Andy Skinner Style Box Frame

I've been reading about, and seeing the pieces made at the Ministry of Mixology class earlier this month hosted by Andy Skinner and wanted to have a play myself. The actual kit they used can be purchased at Tando Creative, but I decided to make my own.

Cut the pieces of the top frame and glued them on the bottom piece. Used a hole punch to punch out the tiny circles to make the rivets on the right hand side frame.

Given a coat of gesso which was stippled on to give a rougher texture.

Painted the inner frame.

Once dry, totally covered both pieces with black antiquing cream.

Wiped the antiquing cream back until I has happy with what I had, then dry brushed with gesso.

Added a wash of media paints until I was happy with the results. Hi-lighted the edges of all the individual pieces with quin gold.

Next I took some Andy Skinner stencils and used titan buff to stipple through them.

Made a 'dirty wash' and painted over the stenciled areas so they blended in with the background.

Close up of the dirty wash over the stenciled figures.

So onto the inside of the frame. I just used a piece of corrugated, laid the inner frame on and drew round it so I knew the area I was working in. Painted the background and stamped some of my new Andy Skinner stamps in black stazon.

My new stamps which just happened to pop through the letterbox yesterday lunchtime!

Decided what I wanted to put in middle and ended up a cog and a heart collage.

Next I built the sides up to make a recess.

And finally I attached the lid!!

The techniques I've used are the ones I learnt on an Andy Skinner workshop I took in June 2014 which you can see here.

All products are from the DecoArt Range.

Tag Swap

The theme of a tag swap I've organised is to incorporate script / text /words etc. I used two large mdf tags for mine. 

Black gesso on the bottom with white modeling paste mixed with serene chalky paint through a stencil and hi-lighted with turquoise metallic lustre. The top half is lace on the bottom, a thin layer of weathered wood crackle and serene over the top. Script and Finn images stamped in black stazon. Final layer is a wash of transparent yellow iron oxide media paint.

Close up of the stenciling and the crackle.

Whisper chalky paint for the base, covered in a layer of patina antiquing cream and wiped back. A layer of ultra matte varnish to seal the antiquing cream. Random script stamp added in black stazon. A dirty wash added and finally black gesso stippled through a word stencil and a couple of coats of soft touch varnish.

All products are from the DecoArt range.

Just the Ticket

I couldn't wait to try out this new Andy Skinner technique that I've only just come across, think I missed it with being on holiday, but you can see it here. I pretty much copied what he did. I used a mix of treasure and lace DecoArt chalky paint for the base and then a coat of Media white antiquing cream, rubbed back with a babywipe.

I have the industrial set of stamps on pre-order but they haven't hit the UK yet, so had to improvise. I used a couple of the Finn background stamps with black stazon. It came out a bit blockey but I carried on with it.

Next media black gesso and a stencil, love how crisp the images have come out.

And the final touch, the dirty wash mix.

I really love how this turned out and it was so easy to do.

All products are from the DecoArt range.