Jigsaw Piece

Had another little play, this time with a chipboard jigsaw piece which measures approx 4". 

Added salt to a paint wash to get the pitted effect.

Added texture sand paste to get a rust effect, except I wanted it more of a white rust than an orange rust.

And here I did want a rusty orangey rust effect.

Just a bit of a play and an experiment with different colours.

Layers and Layers & Layers and Layers!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how many layers there are on this canvas as I just kept adding more and more layers of paint amongst some stamping and stenciling. Once I'd decided the background was finished, I added brighter coloured paints to the Seth Apter die cut shapes.

That's Crafty have any anything goes theme this week.

Be Happy - Dance

Had a play this morning with a new to me skeleton stencil and an mdf upright. Painted the background white, then stenciled over in black, had to do a bit of touching up as some seeped through, but it was fine. Stenciled black modeling paste through another stencil for the be happy words and stamped the dance in black stazon.

Painted the base black and using white modeling paste ran through a script stencil.

I stamped over the top and bottom panels so it didn't look so bare.

Being as the uprights are from That's Crafty I'm entering into their anything goes challenge.

Remember This???

Remember my little experiment with the different pigments and varnishes on the Powertex goblin house, well here it is still in its original spot in the garden 3 months later. It's weathered torrential rain, frost, drizzle, wind, sleet and sun and probably a lot lot more.

And I have to say, it's still as good as the day it went out there.

The colours are still as vibrant as they were before it was put outside.

All the pieces of lace etc have kept their shape.

And the clay figure heads which were covered in Powertex and coloured in pigment have stood up to the test very well too.

I shall put it back in the shrubbery and check on it again in another 3 months. But I am impressed with how everything has stood up to the elements and can safely say that all pigments and varnishes used in original post are weather proof. You can see the original post here where all the different products are listed.

Rust Powder Canvas

Started off by pouring some ivory Powertex onto a 10 x 8 inch canvas, spreading it around and then adding in some medium sand balls and leaving to dry.

I also decided to add some string to the background before it dried. I mixed rusting powder (thank you Lesley) in with ivory Powertex, sand and a spritz of a 50/50 mix of lemon juice and water to make a paste.

Once the above mix was spread onto the canvas I then spritzed it with the lemon/water mix until it was literally saturated in it! You can use white vinegar too, but I didn't have any.

It started to rust immediately in some places, but I just kept wetting it with the spray.

You can see how wet it is bottom left and it's also pooled in the dips.

This was after it had been in the airing cupboard for about 12 hours.

Next I covered the whole of the outside with white media modeling paste and left to dry, it was quite thick as I peaked it using a pallet knife.

This is it completely dried after about 24 hours.

Love how it cracked in some places especially where it met with the rust powder.

I painted the outside with relic and then treasure Decoart Chalky Finish paints.

Then played around with lots of other colours from the media range (quin gold, quin burnt orange, trans yellow oxide, trans red oxide, paynes grey and prussian blue hue) until I was happy with it.

Love how the paint has settled into the cracks.

A Couple of Quick Pages

A couple of quick journal pages as I fancied a play been as though all the food shopping was done yesterday.  This page is just literally panels of pictures because the page was mostly black around the top half because of what was on the previous page, so I needed something to cover it up. Still enjoyed putting it all together though.

And this page is made up of magazine pieces and printed pages. As you can see I attempted some lettering as I've not done any for a while.

That's Crafty have an anything goes challenge for the last one of the year, so I'm entering these pages.

Rusty Skull

This piece kind of happened by mistake. We bought a box of oranges and the lid was a sturdy wooden figure of 8, so once in my hands idea started flowing! Above is an mdf skull which was bought for me from MDF man at one of the shows. I needed a large focal point, so decided to use it by giving it the mega crackle treatment, followed by the rust treatment.

I added all sorts to the back panel until I got what I wanted, then went on to add stenciling in white gesso and then an Andy Skinner dirty wash to tone it down. I also added rusty wire and some charms which I'd also rusted.

The metal numbers started off as a bright silver, but again I aged and rusted them.

Rusted more charms, a skull, flower and couple of leaves.

Rusty corrugated metal for behind the eyes!

And there, finished, or was I?

No, I wasn't! I decided to add a couple of chipboard nuts to opposite corners. 

And the rusty heart was looking a bit plain, so I added some stamping in black stazon.

And then I was finished!!!

I've just seen over on the That's Crafty challenge blog they have a theme of flower power and your project has to feature a flower, so I'm hoping this will count as I have a flower on the heart.

Mini Canvas

I covered a deep 4 x 4 canvas with a piece of hessian and simply stapled it directly to the canvas.

Using DecoArt media paints I darkened the edges, added an image, some embossed card and text paper, again all aged with the media paints.

Heart & Rusty Cogs

I stuck a load of cogs very randomly onto an mdf heart and covered everything in a layer of a mix of ultra matte varnish and textured sand paste. I built up the layers using various colours of DecoArt media paints until I was happy with it.

Close up of the layers of colours.

And hopefully you can see the pitted effect from the textured sand paste to help create the rust effect.

Altered Key Ring and Envie

Over on a FB group I've joined we were sent a key ring to alter and then send on to our swap partner. I went very simple just using raspberry and sail boat blue alcohol inks on the frame, cut a printed image out and left the front panel clear.

This is the back.

And of course I then needed an envelope to send it in. So reaching for one of my many gelli plate prints I made this envelope and stamped and doodled over it to create some interest. PaperArtsy have a theme this week of mail art, so I'm entering the envie.

Mail Art Money Envies for Christmas

As luck would have it, I needed some Christmas money envelopes for my niece and nephews and it just so happens that over on the PaperArtsy blog they have a theme of mail art.

A Play Inspired by Andy Skinner on Hochanda

After watching the rewind shows of Andy Skinner and DecoArt on Hochanda I was inspired to have a play yesterday. I didn't really have anything in mind, just got a few pieces of mdf out and tried out some techniques, most of which I've done before. Was slightly gutted when I emptied my whole mdf box to find I'd got no large tags left :o(

As I say, I had no real idea of what was going to go with what, so this morning once everything was completely dry, I started to assemble pieces and these are what I came up with.

The mini dream tag was originally meant for this background, but I love how the colours in the heart just co-ordinated perfectly.

I used prussian blue hue to enhance the cracks in the heart.

Lots of rust techniques going on in this one.

Close up of the rusty heart and cog.

I wanted to put this on a tag with a white background with a large crackle but instead I used a piece of embossed rust effect card and a piece of corrugated that I'd made at some other time.

Close up of the heart which was stamped and crackled on the 3 corners and then black antiquing cream used to enhance the cracks.

Close up of the rusted embossed card. You can see how I made this here.

This was one of Andy's new techniques, well the technique isn't new, it's the product you use that is different, luckily I had some triple thick glaze and the colours dispersed perfectly.

I stenciled the word onto a mini mdf tag and covered with clear media crackle and I got some wonderful cracks. I used white antiquing cream to enhance them.

And finally my large heart simply painted with relic and stamped with one of Andy's background stamps in everlasting chalky paint.