Maiden of the Lake Mixed Media Hanging

Come along with me and create your own fantasy beach at a lake in your dreams....

Summer is in full swing and I'm still rejoicing with every warm, sunny day!  Even though we may be inside working on projects using the awesome Linnie Blooms products, we can still take a little fantasy trip to the beach and mix it up a bit....

Painting "freeform style" on Linnie Blooms canvas products is a natural choice...and that is just what I did to create this mystical background for the hanging.  Of course, I always have to add inky techniques, too...and then a little paper tearing....embellishing....something to do with birds....

Okay, okay.  This turned into a Mixed Media project.

So....let's go play!

Materials used:

Linnie Blooms: 5" x 11" Long Blank Canvas, Angel Stencil/Mask

Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps: Butterfly Kisses (B8122), Butterfly 4 (D7783)

Clearsnap: Clear Embossing powder, heat tool
                  ColorBox® Classic Pigment Inkpad (Frost White, Sweet Melon, Antique Pewter, Black)
                  Archival® Dye Inkpad (Wicked Black)
                  Top Boss® Clear Embossing Inkpad
                  Art Daubers

Beacon Adhesives: Fabri-Tac® Permanent Adhesive

Acrylic Paint, Glazes and Mediums of your choice 
Note: I used a combination of Plaid Folk Art Acrylic Paint (white) and Decorator Glazes (Aqua, Bluebell) but these specific paint colors and types may not be current names.

Pages of printed text torn from old books
Decorative paper scraps
Cardboard scraps
Cardstock scraps (grey, black)
Black eyelash yarn scraps (or other yarn, doll hair, etc scraps of your choice)
Ephemera of your choice: ribbon lace, feathers, etc
Mini craft clothespins or other clips
Paint brush
Color pencil
Markers
Iron, 2 non-stick mats

Instructions:

Squeeze a dime-size dollop of white, blue and aqua paint directly onto the blank canvas. Distribute the paint over the entire canvas, lightly blending and thinning with water as needed; dry completely. Repeat on reverse side, if desired; dry. Place canvas on one non-stick mat; place second mat on top and iron on a low-medium setting until canvas lies flat and most wrinkles and ridges are gone.

Trace the angel shape on cardboard; cut out. Using the dauber, apply white ink over entire shape; heat with heat gun to dry. Dab Sweet Melon over head; dab pewter over entire dress area. Using DPT, apply black, using pad edges to create a geometric pattern of your choice. Sprinkle on clear embossing powder; heat. Draw eyes and mouth with marker; press clear embossing inkpad over entire shape, sprinkle on more powder and heat again.

Glue ephemera of your choice onto angel, as shown. Hand tear paper scraps; glue angel and remaining ephemera onto canvas.

Stamp butterfly in Wicked Black on black yardstick scrap, color with color pencils, cut out and attach. Stamp phrase in white on grey cardstock scrap, hand tear and attach. Add ribbon trim and clothespins to hang.
     
Closeup details below:

Flower Jar Decor

Plain glass jars with lids have SO much potential for decorating!  Whether you fill them with spices, sweet treats or even baking mixes, you can create that warm home look to your kitchen.  Or, make several and give them as gifts or sell them for fundraisers!

Let Linnie Blooms Canvas shapes add just the right mix of texture, color and flamboyance to even the simplest of jars.  Let the decorating begin....

You will need:

Linnie Blooms: Canvas Shapes: Sunflower (1), Petal Shapes (1 large, 1 small), Leaves (2)
                          Shabby Trim (green)

Darice: Glass Jar with Lid

Kreinik Iron-On Ribbon (1/8" ribbon) 3M Green 6356

Impression Obsession Rubber Stamps: Lord's Prayer D7778

Clearsnap: Colorbox Archival Dye ink pad (Wicked Black)
                  Stephanie Barnard Sprays (Artichoke, Banana, Tangerine, Guava)

Beacon Adhesives: Gem-Tac Permanent Adhesive, Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive

Westcott: Titanium Scissors

Misc: Buttons, spray bottle with water, empty baby wipe container (or other plastic container with lid), paper towels, iron, Teflon coated ironing mat

Instructions:

Place paper towel inside container.  Place all three flowers on towel and spray with Banana. Blot and remove sunflower. Spray Tangerine on remaining flowers. Spray Guava on small flower. Blot and remove. Replace wet towel with clean towel. Place leaves on towel and spray very sparingly with Artichoke; spray with water; blot. Repeat,steps, if desired, on wrong side, replacing towels as needed.


Blot and place all pieces flat on clean paper towel. Place clean paper towel on top. Iron on low dry setting until dry.

Place stamp rubber side up; apply Wicked Black.

Stamp phrase on flowers and leaves; dry.

Cut petals, as shown. Attach canvas layers with Fabri-Tac. Glue button layers with Gem-Tac. Set aside to dry.

Iron the Iron-On ribbon across the center of the Shabby Trim, using the Teflon coated mat and an iron on a low, dry setting, as shown.

Wrap ribbon around the jar; trim and glue in place with Gem-Tac, as shown. Place jar on its side and glue on buttons in center of ribbon trim; dry completely.

Glue flower onto jar lid with Gem-Tac; dry completely

(Note: Pre-spray the canvas shapes with water for a lighter, less intense color. Let dry and then overspray to create a more speckled look. Experiment...try different looks...get messy and have fun!)

Happy Blossoms Notecard by Gail Green

MATERIALS:

Linnie Blooms Stitched Greetings Clear Stamp Set

Linnie Blooms Canvas Die Cuts: Large & Small Flower and Small Leaf

Linnie Blooms Card Kit

Sakura: Micron 05 Pigment Pen (black)

Clearsnap Holdings: Donna Salazar's Mix'd Media Inx® (Jasmine, Pewter, Mossy, Peaches)

Clearsnap Holdings: Colorbox® Archival Inkpad (Wicked Black)

Beacon Adhesives: Gem-Tac® Permanent Glue 

Miscellaneous:

      Acrylic Paint of your choice (white, coral, green or colors of your choice)

      Acrylic (or other) stamp mounts

      6mm Plastic Gems (black)

      Paperclips (regular and jumbo)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Using DTP, apply black ink to entire card front; dry completely. Place a jumbo paperclip along one edge to hold card flat. Stamp phrases on the card in Jasmine, Pewter and Peaches. 

     NOTE: Let ink dry for a subtle effect OR quickly sprinkle on clear (or colored) embossing powder and heat. 

2. Apply Jasmine and Mossy direct-to-paper along card edges. Set aside; dry. 

3. Apply a coat of white acrylic paint to large blossom; dab coral around the edges. Apply coral paint to small flower and green to small leaf. Dry completely.

4. Using Micron pen, draw faux stitches around petals and leaf, as shown; dry.

5. Pinch and shape flowers and leaf. Glue small flower onto large flower. Glue small beads onto center of flower; dry completely. 

6. Cut a 2-3/4" section of LB Textured Burlap. Fold over top edge 1/2"; press to crease. Cut angled edges on both sides, cutting from bottom up to folded edge as shown. Glue top fold along short edges; hold in place with paper clips until dry. 

7. Glue flower, leaf and burlap "flower pot" onto card, angling as desired. Dry completely.

Flowering Canvas

If you are looking for the start of our blog hop, go HERE.  The hop ends on 4/29/15.

Flowers,  flowers, flowers, I so love thee.  Hi it's Ann from the Design Team here at Linnie Blooms and also from the blog: Annmakes.  Spring has finally arrived and I look forward to gardening.  In the mean time I am making some cards with flowers as my inspiration.

To make this card I coloured the Linnie Blooms Canvas flower with some water colour paints in a "Poppy Red".  The canvas takes the paint very well and retained the shimmering of the metallic paint. The stem of the flower was made by sewing the Green Shabby trim (Linnie Blooms) in the zig zag stitch on the sewing machine straight onto the paper, before adhering to the next layers and then to the card.

The centre of the flower was made  by hand sewing on a button with some embroidery floss.

The sun and clouds were made from card stock and some steel dies. I also used some  dimensional glue dots to give the sun dimension.

The sentiment was stamped on and coloured.


Products used:
Canvas Flower from Linnie Blooms
Shabby Trim in Green from Linnie Blooms
Cardstocks in Blue Glitter, and Brick Fat Plaid from The Robin's Nest
Shimmering Water Colour in "Poppy Red" from Colourarte
Stamp , VS4911 series 7 from Studio G
Ink from Ranger Archival in Jet Black
Dies "Hello Sunshine" from Sizzix
Button from Dollar Tree
Embroidery floss in Black from DMC

To view my other projects and ideas please visit my blog at http://annmakes.blogspot.com.

Thanks for stopping by.

Creative use of stencils

Hello and Good Monday Morning,

Hope everyone had an amazing weekend. Today, I am here with a fun mixed media project using the flutter stencil and mask, canvas shapes (sunflower), and burlap (teal).

  I started out with a 6 x 6 block of wood. Then I just randomly painting the background in ocean-ish colors with a little touch of yellow ;) I got creative with the flutter stencil of the owl and turned it sideways to make it look like a fish. Painted the fish with cute little faces. Cut and added the canvas sunflowers using glue. Next, I painted them and added a little burlap to the tops of them. I also used a button, washi tape, some words, black colored pencils, and gel pens. Once, I was all done I sealed it.

A couple of close ups for you! What journey will you embrace today? 

Hope your have a creative day!

Kim H

Asia Journal ~ A Linnie Blooms Mini Journal

Asia Journal ~ A Linnie Blooms Mini Journal

I have been designing for Linnie Blooms for quite a while now. A very good experience and a great chance to get my hands on their product line. When I put my hands around one of their Mini Journals, a small 5" X 7" collection of canvas pages and a wonderful Flourish Pocket tucked inside, I fell in love!

Linnie Blooms Mini Journal

It has 4 pages of stitched surfaces sandwiched with papers recycled from old book and a wonderful pocket opportunity to insert little bits of unexpected joy inside. I just knew I had to create something special with it and something dear to my heart. It called for lots of details and a place for fond memories.

Since I lived in Southeast Asia quite a while, what better subject than memories and ephemera from my trips and life there? My own little memory scrap book to hold some favorite treasures.

Asia Journal by Linda Kinnaman, front cover

I was interested in trying out some Transfer Artist Paper, which I had heard does a great job of transferring images to fabric. I wanted to give it a try on canvas and see what I could do with it. I found an image from one of my Dover Publicationsbooks that I thought would set the color and theme well. I had a bit of trouble getting the image to adhere well, but think it came out a bit vintage looking, which after a while grew on me. It makes it look old and well worn, like a favorite book which has been tucked in my backpack while on my journeys.

A special note: Thank you to Leslie Riley, who took time to consult with me over the effects I was trying to achieve and learning to love what became.

I added some simple Linnie Blooms shapes for the title and some rub-ons and old stamps for accents. A few jade beads and some brass charms added a bit of bling to the front cover.

Buddha pages

While in Asia, visits to Buddhist temples are a must for learning about the culture and customs of the people. I have been to many and find each one beautiful, colorful and wonderful places to see. I have met some very interesting people while visiting temples, and have gained a respect and embracing of their principles. I wanted to honor my visits with a couple of images from travel brochures that I had collected.

Ladies in waiting pages

The beauty of Asian women is well known! I wanted to capture a vintage collection of Chinese and Japanese costumes and accessories. Their attention to detail, grace and elegance are impressive to me. Pink and green combined together spoke of this for me and I saw a lot of it while traveling. Strong yet feminine colors of spring time. Beauty and charm.

Most women now embrace the Western style of clothing, so spotting a women in traditional dress was a delightful surprise. Often they would pose for a quick photo if you politely asked, often with a blush and a small giggle covered with a delicate hand. It is nice to see these traditions still upheld and celebrated during special times or events.

Ladies in waiting pages

postcard insert for pocket

Tucked inside that Flourish Pocket I found an old post card of a Reclining Buddha in Thailand. I embellished it with more old stamps and an old print of a garden scene and some flourish rubber stamping.

Flower pages

Asia is also known for their lovely flowers. So many of the flowers we use today in our own gardens are from all over Asia. I myself, have peonies similar to the one pictured here. These two pages are more Transfer Artist Pages that I colored and painted in with myGelato color sticks.  I also added some old stamps again and a book mark that I picked up in a Hong Kong shop.

Memories of China, back cover

Finally, the back cover depicts a few placed in Hong Kong that I have visited. I love all the details they put into their architecture. Tons of carved and painted details all over the place! Huge statues, large structures for placing incense to burn, old paintings and tapestries. Wonderful flare for color and ceremony.

I am pleased with the results of my Linnie Blooms Mini Journal. I was able to use techniques that have proven reliable for me. Layers of paper and gel medium, painted trim and details, ink and stencils, gelato color sticks and lots of stickers and assorted souvenirs.

Now that I have really tried them out, I am anxious to do more. I can see all sorts of possibilities for these little keep sakes. Cherished memories, a collection of techniques, pages commemorating special times and people in our lives.  Perhaps a technique class is in order to share what I have learned here...

I hope you have enjoyed my designs for Linnie Blooms. I am taking a break from the design team to work on art work for summer art fairs that I have signed up for. If you like what I have been doing, would like to learn more and try some for yourself, let me know and I can help you. My home studio class room is ready and waiting for YOU!

Best wishes!

Linda Kay

My website ~ www.lindakaysart.com

My blog ~ www.lindakaysart.com/blog

Facebook ~ www.facebook.com/LindaKaysArt

& Be sure to visit Linnie Blooms for more Mixed Stitch Media products and ideas.

Linnie Blooms ~ www.linnieblooms.com

Linnie Blooms blog ~ www.linnieblooms.blogspot.com

Creating with Linnie Blooms Textures

Hey there! Kisha here again with two projects to share with you today.  I decided to step out of the box a bit with Linnie Blooms products.  Instead of giving you my normal canvas shaped creative designs, I decided to show you how to get creative with her Textures.  There's more in store (Linnie Blooms store that is) than canvas shapes to add texture and decor to your pages, cards, etc.  Linnie Blooms also offer Textures and I love them, such a great way to add that unexpected pop to your multi media items.

So let's get the show started.  First, here's a show of the Linnie Blooms Textures (and canvas shapes) I used on my projects.

For this LO, you will see that I used both LB Textures.  One has more of a chicken wire look to it, and it's very easy to work with and manipulate when adding additional mediums and layering.  The khaki/black texture is a burlap material and I don't have to tell you how much I love working with burlap.

As you see I altered the burlap texture a bit more by cutting it into sections instead of using it whole.  I love the chevron pattern within the burlap, which made it so hard not to cut and use as more dimension on the page.

I also used some Linnie Blooms canvas squares...what can I say I just couldn't stay away from the canvas.  I added three different inks to distress the canvas, instead of using it in it's natural state.  That allowed the canvas to blend with the background of the patterned paper used for this LO.

The next item I created is a mini canvas that measures 7X5, and is great to use with those loose wallet size pictures.

Here again you will see I used more LB Textures and two circle shaped canvas pieces.  One of the circle canvas pieces was cut in half, tinted and used as tabs, the second shape was used in it's natural state but both were ruffled up a bit for added texture.

See how well the Textures piece takes on the color mist, gesso is not needed to make the color adhere which is wonderful.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at my projects.  I Hope you have enjoyed these projects and have been inspired to take get creative using LB Textures.

Kisha

Small tags make it special

I'm hosting a couple of events in the next few weeks and I wanted to create something that my friends could take home with them. Something to entice them to give Linnie Blooms Mixed Stitch Media products a try... and fall in love with them like I did too.

I came up with 2 Make-it, Take-it projects that I think will do the trick. This one is for a home party I am hosting this Saturday afternoon. A few good, close friends are coming to nosh on snacks and sip mulled red wine, try out some pretty jewelry and make these little tags. I call them "No house is too small" tags. The quote and inspiration came from a country craft item I bought years ago and have hanging in my kitchen window. It reminds me that my house is small on size, but big on love.

I made these little gems with tags I cut using my Cricut machine. A simple small thing that was just right. The quote "Where love is, no house is too small" was printed out on my computer in 2 different font sizes. The little cottage is actually a Linnie Blooms arrow from the shapes collection. The little house is well, a little house shape from that same collection. A bit of thin paint, Sharpie ultra fine markers and some washi tape and glue was all it took to put these sweet little tags together.

 I am really enjoying using the Sharpie markers and the fine details I can get. I've learned to start using the lightest shade of colors first, then I can enhance and darken any details I need without over doing it. It feels a little bit like doodling, but with fun colors.

There are lots of ways you can play with Linnie Blooms canvas shapes. You might like to try using some of the many acrylic craft paints that are available now. These and a few small brushes, and you could create a lot of delicate details in no time at all. But for me, the good old sharpie is my tool of choice. It is fun, portable and so easy to do.

The next event I am planning is with a decorative painting group I belong to. I have recently become a business member and that allows me to have a table to show my work, products I want to sell and ideas I want to share. I am excited about this new development in my creative arts business journey. It helps me to reach out in a whole new way with my painting friends. I just know they will love trying out a new product and finding ways to incorporate it into their art work.

I will be sharing these little owl tags with my painting friends. They turned out very well and I couldn't be happier with them either. The tags came from the dollar gauntlet at my local Michael's store. Brown chip board tags and some twine cord seemed like the perfect little Make-it, Take-it to enchant my friend. And WHO couldn't resist the ever popular owl?

I started by stamping a small leaf background stamp in an assortment of greens on the chip board. As you can see, I used quarter sections to cover the tag completely. Next I rubbed some more inks on a tiny little branch that I cut out of cardstock with my Cricut machine. I hand printed the word "Whoooo loves you? I do, that's who!" around the upper edge, and finished it with some of the twine cording.

I wanted to try a couple of different looks in my owls. I am enchanted with the Zentagle doodling that is so popular now, but I don't have enough practice in doing it well, so I decided to try a cartoonish motif. I looked at a lot of photos of owls on line before I settled on these two.  I really wanted the eyes to pop and look right at you.

I hope my Make-it, Take-it designs have inspired you too. It doesn't take much in supplies, time or know how to make something really great. Using these on gifts will really brighten up someone's day and let them know just how special they are to you too. So, come on and play and see what you can do.

Best wishes!

Linda Kay

Be sure to visit Linnie Blooms for more Mixed Stitch Media products and ideas.

Linnie Blooms ~ www.linnieblooms.com

Linnie Blooms blog ~ www.linnieblooms.blogspot.com

My website ~ www.lindakaysart.com

My blog ~ www.lindakaysart.com/blog

Facebook ~ www.facebook.com/LindaKaysArt

Darlings - A little bit of Valtentine

Are you celebrating Valentines Day? Our family don´t that much. Maybe some heartshaped candy will be bought, but we don´t do any major celebrating. But at my work we celebrate with heart shaped candy, cake and hugs. Might have something to do with us working with hearts....

So here comes two of my Valentines on my February DT project. The page is about my two lovely kids!

 I have used the canvas stars and arrows on this. The stars have got a bit of black in on the edges and some sparkly paint on top. The paint comes from Ayeeda (13@arts).

I made the background by using leftover paper pieces that I glued on my background paper. Then I covered it randomly with heavy modeling paste that I dabbed my palette knife in to archive the structure. Then some ink and water, some stamps and the lovely decorations to finish it of.

Material used: Patterned papers; Chic Tags School House + leftovers. Embellishments; Acrylic arrow (Basic Grey). Flair (American Crafts). Tiny Word stickers (My Mind´s Eye). Clothes Pin (Pebbles). Alphas (Dear Lizzie). Cork Arrow (Studio Calico).

♥

Marie