HIDDEN - my DT project for Andy Skinner

Hi all

I was feeling pretty reflective when I made this just over a week ago after hearing some bad news....and the weekend that followed made this keep resonating in my head....we are all dealing with so many things that we keep hidden. I hope you have the strength to cope with yours, or even get help to do so.

I've also included a bit of upcycling and altering which always makes me happy - not throwing something away to add to landfill!

Here's the project and how I made it.....

I gathered loads of bits together from various Andy Skinner kits....

Used modelling paste through Andy's Sunburst stencil... 

 Chucked on a bit of Crackle paint.....

 Used Heavy Gel Medium to stick on the tape runner and elements.....

 Added the sequins and lace.....

 Painted with DecoArt Gesso and then Titan Buff......

 Next came the grungy colours...…

Metallic gold on the roller bit from inside the tape runner, which had 

melted beautifully into this flower like shape when I put the heat gun to it!

 More layers of the grungy colours (pic below of colours used) and then all edged with some of my fav Prussian Blue Hue...and of course a bit of Metallic Lustre!

Stamped out words from Andy's Word Up stamp set...

Added some rusty wire in the shape of a flower, the blown light bulb and a large paper clip I had rusted at home (there re loads of tutorials on how to do this on youtube).

Here's a close up of how I stuck the wire flower into part of the tape runner.....

A few more close ups.....

 Here you can see the heart, gem (coated underneath with glitter!) grunged words and the paperclips I put the words in and attached to more rusty wire....

 Thanks for looking.
Suz

Mechanical Fish

Hi all

Here's my February project as part of Andy Skinner's Creative Team. I've used some of Andy's Greyboard Kits and DecoArt paints and mediums to create lots of layers and texture. Here's the finished project, and how it came together....

 Most of the elements came from Andy's 'Tagtastic 2' kit. Then I added the pointy bits from his 'Industrial Shabby Tab' kit. You can find all his kits here. I played about a bit then took a pic once I was happy with the layout

 You know me, I don't like waste, so I decided to use the remnants of part of the kit as a background, This would give me a few gaps to play with behind the tag. I cut the tag into a more curvey shape as it would finish up being a sea coloured background for my fish.

 A layer of good old DecoArt Crackle Paint on the now reshaped tag....

 Some lush Snow-Tex around the edges of the greyboard waste...…

 While the two background pieces were drying I glued my fish together using 

Decoupage glue - it's fab for this kind of sticking, grabs really quickly.

 Once the wavy piece had dried and all the cracks appeared I began to layer up paints. 

And a few more colours..... 

 Next the base greyboard layer....

 Now back to the fish. First layer was the leftover mix of the 3 colours used on the base - with a bit more white added, so a lovely pastel teal. Then a round brush to add 

a watery Paynes Grey to all the areas I wanted to stand out.

 A wash of Raw Umber over the top of the Paynes Grey, 

then another wash of Titan Buff over everything...…

Here's a closer look....love this. 

Back to the mid layer greyboard to add white Antiquing Cream to define all the crackle. 

Sorry about the messy labels! Once the cream was dry I wiped most of it back off with a damp cloth as you'll see further down the pics.

Bring on the Metallic Lustres. I'm a bit addicted to these! 

They work fab over textures like the painted snow tex 

and are a great way to frame the edges of a piece.

Same metallic lustre treatment to the fish. 

Now for rusty wire wrap, this was why I knew I wanted to use the waste greyboard with all those lovely bits missing, those gaps made it really easy to add the wire. 

I decided to add ANOTHER layer under it all. So took a canvas board and added a wash of Phthalo Blue Hue KEEPING it darker around the edges.

Time to layer them all up, glued with heavy gel medium. I added a heavy weight 

on top of the fish while the gel was drying to help keep them all pressed together. Once dry I also wiped away more of the antiquing cream.

At this point I felt it still needed something more, something metal - so I got out my mini cogs! I popped one over the eye, and then added a metal bead for a proper 'fish eye' look. And to go with that, clock arms at the base of each fin. 

Then I wired a variety of cogs all the way around, attaching them to the rusty wire.

 I didn't add more to the fish as felt it might overpower the lovely fella.

Here is a pic of the products I used, apart from the wire and cogs.

Thanks for looking. 

Suz

x

And here's a link to Andy's blog where you can see lots of other projects!