MDF Plaque - SteamPunk/Grunge Effect

Front

A little experiment with an MDF hanger today.    The backing paper was one from Craft Artist, which I stuck to the MDF and then sandpapered the edges to get a neat finish.  I then the "attacked" the paper with distress inks and stamps.  I used an Artistic Flair stencil for the wording and inked through it with Brown Nuvo ink, and sprinkled on clear detail embossing powder, and applied a little White Colour Cloud Blending Ink to the edge.  I sealed everything with Spray and Shine.

The cogs and clock face were painted with , Decoart paints in Paynes Grey, Quinacridone Gold (red), yellow ochre, Prussian blue and Raw Umber and a touch of IndigoBlu Townhouse Teal to create a rusty affect.  Stamperia Glass paste was then applied with a finger to create a pitted look, and also highlights with Pebeo Gilding Wax in different shades of Gold.   These were then sealed with Spray and Shine, and when dry adhered to the plaque with Sweet Poppy translucent special dimension paste.

Back

The reverse was a bit of an experiment, that gave me a lot of trouble.   The background was created the same way as the front, using the same paper which I had coloured blue before printing.  Again it was distressed and stamped.

I tried to use a dimension paste through another Artistic Flair stencil, and tried to apply some gilding wax to it, which wasn't awfully effective, so I re-applied the paste and sprinkled on some black glitter.   This didn't look quite right when dry, and on the suggestion of my daughter, I sanded the wording back to make it more "grungy", which improved it and then applied a couple of layers of Stamperi glass paste over the whole design.  (It doesn't look brilliant in the photo, but is better in real life and has a sort of under-water look to it).

I also applied some white Cosmic Shimmer Colour Cloud to the edges of the plaque, as on the front.

Front of plaque showing stamping and distressing

As you can see from this work in progress photo, for some reason the embossing powder didn't wan to play on a couple of the words.  You will note they are fine in the final result - with a little help of a fine paint brush and some raw umber paint!

Finally ... a couple more views hanging on a wall, before I wrap and send it off to its recipient.

This is the first time I have done something like this, and confess it was a bit of a learning curve.  The aim was something a bit steampunk/grunge.    Think I might have achieved it ...... sort of... lol!   Just hope my pal likes it - at least she has one of the glass angels I made to hang up, even if this doesn't make it - although it may have a place on her craft room wall.

Owl Fairy Door

I normally just post pictures of a finished project, but I remembered to take some work in progress photos.

Preparation of the Door

The worst part if removing all the hinges etc (and putting them back on!)  The door is painted with decoart paints, and then sprinkled with thick embossing powder and heated to give the worn, blistered look.

The surround had texture paste applied and when dry painted with white gesso and various shades of grey, cream and green pebeo decocreme paints sponged on.

The next decision was which owl to use:

Fat Owl or ........

..... Thin Owl ?

Nearly finished

I liked both, so as the door was for a friend of my daughter's I put it to the vote and fat owl won!  Fat owl was painted in a similar fashion to the door,  His "tummy" then had some cream paint wiped over it with my finger to bring out the texture of the embossing powder.  His eyes and beak were painted with Pebeo DYNA iridescent paints, and then had glossy accents applied.  (Full details on painting the owl on an earlier post)

The flowers and leave were die-cut from card, and painted with Pebeo acrylics and distress inks.  I added a little unicorn sparkles and some puffy paint for snow.

Finished

So I still have another door to use that was painted at the same time as this one - so the thin owl will probably be used for that.  I have already started to prepare the door - so below is a little teaser.   I just need to decide what flowers etc I will put on it.   Shall I do another Christmas one - or should I go with something like primroses and make a spring one?   Decisions, decisions.

Away with the Fairies !

so yesterday it was Unicorns, today I am away with the Fairies!  lol!

I bought a couple of Tando Fiary Door kits and this is one of them.    All the elements came in the kit, it was just a case of painting them and putting them together.

another view

The kits comprise mdf and greyboard.

I coloured the door sections with distress inks, and applied a little UT embossing powder to get the blistered look.

The "stonework" was created by using Pebeo sand gel on the different sections before they were stuck on the base shape.  They were then painted with various shades of Pebeo Deco Creme to get the weathered look.

The hinges were painted with various shades of Decoart Media paints to get a slightly rusted metal look, and the door knocker had Pebeo guilding wax applied to it.

Finally the ferns and toadstool were painted with Pebeo paints, and the toadstool had UT embossing powder applied to give it dimension.

I have another fairy door as work in progress - this door was purchased from the works.   I used a stencil for the stone work.  More details when I get around to posting the finished item.

work in progress

w.i.p another view

Fairy Door for a Train Enthusiast

I had great fun painting this (bought from craftwoodcreations.co.uk)  I saw this at the Farnborough Craft Show and fell in love with it (I must confess I have bought some of their fairy doors before).

My granddaughter was going to buy one, but I had already beaten her to it, so it was agreed that I would paint it and she would give it to her Dad for Father's Day.

I used some pebeo sand paste to create some texture on the outer stone work, and then painted it in various shades of grey and cream, finally going over it with some green memento ink to make it look a bit mossy.  I really love how it turned out!

The door comes in various sections.  The stone work a backing piece, the door and the clock, sign and door knob.

I painted the back arch (with grays, and other colours to create an old wood effect, and then stuck the stone arch on top.

The door was painted with decoart paints and memento inks, as I needed the wording to show through.  I confess I have forgotten what I painted the top windows with - I think it was the pebeo silver glitter paint, and then it had glossy accents applied.  The door knob had gold pebeo gilding wax applied and then stuck on to the door.

The clock and sign were painted with decoart paints, and a little gold pebeo for the arrow, and the rest had Pebeo gilding wax applied. I then highlighted the letters with a micron pen, and also added some detail to create a curved look to the posts.   The clock had glossy accents applied to it.

I am not sure whether my granddaughter will mount the door on a canvas or not, so I haven't stuck the door and surround together not added the clock and sign.  I am leaving these for her to decide what she wants to do with it. It may be that he door will go on the door of his train shed, but it if mounted it could be a "picture" on the wall of the shed.  On the website, the door is shown as in the first picture.

Shame we have got to wait until June to see if he likes it - lol!

a Little Tree and a Lantern

I bought a couple of little ornaments in the Works yesterday, and decided to start painting them yesterday, whilst watching a Christmas movie on tv.

Initially I coloured the tree with distress inks, but wasn't quite happy with the results, so went over it again with my Pebeo paints.   The white paint at the bottom of the tree , the snowflakes and the star has glue applied and then I added Eiskristals.  The base and then rest of the ornament then had a quick paint with the clear glitter overlay pens, and finally a quick coat of spray varnish.

This is the lantern before I started painting it
and the tree started off the same plain wood too

and here is the finished article   I wasn't sure whether I wanted it to be a shiny brass lantern or more distressed - I eventually went with the distressed look.

Painted with acrylic paints similar to the tree, but for the lantern I used Decoart mixed media paints.  I also applied some puffy paint for the snow at the base and added more Eiskristals.

another view

close up of the "rusty verdigris look"  (You can also see the effect of the Eiskristals
on the snowflakes from this angle quite well too

Owl comes to visit

You may recall seeing a sneaky peek of this fairy door on the table in the work in progress photo I shared of some of my clay work the other day.

I have been gradually working on it over the past week or so.   The door was painted with Pebeo paints and crackled using DecoArt Weathered Wood and Crackle paste, and then more distress inks were rubbed into the finished crackle.

I painted the owl using Pebeo paints and distress inks.  Using a random layer of ultra thick embossing powder over his body for some texture, and then triple embossing his eyes. and nose.

Originally I had intended making the flowers and leaves from card, but then decided to use cloud clay and some of my old plunge cutters.  I experimented painting the Christmas roses, winter jasmine, holly and ivy with Memento inks with an overlay of clear sparkle.

I used some white puffy paint for the snow, which I heated with my heat gun to make it more interesting, and then applied some glue and sprinkled  Eiskristall over it as well as treating the fir cones (real ones) in the same way.

The cloud clay leaves, flowers and berries before painting

Family tree

This is really work in progress.   I bought the mdf shape at the Sandown Craft Show - unfortunately I can't remember the name of the stall - such a shame as they had some lovely stuff.

To start with I used distress inks on the trunk and branches, and then swapped to to the MediaArt paints.   I added lots of water over the top when I had finished getting the shading effect I wanted and sprinkled some Cosmic Shimmer clear Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals over it - making it wetter in some places.  I then heated the crystals with my heat gun, so that I got a random raised finish.  More distress ink was then applied.

I painted the leaves and the birds with more mediaart products.

However, I can'd decide what colour to paint the hearts - thus the work in progress!   I also have some tiny mdf owls that I might use instead - decisions, decisions.   Suggestions for the colour of the hearts welcome.  So far I have had suggestions of bronze, red and green.

Mixed Media Fairy Door

This is a little mixed media Fairy Door that I made using a Fairy Door from the Works, which has an opening door,   Cute isn't it.   I knew as soon as my daughter picked it up for me whilst shopping, that I wanted to do something with it.

I delayed working on it until my new DecoArt paints arrived following the demo on Hochanda by Andy Skinner.

Learning from previous experience of trying to do the salt technique on wood, I sealed the door first with decoupage glue.   The door was first painted with paynes grey and the salt sprinkled on it.   When dry and the salt was brushed off, I used various blues, umber and finally a coat of quin gold.  I added a door knocker with the greyboard bits from Andy's kit that I painted with gold and quin gold.

The outside was painted with pains grey and burnt umber, and then sprinkled with ultra thick embossing powder and heated to give it a rough texture, a bit more paynes grey and qui gold was added and the salt technique used.  (you can just about see the effect of the texture on the bit above the door.  

I wanted to add some more texture and fancied using some lace somehow to make it "prettier".   This was a bit hit and miss and a learning curve so to speak.   I dipped the lace in ivory powertex, and stuck it on to the surround,  I didn't really like the effect so proceeded to paint it with various colours of paint to match the background.

work in progress - with lace added

I had planned to make some flowers and leaves using air dry clay,, but couldn't quite get the effect I wanted.  I spied the flowers I had made the other day with Sheena's anemone die and stamps, and decided that was the way I wanted to go.

I used all the elements of the dies to create the various flowers (i.e. the calyx for the star flowers). They were cut out of black card and then painted with DYNA iridescent paints.   Over-stamped with black stazon, and then brush embroidered using mixtion paste and silver mirror foil added to the flowers, and gold foil to the leaves, and then curved to desired shapes    I needed something else to finish the surround so painted up some small shells from my stash  (the tub of shells came from The Works too).

I took a couple more photos in daylight;

with the door slightly ajar

I think I might have to buy some more of these - although I do have some plainer un opening doors in my stash (i.e. without a surround to them).

Steampunk Tray

Well it was supposed to be a steampunk rusty finish to this wooden tray.  Hasn't quite turned out as I wanted - I think I should have sealed the wood first with pva or similar.   Although I made sure the paint was very wet, the salt technique wasn't quite so good.   Possibly need to use sea salt or rock salt.

Painted in much the same way as the rustic heart, finishing with the quin gold.   I think it looks more like mahogany than ruster metal, but hey ho - I still like it.

I love the nails and bolt heads that came in the greyboard kit.  Painted with paynes grey and quin gold and a little gold rubbed over the edge with my finger - they look so realist in real life.

another view

Rusty Heart and Crackled Heart

At last my media paints and bits and bobs have arrived from Hochanda, and I have had a little play using one of the greyboard hearts that came in the kit.

I first painted the heart with paynes grey and sprinkled salt into it, which when dry gave a pitted look.  I then went over with some of the grunge media paints - a blue and a green and then finally went over it with the quin gold (which is actually red).    Love, love, love these paints they are beautifully translucent and I was really pleased with the rusty finish,   

Can't wait to try out more of the elements that came in the kit and do some steampunk art, which is slightly out of my comfort zone, but do admire the effects.  So watch this space.

I also purchased some of the different mediums.  I painted the whole heart with red paint, and then applied antiquing cream to the bottom half.  The top half of the heart was double crackled, with weathered wood and crackle paste, and painted yellow.   I could have done with applying the weathered wood a bit thicker, as I didn't quite get the depth of crackle that I wanted - will obviously have to play a bit more.

I then removed the antiquing cream with a baby wipe and stencilled the design .  I think next time I will do a resist technique for the stencil or some texture paste.   However, I was only playing and getting used to the products.

Finally I used some green paint and with a stencil brush applied some colour over the crackle paste effect.