You Are Strong - Romanian Woman Canvas

It has been quite a while since I've uploaded anything to this blog. I'm still creating, but most of my stuff is only being displayed on my Instagram account. I feel that not too many people are actually reading full blogs anymore. If I'm wrong, leave me a comment at the bottom and I'll start sharing more here too. 

So this canvas was created for a friend at work, who had asked for a similar piece to one I've done before with a Romanian woman to reflect her heritage. I love doing these canvas pieces and am running out of room to keep them in my craft room so was happy to make one to give away. I thought I'd whip up a quick tutorial as well while I was at it.

My top tips for mixed media work:

1. Don't fall in love with the first couple of layers - realistically you're just going to cover most of these up.

2. Ensure you have contrast. Whether that's highlights of black/white or a pop of a different colour, you need something that stands out.

3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, you can always cover them up if you really hate the effect 

First step for me when creating any mixed media piece is to lay down the background texture. Here I've used a book page, builders tape and crackle paste through a stencil. Because I'm working on a canvas, this was already primed with gesso. If you were creating on paper it's normally a good idea to give it a coat of clear or white gesso first to minimise warping.

I covered the whole thing with three shades of red/orange acrylic paint, blending them together as I spread the paint by spraying them with water to thin them out a little. This has actually blended them a bit more than I would have liked but I wasn't going to stress about it.

I applied some of the lightest orange acrylic paint to create circles on the background. I used a gelli plate to do this, with some ghost printing to create the lighter impressions. You could just as easily apply it directly through a stencil though.

This photo combines two steps. I drizzled some blue misting ink along the top edge of the canvas, letting it pool and drink wherever it felt like. I decided the blue didn't suit what I was going for, so went over it again with a brown ink which has a blue shimmer to it, just to tone it down and create a few more drips. 

Once that was dry, I applied the grey paint through a stencil. I wanted a really crisp design though and unfortunately my paint bled under the stencil. I just grabbed a baby wipe and whipped off all the grey paint. :)

Using the baby wipe to remove the paint gave me two lovely effects. Firstly, the grey paint stayed on the builders tape and highlighted that texture. I decided I liked the effect, so spread it around to the other areas with tape too. Whilst I was wiping the paint, it also took off the red paint from the top of the crackle paste, which made the stencil designs stand out more too so I repeated that over the whole canvas. 

I added a lot more interest to the background in this stage! I repeated the mist/ink drizzle at the bottom with a dark brown ink which I also flicked over the whole canvas, as well as some white ink. I've used white and brown pencils to highlight some of the orange circles. Lastly, I've applied some silver wax highlights to the crackle paste.

Once you're happy with the background, it's time to start building up the mid-ground. I used a paper doily, some cheesecloth and a ribbon off-cut. They were all glued down with matt gel medium.

The last step is to add your focal pieces. For me this was the Romanian woman after cutting her out and inking the edges in brown, along with the motivational stickers. I used a aquarelle pencil around the stickers to make them stand out a bit more too. Lastly, I added a couple more ribbons to the mid-ground as it was a little bit too plain otherwise. 

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial. If it inspires you to create something I'd love for you to share your project with me!

Loved Canvas - D-lish Scraps DT

Hello friends! This is a sad blog post for me because it is my last on the D-lish Scraps design team. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time, getting to see all the fantastic creations by the other team members and taking part in the challenges and chatter over at The Scrap Suite. However, all good things must eventually come to an end. I thought it fitting to finish my term as I started, with a mixed media canvas.

There are lots of details to this canvas, so there are a few different detail shots. Starting in the top left corner, I used a lovely apricot Sakura Bloom at the focal point. I then worked my way down in size using a range of paper flowers including a cabbage rose, tea roses, and resin flowers. You can also see a clear glass cabochon and some glitter enamel dots scattered around the edges. At the very bottom level of my layers, I have some orange/white twine and an off-white paper doily.

I couldn't resist these adorable wooden boy buttons when I saw them in the shop and had been saving them for just the right occasion. 

This last close up shows the beautiful orange Little Birdie bloom, as well as the Kinder Kreations chipboard title.

Just in case anyone was interested, I also whipped up a really quick step-by-step as to how this canvas was made. 

1/ To create the background I adhered some torn up book pages to the background, then painted over them with gesso. I randomly stamped over the top of this with Stazon ink. Lastly, I applied texture paste through a Scrapmatts stencil.

2/ This is the fun step - just pick a couple of different coloured mists and spray away. I have used green and orange dylusions plus antique gold Kaisermist, and yellow and coral sprays. I let this all dry completely, then did it all again to build up a nice vibrant colour over the gesso base.  Don't fall in love with this later, as most of it will be covered up.

3/ Add some texture over the paint. I have added some strips of builders tape, orange/white twine and cotton thread. Make sure these are going to poke out far enough to still be seen once you add the embellishments and photo mat.

4/ Make up your photo mat. I've used a couple of different pocket-page cards cut down to size and some paper doilies. This is stuck to the page over the top of two layers of cardboard so I can fit embellishments under it.

5/ Add the paper flower embellishments. Start with the larger flowers and work your way down in size. I have misted some of my flowers in the top cluster so they match the background.

6/ Make a bead mix (I used a pre-made combination from My2Angels mixed with orange microbeads from a past Just Add Paper Kit) and mix this with strong liquid glue, before applying randomly with a spatula. Mix some gesso with water and flick this over the canvas.

7/ Last step is to add in the little embellishment details like some resin flowers, glass cabochons, wooden button and glitter enamel dots. Add your photo and title then it's done!

Champs - D-lish Scraps DT

Hello hello! I took part in a basketball tournament this past weekend and it made me a bit nostalgic for my junior playing days. You know, the ones where you wouldn't hurt so much just waking up the day after a game? ;) Anyway, just because D-lish Scraps have such a beautiful range of flowers doesn't mean I need to include them in every layout. So here is a no-flower Design Team layout featuring my favourite colour - Orange!

I also put together a really quick tutorial on how to create this layout.

1. I loved how busy this Simple Stories background paper was, but also wanted to tone it down a bit. I swiped some gesso randomly across the page, the gave it a spray with some orange Colour Blast Shimmer Spray so it has an orange sheen to it.

2. I then wanted to add some more interest and texture to the background. It's important to have a general idea of where your photos will be going before you start this step. I stamped a few different sizes of a Craft Queen stitched circle stamp around the page, knowing they would all overlap my photos. For the texture, I mixed texture paste with some seed beads from an old D-lish Scraps Just Add Paper kit and some added some orange ink to colour the paste. I swiped this through a Scrapmatts star stencil (one of my favourites!)

3. The background was completed by tearing up an orange Bitty Bag and placing it behind where my photos would go. The stars were die-cut from black card stock. The court piece is from the journal cards sheet of Simple Stories paper.

4. Because my paper was a bit warped, I mounted by photos on cardboard to make them a bit more stable and lift them up. I also sanded the edges of both photos so they stood out from the background a bit more.

5. The last step is just to add all the embellishments as you saw on the final layout. I chose blue as an accent colour because it pops against all the grey and orange, plus draws attention to the winners pennants in the photo.

The washi tape also comes from a past Just Add Paper kit. My title is made from puffy alphabet stickers.

I couldn't go past the 'memory' flair button, given these photos are now 16 years old! I feel so old myself now. The orange coloured wire was really easy to shape into a star and provide a bit of extra interest. The pennant sticker came with the Simple Stories basketball paper pack.

I really like using these arrow paperclips as an accent and the blue resin glitter dots just finished it off perfectly. I hand-made that basketball pin a number of years ago but never had a chance to use it until now. The sentiment is from the top of the court journal card I used on the background.

Thanks for checking out my work today!

 

Dream Big Canvas - D-lish Scraps DT

I'm so excited to be part of the new D-lish Scraps design team for the next six months. I simply couldn't go past all the beautiful flowers in stock without grabbing a variety to include in a canvas display piece as my first project.

I whipped up a quick little tutorial as to how I created the canvas, just in case anyone else wanted to try to create some thing similar. If you do, send me a link in the comments, I'd love to check it out!

1/ Spray mists onto your craft mat/Teflon sheet. I used three different colours (purple, green and light blue) and made sure they were close enough to run together. Press the canvas upside-down onto the mat, making sure to press firmly in the middle. Once dry, apply Versamark watermark ink through a stencil randomly and emboss with clear UTEE.

2/ I found the background too bold for my taste, so I painted the whole canvas with gesso, then used a baby wipe to clean off the embossed areas. I also used the wipe to lift off some of the gesso until I was happy with the amount of colour showing through.

3/ Apply texture paste through a stencil randomly over the canvas. The texture paste will only stay white if applied thickly, in thinner applications the background colour will show through once the paste dries. You can see the dry effect in the 4th photo. If you want it to stay white, use structure paste/gesso/acrylic paint instead.

4/ Colour the edges of the canvas with a thick layer of Gelatos. Apply water with a paintbrush to create drips. Add extra Gelato if you want extra colour intensity. I did the purple at the top and let it dry before doing the same thing with blue from the bottom.

From this point on is really where we just start covering up that beautiful background.

5/ Apply washi tape. I used a blue/white diagonal stripe from the retired JAP kit, Beachside Bliss. You need to think about where your flowers will be placed and ensure the washing pokes out the edges of the cluster.

6/ Adhere muslin over the washi tape. I used three different pieces that I had teased out the get rough edges and applied with spray adhesive. Paint your chipboard white (I use one coat of acrylic paint then spray with chalkboard Glimmermist). Cut the flourish to suit your design then glue down.

7/ Place your flowers, starting with the larger ones first then working towards the smaller ones at the edges and in the gaps. The heather sprays and spiral stamens are great for breaking up the circular design pattern.

8/ Add in the little extra embellishments like clear glass cabochons and sequins. I have also added some more diamond shapes using the smaller stencil and gesso in the top and bottom right corners.

9/ Apply the finishing chipboard pieces, in this case a Scrapmatts frame I've cut in half to use in two places and a title from another retired JAP kit, Aztec Dreams.

Close up shot to show some of the fantastic variety of flowers available from D-lish Scraps: Green Tara Tutu Blooms, Fantasy Blooms, Bitty Blooms, Magnolias, Heather Springs, Spiral Stamens, Petite Resin Roses and Wild Roses.  

Life is a Journey Canvas - Scrapmatts DT

Are you like me and you keep all those left over bits of chipboard? You know the ones, when you only have one piece left from the sheet, or you take it out but change your mind so don't use it on the layout, or even the extra bits you get in the Scrapmatts kits if you take an expo class? I have had a great time using up some of my leftovers stash to form the base of a small canvas display piece. The great thing about it is that it doesn't really matter what you have in this stash, because it will mainly get covered up anyway.

I quickly captured some progress shots to show how I built up the background. Stage one: two layers of chipboard and a metal charm, along with some builders tape and some texture paste through the stencil. Everything has been covered with a layer of gesso. Stage two: I have added the flowers and some lace strips. I decided I wanted the brick texture to stand out more so re-applied more texture paste, including over the lace. Everything got another coat gesso. Stage three: I have built up the coloured coverage using multiple applications of three colours of mist. Because of the gesso, they initially dry lighter than expected, so quite a few applications were required, but this helps blend the colours together. Stage four involves flicking black ink across the canvas, dry brushing white gesso across the whole piece to highlight the contours and then dabbing on spots of gold coloured paste to the flowers for highlights.

 

My tips for creating mixed media background:

- put your flat layers down first! I forgot to put my lace and builders tape down first, so ended up having to cut it to fit around the chipboard shapes.

- always coat everything with gesso to ensure they absorb the paint at the same rate, otherwise you ended up with inconsistency in the colours between surfaces.

- Let ink colours dry before changing colours to avoid them getting muddy. Don't be afraid the overlap dry colours to blend them though.

- Spray inks from different angles and positions to get into all the nooks and crannies of the canvas.

- If in doubt, add more!

You can see in these detail shots the background detail created by putting some texture paste through the brick stencil as well as the layers of chipboard in the background prior to building up the frames. The gold frame is embossed, and the top frame has a watered down mist painted over white acrylic.

Scrapmatts chipboard: CB6103 Scrap Words 21, CB6113 Scrap Words 32, CB6091 Ornate Frames 19, CB6110 Ornate Frame 25, plus bits and pieces left over. Stencil: ST5013 (this is my go-to stencil for background texture).

Messy Birthday Cards - Scrapmatts DT

I had actually made the bases for these cards a few weeks ago, but I put them under my craft mat to dry without warping and must have forgotten about them. Sofie from Scrapmatts had just sent me out a new shipment of chipboard as part of their DT so I decided to combine the new chippies and stencils to add to my stash of birthday cards to have on hand for emergencies.

 

I find the most difficult part of creating cards is coming up with the design, so you can save some time by creating a few in a similar design each time. If you're interested in making something similar, here is how I made them:

 

Prep the background

1/ Cut your base cardstock to size. Mine are 4'x6'.

2/ Smear white gesso over the front and allow to dry.

3/ Spray mist through a stencil. I used pink Glimmermist through ST5007 which has given a very subtle effect for the card on the right and aqua Dylusions through ST5003 for the card on the left. Because the Dylusions ink pooled on the stencil I then flipped it over and used the excess like a stamp to get the reverse image on the middle card.

4/ Splatter black ink over the cards. Put aside for mists/ink to dry.

 

5/ Randomly stamp a script image over the background.

6/ Edge the card with black ink, applied in a messy fashion.

 

Create the tags

7/ On a scrap of kraft cardstock, apply white gesso through a stencil. I used ST5023 and ST5024. These are new stencil designs and I just LOVE them! Wait for the gesso to dry before moving on (even though you can see from my smudge I didn't wait).

8/ Mist randomly over the cardstock. I found Glimmermists didn't give me a bold enough coverage so used Dylusions instead. Wait for the ink to dry.

 

9/ Stamp a decorative image over the top in black ink. I used a Kaisercraft stamp which was the perfect width to then create tags from.

10/ Cut the cardstock scrap down into different sized tags.

 

Assemble the card

11/ Colour the background chipboard (CB5151 Webbing 01) black, I used stamp ink.

12/ Adhere the tag to the left side of the card using foam mounting tape.

13/ Adhere the webbing chipboard around the tag. I only used one piece for all three cards (and even have a bit left over) because I cut it into smaller sections and placed these around the tag.

14/ Adhere the leaf spray chipboard (CB1235 Leaf Spray 14). There are only two sprays in the pack but I again cut it down into pieces to suit my cards.

15/ Cut three small rectangles of muslin and distress these. Adhere over the bottom of the leaf sprays.

16/ Adhere the Happy Birthday sentiments (CB1243 Scrap Words 29) using foam mounting tape.

17/ Adhere three small white flowers to the bottom left of the sentiment.

18/ Scatter rhinestones across the card.

 



 

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. If you do make a similar card please let me know and if it contains Scrapmatts chipboard don't forget to upload it to our Ning site, we would love to see your creations.

Smile Layout - Couture Creations DT

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway!**

 

Welcome back for my final reveal as part of the 2014 Couture Creations Design Team. I have made lots of cards and off the page projects for this team recently but it has been ages since I did a layout so I decided that would be the perfect project to end on. I've had a great time playing with all the fantastic Couture Creations products and hope you have enjoyed seeing my projects over the past year.

 

 

Photo credit: Juniper Blooms Portraiture

 

1/ Take your background paper (I used Rouge Stripes) and in pencil lightly mark guidelines at 1.5", 3.75", 6", 8.25" and 10.5" both horizontally and vertically. Use a brown pen to draw in faux stitches over the top of the middle three lines both horizontally and vertically.  

2/ Cut two strips of paper 1.75" x 4" and eight squares 1.75" x 1.75" from various papers from the paper pad. Edge all of these in brown ink. Adhere as shown in the photo, raising two using foam tape or cardboard for added interest.

3/ Cut 'Smile' die cut from Everyday Essentials and two of the decorative square frame from Hearts Ease from thin cardboard. Emboss all of these in two coats of brown embossing powder.

4/ Trim your photo to 4" x 4" and adhere the square frames to the corners, cutting away the parts behind the photo. Place three pearls in the corners of the frames. Adhere to the background, raising it up using foam tape or spare cardboard.

5/ Add your title to the top corner. Add embellishments to each square and some journaling strips, also edged in brown.

 

 

Couture Creations Materials List:

CO724062 Vintage Rose Garden 12" x 12" paper pad

CO724124 Everyday Essentials, Script - Smile die cut
CO724310 Hearts Ease square frame die cut

C0721998 Pearls Moonlight

 CO721986 Handheld Essentials, Craft Knife, Piercing Tool and Scoring Tool
6mm adhesive tape

 

Live Love Card - Couture Creations

Welcome back! How funky is the Everyday Essentials range of dies? They are so versatile. Today I've used the 2 Tags and Bird Branch set to create this card.

 

 

1/ Pick three sheets of patterned paper to be your background mat. Cut the largest to 6" x 4" and the next two each slightly smaller than that.

2/ Using a sponge dauber, apply some brown ink through a stencil onto the smallest mat. Ink all the edges of the three sheets in brown ink and distress the edges. Use double sided tape to stick them together.

3/ Cut one of the larger tag dies and cut that in half long ways. Ink the edges in brown.

4/ Cut the smaller tag die in a neutral colour and ink edges in brown. Mount this on some spare cardboard so it will be raised.

5/ Cut the bird from green paper.

6/ Cut a banner shape from red paper. Cut the two sentiments from patterned paper.

7/ Adhere the banner strip first, then slide the two halves of the large tag just under the edges and stick down.

8/ Adhere a length of ribbon down the centre of the banner. Adhere the sentiments over the ribbon to help keep it in place.

9/ Adhere the bird branch to the small tag and then the small tag to the centre of the card.

10/ Apply pearls as in the photo and you're done!

 

Couture Creations Materials List:

CO724062 Vintage Rose Garden 12" x 12" paper pad

CO724134 Everyday Essentials, 2 Tags & Bird Branch die

C0721998 Pearls Moonlight

 CO721986 Handheld Essentials, Craft Knife, Piercing Tool and Scoring Tool
6mm double sided tape

 

Happy Together - Scrapmatts DT

Mixed media is not new to scrapbooking by any means and it is a technique which I really enjoy for the opportunity to get messy and just keep layering. Scrapmatts has recently released a range of mesh chipboard pieces which are perfect to use on mixed media pieces. I have used the larger circle mesh (CB5130 Circle Mesh 03) on this layout and created a tutorial if you want to create a similar layout.

 

 

Photos for steps 1-4 are at the bottom of that set of instructions.

1/ Take a piece of cardboard/chipboard and start laying down materials for your background. You can see I have cut part of my mesh into three pieces and positioned them around where I planned to place my photo. I pushed all the circle pieces out of my mesh and put them aside. I have also added some book page strips, builders tape and texture paste through a matching stencil.

2/ Cover the entire background and spare circles in 2-3 coats of gesso. You want to make each background material absorb the next layer at the same intensity to get an even colour. Make sure you let each layer dry between coats.

3/ Using spray inks and water, colour your background and spare circles. I started by spritzing the whole thing with water, then used one purple and two blue inks to add colour. I again spritzed with water to re-activate the inks and then flicked some purple ink around the place for a more intense colour.

4/ I had hoped some ink pooling would highlight the different texture of the background but it didn't work. Instead, I took a bronze ink pad and rubbed it over all the raised areas to highlight them.

 

 

5/ Once the ink is dry, cover your spare circles with dimensional magic and set aside to dry fully.

6/ Pretty up your background, how you go about this is up to you. I placed some washi tape strips around the photo area and edges of the page, then rubbed gesso over them with my finger to blend them into the background better. I stamped some bubble wrap circles in white acrylic ink randomly over the background. I used spray adhesive to stick down two lengths of balled up thread. Lastly, I used a script stamp to create a border around the edges of my layout.

 

 

6/ Add your embellishments and title. For this layout that involved scattering the spare circles and some sequins from top right to bottom left corner of the layout. I also added two charms (CH019 Lock #2) to the layout, one at the title and one at the bottom right of the photo just after the date. My title is a Kaisercraft sticker and a piece from CB1189 Scrap Words 01.

 

 

There you go, an easy mixed media layout in just six steps! Show us what you create with the new mesh by sharing in the gallery.