August Tag

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well.  Here in England we have just enjoyed our last bank holiday weekend before Christmas.  I cannot believe that we are nearly into September and shorter days and darker nights already. For this months tag I wanted to hold on to summer a little longer and make it bright and colourful 

For August Tim's remix takes us back to July 2013 Brayered Stains and April 2014 for Frameworks techniques, you can see Tim's original and tutorial Here and my take is pictured below.

Using three older but very pretty colours from the spring collection of distress inks Squeezed Lemonade, Peacock Feathers and Shaded Lilac.

 I spritzed and flicked with water and distressed the edges before inking them up with DI

 Using the trellis Frameworks die and grunge paper, I painted the frame with Picket Fence, sanded it back and inked it up again.

 The inner parts of the trellis were a mix of corrugated card, canvas, and brayered and embossed grunge paper.

 The butterfly was made up of two die cuts, the one underneath was cut in half and pulled out slightly so you could see the deeper colours underneath.

 A few pearls, inked vintage ribbon bow and rub ons completed the look

 The rub on butterfly looked a little dark when I put it on to the tag, so I simply lightened it up with a few white pen strokes

 The butterfly antennae are painted flower stamen

I really had fun making this tag, hope you like it.

Mo x

AVJ Stencil It Guest Design

Hi Everyone,
I am so very  excited today to be bringing you my Guest Design piece for A Vintage Journey. Thank you so much to Nikki, Brenda and the team for asking me back again.

Their latest challenge 'Stencil It'  is hosted by Amanda and as the name suggests is all about Stencils   this is how she describes The Challenge.

There are so many fantastic stencils available to us right now and so many ways in which to use them we would like you to include some stenciling in whatever it is you choose to create for this challenge. Don't forget inks, sprays, paints, texture/embossing pastes and gesso are all stencil friendly so be sure to have fun and embrace your stencils in your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial or steampunk projects.

Well I just love stencils and so had plenty to choose from for this project.  I decided that it was high time my Wanderlust journal got a makeover as it was just a plain Kraft card cover so I got to work with my stencils, paints and paste and this is the result.

My front cover above features the wonderful Mr Umbrella Man, I decided to used him as he looks like he is looking towards the book opening and wondering what lies beneath the cover.  The colour combinations of both the front and the back (below) came together quite by accident as I started off with a blue theme but I am really pleased that I threw a few contrasts colours in there.

 First step Gesso the cover, dry and brush stroke with Weathered Wood & Stormy Sky paints

Use Stormy sky through the Rays stencil

Use Peacock Feathers through the Latticework stencil

Use Antique Linen through the Stripes Stencil

Wash the edges with DecoArt Green Gold

Dab Gesso through the Doily stencil around the edges

Use DecoArt Crackle paste through a mini stencil (this one is from set 12)

Use black soot through bubble stencil plus Peacock feathers through schoolhouse and Salty ocean through another mini stencil.  You will notice I also added more crackle paste as before.

Spritz spiced marmalade around the centre and salty ocean around the edges.

Use Wendy Vecchi Black embossing paste through the splatters stencil

Add more colour with a wash of salty ocean down some of the embossed stripes and a wash of DecoArt Quinacridone gold (You may notice I used a white pen on some of the black bubbles which I decided I did not like so removed with a baby wipe)

This piece of stenciled card had been hanging around from another project since the year dot. It was just several colours of paint brayered with white embossed stencilling. 

I simply tore it into strips and used it to make Mr Umbrella Man pop out of the journal.  To make the  cover more hard waring and to protect the Artwork, I gave it a good coat of Rock Candy Crackle Glaze.  The crackle glaze not only protected it but it also gave me chance to get more colour in to the tiny crackles and so add even more interest. 

This lay on my desk for a few days and I was sorting out my ribbon drawer, some of which again I had not used for ages and I thought Hmm! I wonder if...So The spine got well and truly dressed with all sorts of ribbons, makes is look pretty I think, aI love the way you can still see all the stages of the stencilled layers

There is still plenty of time to join in The Challenge so get out those stencils and have a play.
For more photos of my finished journal cover pop over to A Vintage Journey
Mo x

Mosaic Book Cover

Hi Everyone,

Wow! Shut the front door!! I cannot believe how lucky I am for being one of the winning tags for the second time this year.  Thank you so much everyone for all your lovely comments and Congratulations, they mean so much xxx.

I would like to show you a project I made whilst attending a workshop with Di from Tando in June. Di gave us all a fabulous journal to use for future projects and she also let us loose with a pack of grey board mosaic pieces and Deco Art products, embossing folders and stamps.
 

 We only actually had time to complete the main blocks on the front of the book, and you can see all our books in the pictures below at the stage they were at when we left the workshop

 

On the close up here you can see detail of various textures Di had us creating.  Crackle Paste with water colours, Dry embossed then dry brushing.  Frantage and embossed stamping.  We had lots of choice when it came to paint colours and some pieces have quite a few different paint layers  to give the effects. 

Once I got my book home I worked on it a little more to add more interest and make it more unique.

Adding a metal clasp and strap made from embossed Grunge Board (I may have to make this bigger at a later stage depending what we put in the book).

and a couple of metal embellishments

Which I repeated on the back of the strap.

I completed the grey board pieces on the back of the book at home too the only real difference being that I did not chop in to the edges like I did on the front.

I also added tissue tape around the edges and on the spine

Here you can see the back and front together, I am so chuffed with the result

We all had a lovely day with Di and look forward to what she has in store for us next time....
I will let you know
Mo x

July Tag

Hi Everyone,

Running last minute again (no change there then!) I have for you my take on Tim's Tag for July.  For his technique remix this month Tim is using his Watercolour technique from July 2016 and Layered words from April 2015, his original along with his step by step can be viewed  Here.

This is a strange choice for July I suppose, to be thinking about Christmas, but I purchases this set of the mini blue print Christmas stamps only last week and just HAD to play with them.

The stamps were watercoloured with distress inks and micro glaze carefully brushed over the coloured areas for a resist before giving the tag a wash of pumice stone and a flick of black soot. As there was quite a lot going on in the background, I kept the embellishments to the bare minimum

Holiday Script Thinlets and a chit chat sticker made the Greeting for the layered words, and my trusty sewing machine was out once more for the stitching around the edges.

I quite like the effect and may well use it for some of my Christmas cards this year.  These would also make really special gift tags I think.

Mo x

Beach Hut Fun

Hi Everyone,

I have been a very bad blogger lately, so sorry for that but you know how it goes, sunny days drag you away from the desk and before you know it a month has passed and nothing has been created.

Last weekend  put an end to all that when I was lucky enough to attend a workshop at Country View Crafts HQ with the fabulous Brenda.  I had a fabulous day and just look at these beauties we created

The bunting, driftwood  and shells were added once I got home and worked on the piece a bit more, but we managed to finish the main body of the project on the day.

  

 Brenda's weathered wood technique is quite amazing, look at how realistic it looks on the close up, we even mad the nails look like they are rusting.

The reverse was just as much fun to do as the front using DecoArt crackle  paint mixed with acrylic.

We were given plenty of wooden craft parts to alter, again I added a few extra sea related items, fortunately living near the seaside now I don't have far to go to collect them.

A puddle of glossy accents and a scatter of micro beads gave my little boat a sea to sail on.

I love this little crab, he looks like he is doing a dance on the beach, i'm not sure about my lighthouse though, it looks a bit like a muffin with a cherry on the top the way I have painted it :)

More pictures of the day can be found on the CVC Project Blog Link.  If you every get a chance to attend one of Brenda's workshops, you will not be disappointed.   I am so looking forward to my next meeting with Brenda in November on the Ministry of Mixology retreat.

I bid you farewell for now, but I will be back later in the week to show you what I go up to at the last Tando workshop I attended last month.
Mo x