Repurposed canvas and bandage dressing

Hi all
I made this fun canvas to join in with the Creative Expressions Mixed Media Challenge day 1 with the theme of 'Bright'.

I took an old canvas I no longer liked and covered it with vintage book pages then a coat of mixed media paint. 

Then added Intense Pigment Stains in Bluebell, Emerald and Citrus Lime, layering up until I liked the colours.

I then used the same products to colour an old field dressing/ bandage and that had been in my stash for years (not useable as no longer sterile due to damaged packaging) and a piece of hessian fabric. I spritzed water to help the bandage and hessian soak up the colours.

Taking the Smashed Glass Andy Skinner stamp, I used my stamp platform and Versafine Jet Black ink to stamp onto a piece of calico. frayed the edges and stuck it down onto the hessian. I had to use red liner tape as wet glue would have seeped through, activated the colours underneath and stained the stamped calico.

 Glass gems and fabric roses gave a pop of red to the canvas. But it needed something else. So I wrapped wire around my spritzer bottle to form loops, then stuck these underneath the focal point of the layered bandage and fabric.

 You can see some of the text through the colours here and below.

 Love how colourful this is.

Thanks for looking.
Suz
x

Rice Bike canvas for Andy Skinner's Creative Team and Creative Expressions

Here's my first project using Andy's February 2020 releases! So much fun.

First up was the rice paper. I watered down a little of the Quick Grab Glue and it stuck down beautifully with no crinkles (glue applied to canvas and on the back of the paper) stick down and brush from the centre out to release air bubbles.  

 Then my first time using the new structure paste - gorgeous stuff, creamy, easy to use and dries quicker than other pastes I've tried.

I used the new chalk paints - first a wash of the Chestnut.

 Then a gentle dry brush with warm white, several times, layering up to bring out all that fab texure.

 I stamped the Rice Bike stamp onto calico and also onto a vintage book page. Layered up some organza and old bandage from my fabric stash and had a play around with layout.

I tore out and stuck down the stamped vintage book page onto the calico. Added torn paper and a strip of tumble dryer sheet (removed this in the end). I glued down thin strips of paper above and below the bike image. But they seemed a little bare, so they were stamped with the 'Cracked-Up' stamp using the chestnut chalk paint (wash paints off stamps straight away). 

Mini metal cogs, jewellery wire, left over bits of torn fabric and an old clip-on earring to embellish, needed something at the top so I used an old bulldog clip too for a bit of fun!

You can check out the other fab projects on Andy's blog HERE.

Thanks so much for looking.

Suz xxx

Life Without Art Passport Book for the September Craft Stamper Blog Challenge

Hi all
This month sees another fab couple of prizes to be won in the Craft Stamper Monthly Blog Challenge. A gorgeous set of Posca Pens along with a handy case to store them in. Have a look here!
Here's my DT project for the challenge.

I've been getting out my Eileen Hull dies in the last few months, trying to tackle how to use them and different ways to add the paper signatures. I'm also madly into textiles and embroidery too at the minute. No embroidery in this one, but some fun stamping and painting onto calico.

 I used a scrap of thick card from the back of a paper pack for the journal covers and spine.

Vintage book pages from a fab book called "Enquire Within Upon Everything" dated 1861 which belonged to Betty! I started to read some pages while I was working and it's amazing. Don't think I can use any more! According to Wikipedia: Tim Berners-Lee named his precursor of the World Wide Web, ENQUIRE, after this work in 1980.^[7][8] A Forbes article quoted Berners-Lee as saying:^[9]

Back to the project....I stamped one of Andy's new stamps onto a piece of calico.

Stamped it out again to make a mask, which I used to cover up the quote. 

Took another of Andy's stamps and masked off the text inside 

the circles as I just wanted the rings...  

 Stamped it a couple of times over the words.....

 Then started to paint the fabric with DecoArt Fluid Acrylics in Phthalo Turqoise and Quin Gold.

 Then added some Quin Violet around the outside.

 Here's where the book pages come in; I used the leftover paint to 

colour them and glued them to the inside of the journal covers.

 Then I used the diluted quin gold on the spine. I love how it looked, I think I must have had matte medium on my hands from gluing the book pages when I was handling the spine and it acted like a resist, giving a great grungy look!

 More quin gold on the outside of the book cover, that I 

was going to glue the fabric onto, just to base coat it.

 Matte medium to both the cover and the back of the fabric.

 I felt the focal stamp image was getting a little lost so I re-stamped it onto 

tissue paper.....but it wasn't popping enough - so I stamped it again onto painted book 

page that I'd painted white and that worked just right.

 I edged the torn book page with quin gold paint then glued it down with matte medium. The brush I used still had a little blue paint in it, so there are some lovely hints of the colour on the paper.

 I stamped another of Andy's stamps using Titanium White paint around the edges-

paint needs to be washed off straight after to keep the stamps in good condition.

 Then stencilled flowers using crackle paint....

 Once the crackle paint was dry, I added a wash of Cobalt Teal, and a little more quin gold around the tissue paper. A few gems to lift the flowers and the cover was finished. I die cut some recycled pages to create two signatures and now it's ready to use.

Thanks for looking, and if you have any questions just leave me a comment. 

Suz

xxx