The idea was good, but ......

...... it didn't go quite right,  You just never know how mixed media ingredients are going to react!

I ran the sheet of canvas through the embossing folder. applied gesso and painted the back ground with blue/green Pebeo iridescent DYNA paints, and then with my finger rubbed some green/blue over the swirl and painted the top of the baubles with precious gold.  Fine so far and then it went pear-shaped when I did the mixed media baubles!

The only two that turned out OK were the middle one at the top and the bottom left (well it would have been ok if the paint hadn't overflowed!)

However, I shall not give up on the idea - I shall just use fantasy paints on their own next time.

Parchment card - a semi fail!

on black background

on white background

I thought I would try one of my new embossing folders with parchment.  Ads expected worked a treat, and proceeded to colour it in with spectrum noir pencils .......

.... then came the "fail" .  I thought I would be clever and try an experiment using another embossing folder and try and add "Christmas" with an embossing tool.  Worked quite well - IF ONLY I had positioned the word correctly.  (Well it was quite difficult to see the outline).

Next time I will use my Groovi Board for the wording!

Mini Mannequin

Some months ago I purchased some mini mannequins from the Range for my grandchildren as Easter presents instead of eggs, and I also bought a set for myself.  So today I thought I would have a play with my set.

I dipped some t-shirt material in a mix of water and pva glue, and draped it around the figure, and set it in the sun to dry.  I was a tad impatient so I started to paint it with Pebeo Blue/Black DYNA iridescent paint (bad girl that I am), but actually I think it was quite a good idea as I was able to paint underneath the wrap in the front and arrange the folds at the same time.    

I think I will give it another coat of paint and try and get a bit of shading on it too, by perhaps adding a bit of iridescent silver to the paint.  (Hopefully by the time this gets scheduled for posting, there will be another updated photo below).

The flower was made from Hearty Clay using my new Christmas Rose folder from Sheena Douglass.  I just rolled the clay thinly and squished it between the folder, and then cut the flower out.   I set it to dry so that it curved.   I then painted it with a pale cream acrylic, over-painted/blended with the purple/blue and blue/green iridescent colours.

Final touches were the addition of a dark blue gem in the centre, surround by some tiny clear gems.

(My original idea was to create the dress using Paverpol or Powertex, but not wanting to get too messy I decided to use just the watered down pva.)

a second coat of paint this morning!  really pleased with the effect

Christmas Rose

Left: Card.  Right: Canvas

Yes I know it is only June but my new embossing folders arrived this morning, and I just had to play!

I experimented with card and canvas.  After embossing, both the black card and the small canvas had a thin coat of black gesso applied first.  I then applied silver gilding wax, before painting, but then decided to apply green/yellow Pebeo DYNA paint to the raised bits of the leaves with my finger.

The flowers and leaves were then painted with the iridescent DYNA paints in various colours. However, I did apply a bit of pale cream acrylic to inner parts of the petals before blending in the pink DYNA.

Finall, I went over the embossed bits again with a little gilding wax.

messing about!

Following on from yesterday's post,I decided to play with the macrame doll idea using beads.  Think I will go back to the original idea as this was a tad fiddly, not least having to use the thinner cord so that it would go through the beads!

Macramed Doll

My daughter shared a video on FB tonight and I just had to have a play  I am sure my granddaughters will enjoy making these!

Isn't she cute - and so easy

It only took a few minutes to make with some knotting cord from my stash, a wooden bead, and promarker for the face.

If you would like to know how to make them here is the video by Maggy Woodley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2iwxNpImlg

Have fun with your grandchildren, children, or just yourself!  

Groovi Board Parching with the Grandchildren

After painting their bracelets, the girls decided they want to have a go at my Groovi Board.  They were so good, as I only have one board and took turns really nicely.

Here are their finished results.  Didn't they do well for a first effort!  (In age order 9, 6 and 3).  I even let them use my new Spectrum Noir pencils and showed them how to do a bit of blending with the blending solution.

Connie wanted a rainbow, and as time was short I didn't have time to find my cake decorating circles, which were buried in my stash somewhere - so she used a plate!

and whilst her older two sisters were colouring their pieces, the 3 year old wanted to have a go too - so this is her effort (with a little help from me)

I was really chuffed with their efforts, and I know they were pleased with their results,   Think they may be hooked, and it is a nice relaxing occupation.  Rarely have I seen them so quiet!

I love crafting with my grandchildren.

Painted Bracelets

My youngest grandchildren came to visit today as it was Father's Day, and for once it was sunny.

I had promised them some time in the Den.  They had already earmarked some things they wanted to paint a few weeks ago.  So today they painted some wooden bracelets.

9 year old's bracelet

I had prepared the bracelets with a thin coat of white gesso - but of course they decided they wanted to try the paint effect I had done on some drawers and boxes, so first of all they had to apply some Black gesso.

3 year old's bracelet

I decided the easiest and least messy way was to use some kitchen scourers that I had cut into small pieces, thus enabling a quick thin coat of the black gesso.  Being sunny this didn't take long to dry!

6 year old's bracelet

They then set to with the Pebeo  iridescent paits, using the scourer side of the sponges.   Well they all chose the colours they wanted, but then got carried away using nearly all of the eleven colours!

Amazingly there was very little mess, and even their hands were pretty clean - mostly black gesso in a few places, which soon washed off.

Even the three year old painted her own bracelet, with me just holding it for her!  She was really very good.

We left them in the sun to dry and then I varnished them with Spray and Shine.   They did an excellent job didn't they?

Tomorrow I will share what else they did .......

Pebeo Bubbles - updated!

So I got to finishing my Bubbles canvas.   I decided to draw some little bubbles with Mixtion relief and then when dry I applied gedeo mirror foil, plus some holographic blue and pink from my stash.  I also wrote the title using Pebeo imitation lead liner, and rubbed the top of the letters with a little silver gedeo gilding wax.

"Pebeo Bubbles"

Having seen a Pebeo U-tube video of little canvases 

(   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLRAG2zV78    )  I decided I wanted to play .......

I didn't want to do a huge canvas, (and I am a skinflint when it comes to using my paints! )so I found these little cardboard discs that I originally was going to use for marbling with my grandchildren.  I didn't really want to gesso them all, so I just used some Pebeo gel to seal them.  

I wanted it to look like a lot of bubbles - so chose various sizes.   I may well re-arrange them before I stick them down permanently.

I then sat with a load of Pebeo Vitrail glass paints and Fantasy Moon paints and dribbled colours all over them with kebab sticks as the mood took me.  Really had fun.

To give you and idea of the size - they are on an A5 canvas.

Pebeo Canvas

A little experiment with a small canvas

A coat of turquoise Pebeo vitrail and light green vitrail applied first , and then darker blue pour over the top, an with a stencil brush colour removed to show the turquoise.   Dark green applied to base of canvas and stroked through the light green with a kebab stick.

When dry I applied some Pebeo Mixtion relief through the "grasses" stencil which is party of the Clarity Stamp Natural Accents set, with a palette knife.  I also applied some around the edge of the moon from the same stencil.

When dry I applied various foils from my stash over the Mixtion, together with the Pebeo Mirror effect foil, and also applied the mirror effect to the moon/sun - which was then filled with two shades of Pebeo Fantasy Moon paints, swirled together.

The top picture was taken in the sun and doesn't really show the relief work of the stencil - so here is another photo.

Painted Stone

I decided to repaint the stone that sits by my Den.  The original one was painted with a silver background, and also painted in metallic paints - it was pretty and delicate, but I decided I wanted something with a bit more impact to match some of the other bits in my garden, that we painted withe a similar design.

So, because I could, I painted it with black gesso and got my paint fusion paints out and gave it a make-over.

It's a while since I did paint fusion (aka one stroke painting) in earnest, so pleased I haven't lost my touch to much.

I love painting stones!

Parchment Birthday Card

I suddenly remember it was my neighbour's birthday today, so I set to this morning, and created this little card with the Groovi Board.  

I used the butterfly plate exactly "as it comes" and added Val to it. (yes ok the "l" is a little wonky - hope she doesn't notice to much - I should have watched Barbara Gray's video before I started then I would have known to place the "a" first and then add the other two letters).

I then added some colour using the Spectrum Noir pencils.

I am quite pleased with it as it was a bit of a rush job, and only the second ever piece I have done - so onwards and upwards as they say.   If you would like to see Barbara's video using the butterfly plate here is the link:

http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/youtube-tuesday-getting-in-groove.html

Stencilled Wooden Heart

Front

Another little play with a couple of my newly purchased stencils from Clarity Stamp open day.

I had already prepared the background with blue/green DYNA iridescent paint.  Yesterday, I mixed green/blue DYNA with Pebeo modelling paste and stencilled through the Clarity Large Leaves stencil, and added some shading with the bronze DYNA and a green acrylic from my paint fusions paints, with a little distressing with a scourer around the edges of the heart.

I then used the Reeds stencil, from the Natural Accents set and applied Pebeo sand texture gel.  When dried this was painted with various DYNA colours.

The three butterflies were created from Hearty clay, painted with DYNA violet/.blue and then gold gilding wax applied to them.  The shells were painted with the same colour and a touch of bronze DYNA.  Gold gilding wax applied to edge of heart.

I intended hanging the heart, but having taken the picture with it sitting on a canvas, maybe I will mount it on that.

Back

Still undecided whether to mount the heart on card, I painted the back, which was already prepared with black gesso.  (just because I could! )

I used another of the stencils from the Natural Accents set and stencils DYNA yellow/green over it, and then added some more stencilled colour to the "non-leaf" section with green/blue.

Having found it's original cord, I decided to go with the hanging version rather than a mounted heart.

Abstract Canvas

Today in Maggie's Den. Playing with my new stencils purchased at the Claritystamp Open Day on Saturday.

I used a stencil from Natural Accents set, painted with Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints (all 11 of them) plus a pale olive green from my stash mixed with silver DYNA.

I then outlined the shaped with Pebeo Imitation Lead Cerne Relief outliner, and Pebeo black ceramic paint was then applied around the shapes.

Finally I applied resin  over the coloured sections, edged the board with some more black ceramic paint and when dry, mounted the board on to larger canvas.

I think I actually prefer the canvas this way - what do you think?

My first Parchment piece

I have always wanted to do parchment work, ever since I saw a Pergamano demonstration at the Craft Barn, well over 20 years ago when it was very new to this country.  Well I was fortunate to attend one of The Clarity Stamp open days on Saturday, along with my daughter Dawn.

Needless to say the new Groovi board by Barbara Gray fell into my basket ......

My first attempt at Parchment

..... plus a complete set of Spectrum Noir pencils (and a whole lot of other things that no doubt you will discover of the coming weeks as I play with them).  Anyway I sat down in Sat evening and created my first piece of parchment and coloured it with the new pencils.

It is by no means perfect but for a couple of hours play, not too bad.  Need to practise my short long strokes for filling in - the butterfly's body doesn't look to brilliant!

So it is onwards and upwards as they say!    (I should add here that I have tried parching before and failed miserably, apart from running it through the cuttlebug in an embossing folder!)

Here is another shot - as was a bit difficult to catch the complete effect:

Thanks for popping by.

A trio of little hearts

Just playing and experimenting with some little hearts.

Silver Pebeo DYNA iridescent acrylic using stencil brush om half of the heart.   Silver Pebeo outliner used on right hand side and couple of the elements having Pebeo Fantasy paints dribbled into them. Heart edge with gilding wax

Another stencil play using Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints

Finally a little mixed media piece, from an idea on a Pebeo Inspiration site.  Pebeo sand texture gel mixed with gold DYNA iridescent and applied with palette knife. Sky painted with DYNA Blue/Green.  Sea - blue  Pebeo Vitrail  applied with kebab stick (yes I could have made the horizon a bit mor level - but can rectify that)  Surf created with Pebeo antique white ceramic paint.   Sun created with gold outliner and a gold Fantasy paint, and birds with black outliner.

By chance I came across a little plastic starfish and a seahorse in my stash - by inadvertently knocking a box to the floor! (so happy accident, and goodness knows where they came from - perhaps even out of a cracker)  The starfish was painted with yellow vitrail, and the starfish with bronze DYNA.

I should add here that I actually only painted two of my little hearts - one of them is painted on both sides!

Mini Chest of Drawers

Top

At last I have finished this little chest of drawers, which got thrown in a corner after I had gessoed it, as the wood of the drawers refused to fit!    I finally took the sandpaper to the drawers and applied some glide stuff that I had (from Lakeland).

The whole thing was painted with Pebeo Black acrylic and then I used versamark and Sheena Douglass's corner orchid stamp and heat embossed it with some burgundy powder.  I the painted the image with variious Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints to reflect the colours I used on the drawer fronts.

Front

I couldn't decide what colour to paint the drawers - so ended up painting them in both colour ways that I liked.

Prior to applying the black gesso I applied some redundant peel-offs for the little detail on the drawers.

Again using the Pebeo DYNA iridescent acrylics, sponged on with a bit of kitchen scourer.   Colours used are:   Blue/Green, Green/Blue, Yellow/Green, and Precious Gold.  For the red drawer:  Red/Blue, Orange/Yellow, Bronze and Precious Gold.

The knobs were done with Pebeo Gilding wax.

Another view with drawers open

The measurements of this little wooden box are 4" high and the top is 3.3/4" square.

Flower Pots

I made painted these little metal flower pots for my pal's birthday (albeit they were a slightly belated pressie).

They are metal, and were first coated with black gesso and then painted with Pebeo DYNA iridescent blue/green and gree/blue.

Originally I was going to do some paint fusion daisies or something on them, but whilst we were messing about in the Den, I came across these paper flowers.   They were coated in watered down pva to stiffen them, and then painted with the same paints, two were painted with blue/green and one with green/blue and when dry sprayed with Spray and Shine.  They were then glued to the pots,and some liquid pearls added to the centres, and a further coat of Spray and Shine added.

A few May Cards

Just some cards created in CAP2 for recent Birthdays;

Card for Granddaughter with detail from present I painted

Card for son using picture his girls painted for him

Mixed Media Canvasses - by Sass & Mags

When my pal Sass was visiting the other week I introduced her to mixed media painting.  The first picture is her first attempt.  As you can see from the second picture it didn't look much when she first did it - but then we mounted the A5 canvas board on an A4 canvas - result - a work of art.

Sassie's first mixed media canvas - mounted

Sass brushed on Pebeo blue vitrail and then dribbled various Fantasy Moon and Prisme paints over the canvas and added some gilding flakes

Sassie's first mixed media canvas - unmounted (and drying in the sun)

.... and then I attempted a canvas, and was a little bolder - no brushes were used in preparing this canvas

I poured various colours of Pebeo vitrail all over the canvas, until it ran off the board. and although they were different colours - because they all got mixed the overall effect is is a dark blue, although when you look closely you can see greens and light blues and reds.

I then dropped on various Fantasy Moon and Prisme paints using a kebab stick, and then swirled them into the Vitrail paint.  I also added the glitter vitrail in places, red vitrail and some antique white ceramic  (I like the effect of the white ceramic paint).

In both cases we painted on an A5 thin canvas board, and then mounted it on to a an A4 canvas.  This really does show off the artwork and make it easier to hang.

Mag's mixed media canvas

or of course you could hang it this way!

Enamelled Jewellery

Chatting to a friend today, I was searching for an entry on my blog, and it seems I omitted to to write about some enamelled jewellery I made with Pebeo Fantasy paints.  So this is now rectified.  (Apologies if I did blog them before, but just can't find them!)

Last year I made these pendants - the first two are double sided, and I was trying out some steam punk ideas, with some watch bits etc that I bought at Sandown Craft Show.

Fantasy paints were dribbled into the cabouchons, and then the various metal findings added.   

They were then glazed with Magic-Glos UV Resin (made by Lisa Pavelka) which I prefer to the resins you have to mix, mainly because, it is foolproof, (which is a must for me) and it is fairly quick drying in sunlight (or you could in the winter use one of those UV nail drying lights.   I have found in strong sunlight it is touch dry within half an hour.  Also there is no guessing on how much resin you need to mix for a project - you just squeeze it out of the nozzle on the bottle.  (As I said foolproof - or should I say idiot proof in my case!)

No 1 - First side purples and creams

No 1 - Second side - red

No 2 - First side - turquoise

No 2 - second side - blue

This was an experiment using a daisy from the lawn, only I was too

impatient - and didn't wait for the paints to dry - so the daisy took on the colour

of the paint!

A leaf pendant lightly painted with blue Fantasy paint

I apologise in advance for the quality of these two square pendants, but these were the best photos I could get with all the reflections.

Square pendant 1 - Blue Purplse

Square Pendant 2 - Green

Typical now that I have typed this post out - I have found my original one under Steampunk label  - anyway there are some slightly better photos there, so here is link for better photos:

http://nannygees.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/steam-punk-bezels.html