The 'Boy' Bag

When we went to the powertex class a couple of weeks ago, Lin kindly brought me her Teesha Moore stamp, we call him 'the boy'. I used him with black paint to stamp onto fabric, then cut them into 7.5cm x 9.5cm pieces approx.

I was originally going to have 5 x 4 images, but when I put them on the fabric after I'd finally chose which I was going to use, I realised it would be a bit too big, so went with 4 x 3 instead.

I used a zig zag stitch between the images.

As I've never attempted a bag before I did look to see what I could find to help me on the internet but I think rather than helping it confused me, so I went my own way with it. I cut some panels for the bottom and sides.

I found some lovely green fabric which would work perfectly as a lining.

All the side panels sewn together.

And the tricky part, sewing the last panels and bottom together to make the bag shape.

Next came the straps for the handles.

Quite impressed with how the side panels came out, more by luck than judgement!

I turned the straps back the right way round,pinned them into the bag and when I'd got them where I wanted them, sewed them in.

Just tided up the top and the inside and there we are, all done. Very pleased with how it came out, especially for a first attempt.

And the sides don't look too bad either.

Acrylic Crackle Square

Having watched Andy Skinner on Hochanda on Wednesday, I searched for some acrylic shapes and came across these 3" x 3" squares which I think Chris sent to me as part of a prize. I didn't have any two step crackle so decided to see if it would work with clear media crackle, which as you can see, it did.

Next I made up a wash of media paint to seep into the cracks to further hi-light them.

Next I found out why it was important to stamp the substrate first instead of after the crackle has been applied. The stazon when stamped took some of the crackle off when the stamp was pulled away. But I carried on and painted the triangle of the eye with titan buff media paint.

Once the titan was dry I painted the background with pyrrole red and then heat set.

And finally I peeled the backing off, which then became the front and this is what was revealed. Where the paint has splodged is where the stamp pulled the crackle off.

Had good fun playing though. All the products were from the DecoArt media range.

Rustic Hearts

I had a play with rust powder, ivory powertex and bister. The balls weren't meant to be there, but I had a little accident and knocked the pot over and that's where some of them landed!

This one has Decoart modeling paste through a stencil directly onto the mdf. Rust powder was mixed into the ivory powertex and spread over the mdf. Again the sand balls weren't meant to feature! I spritzed them both with a 50 / 50 of lemon juice and water. I again forgot to pick up some white vinegar.

Once they had been left for 24 hours and completely dry I sprayed them with yellow and then brown bister, drying in between colours.

This one has had the same treatment.

Close up after a third colour of bister has been added and dried.

Again a third colour of bister and you may also be able to see some cracks developing.

For the next layer I sprayed on some perfect pearls mist in green, it sort of gave it a patina look as it has a shimmer.

And on this one I sprayed with perfect pearls mist in bisque, which is like a champagne gold colour.

And finally I went over the sand balls with treasure gold.

I went over both the stenciling and sand balls with treasure gold on this one.

Close up of the sand balls after being treasure golded and you can still see the rust on the left.

Hopefully you can see how this catches in the light and you can still pick up the rust.

Atc RAKs and Postcard for a Swap

12 - 18 February is RAK week and 17 February is RAK day. I am in an ATC swap group and thought it would be a good idea if we randomly selected people in the group to send ATC RAKs too. Today I made five to send out.

I am also in a postcard swap for UKStampers FB group, so carrying on with the same theme as the RAKs, I made this quick postcard, the theme is faces. It's very plain as it has to be posted naked, ie as it is, no envie or anything!

RAK

As it's RAK (Random Act of Kindness) week from 12th - 18th February and RAK day 17th February, I suggested to a FB group I'm in that it would be a great idea if we did this amongst ourselves. There are only 7 of us in our closed group, so not too difficult to arrange. One person in the group pm'd everyone the name of the person we are to make for. The person we make for isn't necessarily the person we receive from, so it's a bit like a secret Santa I guess.

Anyway this is what I made from pieces of mdf and chipboard. All products are from DecoArt.

I hope she likes it xx

Art Dolls

Had a little play this morning with some bits of wood and some printed images and came up with these couple of art dolls. They were inspired by Mark Montano's video which you can see here.

Valentines Theme Swap

Over on a FB group I'm in we are having a valentines themed swap, so mine was hearts, hearts, hearts.

Close up of the crackle

The layered hearts and the tulip paint.

More crackle!