Tiz Done ... Gramap;hone

I had a busy Easter weekend out gallivanting, but I did sit in the sunshine on Saturday and painted by old fashioned gramophone.  I am really pleased with it.  I tried to keep it authentic and vintage looking.

Another view with the "needle" on the record

The Base was painted with a varied mix of Pebeo and Amsterdam browns, creams and even purple "splodged" on to a painting mat and randomly mixed and then painted on to create a wood effect.. Decoration done with gold posca pen.

Trumpet painted with black gesso and then a Pebeo iridescent gold and overpainted with Golden's gold. The arm was black gessoed, then painted with gold, then changed my mind and painted silver, and then pebeo gold gilding wax. the record was black gessoed and then painted with black acrylic, and the label was created in craft artist. 

Finally a coat of spray and shine

The label on the "record"

Dragon's Eye

I had to play with the new Katy Sue Fantasy design moulds.    I just love the dragon's eye, dragon's skin and claw moulds.   I also used the belt and buckle moulds, and elements from the hinges mould.

I used an MDF cheese board blank for the background, which I painted with black gesso and then my favourite Pebeo Blue/black paint.  All the elements were created using Hearty Air Dry clay.

The dragon's skin, eye and claws were painted with Starlight paints.  The belt and buckle elements were painted with Amsterdam and Pebeo acrylics and then a touch of Pebeo gilding wax was applied.   The little screw heads were painted with gold Starlight paints and then gilding wax applied.

The leaves were painted with a mixture of Amsterdam, Pebeo and Starlight paints and then a few bits of IndigoBlu copper kettle mega flakes adhered to them and a smidgen of gilding wax again.

Finally a strip of card was stamped with the word Imagination and a touch of gilding wax applied around the edge, and gilding wax applied to the edge of the board, and the whole thing sprayed with Spray and Shine to seal it.

Christmas Ornaments

Ornament 1 

A friend and her daughter liked the ornaments that I had made recently that they asked if I could make some for them.   More MDF kits duly purchased and I proceeded to create two personalised gifts.

Ornament 1

They were personalised to their specification 

Ornament 2

Ornament 2

I had such fun painting these.   Everything was covered in white gesso and then the trees had distress oxides sponged on to the edges.   The deers and signposted were painted with Amsterdam acrylics.   The snow detail etc was created using Luv Crafts Let It Snow.

The base was painted with white acrylic paint and then Luv Crafts Puff Paste was applied thinly with a palette knife and "roughed up" which when heated up puffed up to give the looks of snow.  I then sprayed the base with a little water and sprinkled some Ultra Thick Embossing powder on and heated that up to make the snow "glisten".

Finally I painted baubles with the words chosen, and the year, with Posca pens; and added more Let It Snow..   Next year they can add a bauble of their choice or get me to paint one with next year's date on it! - lol!

Sleepy Owl

Another owl project from me - this time a hanging ornament.   The moon was painted with various acrylic paints and then oversprayed with marble effect spray, and various colours of I-Zink Dye Spray Finishes.

The owl was panted with various shades of brown and cream Amsterdam acrylic paint   The clouds and stars after having gesso applied had white or silver Pebeo 4 Artist Markers applied, and then clear Nuvo embossing pad and clear embossing powder.   The clouds had a little grey distress ink applied for shading.  The owl didn't come with eyes - so I just drew closed eyelids on with a fineliner pen.

Owl Plaque

Picture taken with a flash to show the shine of the bacground

I had great fun building and painting this  plaque from Olifantjie.    The back had black gesso applied, and then was painted with my favourite Pebeo Blue/Black DYNA paint, and oversprayed with Montan effect in white.

The owl, branch and flowers were painted with various Amsterdam paints and for the claws I mixed some Cosmic Shimmer Fluffy Stuff with yellow acrylic to create texture on the claws.    The yes were painted with a mixture of Pebeo Vitrail and Fantasy paints to give that glassy-eyed look.  The centre of the flowers had some Nuvo drops added.     The rim was sponged with a mixture of Jade, Aqua and Clotted Cream Starlights paint.  Finally a coat of spray and shine was applied.

Another view:

Photo taken without flash which shows the marble effect spray

MDF Train

I gave you a sneak peak of this the other week - now it is finished.  I must say I am pretty pleased with it.   I hope the recipient will be - but shan't know for a while as it is part of his Christmas pressie!

writing done with Posca pens

I thought I would share a few work in progress shots.

before painting and after having powertex applied

achieving the wood grain effect

The colours used for the woodgrain ....

...... and how the colours were splodged on before brushing out to achieve the wood effect.

Viking Longship - work i progress

I fell in love with a papiermaché longship whilst in Hobbycraft last week with my granddaughter.

I wanted it to be waterproof, so I applied bronze Powertex to the hull and ivory Powertex to the sail/  It didn't take long to dry in this weather.  It was so hot yesterday afternoon that I really didn't have the mojo to start on the painting, but suddenly decided to have a bash at it so to speak when it got cooler

I was a bit concerned on how I would achieve the wood effect over the Powertex, and just started by dry brushing various shades of brown along the contour.  I then took a fine paint brush and painted the darker lines, and then went back in between the lines with the varying shades of brown.   I am quite pleased with the result.

The sale was painted with a pinky-cream and then I applied masking tape and painted the stripe down the centre.

The prow and stern were painted and then gold gilding wax applied, and various starlight coloured paints were stippled on to the "shields". 

Still a bit more to do to it - I shall add some centres to the shields with Nvo drops and then perhaps add some gilding wax or paint the drops.

I am also tempted to paint some sort of emblem on the sail.    I think it needs something like and eagle in flight.   I don't have a stamp like that, but I do have an eagle's head stamp ......... (and I might have an angel wings stamp in my stash - I forget)   .... so watch this space as they say.

Mini Vardo

Just a quick glimpse of work in progress on a mini Vardo.     I do love these models.  Once I have finished painting it I will show the rear of it, which even has shutters on the window.   As you will see this mini version also has a chimney.

The granddaughters want me to paint the roof purple ..... so watch this space as they say!

Well before this post was scheduled to be published, I finished painting the Vardo.    So here it is finished.  I kept it simple and used two shades of blue Amsterdam paints, and Indigoblu Fuschia for the roof.

I finished the decoration using Nuvo drops.