Shells and Mixed Media ... and Pebeo of course!

I have just had a few days away with the family, and whilst on the beach we collected a few shells, so when it came to child-minding them today, I decided to set them a mixed media challenge and use some of the shells, and some from a tub of mixed shells that I bought some time ago.  They also discovered my stash of buttons, and glitters!   Of course glitter and little girls are a MUST!  lol!

They were allowed to choose what they wanted to do, and I gave them a quick lesson in dry brushing with my effort.

Here are the results of their efforts.

4 yr old's door hanger - She applied some modelling paste with a palette knife, and stuck the shells on, and then painted the whole thing with black gesso..  She then dry brushed the shells with Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints  When dry, Crafters Companion Spray and Shine was applied, and she added a little glitter.   Then another coat of spray and shine to seal in the glitter.   

The door hanger is even better in real life - and for four years old she did an excellent job - must confess I was amazed how she comprehended what to do!

The 7 year old's Teddy covered with texture paste and then black gesso and gold DYNA iridescent.  Then decorated with buttons  He looks really "furry".

7 year old's door hanger - strips of different width masking tape was applied, as she liked he striped effect I did on her sister's hand mirror - and wanted to know how to do it)  and  Silver DYNA applied.  Tape was then removed and PVA glue painted between the silver stripes and glitter applied.   She then punched out some little flowers and painted then in silver, pink and purple and stuck them on.  Spray and Shine applied to seal the glitter.

A few weeks ago the 10 year old and I prepared "faux canvases" using MDF, and this was her finished piece - again the shells were attached using modelling paste, black gesso applied, and then dry brush with  Pebey DYNA iridescent, and a coast of spray and shine applied.   The black "canvas" was then stuck to the white MDF, and displayed using a Clarity Stamp display stand.

This was my effort at a "faux" canvas using MDF - texture gel applied at the bottom, and modelling paste sponged over the top two thirds.  Shells stuck on with modelling past and a little wooden flower applied for a sun.  Black gesso applied to the whole thing, and then dry brushed with various Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints.  (I do love the bluck black iridescent I used for the sky background)  Spray and Shine then applied, and black "canvas" stuck to white canvas.

I do love the idea of mounting a smaller canvas onto a larger one (Thank you Barbara Gray for the idea) -   .http://barbaragrayblog.blogspot.co.uk/  It turns it into a piece of art.   I might get the 7 year old to mount her teddy onto a canvas too!

Card for a teenager

Oh male cards are so difficult, particularly when they are in their late teens!   I kept it simple!

Happy Wine Day

I have a couple of pals that love shoes, and also like the occasional drop of wine.  I made these with them in mind!

The background thin canvas was crackled in both of them - same colors - just opposite way round, if you get my drift, and then mounted on a white deep canvas.

The mdf words and shoes were painted with pebio acrylics and then given a coat of 3D glaze

This last photo shows up the shine of the glaze slightly better in the sunlight,

these were the 3 shoes that came in the pack for painting

Pencil Case

Front

My youngest granddaughters needed a pencil case - and I remembered I had a blank one to paint - so it was out with the fabric paints and my special Indian Stamps.   It's not brilliant, but it was a very quick play.

Back

The base

Toadstools/Mushrooms

I had great fun painting these!

Using texture paste mixed with cream acrylic.  The red was painted over black gesso
and then over painted with red Dyna paint

Yes - you can get blue mushrooms/toadstools
Blue Black Dyna over Black gesso

I treated myself to a yard of Pebeo acrylics from Hobbycraft as they were on special offer at a silly price - loving them, as normally I have to mix up a lot of my shades.    So much easier when most of the shades are done for you!

Hand Mirrors

Backs

Fronts

When my granddaughters came to visit last week, I promised to paint up some hand mirrors for them,, that I had bought at the Sandown Craft Show; and asked them to choose what colour etc they wanted.

These are the results of my handiwork.   I was panicking that I had got their "orders" right - but can confirm that I did - and they were thrilled with them when they collected them this week!   phew!

They were all painted with white gesso, and then .....

B's was painted white, and then silver stripes applied with metallic marker (using masking tape).

T's was painted with blue-green Dyna and sponged with the purple DYNA.  I then painted some little paint fusion roses around it.

C's  was also white - but she wanted flowers on it - so she had larger roses painted on hers

The initials for all three were drawn free-hand using Mixtion relief paste, which had silver foil applied, and then the outlines were flooded with various Pebeo Fantasy paints to give the effect of enamel.

Granddaughters mixed media

I thought I would share some work by my 4 yr old and 7 yr old granddaughters  that they did when visiting last week.   The 10 year old also did a nice piece, but I didn't get to take a photo of that!

The heart and the angel were done by the 4 year old and the owl by the 7 year old.

I love the heart she painted Dyna paint over it in random sections, and then I showed her how to apply masking tape, and colour the gaps with Pebeo Silver marker pen.  She loved the effect  when we took off the tape.  I then suggested that she used a thinner silver marker pen to outline the colours and do some patterns with the same pen.

She then painted her angel and decorated her with the silver marker pen and drew on a face using micron pens.  I think she is going to be a mixed media queen!

The 7 year old's owl looks better in real life - the photo doesn't do it justice, but it was a mad panic to take photos before the went home.   She only achieve the painting of the owl as this required waiting for it to dry between doing the front and the back! (and it was gesso'd in black first!)

3D Fairy Doors

I had lovely fun painting these.  I normally paint with gesso first on MDF, but on this occasion I just used Pebeo acrylic paint directly - apart from the doors.

The effect on the doors was an experiment based on a demo by Ali Reeve.  I used Distress ink pads on the doors - having put a little acrylic paint on the "striped" section.   I then sprinkled on Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and heated it up, and then applied more distress inks of various colours (there is even purple on them believe it or not!)  I love the effect of the one layer of embossing powder.

I made a little skirt for the fairy using chiffon and my special soldering iron for material.

  Here are a few views of the completed fairy door in various locations!  (oh yes and I sprinkled a little flower soft on the base.)

I then tackled the Christmas Elf, using the same techniques:

and some more photos taken in different locations - outside my den, and at the base of one of our oak trees.

Sympathy Card and a Birthday Card

A couple of difficult cards to make this week.  Sympathy cards are always so difficult, but I have noticed that they are a lot more cheerful in the shops, so kept this one simple too.

The second card is for somebody who is going through a difficult time at the moment, and a health battle.  I didn't want to put Happy Birthday so used Birthday Wishes instead.

A few cards

All made in CAP2  the Get Well Soon one with an imported image from Andy Carolan's Professional Occupations cd.

Mixed Media Samples

Well I did say I had a lot of catching up to do - so here is another one for today:

Inspired by the Pebeo Mixed Media show on Hochanda, my pal and I decided to have a go at a similar canvas to the one Voitek (spelling) demonstrated.

My canvas

We both used the same paints on a black gessoed canvas, and roughly followed applying the paints as demonstrated - colours applied were DYNA blueblack, bluegreen and green yellow.  Initially painted on with a brush in random strokes, and then sponged on.  Circles were then drawn with 4 Artist marker in white (we didn't have a small silver one at that point in time).  Clear Cerne was applied over the circles, and they were then filled with turquoise fantasy paints.

Silver 4Artist Marker was then flicked at the canvas and pulled out with the Vitrail sparkle medium, we also used the sparkle medium to apply random strokes.

Sassie's canvas

As you can see this ccanvas is quite different, although we were both doing basically the same thing - Sass has applied strokes of the Silver Marker to hers as well, and over-painted them with the sparkle medium.

We also edged the canvas with the silver marker

Letter Holder

Work in progress

I recently joined the Clarity Club, and I have used this month stencil on this letter holder.

The holder was gessoed and then painted with various shades of gold and bronze from the DYNA range.

I then applied modeling paste through the stencil, and when dry, applied the bronze and green/yellow DYNA to the relief work with a sponge.

Dragonfly

I then applied some of the green/yellow and bronze paint to a piece of canvas paper and stamped the dragonfly (this months stamp from the club).  Cut it out, and added a few highlights with Pebeo Renaissance Gold Gilding wax.  I also edged the holder with the same gilding wax.

The dragonfly was glued to the holder, and then with Pebeo 4 Artist bronze marker the word letters was added.

Pebeo on a tin

This was a little freebie tin that came with some cigarettes that was in my stash  - I have alrtered a few of these over the years and they hold pins, needles and miscellaneous items.

I applied some modelling paste over the lit with a palette knife that had grooves in it.  I then painted the whole thing with Pebeo Black gesso, and then Pebeo DYNA Blue Black - love that colour.

I couldn't quite decide where to go with it next - but ended up tryig out my new Pebeo 4 Artist Marker in silver over the raised bits.  (The markers are fabulous - oil based and really shiny and come in a number of sizes and colours).

I then used Pebeo Mixtion relief and drew free-hand leaves and when dry foiled them with the blue metallic foiling sheets, and created a flower with some flat backed pearls from my jewellery stash.

The result was quite random, and it does look more effective in real life as you can see the different dimensions.

Messing about with Pebeo paints

Here is another little canvas I did just random messing about with Pebeo ceramic and Fantasy paints on mixed selection of vitrail.  No planning, I just let the paints do their own thing.

Revamping

Well what a bad blogger I have been.    Although to be fair I have had a pal staying for a couple of weeks to support me through a difficult period - what would have been my husband's 75th Birthday, and my first birthday without him.  So today there will be a few postings, rather than scheduling some.

This little revamp came about, because having shown my pal the owl and the picture I created with the pebeo fantasy paints and vitrail etc.   I inadvertently placed the owl down on the picture and we we both said  "ooo - that looks good".  and thus the revamp was born!