Autumn Colours

Hi everyone!

     Another Autumn post - there will be a lot more too! I love this time of year!

   I was lucky to get given the Thinlits Fall Foliage set as an early Christmas present and I LOVE it! You will see this being used soooo many times! It is a fantastic set...so many leaf shapes in so many sizes....Brilliant!

 I went to Ally Pally last weekend and treated myself to a few things...two of them were Vintage Photo Distress Spray and Dylusions Slate Grey Spray. Had to try them out!

     I got a piece of left over card that had previously had an oval shape cut out. I sprayed the card with both sprays, dabbed with tissue and resprayed...I kept going until there was a lovely mottled effect. When dry I darkened the edges with Ground Espresso DI....another recent purchase (and very much a firm favourite!)

 I then ran it through the Big Shot machine with a stencil. This gives a lovely delicate embossed effect. Not as distinct as an actual embossing - but quite nice anyway!

 

 I covered the back of the frame with dictionary paper

I did some wrinkle free distress card when the leaf die cuts arrived...I was so exited to get them I did a ton of them!...using all the autumn Distress Ink colours....Ripe Persimmon, Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs...I had a massive pile (hence lots of future Autumn projects to come!)

I covered them with Decoart Crackle glaze using a spatula and left them to dry before covering them with Decoart Raw Umber Antiquing Cream

   When dry they were wiped with a baby wipe and arranged onto the frame 

  I added a twine bow and some tiny dried flowers along with a chit chat sticker

Hope you like it!

Thanks so much for being here!

Happy Crafting

Laura 

xxx

     

Adventures In Rust

Hi everyone! 

 Bit of a different post today as I am here to show you some unfinished pieces...

I was having a bit of an experimenting play with rust effects. I love using Andy Skinner's technique that he features here. I was having a play with the rust technique when I decided to use a different colour. Then I wondered what would happen if I used other colours rather than sticking to the Paynes Grey/Quincacridone Gold combo...

     So I set up some simple frames (as always!)...They were cut from cardboard - some had embossed card on them and some didn't...I added some rivets and beading with Decoart Liquid Glass.

 I then followed Andy's technique and covered them with sand texture paste. When that was dry I gave all of them a coat of Decoart Media Paynes Grey mixed with white acrylic paint

...then each got given different paint colors...
....lets see the difference...

So here was the first one I was working on....

      This one was intended for a collage background - When the time came to add colour I decided to add Decoart Media Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide acrylic paint with Quinacridone Gold...I loved the effect, so that was when I decided to try out other colours...and see what they do to the rust effect. This has extra Paynes Grey added to the corners for shading and is dry brushed with Decoart Media Burnt Umber acrylic paint.

Here was the second one...a frame made with embossed card and liquid glass to add rivets and beaded edge...

After the Paynes Grey/white acrylic paint had dried I added a wash of diluted Decoart Media Titan Buff - painted quite roughly - I intended to leave some patches of grey showing. This was followed by dry brushed streaks of Quinacridone Gold and some shading with Paynes Grey and Burnt Umber

For the next frame I covered it with embossed card and after the Paynes grey/white acrylic coat was dry I covered it with a wash of Decoart Media Cobalt Turquoise Hue. This was then painted with Quinacridone Gold - concentrated more on the patches of texture paste and dry brushed everywhere else. The edges were shaded with Paynes Grey

This frame was cut from card and has Liquid glass applied to the corners. This frame was made according to the directions in Andy's video and was given a Paynes Grey wash after the coat of Paynes grey/white acrylic paint. This is how I usually do rust and I just wanted to see a direct comparison...still fun to do though!..and a brilliant rust effect!

This was cut from embossed card and again had the liquid glass as rivet effects. After the Paynes Grey/white paint was applied this frame got a wash of  Decoart Media Raw Umber acrylic paint. This was followed by Quinacridone gold and Paynes Grey for shading with some additional Burnt Umber dry brushing....

And there are the frames - not quite finished...I realised as I was photographing them that I hadn't yet added a coat of Ultra matte Varnish...never mind! I'll do it later...

They are so easy to do and so much fun - I had a great time working on this - especially as I am a little mojoless at the moment - So just working on these without a plan in mind for a project was so much fun...and now I have five projects to go on with....

Hope you liked these frames (and background!)...These will be featured on here throughout October...Come back soon to find out what the finished results look like!

Thanks for being here!

Happy Crafting!

Laura

xxx

Our Creative Corner Sponsor Spotlight

Hi everyone - It is Sponsor Spotlight time again at Our Creative Corner. 

Our generous sponsor this month is Creative Embellishments.

  

 Come and join in this months challenge over at Our Creative Corner to be in with a chance of winning a fabulous prize!  - a $25 voucher to spend at their store!

And here for you is a sneak peek of today's spotlight....

If you are interested in finding out what I have made and how it was made then hop 

over to Our Creative Corner

 

Hope to see you over there!

 Happy Crafting 

Laura

 xxx

Tag it!

Hi everyone!

    It is a 'Tag it' challenge over at Sandee and amelies steampunk challenge this month and I would like to share with you my contribution to it...

You might remember seeing a rust collage a while ago where I was experimenting with Andy Skinner's rust techniques. This tag is made up of some of those experimental pieces...I never throw anything anyway - so I knew they would get used sometime!

      The base of the tag is a cardboard tag set I bought. It had texture paste applied though a Gothic style stencil. When dry it was painted with Decoart Media Paynes Grey acrylic paint mixed with white acrylic paint. 

 This was then coated with a wash of Paynes Grey and then a final coat of Quinacridone Gold. I then covered it with Ultra-Matte varnish. I also used a piece of rust effect rivet embossed card that I had done...I cut this out into a heart shape and added it to the tag

      I used die cut card down the sides of the tag painted with Decoart Media Silver paint. This was then coated with Decoart Media Carbon Black Antiquing cream and wiped away leaving a tarnished effect

 I did the same with an embossed flower die cut. This had a bronze decoration attached to the center of the flower

Several hot air balloon images were cut out from paper. This was to highlight the adventure quote which was done with a mix of chit chat stickers and label letters. I also used some map printed paper as a background...

 Bronze decorations in the form of filigree decoration, leaf and cog were added and the tag was finished off with brown hemp string

And there is my finished 'Steampunk Adventure' tag......

Even if Steampunk isn't your usual style why not give it a go?
 You might just have a lot of fun doing it!

Come and join us at Sandee and amelies Steampunk Challenge....

Happy Crafting!
Laura

 

xxxxxxx

Create with Words

Hi everyone!

      I am here today with a challenge from Fashionable Stamping Challenges. 
Today it is my challenge and I have asked that we....

    Create with Words

So any words please - But please, make sure they are stamped images...

Here is what I made...

 I decided to make a card....I don't make many cards. I don't know why but I find them trickier to make than anything else. I always feel limited by the space - which is silly really because I can make a tag or an ATC....there just seems to be a 'block' when it comes to making a card....

     Anyway....I started with one of my favorite Tim Holtz stamps for the background...I love that random script and text effect and it always makes a good background! I stamped it with Vintage Photo DI as I wanted a faded muted effect and Archival ink would have been too distinct.

I added butterflies to it as well in Gathered Twigs DI.....

The main focal part of the card was a piece of card that had been used to mop up inks from a  previous craft session.

The inks used here were Peacock Feathers and Mown Lawn DI's...I stamped a flourish edge stamp using Potting Soil archival ink and mounted the card onto a piece of card that was covered with Gathered Twigs DI.

The quote is one of my favorite Paperartsy stamps and it was stamped onto card that had Gathered Twigs DI blended over it

A piece of wood print ribbon was placed onto the card

A stamped flower was attached with a button center

And there is my finished card.....

Enter this challenge and you could be the winner of $20 to spend at Flonzcraft Stamps!
And of course you could be picked as one of our Catwalk Spotlights!
 

  Remember we are a stamping challenge so please feature a stamped focal image on your creation. 

Hope to see you there!

Happy Crafting!

Laura xxx