Stamping With Brusho

This is a tutorial I created using brusho and stamps. This is something I made up after getting my first lot of brusho from the Blitsy black fri sale last year

 

How remiss of me of me to forget to post it here oops

 

Letting out my Inner Artist

This year I did something I honestly never thought I would do.

I entered an Art Competition. You see whilst I create a lot, and do lots of crafty things. I do not consider myself as an Artist as such more of a crafter.

So this was way way way out of my comfort zone. Did I also mention I only decided to enter 2 months before the drop off day?

I know completely crazy right?

I feel very lucky to have entered my first Art Competition and to have had not one but both of my pieces hung in the gallery show and on display for the last month.

The theme of the Competition was “Pathways to fullfillment” through mental illness.

It all started with a smashed tablet (no joke something fell on my cheap crappy tablet and smashed the screen rendering it completely useless)

Here is the finished piece: (I had such a hard time getting a remotely decent pic of this and sadly did not get back to the gallery in time to get a pic of it on the gallery wall)

if you look closely you can see a tardis materialising in the center of the piece.

and here are some work in progress pics

I had fun creating a far more shattered screen than the original shatter (a remote control and some hard banging were required)

sometimes I wish I had not tried so hard and left it more like it was originally

it was an interesting process I had moments of omg I have completely ruined this, to moments of what do I do next.

I am not sure how successful it is as a mixed media piece. Nothing abstract or mixed media won any prizes sadly and there were some truly stunning pieces in the competition. However it made it into the gallery show, and quite possibly a few pics because it was right behind the podium where the presentations were.

the Piece is titled ‘Through the chaos’

Tattered Florals Challenge

I was so excited to see when Tim Holtz announced his Tattered Floral Challenge. I got the Die off my Sister for Christmas last year.

I had so many ideas go through my mind, another one of my pretty hair accessories, a bouquet, something to wear, the possibilities were only limited by imagination and resources.

As the entries started to pour in. I wanted something truly unique, something no one else would do.

A 4″ tall tattered floral Bear!

Sooo the idea for a new flower bear was born. This one has the fabric hand coloured with Colour Washes (one stream mixed with mowed lawn distress re inker to make it a bit more green and stem/leaf like). The challenge was that I still can not find my mini bear joints and eyes no matter how much I search and search for them. So this bear is string jointed and the eyes are pearls covered in Stream Alcohol ink.

What I love about these bears is the fact that their bodies are like the stem of the flower with their little faces blossoming in the center of the flower.

To get the flower I stamped Tim’s Flutter ATC stamp over the fabric with Archivals Jet black. Then used some colour washes (stream, butterscotch, purple twilight and cranberry they sort of all melded together in the fabric I had) and added some fabric stiffner to the flower. I used one of the other flowers to create the leaves by misting with the leftover mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re-inker,

I also misted white pearl cotton with butterscotch to create the bears nose and mouth. The head is also misted in butterscotch.

I used Tim’s paper twine split in two to wrap around the bears legs to give a sort of viney roots look.
here are some more pics of The Tattered Floral Bear.

I love how quirky and funny this is. It was how I left the bear to dry overnight so the bottom leaves would stick and not fall off

and a couple in a wee flowerpot I have with a colour wash next to her to show you just how teeny she really is:

One Very Hot Day in January

When the weather was over 40 degrees celcius and I was invited to my Sisters to enjoy her portable air conditioner. I decided instead of just taking my laptop and a book to read,  I would take something creative to do.

Usually I would take a bear or some other sewing type project with me. However I decided to pack my How to Draw Fairies and Mermaids book and my watercolours. Along with a giant watercolour pad (seriously if you do this stick to A4 it took me hours and hours to get this done)

My youngest Niece had a go at creating her own fairies as well though she got bored as kids do.

The picture I created is for a friend who is very much into fairies. its not perfect in fact I forgot how I wanted some of the fairies to be swimming and there was an arguement over my creation of Jellyfish in my Pond however I did point out to Miss 10 it is my imagination and I am allowed to have Jellyfish if I want to.

Anyway here is the pic I cant remember the actual size but its at least 2 and half A4 sheets worth or more maybe 3…..

A little bit more love

I really love how this one turned out the quote is one I resonate with and I am still getting the hang of layering with stains and stuff so it is interesting to see how things turn out at times

I have to say no matter how many times I use it I love the swish and flick technique of Tim’s its so handy and can add some pretty funky splatters to your work

another fav is to use distress inks as watercolours like in this postcard of a very sweet fairy scene

sometimes a bit of funky doodling works well. I used American Crafts metallic markers on this and really love how it turned out.

as there are only a couple more postcards I want to share I will add them here 🙂 then onto some simple cards

I love this Kaiser stamp and the gradation of the stains even though its really hard to see in the photo

and lastly (well good enough for my craft blog lastly)

A Little bit of Love

This year I am undertaking a project it started as 365 days of love letters to strangers but is evolving into something that encompasses everything from letters, cards and postcards (all handmade by me) to small handmade items and other such things.

It is quite exciting to see what I will come up with next for this project think of it like a giant year filled with random acts of kindness. Imagine walking along and finding a letter or small gift from a stranger just for you for no reason other than to let you know you are cared for. 365 Days of Love. I am sharing everything I write on my Heavenly Musings Blog

So it will take a few posts but I really want to share what I have been creating especially as I have really enjoyed the process.

Lets start with some postcards (using tattered angels stamps and various other things and lots of distress and Tim Holtz stuff of course)
This was just me playing and stepping out of my ‘usual’ style a bit

I think this next postcard is on of my favorites. I really love the way the salty ocean stain and Picket fence paint dabber mixed to create the ocean, plus I love blending the stains to create beautiful sunsets its really easy and effective.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore my midnight fairy stamps. I totally love how sponging a little pewter stain over 3 different blue stains gives this a more mystical look

and finally for this post another sunset with something else I am rather addicted to butterflies

An arty accident

This originally was going to be my background for my Coasters however it doesnt quite suit that purpose. To be honest whilst I am not a fan of this kind of art something about this Canvas appeals to me it reminds me of the Heavens and Celestial stars and such things.

It is funny how simple this was to do just some of the Metallic Distress stains in all 3 colours and a paint brush. You can see where I got a little over enthusiastic and hit the canvas a few times with the brush.

Not sure this is Art just something I created that I vibe with and will use as a piece of wall art around my House

Would love to know what you think 🙂

Spooky Shadow Box

This project has been almost a month in the making. It all started with an amazing (and I do mean AMAZING see her tribute to Mr Poe here)Toni’s Cupboard of Curiosities

So Toni then set us a Halloween Cyber Crop challenge to create our own spooktacular box/cupboard of curiosities. Unfortunately I do not own any configurations or other such things so Used a Twiddleybitz 6″x 6″ shadow box instead.

sadly I bought two of these some time ago at a craft show and when I went to paint and assemble the second one found out it was missing a vital piece that means I could not put it together or use it. So I had to go back to the drawing board. I had already had decided on what to use the other one for, had it painted and assembled as well. It was originally painted a metallic blue with silver paint sponged over the top to represent clouds (I forgot to take a photo of it this way sorry about that)

I found an amazing online minitatures store Magpies Miniatures where the flat bottle, miniatures spider, black cat, gargoyle, broom and candle holder came from.

here is some of the elements I started with the other bottles and vials are from the Tim Holtz Ideaology range, a Tim Holtz Tree (misted in black soot and covered in Martha Stewart black onyx and white gold glitters), A miniature paper sack (its a die by Memory box), a skull from a halloween garland of skeletons as well as some of the bones, Satin, Grungeboard, glitter, a painting from this amazing artist Jim Smeltz who sells his work in miniature prints here, and the candles are actually hand made by me but more on that later.

here is the Box before it was Alcohol inked and filled (The ‘wallpaper’ is from Primas Firefly 6×6 paper pad)

It was a lot of fun creating my icky vials and bottles of things and such a shame that in the finished product you just do not see the bottom of the ‘blood’ vial. Both it and the bottle that looks like slime exploded out of it are a mix of Alcohol Ink and triple thick mixed and heated (Note please use tweezers or tongs and be careful cause it will bubble up and over it takes a bit of time and a few tries and cool downs to get it all to work) with a heat gun. I love how they turned out.

My bottle of eyes is actually sticky back pearl rhinestones in different sizes stuck together and then put in the bottle and covered with glossy accents. I swirled them all around with a long needle I have for bearmaking I love how it turned out.

Here is a pic of my project Alcohol inked. It was a process that took time and a couple of days to get so I was happy with the effect. I also covered the gargoyles ball with Black Onyx glitter just to give it a bit of a different look to the stone ball.

Here is a pic of what it was like just sort of sussing out where things may or may not end up

this is the right side of the bottom of the Shadow box, as you can see I used the smallest of the Idea-o-logy trees misted it in black soot distress mist (that I made myself) then covered it in black onyx glitter about 2-3 times shaking off the excess and allowing it to dry everytime. It dissappeared to much into the whole blackness of the inside of the box so I added over some white gold glitter as well which sort of looks like a mystical snow (at some point I am hoping to get a wee pentagram in a circle or some such for the top of the tree I just have not seen what I am looking for yet) The bones are from a halloween skeleton I took appart and painted with snow cap paint dabber (I wanted them to have more of a stark look rather than the aged look of the skull). I died some pink satin with Red Pepper Colour Wash and made the Witches hat out of grungeboard, and the cape as well (I will get some pics later with the little spider on the cape it just looks so much better than the cape on its own)

Now to the lefthand side of the bottom of the box.
here is where I used the skull, all my bottles and vials, the Witches broom and also a wee handmade paper bag filled with scolls (the scrolls are made from watercolour paper. Misted with a combination of mists including a pearl one as I wanted them to have a mystical type shimmer but still look really old I have a ton of these left as I went a smidge overboard) The edges are inked in Vintage Photo Distress ink and I misted them again to get it to bleed.

The next thing is a close up of my little candles and I can not believe I actually made these myself from scratch. I melted a beeswax candle I had in a container with my heat gun (would suggest a saucepan and a stove but I was in a hurry and not in need of that much wax) First you run your wick into the melted wax and roll it between your fingers this makes the wick thinner. Then dip the wick into your wax (I actually used cranberry alcohol ink in the wax be warned it does go a bit odd but overnight the colour came out and I love how my candles look now they were very pale and took a while for the colour to show through) Until you are happy with their thickness. I also rolled them in my fingers a bit to get the shape right. At this stage do not worry if they are too long. The best thing about the candelabra is that it sits up on it’s own. I then dipped the bottom of the candles in wax and set them into the candelabra. lit them to get them to be close to even, and used the wee tea light container I had been melting wax in to drip/pour over wax to make the candles look like they had been around for a while dripping. I also needed to light the candles again to get rid of the wax that covered over the wicks. It was an evenings work but I am so stoked with how they turned out. Here is a close up of them.

The finishing touch was the Amazing Art Print (I also got a lovely card, another print and a sticker on the back of the envelope all that can be used in future projects)

And here it is My Witches House Shadow Box (Promise I will get a pic with my glittery black spider tomorrow I just wanted to share this project now that it is done though I can’t promise I will not add to it over time)

and thats it for now 🙂 I had so much fun doing this and though it did not turn out as gruesome as I had wanted it to I would happily tackle another such project with enthusiasm.

Let the October Catch up Begin

With some spooky halloween ATC’s for a swap at Jellybean Scrappers.

It is funny I love these but the pics do not do the justice then I also saw some of the amazing and sophisticated ones others did and was like hmm mine feel a bit amature then I remember I also do not have the hugest stash and I always make the most of what I have plus. I really am happy with how unique these are and they took so much work and I enjoyed making them all so much.

Take special note of the ‘dirt’ it took a lot of effort, an expresso paint dabber, some plastic and a craft knife to scrape the paint off the plastic but I really love how it turned out.

The first is aptly titled ‘Trick or Treat’ and I love that I got to use my wee 1″ paper bag die

The Second I used the Tim Holtz Foil tape technique and grunged up the CB cut and emboss grave titled “Alas Poor Yorick” (cutting that skull in half was a beep totally worth it however any scrapping companies out there seriously some half skulls ie just the front would rock)

and the last one I have to say I really wanted the arm to look zombie like so went totally ott with the alco inks (like I did on all the skeleton bits). I also used a Vintaj embossing folder I have with some cheap thin tags I got from a local discount store. Alcohol inks and Triple thick. The background is painted with distress re inkers. And this one has a really neat trick to it

So the original

and without the pendant thats right the spooky tree tag can be taken off and worn or used on something else.

and thats the Halloween ATC’s it was such fun playing with less pretty darker things for a change.

October Coaster (my take on 12 tags of 2012)

Yes I know I am usually an eager beaver and have my Coaster done long before now. However this month has been busy filled with place cards and art workshops and birthdays so it is only the last couple of days I have been able to sit down and work on my Coaster for October. See the Alcohol ink/rock candy glitter technique here.

I also needed to wait for one of my birthday parcels to arrive as I knew it contained the rock candy glitter (btw if you have diamond dust this technique works great with that as well I tested it out for cupcake sprinkles for something new I am working on for my etsy store)

Anyway I noticed that when you dropped the raisin? alcohol ink into the glitter it looked a bit like blood splattered onto snow so I did the same thing over some modelling paste that I textured by bouncing my finger over the top of it.

Used an orange, red and yellow paint dabber to create my sky, cut out some bats with a cuttlebug die and covered them with glossy accents and Rock candy dry glitter coloured with pitch black alcohol ink. Dropped a drop of alcohol ink onto my dry modeling paste and let it spread. To get the smaller splatters I took a thin paintbrush and dropped alcohol ink straight into the brush then tapped it a few times till I was happy with the result (to clean the brush dip it in some blending soloution and paint out the alcohol ink repeat until your brush is clean), Created my own coffin shape out of glossy card stock and again pulled out the alcohol inks to create what I hope is a faux stone/marble type finish. I also alcohol ink the plastic skeleton arm (taken from a cheap set of skeletons from spotlight already faux aged but I really like the way the alcohol ink kicks that up a few notches).  And that is all the elements of my coaster. Took a while to pull it all together but I am so happy with how it turned out.

Here it is. What do you think?