Friday 13th Atc's

I started off by mixing media texture sand paste with ultra matte varnish and randomly spread it on three white pieces of card cut to atc size.

Once dry, I gave each one a coat of media paynes grey mixed with a hint of tinting base and continued to add different colours of media paint until I was happy with the backgrounds.

Next I added the images and gave everything a coat of ultra matte varnish. Once dry I applied clear crackle glaze to parts of the atcs.

I used a combination of black and brown antiquing cream over the crackles, although they blended the images into the background quite well, they didn't really enhance the cracks, so I went back in with the white. 

I cut some chicken wire and coloured it with quin gold, used mini staples to attach it and painted them quin gold too. 

I added the chit chat words and gave them a coat of Andy's dirty wash to tone down the white.

Again added a chit chat phrase and used the dirty wash to tone it down. The X is from my new dies.

I used the media mister to drip the red paint down the atc.

That's Crafty have a theme of Friday 13th.

All products are from DecoArt media range.

Crackle Inspired Tags

Leandra's been on periscope again and this time she showed a few techniques with the PA crackle glaze and the fresco paints. I tried a couple of them out as you can see above and this is probably the best crackle I've ever achieved with this product.

And this is what I did with them.

Close up of the multi-colours and stamping through the crackle.

I used a couple of stamped fabric pieces from a workshop I attended last year as I didn't want to cover too much up.

Might just need to add some fibres to this one.

Close up of the crackle with limelight, yellow submarine, tango and plum painted over the top, then sanded back especially around the edges as I wanted a very grungy, distressed look.

Close up of the die cut cogs.

Background cogs were stamped in timber brown stazon over the crackled tag.

A Vintage Journey have a theme of industrial, so I'd like to enter this tag.

Cogs and Hearts Canvas

Texture paste and mircobeads painted on the canvas, when dry painted with night sky multi surface satin, copper metallic lustre used to hi-light the textures from the microbeads. Lots of embellishments and die cuts added to create the collage.

Close up of the crackled heart and the wooden cogs.

Close up of the microbeads.

All products used are from the DecoArt range.

PA have a theme of hearts this week.

Rustic Elements

Preped some chipboard die cuts using gesso, texture sand paste and matte medium.

Then I chose some pieces to add to my base of foam board, masking tape, cotton scrim and gesso. 

I painted some of the pieces with paynes grey.

Sprayed the foam board with turquoise shimmer media mister and added transparent yellow iron oxide media paint.

And this is the finished piece which eventually took on a blue / green tone.

A few close ups, bottom left hand corner.

The silver washers painted in gesso, paynes grey and quinacridone gold.

The lock and key made to look like rust.

And the top left corner, more rust effects and the cotton scrim through the foam board.

Cotton scrim under the frameworks die painted in ultramarine media paint.

Then I decided to add the PA words as I felt it needed a little something else at the top. When I looked back at my original layout, I forgot the heart at the top!

All products ie paints, misters and mediums are from the DecoArt media range.

Playing with Primary Elements by Luminarte

Earlier this week my parcel of Luminarte powders arrived. Lin found a craft clearance website selling them off at a fab price, so we got some.

After watching a few Youtube videos I rummaged to see what I could find to mix them with, and the answer is basically anything that comes in liquid form!! So we have white gesso, absorbent ground, matte medium, mod podge, triple gloss glaze, textile medium, crackle accents, satin, gloss and crackle glaze, mod podge dimensional magic and gum arabic.

What's in the pot doesn't necessarily relate to the actual colour you get!! From left to right we have ginger peach mixed with textile medium, deep coral mixed with PA gloss glaze, spiced pumpkin & pearl mixed with textile medium and spiced pumpkin mixed with inkseentials crackle accents.

This is the shimmer I got by adding the pearl to the spiced pumpkin. Pearl is the only metallic colour I bought.

And this is the shimmer without adding any metallics, this is ginger peach.

The small tag in the middle is the one above which I placed between the 2 samples we did at the LB workshop using silk acrylic glazes, as a comparison as it is made from the same powders. The reason they look slightly different is because the 2 larger tags are manilla and one has been gesso'd and I used a white tag.

Chestnut brown mixed with triple thick gloss glaze (Americana) and water, chestnut brown mixed with triple thick gloss glaze (Americana), cinnamon brown mixed with gloss mod podge. I added water to the chestnut brown mix as it was quite sticky and started to dry out, adding the water made it much more workable.

This left one was the very first one I did, just using water, gum arabic and golden jade. You have to use some sort of binder if just using water, if you don't, once it dries the mica just rubs off. Moss agate mixed with mod podge dimensional magic, again this was quite sticky, dried quickly and didn't blend too well.

Left to right again, true blue mixed with PA satin glaze. Autumn skies & pearl mixed with PA satin glaze. Autumn skies mixed with Golden matte medium. This one didn't mix or spread very well at all.

The pearl looks more silver with the blue, whereas above with the red, it looks more gold???

Wild plum mixed with Golden absorbent ground (white), the bottom half is mixed with water as it was very thick and sticky again. The part without the water is dull and has lost the shimmer as it was mixed with a white not clear to start with, but by adding the water, the shimmer shows through. Royal orchid and PA crackle glaze, this one didn't work very well either as it was way too sticky and started to dry out.

And finally to the gesso and GP. These have changed the colour and lost the shimmer as they both started off white and not clear. They have both been mixed with china black.

So basically it depends on what look you want as to what to mix the colours with. If you want a matt finish you need to mix with a medium that stays white when dry, but this will also lighten the colour. If a translucent medium goes a bit gloopy or sticky you can just add a bit of water to it, but this may slightly dilute the colour. In my opinion and it's only my opinion, the two best products were, PA satin glaze and FolkArt textile medium. Was good fun playing though xx

Triple Treat - PATwits 3Up Challenge - Night 1 - LB

Over at the PA blog this week it's the turn of the PATwits to take over.  There are 3 projects being show cased each night from a designer and first up was Lin Brown. I don't have that many of Lins products because she has a love of flowers, and I don't.

First up was Shirley with her cards. I used LB stamps and die cut for the inner flower and the quote. The leaves were made using the Ellen Vargo sketchy pod shaped stamp.

Next up was Cazz with her storage unit. I decided to paint an mdf box and make it into a pen holder. I crackled the 2 sides then applied GP mixed with chutney through script and number stencils. The background colours are chartreuse and seaweed with a coat of tikka underneath.  The other 2 sides are LP images and PA Minis stamped in timber brown stazon.

And last but not least my PATwit friend Helen who decorated a paper mache hanging board. I chose a piece of mdf, painted it in chartreuse and seaweed. Stamped some LB images with chutney. Coloured some GP with seaweed and applied through a mini circle stencil. I painted the chipboard pieces with a mix of chutney and seaweed and stamped a PA mini script in black stazon. 

I die cut the PA dragonfly using an off cut off a gelli print and lightly went over it in chartreuse to co-ordinate it in with the background colours. 

Now the reason for the 3 projects on the one post is because this week you are only allowed 3 entries into the prize draw and as I know that Ellen Vargo and Lynne Perrella were also on the list, I'm saving myself for later in the week!!!

Two Hearts Tag

Alison has been back on the PA blog again this week with her hearty canvas project which you can see here.  I decided my base would be corrugated card in the shape of a tag. I crackled the hearts using tinned peas and guacamole and stamped the LP images in timber brown stazon.

Tag Trio

Over at Artful Times they have asked to see something a la T!m style. Left tag was pulled through distress inks, middle tag was a mop up of the first one. Right tag is distress paints.

I used the layering stencils and distress inks to add more interest in the backgrounds, stamped various TH images in black stazon onto each tag and embellished with idea-ology pieces.

Over at Tag Along they want us to show our favourite technique. Well one of my favourite things to do is to take a white posca pen and pick out parts of the images to hi-light.

I used a pen nib for the body, and the word art was covered in glossy crackle and of course the white pen hi-lights.

And finally the spinners for the bodies and a spinner mounted on a couple of cogs and the white pen.

PanPastelUk are asking us to use stencils in our projects this week too.