Thursday 31 March 2016

Mini Man on a Ball


Whilst sat in front of the tv I made a couple of mini armatures with wire, tinfoil and masking tape.


I wanted him to sit on top of a ball so I bound him in pieces from an old dress and wrapped t-shirt yarn round a polystyrene ball. The easiest way to do this is also cover the ball in powertex. Not a very good photo I know, but they were drying.


Here is the following day and he is totally dry. As you can see I bent him into shape on purpose so he would dry like this.


And the ball is completely dry now too and you can see that the t-shirt yarn stayed in place too.


I painted the ball in various colours of paint until I was happy with the end result, but basically it went, light blue, grey and then a stone colour dry brushed over the top.


You can see the different colours a bit better here and as you can also see, it's very easy to cover the powertex with paint.


I was very lucky in a way as I was just positioning him on the ball to see if he required any additional bending and the doorbell rang. When I went back to him, he had stuck to the wet paint and become a permanent fixture! I then made him a little book with a denim cover and a stand so the ball wouldn't roll away.

Having used the Powertex again, this is definitely my go to product.

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.

***Edited**


Another photo, this time taken in the lovely sunshine.

Love is in the air....


I created this shadow box from the inner of the box of Green and Blacks chocolates that Martin got for Christmas. No we haven't only just finished them, I was waiting for the right thing to come along to fill it with, so here it is. Background is a piece of fabric. Sides have been covered in washi tape. A couple of the fabric butterflies have been overlaid with die cut, stamped and embossed ones. The Eiffel Tower and the heart are die cut from burlap which has been given a coat of Americana fabric stiffener. 

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

More Experimenting


Clay heads from a mold, but I needed to make them 3d so added a piece of a polystyrene ball to the back.


Again I wanted to test the Americana Fabric Stiffener to see how stiff it would go. Stuck the head on a wooden skewer and blue tacked it in the empty wkd bottle.


As you can see, I did two. I used a cotton muslin to cover both bottles. It's pretty light weight and see through as you can see the labels from the bottle through the fabric.


Once completely dry (24+ hours) I carefully pulled the bottles out.



And I'm happy to say that they both stood up independently just from the stiffness of the fabric.


Close up of the bottom of the fabric which you can clearly see through.

As you probably know by now, PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium for their challenge this week.

Monday 28 March 2016

A Couple of Cards


I die cut these hearts from denim fabric and a heavy weight burlap.


Next they were subjected to a heavy coat of Americana fabric stiffener, in fact, I think I put a bit too much on as they took ages to dry but it was the first time I'd used this product. 


I mounted them on top of each other and then onto cards, which was relatively easy to do as they were stiff and flat. I doodled on the kraft card in white pen and I machine stitched on the white one.

Paperartsy have a challenge theme of liquid sculpting medium.


Sunday 27 March 2016

Poppies


I don't have any photos of the first stages, but basically what I did was to cut out rough circles in red fabric and covered them with Americana Fabric Stiffener which is transparent. I then draped each one over a little pot and scrunched the edges. This is them after they have dried. I also coated some string too.


I painted some tiny polystyrene balls with black shimmer dazzling metallic paint.


I wanted a canvas but didn't have one the right shape, but I did manage to find a box that one of Martins ski tops came in. I painted it with deep turquoise and apple green multi surface paint.


Once the balls were dry I glued them into clumps.


And finally my finished piece. I'm hoping you can see poppies.

All products are from the DecoArt range. Stamps are PA mini script and SN stamp set.

PaperArtsy have a theme of liquid sculpting medium.






Friday 25 March 2016

Beer Mat Mini Book


I was in need of a messy play so I added all sorts of textures to these beer mats. Texture sand paste mixed with ultra matte medium (this just helps the sand paste stick better), fibre paste, modelling paste with micro beads mixed in and modelling paste using a pallet knife to make peaks.


I painted them with various DecoArt products from the media range until I achieved the look I wanted for each piece. I stamped in everlasting chalky paint to lighten them up a bit and give a bit of contrast, added a few die cut pieces and people images. Once finished I added the idea-olog words and then randomly added gold interference paint and wow, this stuff is fab, you can't see it until it dries.


Close up of the interference gold over the rust effect.


I mounted each mat onto a piece of white paper that I'd painted with a mix of espresso and black dazzling metallics and scrunched to make into a mini book.


Front cover and inside.


Front and back covers.


Close up of three of the pages.


Close up of the texture and gold interference.

All products are from the DecoArt range.


Crayons


This piece of card has had everything thrown at it. I started off trying out my new to me Target water soluble crayons and Crayola Twist Stix and I was going to throw it away. Instead I gave the whole page a thin coat of neon orange acrylic paint. Next I watered down a purple and painted that on. Once dry I added black media mist, followed by magenta and finally white. This made it quite pale, so to bring it back to life I stuck a couple of fingers in the pot of turquoise Dylusions, smeared it around a bit and then did exactly the same with the lime. I also wanted to try some of the new wooden stamps I brought back, so I inked them up in black stazon and randomly stamped. Lastly I added stencilling with white chalky paint. I told you I'd thrown everything at it.


I cut the A4 card into 6, decided which way up I wanted them and mounted them onto a small card. Next I went in with black and white sharpie pens and added lines and doodles.


I added a happy birthday sentiment to half of them, the other half I've left blank to add to when I need to.

The finished cards measure 4" x 4".


Sunday 20 March 2016

Holiday Pages - 2016


I always make pages of the photos from our ski holiday, so here is a small selection of my favourites. As you can see, we went to Utah and stayed in Utah this time.


Due to the lack of new snow, we did more sightseeing this year, this is the Parown Gap and its petroglyphs near Cedar City.


This was the long windy road up to Cedar Breaks, there wasn't any new snow, the snow plough was just chipping the edges away and blowing it out its blower!


History behind Antelope Island, a place no-one wanted, so the mormons claimed it.


We saw wild bisons and a couple of antelopes on the island.


Stunning views of the red rock whilst driving through Kolob Canyons, southern Utah.


More stunning red rock, we just touched the tip of Zion National Park.


Martin saw this guy, Jim, carving animals with a chainsaw, and I fell in love with the bear top left but it was far too big for us to get home, so he made a smaller one especially for us. We sat him on our balcony and gave him some sunglasses! We got him home in one piece eventually, after being stopped, searched and swabbed at the airport, he is now sat in our fireplace!

Saturday 12 March 2016

Altered Dominos


I'm in a mini marvels swap and this month the theme is altered dominos. It's been a bit of a rush job as I went back to work on Thursday and the deadline is next weekend, but I got there in the end.

They are foam dominos and were initially painted in everlasting chalk decoart paint, next I randomly added silver shimmer dazzling metallics, then I stamped the PA mini script in black stazon to create the background. I stamped the images onto text print paper, cut them out and stuck them on with decoupage glue and then sealed the whole of the domino with it. Once dry I pierced a couple of holes, added wire and embellishments to finish.

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Holiday Photos - And finally the shopping


These were purchased from I-Stencils thanks to Jean, Kerri and The Best Western for helping me to get them. I had them delivered direct to the hotel and they held them for me until I got there - great service all round.


I bought these quite early on in the trip from Barnes and Noble.


These are from JoAnns and Hobby Lobby. You know how I love my wooden stamps.


I got three triple X 100% cotton t-shirts in white for $3 each, some pieces of patterned cotton fabric, other natural fibres, lace, ribbon and some craft tee yarn. These were from JoAnns, Michaels and Hobby Lobby.


Sharpie water based paint pens, Pitt pen, crayons and compressed charcoal. From Target, Hobby Lobby and Michaels.


Pads of paper, notebooks and oriental papers. Hobby Lobby and Michaels.


Embellishments from Michaels, Hobby Lobby, JoAnns and Heartfelt Hobby & Craft.


12 x 12 Scrapbook bargain price from Michaels. Most of the rest was from a local scrapbook shop called Heartfelt Hobby & Craft. It was huge and amazing. You might spy some Canadian bits in there, I got them in prep for next years trip!

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