Mixed media mini heart canvas

 

A little close up of the
corner to show the texture





The starting point for this project was a sample background I'd made for a class the previous day using PaperArtsy Infusion powders, a butterfly die cut (as a mask) and some Distress inks.

I wanted to play with the Stampendous kit and stamps, and the slidemounts, which I'd had since November from Tando Creative at the Ministry of Mixology, but not had a chance to try out. So I dabbed on some Versamark and poured on various powders from the Encrusted Jewel Kit. While the powders were molten I stamped into them with a Stampendous Stamp to give texture. I did exactly the same to a die cut heart I had laying around (coloured it with the powders, inks , added Encrusted jewels and stamped into it) and then wrapped the heart with some very fine pink wire.

 

I used DecoArt Media fluid acrylic paints to randomly
dab on the die cut butterfly with a sponge.



Added a little more Dioxazine Purple with
my finger around the outside of the shape.

I took a mini canvas painted with chalky finish paint.

Back to the gorgeous Dioxazine Purple, diluted with
water and dribbled along each side of the canvas.

Repeated the 'dilute and dribble' technique with Titanium White

 

Plain Tando Slidemount.

Base painted with white. Frame
painted with Dazzling Metallics, then I added a blobby coat of DecoArt Crackle Glaze, (not in pic) and let that dry completely.
 

 

I put it all together, cutting the butterfly in half to glue either side of the slidemount (making sure it went under the material that covers the base layer). Added the wired heart, a hook from a DIY store, glued a large gem in the 'eye' of it and a few sequins at the top.
Lastly I printed, cut out, inked and glued on the little words I typed out. All done. Great fun! Hope you have a go.
Thanks for looking.
Suz

Fabric Heart

For this project I took a plain fabric hanging heart from Country Love Crafts. Painted it all over, twine too, with DecoArt SoSoft fabric paint in Indian Turquoise and also painted a piece of white rick rack ribbon. On a small scrap of my own calico, I placed the pretty floral stencil and used a sponge dabber to stencil through with the Fuschia, and a little Turquoise in the middle. Once all were dry I stitched the rick rack onto the hearts attaching some sequins and beads as I went along. I cut out and stitched on the flowers just in the middle, adding the flower sequin and a bead to each. I printed out the words onto card and stuck them on with some pva glue.

Here are the main products used. Have a go, it's easy!

Spooky Halloween Tray

Hi all

Hope your crafty worlds are all running ok. I've been silly busy recently, so no posts for a while and this is the quickest post ever!
The substrate is a large box frame from Country Love Crafts . I painted the frame and base (which is separate so easy to work on) with DecoArt Black Gesso. Once dry I used the fab Andy Skinner Day of the Dead stencil and just worked through in various places with DecoArt Metallic Lustres in Espresso, Champagne gold and Copper. Plastic spiders from Poundland coated with some Decoupage Glue then covered with glitter and glued on with a 3D glue. Finally I smudged some silver Metallic Lustre around the inside and outside edges of the frame. Easy peasy and super quick!

I'm not keen on giving children lots of sweets so I just filled the tray with chocolate coins and satsumas which my daughter and I decorated with black markers to look a bit like pumkins!

Happy Halloween!!!

Freddie the Ferocious Fish

Hi all

Here is my second project for the DecoArt 'Under the Sea' mixed media challenge. Freddie the Ferocious Fish! 

It started with a shampoo bottle!

A coat of black gesso then once dry a coat of black modelling paste with bits of card stick into it and textured with a pallet knife.

Painted with a mixture of phthalo turquoise and tinting base

I used paper clay to make a fishy mouth.
Then because I didn't like the blue, I mixed Diaxazine Purple with Metallic Silver. Makes a beautiful metallic purple. Once dry I then painted over again with Magenta Interference Paint.

Dry brushed with Neon Green.

Used a damp brush to then paint Fuchsia Metallic Lustre into the center of the scales. That was easier than it sounds as I just splodged it on!

Notice anything different about the fins???

By that point I was being influence by the Rio Olympics, thoughts of carnival etc. So I changed the colours of the fins and added sequins and glitter - had to be done!!!!

Took a stalk from a manikin doll kit. I put Freddie onto the stem to see how high up I needed to decorate the base as I knew quite a bit would be hidden inside the fish.

I wrapped torn bits of material around the stick tied in simple knots. Glued some scraps of pink organza to the spiky bits. Painted white card with Green Gold and once dry used a Sharpie marker to draw the fronds of seaweed and scaly shapes inside and cut out the shape. I stuck this around the base of the stem with Matt Medium.

To make the eyes, gesso onto bottle caps and add the P.Turquoise. Take a couple of glass beads. Drop a teensy bit of Neon Pink and Neon Green onto your mat and dab the flat side of glass beads onto the mixture (keeping the colours seperate and vibrant). Once dry glue beads into the bottle caps and add some fuchsia lustre around the scalloped edges of the caps.

Thanks for looking! Suz xxx

Fun fish for the DecoArt 'Under the Sea' challenge

Loving the DecoArt mixed media challenge this month which is 'Under the Sea' and runs to the 12th August. 

I started off making another project, and while waiting for bits to dry on that, and to use up leftover paint from it, I decided to do an art journal page also of a fish! 

So here it is, just for fun, along with the few pics I remembered to take during the process. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions and I'll do my best to remember the answer!

Ta for looking. Suz xxx

Black gesso. Pounced over with various blues and a paintbrush. Rough fish shape drawn and painted in with carbon black. Seaweed painted with a fineliner and quinacridone magenta (this paint neat has a lovely shiny finish).

Neon green body again pouncing with a blender brush this time to get that scale effect, two colours of yellow on the mouth, interference paint on the fins. Tiny end of a dotting tool and titan white paint to start adding white dots to the seaweed. White highlighter and black liner pen to add detail to the fins.  Various oranges and reds used for the anemones and I just dabbed my finger in them to get the shape. Black charcoal pencil to define the shapes and add shading. 

Dots of white paint used on the seaweed and fins.  Neon pink paint dots on the tummy and stipes of paint across the body. I painted a white circle for the eye, punched a small circle and painted it gold around the outside adding a black centre and white outer circle.and stick this onto the white painted circle to finish the eye. Went back around the fish with the charcoal pencil then with a sketchy motion in white pen. Wrote some words around the frame of the page and there you have it. Funky, fun, fish!
Looking forward to seeing your entry.
Suz 

xxx

Time for Wine upcycled prosecco bottle using DecoArt Media products

I wanted to make an entry using an empty bottle for Andy Skinner's Time blog challenge. 

As it was my birthday at the beginning of June I decided I should begin working on this challenge by opening, and eventually finishing (with friends possibly) a bottle of my fav prosecco.

As a precaution I thought it best to have two of the bossls..(that was a joke, I'm not really squiffy!).  This was just to see which colours I liked best.
First step was a coat of DecoArt Gesso. I then used some 'plaster moulding roll' from Hobbycrafts to give a lovely textured base (bit messy but fun). Then I went wild with Media Fluid Acrylics.
I ran out of time to finish both (today is the deadline for the blog challange!!) so decided to go with the vibrant orange.
As well as the lush paints, I used die cuts, words printed on the computer, (sprayed with DecoArt varnish so they wouldn't smudge when I used the decoupage glue), and Andy's Steampunk stamps onto tissue paper.  And again I used decoupage glue to stick 'em on.
Metallic lustres were added to the die cuts, random areas of the bottle and to bits of the tissue paper that didn't go completely clear. Stuck a feather in the top and some jewellery scraps and there you have it!
Any questions please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
Ta
Suz
x

Americana Canvas challenge - Purple Rain Bloom

There was a lovely challenge set by DecoArt to their Helping Artists and Bloggers this month which was to paint a canvas in under 2 hours, using DecoArt Americana paints.

I entered 2 canvases. This is my second and the simplest of the two, it's also the one I remembered to take pictures of! Completed in just 1 hour and hastily submitted before getting ready to go away the next day. #alwaysinarush 

Once I was home again, I added a little more decoration, which only took about half an hour, and then I was much happier with it! I hope this gives you a little yearning to get your paints out and have a play too. 

To see the other painting, a seascape on my FB page, click here.

The blue background was created just by brushing across 3 shades of blue and the Warm White shown in the product pic at the end of this post. I used a 'wet on wet' technique to blend the colours but only brushed across in one direction to get the stripy/ variegated shades of blue using the large flat brush.

I then took a much smaller brush and began sweeping the long petals, picking up a mixture of the Bubble Gum pink and Purple Rain... I remembered to take a pic and dropped my brush in the paint!

Continuing with the petals and blending in white too, again while the paints were wet.

Once I had the main shape of the bloom, I just added more layers and started to defined the edge of each petal with the purple,
adding highlights with the flat edge of the small brush using Warm White. 

Once I was happy with the petals, I added the center of the flower, using the pink
and picking up white to give it a contrasting edge. 

Here is the picture I submitted, before I added the hearts to the center and the dangles to the petals.
Below are the products I used. 
I used DecoArt's beautiful Purple Rain paint for the first time ever on this canvas, bringing back many happy memories as I painted...then just a few hours later I heard of Prince's death......what can I say, grab every moment guys. Suz x

Thanks for looking! Suz