Snowdrops

Another quicky! While on holiday in Septemer last year we picked up some slate with the idea of using it some way. Well this is what happened to it.

It got a coat of Fesco Finish Acrylic from Paper Artsy in Chalk. I lightly sketched my snowdrops. The inspiration came from the lovely bunch we have growing up near the house. It was one bulb we planted years ago ( one of many). We don't do well with them except this bunch which just keeps multiplying. 

I used Hey Presto on the leaves and stems and Chalk on the flowers. I mixed a little of the green with the White to use as shading. Once the paint was dry I redrew the flowers with a Fude Pen.

Once it was completly dry, using a sanding block I rubbed back some of the Paint to give it a shabby look. I sealed it with a Matt Varnish. Then sat it on its stand which I had painted and added the word.

It's now sitting proud on my mantle piece. A connection between our home and the Lakes we love to visit.

Take care for now and I'll see you soon.

Debs xx

Altered Picture Frame

Hello everyone, I'm sharing a quicky post of a small frame I altered using DecoArt products.

I stencilled crackle paste onto the frame and let it dry. The areas without paste I painted in Colbot Blue and once dry I coated with Weathered Wood. 

I dried this with a heat tool until almost dry and spritz it with Shimmer white Media Mist.  I quickly removed much of the White from the crackle paste as I didn't want to loose he cracks. As ithe white dried the cracks appeared. I forgot to take photos sorry!

The middle of the frame I used Titanium white but had another colour on my brush so it changed to a very pale cream and looked good.  I let this dry and then painted some bluebells, and coz I was feeling good they came out like this. Lol I will change them at a later date.

And together they look this this.

Oh! And below you can see the dots of Liquid Glass which isn't dry yet.

thanks for pooping by, see you soon 

Debs xxx

Mixed media Butterfly

Hello everyone, Brr it turned cold this evening, so I hope you are all rapped up warm. 

I've been playing with DecoArt Media Mists. There a quite a few stages and this is probably the pieces that has taken longest to finish. You see I had no clear direction, so direction changed many times lol.  So grab a coffee and read on. 

I'm entering this into the Country View Crafts challenge Drips and Drops 

Any way I started with cutting my 12x 12 tissue paper into 4 twice so I had 8 pieces. Using a variety of colours and my 6x6 gelli plate I created these background.

I then cut theses into different sizes and laid them out and stuck them down on my canvas. I encouraged the tissue paper to wrinkle as I wanted lots of texture. Once it was dry I lightly brayered over the top in white to knock it back and tie it together.

I forgot to take photos at this part ( I was enjoying myself) but I used a couple of Dina Wakley stencils with Crackle Paste randomly over the canvas, when dry, I sprayed Media Mist and allowed it to run once dry rotated the canvas 180 so the drips faced upwards.  

I loved this! I should have left it there because I did this

I hated it! So I did this!

...and hated it more. ( the change in colour is due to different light in shed at kitchen)

So I left it for a few days...

I wanted to keep the butterfly so using Crackle Paste I painted the butterfly. Using a a pallet knife I attempted to even up the butterfly. I rubbed Burnt Umber Antiquing Cream in all over and when dry using a damp cloth rubbed it off.

To this I added influence acrylic in gold 

 I

I loved this affect but felt it wasn't bright enough to stand out from the background but will definitely do this again on another project. Instead I coated it with Aqucridone Gold.

Using white Media Mist I finished the painting.

Phew got there in the end. I hope you like the finished project. See you again soon Debsxxx

Mixed media canvass

Morning everyone,  I hope it's a nice day in whatever part of the world you live and that you are feeling peaceful and rested. As you read this  I will be at work,  as many of you no doubt will be too, but Im determine to find a quiet 5 mins to focus my attention on my needs. I will tune inwards just to recognise and acknowledge what my body and mind need in that moment.

I invite you to make some time today to be still. Listen to your body as she whispers what she needs to heal her pain. Look to the sky and note your experience, is it cold, windy, sunny,  rain? What does it feel like on your skin? A good starting point for any creation!

I try to do this before I start making art. It helps me find inspiration and let go of anxieties and grounds me in the here and now. This is so useful for me, it allows me to let go of the day.

This small canvas I'm going to share was made with my downstairs loo in mind - it is the 3rd piece I have made and finishes the back wall off nicely. 

I'm entering this into these challenges 

the Country View Crafts challenge Drips and Drops 

Inspiration Emporium love is in the air   

Craft stamper stencilling

Artist Trading Post love is  in the air

I used a stencil with 3 hearts and applied crackle paste. Below you can see the hearts on the canvas which has been sprayed with Media Mist from DecoArt which I allowed to drip and once dry I dripped white Media Mist randomly over the canvas. You can also see some of the droplets of liquid glass which I was inspired to use by Donna my teamie at Speed Craft Challenge see her fantastic creations here 

While this was drying I prepared another heart by covering it in crackle paste and when dry I rubbed in Patina Antiquing Cream. I also added some stencilling of tiny hearts.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the heart and so went with my go to technique at the moment wich is rusty.

To finish I added a simple sentiment. 

I hope you like it, take care for now and I'll you soon Debs xx

Tim's February Tag

Hello everyone,  thank you for taking the time to come and see my crafty world, and welcome to my 301th post. Today I'm sharing my February Tag inspired by Tim Holtz. I loved his Tag this month and had to play along.

I've only managed to play along a few times so finding time to play this month was a bonus. See Tim's creation here on his blog, and read the full instructions of how It was created. I forgot to take photos of mine in my excitement but will share some close ups.

As my tag started to take shape I added elements which were personal to me and my partner. For example, below you can see our wedding date.

The heart I cut from felt which I made using Marino wool and my embelisher. This is a reminder of our September Hols last year. 

There are some more elements on the Tag but they are special to us, so I'll leave you guessing. 

The finished Tag. The collage background is a mix of papers but there is a tiny piece of a foreign newspaper which was sent to me by Massofhair along with lots of other very interesting papers and tissues.  

The numbers and words are from the ideology range from Tim with Ranger . The rest, bits and bobs I've picked up.

I really enjoyed this tag and hope I get to play again another month.

P.S. Don't forget the Monthly challenge I'm running, there are just 6 days to go until this month closes. So come on get those entries in to be in with a chance to bag some DecoArt products and few items from myself.

Take care, see you soon 

Debsxx

New Challenge number 12

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well, thank you for coming to see me today and I hope you like my post card Tag.

It's a new challenge on the Speed Craft Challenge blog and this week we are being sponsored by 

                                                           The Old Design Shop,Etsy

                                                                

Today's it's the very talented Donna's turn to pick a theme and she chose for us Animals.

take a look at all my teamie's wonderful creations and leave some love for them on their blogs Here.

I dont have have any animals stamps and didn't have time to draw something, so I used a quote about animals. 

As usual for me something had to go wrong and this week it was that I forgot to take a screen shot of when I started. I do like to set good examples, as you see in the rules it clearly states it's a 15 min
challenge and a note of your start and finish time has to mentioned in your post. Ideally we would
like to see the time recorded, a photo of a watch or clock will do.  I so eager to get going but I did Remeber at the end so took a picture of when I finished. 

I'm also entering this card into the Country View Crafts Challenge. 

I gathered my bits. You can see a page I printed off from our Sponcer's blog which fits my post card tag perfectly and gives the antique look I was hoping to achieve.

I used Matt medium to stick the page onto the card. And then using distress ink in walnut stain blended around the edges. 

DecoArt Media Mist in various colours were added, drips and splats and drops.

While this was drying I coated by butterfly in weathered wood and once dry sprayed with the Media mist in Shimmer White.  I didn't take any more photos until the end because of time. Once the shimmer was dry I rubbed in Antique Cream in Patina and when that was dry rubbed off the excess with a damp cloth.  I then added a touch of Quinacridone Gold to give a rust look. I'm just loving playing with rust at the moment. 

I attached my butterfly and wrote my sentiment in a white Gell Pen

' Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened' this is by Anatole France 

And here is my finished Tag.

 

So come on have a go. Look forward to your entries on the blog. Take care for now

Debsxx 

Love these colours

Hello everyone and welcome. Sending a wave to my new followers, thank you for taking the time to come and visit.

Today I got to go to a local craft retailer and was able to buy some of the new colours in the Fresco Acyrlics from Paper Artsy. Picking the colours was easy I knew exactly the ones I wanted. However, trying to decide which stamps I wanted was impossible. Well that's not strictly true, I wanted them all but trying to decide which I could afford today was impossible, and as I couldn't decide I didn't get any. I will return lol. These are what I got.

I am loving dripage at the moment and so when I saw this challenge on The Country View Crafts blog Drips and Drops I knew I would have to play along. 

I didn't have much time to play but did manage a small, tag. I brayered on Lavendar Wisteria and Purple Rain and then a little Concrete. I dried this off and then some Chalk and Wisteria to the top left corner added some water, mixed it a little and then let it drip. The tag I used had a little pink on it and you can just see it peeping through.

Sorry about the light - I dried this off and added a yellow circle in Haystack I then lightened this with some Chalk. I dried the tag and added some Little Black Dress top right and watered it down to make it run. I did this a couple of times as I wanted it to look dark and mysterious.

I drew a tiny faerie and added a sentiment. Using a Fude Pen I doodled some Vines and plants in silhouette. 

I'm looking forward to the weekend as I get to play longer plus Mum's coming which will be fun. You all take care now and I'll see you soon. 

Debsxx

La Toilette

Hello all again...

My first project of today was an altered slate wall plaque. I decided to a make a door hanger for my downstairs loo and thought this would do the job nicely.

It was sweet as it was,  but not for me. I gave it two coats of white Gesso and once dry gave it all a coat of Crackle Glaze from Paper Artsy . I dried the glaze with my heat tool and laid down a generous coat of my go to white,  Chalk Fresco. I love this colour and was so pleased to hear from Leandra's video that it is now one of their staples colours. I was worried that with the new limited editions colours Chalk would be discontinued so was thrilled it's staying. Yah!

I forgot to take a picture as I was so excited by huge cracks I was hoping would appear. I wanted it to look more like peeling paint than cracks.

Below I have added some tissue paper sent to me Massofhair and once it was dry,  rubbed in Antiquing Cream in Burnt Umber and this gave me just the look I wanted once dried and surplus rubbed off.

I love this look but lost it as I got carried away, (another day). Using Potting Shed Archival Ink I stamped a large Butterfly from IndigoBlu. 

I wanted the hanger to have a title but not one that stood out so stamped it randomly.

I wanted to add some flowers but wanted them to look as if they were part of the plaque rather than stuck on but also wanted to layer them so couldnt stencil them on. So I came up with this.

I used Grunge Paste through. JOFY stencil and while still wet added Shabby Blue Frantage embossing power onto Kraft coloured tissue paper. One these were heated up and dried they were very solid. I cut round the flowers leaving a tiny piece of the tissue around the edge. I used Golden heavy bodied Matt Medium to stick these onto the plaque. Unfortunately in my excitement I placed then right over the tissue paper. On reflection I think this was ok as it may have Looked too much with flowers as well. 

Anyway here is the finished Plaque.

This is it hanging on the door, lights not too good but you can see the string I used to hang it up. 

Thanks for popping by take care and I'll see you soon Debsxxx

Just a quicky

Hello again, over on the that's Crafty blog challenge the theme is animals. So I thought I'd enter a couple I have been working on.

The first was Raggae Jim he is an Eggbird  

He has moved in and making the home ready for his wife Reggae Rose who will be along in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space for her arrival.

My other creation was the Hare. I haven't named him yet so if you have any ideas let me know. He too will have a mate in the future. 

No I'm Joking here he really is

I hope you like them both.

Bye for now Debsxx

Brightness with DecoArt!

Hello everyone, thank you for visiting me today. I hope you are all well and enjoying your Sunday afternoon.

I went swimming this morning and as it was pouring down when I'd finished we went straight home. We were going to go for a walk in Oak Woods a short drive away, but neither of us felt like getting wet. Sooooo I got some craft time unexpectedly. I was drawn towards the blog post from Unruely Paper Arts which says                         Inspire Your Heart with Art Day! You can read all about it here.

So this is just for me. 

I used the other canvass from yesterday and to liven it I sprayed Media Mists from DecoArt in Shimmer Yellow Shimmer Violet  and Shimmer White. I dried these and then added some touches of Green Yellow.

I was loving all the colour but that was it. Nothing else was happening! That was until I turned it upside down.

I loved it this way up and could see so much. In this light it hard to see what appears in the background but you will hopefully see something later.

What I focused on was the two buds in the centre, I added another, and coated all three in Quinacridone Gold. I gave them all two coats and when dry I outlined the left side in my Stabilio Pencil which I then activated with water. Once this was dry I used a white Gell Pen to add some nightlights. 

I really like how the buds were growing at the end of a path which if you looked up you could see the house at the end 

The buds resonated to me in that they were different from everything else and I wanted to give the message that it was ok. To give myself permission to be Me even if I am different from others. It's ok! So my sentiment said just that.

I enjoyed letting my imagination guide me on this canvass. I hope you you like what I created.

Thanks for your visit. Take care all of you with poor weather. Stay warm Stay safe 

Bye for now Debsxx