work but not necessary

A beautiful and bountiful time of year for all, with an abundance of produce in fabulous rich colour tones. I have used a bounty of Tim’s Dies and texture fades for my project

I had a wonderful frame that was designed and cut by the lovely Lisa at That Craft Place; she will cut any shape and has a huge variety of products and materials available

I started by applying DecoArt Crackle paste around the edge

Then started arranging the embossed die cuts, I used Tattered Leaves and embossed them with Textured leaves texture fade, the other dies were Holiday Greens and Weathered Clock

These were applied to the frame and then I applied my bounty of mini pumpkins, these are Pumpkinos, Pukka seed pods and mini pine cones and acorns and leave's made from paper clay
Detailed with half pearls for the berries all applied with Liquitex Heavy Gel medium, one dry I covered with DecoArt white Gesso

 I applied DecoArt Carbon Black, Black Plum and Plum from the bottom to the top graduated

 One dry, I dry brushed with Titanium white, and repeated until I was happy the the coverage

Once dry, I applied Quinacridone Gold acrylic, which is a wonderful transparent but highly pigmented paint, repeating and building up the intensity in areas, particularly the leaves, pumpkins and pine cones

I hope you have enjoyed my project, please pop back to A Vintage Journey to see more of the fabulous Design Team Projects

Jools : )

Clarity Stamps - The Seasons

For my ATB I cut my box on the cricut approx. 3 ½’’ and painted with DecoArt Desert Turquoise
Then cut four squares of card 3⅛’’ , these where all given colour washes to reflect the colours of the Seasons
Using DecoArt Acrylics Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, Lemonade, Prussian Blue, True Blue and stamped with the following stamps using Stazon Royal Purple and a Distress inks


Spring
Tree Branch
English Garden Elements
Bugs

Summer
Sunburst
Meadow Dance

Autumn
Winter trees and Mantles

Winter
Winter Wonderland

The entire box was covered with One Step Crackle, once the crackes appeared, I applied Prussian Blue and wiped back to reveal

Stampotique Ghouls & Goblins

Ghouls & Goblins Family Tree

My project started life as a chrome effect jewellery tree, I covered it with DecoArt Texture glass followed by Carbon black acrylic

The frames were made with paper clay, using Martha Stewart moulds
These were painted with Carbon Black and once dry, I dry brushed with Dazzling Metallics Shimmering Silver

I stamped the Stampotique family on to card, then coloured with Distress Inks used as watercolours and mounted to the frames
Then attached embroider thread to hang and decorated with cobwebs and spiders!

Steampunk Couture

Fantastic Challenge over at SanDee & Amelies Steampunk Challenges

Here's how I created my project

I covered a Polystyrene Dress form with DecoArt Gesso, then applied a stamped image on tissue paper with Decoupage Sealer

 Once dry, I applied a wash of Quinacridone Gold and Burnt Umber then applied One Step Crackle
and left to dry for a couple of hours
then I applied Carbon black and wiped the excess off

I finished with the DecoArt Media Ultra Matt Varnish to remove the gloss effect

The Bodice was stamped with Tim Holtz Rockstar, and cut to shape before painting with Avocado, Burnt Umber and Quin Gold and Black Soot Distress Ink

The Skirt was created by  spritzing Kraft Card with a water and scrunching then coloured applied by rubbing with Distress Inks

 I cut to pieces for the skirt and spritzed Media Mister Black through a cog stencil

 I applied eyelets to the edges of one side of the skirt and holes to the back piece and overlaid and threaded the chain through
This was finished at the base with screw top brads, the chain at the top was tied at the front and decorated with cogs

The heart was made from  paperclay and painted Burgundy then  I applied One Step Crackle
once dry, I applied Carbon Black and wiped back

The Bodice was fitted by wrapping the strips of paper alternately and glueing

DecoArt Media Misters- Canvas

 DecoArt Media Misters- Canvas

This is a Fantastic new product very unique as it's an acrylic mister, this opens up a whole new world of possibility's

You have a better coverage and due to the DecoArt pigments very intense colour
Which is more pliable it doesn't absorb immediately into the media, you can mist, spritz and splatter and then move the paint around if you want to this is what I did on this Canvas
See Andy Skinner DecoArts Creative Director demonstrate them here

 I started by layering DecoArt Media Modelling paste through a variety of stencils

 As I applied to a black base, I then covered with white Gesso

 I then started spraying the colours lightly as this was the first time I had used them and I was amazed at the strength of colours you can get a fine spray effect or a splatter

 I started playing with applying them in different ways and dabbing and texturing how I wanted the paint applied

Once I was happy with the background I applied a layer of Ultra Matt varnish as I wanted a matt finish and to ensure that the next step wasn't going to cause the colour to shift, but due to the acrylic nature once dry you have a layer that is pretty permanent anyway

Than spritzed with the black through a CRW stencil allowed to dry and then off set the same stencil and applied another layer of modelling paste

Once dry. I sprayed with the Misters quite closely and smudged the colours again until I achieved a colour balance that I was happy with

I love all of the fab effects you can get with them from a very fine spray effect, splatters to Dappled effects
I used Black, Purple, Yellow Green, Magenta,Turquoise and Orange
You can find more infomation the product here

A Vintage Journey Challenge- Halloween - To Die For

Fantastic Spooky Challenge at A Vintage Journey, you can make any project using at least one Die and with a Tim Holtz Vintage theme

Halloween - To Die For

I love Halloween so couldn't wait to get started, my inspiration came from the amazing Configurations box that featured in the launch of the Laboratories Range 

I decided to create a secret book of Potions & Poisons 

I wanted to make it look really vintage, aged and distressed, I started adhering embossed and torn card stock in lots of layers to resemble torn pages and applied corrugated card to the cover and sides to look like pages

I then used the new Distress Spray Stains, using a combination Black Soot, Walnut Stain, Dusty Concorde, Rusty Hinge, Iced Spruce and Barn Door

I applied Modelling paste to the spine of the secret draw and textured

Once dry I used the Distress Spray Stains and dry brushed with Black acrylic

  I dry brushed with Gesso especially on the corrugated card board to highlight the pages

The back of the box was covered in embossed card and coloured as the spine

 The inside of the secret drawer was painted with DecoArt Carbon Black then lined with tissue paper and coloured with the Distress Spray stains

 I also made a shelf from mount board and painted black I applied lots of Gesso to this and the base to look like a build-up of chemicals
This was painted with DecoArt Acrylic Burnt Umber Quinacridone Gold, True Ochre and Lemonade

The bottles are Tim Holtz idea-ology Corked Vials, the main one is a Tequila miniature still full!,
The labels were stamped from Tim’s Poison stamp set and some I created as its difficult finding labels for Griffin Eggshells, Dream Sand and Angel Hair!
These were distressed with Old Paper, Walnut Stain and Black Soot around the edges and covered with DecoArt One Step Crackle and decoarated with coloured string and gauze to decorate

I filled with a variety of contents, embossing powders mica flakes and coloured water

The top was decorated with Tims Decorative Stripe Die Vintage Lace

The spider and skull and cross bones are from Tim’s Idea-ology Halloween Adornments these were coloured with Alcohol Inks, Pitch Black, Espresso, Oregano and Sunset Orange

On the cover I highlighted the embossed cobweb with DecoArt Metallic Lustre Black Shimmer & Silver Spark and painting the Tim Holtz decorative strip die Cobweb, and highlighting in the same way

The skull from the Tim’s Apothecary stamp set was stamped onto card, then coloured with Distress Inks Old Paper, Rusty Hinge, Walnut Stain and Black Soot around the edges and through the Tim Holtz layering stencil Shatter and splattered with paint

I hope you have enjoyed my Project, please pop back to A Vintage Journey to see all of the amazing Design Team creations and we look forward to seeing your project

Jools : )