New Beginnings

Lesley kindly sourced me some mdf chunky atcs. I gave them both a coat of everlasting chalky paint followed by a coat of vintage. Once dry I sprayed them with media misters in turquoise shimmer, purple, black, blue and violet shimmer.

Once dry, using a template I used white modelling paste to create the heart shapes and used the pallet knife on the left one to create some texture.

I painted both of the heart shapes in dioxazine purple acrylic paint from the media range. Because I added the texture to the larger heart I was able to add metallic lustre in champagne ice and silver to enhance the texture. I stamped some script in everlasting chalky paint and on the left one black stazon using one of the stamps from Andy Skinner's industrial set.

Then I decided to do the backs too. Painted them both with amethyst dazzling metallics and added a spritz of turquoise shimmer media mister. Added stamping in black stazon from Finns sets and then using everlasting again over stamped some script using a PA mini.

Close up of the back, hopefully you can see the shimmer here.

Added some words and then decided to join them together so they would stand up on their own.

A view from the back with the hinge on.

And finally the finished project from the front withe the hinge. 

All products from DecoArt unless specified.

Birthday Card

This is the card I made for Helen as it's her birthday today.

Dare to Dream

This is my day 2 finished project from our recent metal workshop with Lin Brown, and Emma, Lesley, Lin & Helen. They all made something completely different - they stuck to the brief!! 

Close up of the Wendy Vecchi art parts pieces covered in sticky metalic foil, covered in black paint and wiped off and the key was painted black and coloured with pewter treasure gold.

More art parts and a tap top.

Close up of some of the metal work.

The canvas was given a wash of black paint to tone it down.

The letters were die cut from a cardboard dog biscuit box using T!m's wordplay die and left their natural colour.

Metal Time Arch

We were all meant to be making a canvas incorporating different metal techniques that Lin Brown was going to show us over the weekend, but Lesley had managed to source us some mdf arches, so I decided I wanted to do an arch instead. This is the said arch.

I don't have any close ups of the arch in it's primary stages, but here it is, perched on the edge of the table as I was working on the individual pieces. After I'd used molds and tools to create the shapes and patterns I cut them out and stuck them to the mdf with red liner tape being careful not to squash the individual pieces.

You can see how shiny the metal was in the photo above, once I'd placed all the pieces I covered the whole arch in black paint and wiped back to create the above effect.

I hand wrote the word and used metal tools to create the embossed effect and refine the letters. It's quite tricky as you have to write the word backwards on the back of the metal.

Close up of the embossed lettering using the mold.

A close up of the cogs mold.

And the fancy pattern, again a mold.

And the final section, the grid of squares.

Using a piece of previously printed fabric from a gelli plate I stamped a collage of images using black stazon and various stamps.

I put the fabric in the aperture and placed some metal embellishments.

I know this doesn't look much different from the one above, but it now has the fabric secure in the aperture, the wadding and the back on the arch. So the fabric is now padded.

And the arch is clamped with clips to help the front and back pieces to stick together being careful not to squish any of the metal embossed sections. I left it clipped up over night to ensure it had stuck properly.

 

I painted the edges and added some metal embellishments.

I was still pondering whether to add the clock face and the corner pieces but then had a little brain wave. I rubbed them over with silver metallic lustre to really dull them down.

Close up of the metal clock face.

The left corner piece.

The right corner piece.

I don't know if you can actually see the padded fabric from this photo, but it's there.

The finished piece in the garden with the daisies!!

Workshop with Lin Day 2

First thing to do was have morning cuddles with Meg.

And then a kiss.

Today I was making a patchwork piece of metals. Once all the pieces were created I assembled them in no particular order.

Em and her finished canvas, yes, I did say finished!!

Once I'd finished my patchwork sample I wondered how it would look on my canvas, so I painted the canvas with a black wash, mounted the patchwork piece onto a piece of black card and covered some art parts with sticky silver coloured thin metal, scuffed it with the brass brush tool and painted them black and took most of it off.  Once I was happy with the layout, I took on the task of gluing it down. I will show you a close up of the finished piece on another post.

Group photo and Meg managed to get in too!! Lin is holding my finished piece.

Thanks to one and all for making it a fabulous weekend.

Metal Workshop with Lin Brown

I will warn you now, this is extremely picture heavy, with not many words!!!

Lin & Lin covering a canvas with patterned papers.

Still covering the canvas.

Meg and her new turtle toy.

Meg playing with her toy, which at this point still had both eyes!!

And she quickly found the squeaker.

We were playing with different metal tools and making a sampler.

And these are the samplers.

And here is Meg again, asking very nicely for her toy.

A bit of thinking was required next, oh what to put on the lettered background panels.

More brain power required, Helen is deep in thought.

Meg was back for another play with now the one eyed turtle.

Everyone back on the case.

Then it was time for tea and cake. It's Helen's birthday next week, so we celebrated it early.

Lin supplied the candles and we all had a piece of cake.

Anyway, cake over and back to it.

The metal work in progress.

Filled the deep grooves with grunge paste.

More of the same.

And finishing off the last few bit before we left for the day to meet back at the pub later.

In the pub waiting for a table, Lesley & Em.

Helen, and Jo met us there. It was fabulous to see her again. Thanks for coming Jo.

Lin in the pub, pondering.

And then Lin joined us in the wait.

And finally we got a table, ordered and got our food.

And then we were all stuffed, but there was room for pudding for some.

We are back again tomorrow to progress with our makes.