Art With Heart August - Choose Your Own Theme!

It is so hard to believe that we are in August already - how did that happen??

Over at Eileen Hull's Art With Heart Challenge for August the theme is a simple one - Choose Your Own Theme!  What could be easier than that!  Eileen is asking you to dig deep into your stash and break out some oldies but goodies and make them new again.  Use forgotten dies, stamps, trims, techniques of what have you and make them new again with a fresh project.  The theme you choose is completely up to you!  There is an awesome Sizzix prize pack that you can win just for sharing your creation with us...

I have chosen to make two projects using some of the dies that are in this month's prize and another one of Eileen's older dies - the Recipe Box (cut for me by my lovely friend Kath Stewart - thank you Kath).

This is a picture heavy post so I will keep the words to the minimum.

I used DecoArt products throughout, the flowers are from Eileen's Sweet Treats for You set of dies.

I wanted to create a faux wood look, originally taught to me by my wonderful friend Jenny (Buttons).  I used part of her technique but with DecoArt paints in Titan Buff and Quinacridone Burnt Orange, followed by Andy Skinner's 'dirty wash' and then overstamped with Andy's Industrial set of stamps by Stampendous.  See lots of Andy's techniques here.

The flowers are painted with Cobalt Teal Hue Mixed Media Fluid paint and seed bead were added to the centres.  The clasp has been 'aged' with Quinacridone Gold.  The little label is from Eileen's lovely labels set of dies.  Although a Recipe Card Box, it holds packets of seeds nicely.

Next up, I created a mobile for the garden, again using Eileen's dies and DecoArt products.

The dies I used are from Eileen's Birds and Butterflies set and also the Doily Lace Medallion and the small medallion is from Eileen's Sweet Treats for You set of dies.

The elements were cut from metal covered card.

Each piece was coloured with Cobalt Teal Hue and Blue Green Light Media Fluid Paints and then dabbed over with Quinacridone Gold to give a verdigris effect.  The butterflies were embossed with Eileen's Sunburst Embossing Folder.

Close up of the medallions.

A close up of the beautiful embossed butterfly (with matching jewellery wire antennae).

The little mobile in situ in the garden - it is weather proofed with a coat of varnish.

I really do hope you can join in our challenge at Art With Heart, just get out some of your older stash and let us see what you make!

As always, thanks for looking and I hope to see you again soon!  Hugs, Anne xx

Anything But Cute - Challenge #3 - Summer Romance

Hi Everyone

I would like to firstly apologise if I have not visited your blog during this last week, we are away at the moment, internet connections are poor and I really wanted to spend some quality time with family so I have been away from the keyboard!  Normal service will resume tomorrow!

Over at Anything But Cute Challenge Blog the theme for this month is Summer Romance with a romantic and or beach/sea theme, and as many of you know I love anything sea themed so I just had to join in.  There is a mood board for inspiration:

A while back a lovely young blog friend sent me some fabulous seaside Prima goodies and I have been saving them to make something special and they fitted right in with this challenge.

I used a 5" x 5" deep canvas as my base and after covering it with gesso I applied some DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste which I had coloured with some DecoArt Cobalt Teal Hue
Media Fluid Paint.  

I applied quite a thick coat of the paste and ran my finger across to create the illusion of moving water (well in my mind that is what I intended!).  I added some coloured sand to a line across the bottom and also painted some DecoArt Titan Buff Media Fluid to a another line to represent sand.  It does not show in the photo but the coloured sand has a real 'sparkle' to it.

I gathered together all the bits and pieces that I wanted to add to the canvas, the beautiful Prima resin pieces (which I gently coloured with more DecoArt paints in the colours shown on the mood board), some Tim Holtz leaves from the Pinecone die set and some spools for feet.  These were coloured in the DecoArt Cobalt Teal Hue Media Fluid mixed with some Titan White Media Fluid Acrylic to tone the colour down slightly.

The finished canvas again, I added some of my beloved seed beads for water bubbles and some strands of twisted card 'reeds' for the seahorse to cling too.  The Tim Holtz Discoveries word band is attached with some bakers twine.

I am entering this into Anything But Cute - Challenge #3 - Summer Romance Challenge.

Thanks for looking, I hope to catch up with you all very soon.

Hugs, Anne xxx

Mixed Media May-hem with DecoArt Media

Welcome all my lovely blog friends, thanks so much for your visit.  I am actually away from my computer for a couple of weeks, so I apologise in advance if I don't comment on your posts, I will do my best to catch up once I am online again.  I have a couple of scheduled posts set up, of which this is one - I wouldn't want you to forget me entirely!!

We are all having great fun over at Eileen Hull's Art With Heart Challenge - which this month is:

Mixed Media May-hem with DecoArt Media

We are so fortunate as a design team to have received some fabulous products from DecoArt to use and what amazing products they are (my own personal opinion).  I am also proud to be a member of the DecoArt Blogger Outreach Program (details on my sidebar).

If you saw my last post you will know how much I love seahorses and all things to do with water and the sea/ocean so I am following along on that theme and I have used Eileen's fantastic Artist Trading Block die to create a treasure chest which, in my rather vivid imagination, was brought up from the depths of the ocean....

It is hard even for me to believe now, that this started out as plain cream coloured mat board  (mount board in the UK), as you can see below!

I cut two of the large Artist Trading Blocks (ATBs) from die No. 658984, using the largest ATB on the die  (2.1/2" square) and I joined the two together to make a rectangular shape.

For the top part I cut the same two ATBs again but cut them down height-wise and added a semi circle of card to each end to form the rounded section of the lid.  Some plain card was then scored at 1/4" intervals to form the 'wooden' elements of the chest.  I painted this with Quinacridone Gold Media Fluid and whilst still wet, I added a coat of Burnt Umber Media Fluid (I wanted a random appearance).  I did not take a photo of the next step (I got carried away!) but I added some black and gold Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals to the wet paint, to give a rough texture effect, painted here and there with Paynes Grey and Cobalt Teal to give an 'aged' appearance.

To finish off I then covered the piece completely with Andy Skinner's Dirty Wash recipe (70% Quinacridone Gold, 30% Paynes Grey mixed with Media Ultra Matte Varnish to make a glaze).

For the metal effect edges to the chest I cut some 1/2" strips of card, scored down the middle and painted these with Metallic Silver Media Fluid and then pounced on some Quinacridone Gold, Carbon Black, Cobalt Teal and Paynes Grey Media Fluids.

I gave the metal hinges (Tim Holtz) the same metal colour wash.

The lock at the front and the chain got the same 'metal' paint treatment.  You can see some of the texture in the wood in the pictures above and below.

A close-up of the lock and the 'netting' I added.  The netting (gauze) was sprayed with many different colours of the Media Fluid paints which I watered down and put in spritzer bottles to randomly spray the gauze.  You only need the tiniest amount to make up a spray and the colours stay true.

Apologies for the long post but I know that some of you like to see the detail.  Please do consider joining in Eileen's challenge HERE, it would be lovely to see you there - I cannot describe to you how much fun it is to use these DecoArt Media Fluid products!!

Chest : DecoArt Media Fluid : Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Umber, Paynes Grey, Metallic Silver, Cobalt Teal, Carbon Black

Faux Metal:  Metallic Silver, Quinacridone Gold, Cobalt Teal, Media Ultra Matte Varnish

Netting/Gauze : Cobalt Teal, Pyrrole Red, Green Gold, Quinacridone Red, Burnt Umber

Thanks for looking, I have another scheduled post in a few days with my latest Tim tag, I hope you will join me then.  Hugs, Anne xx