Christmas Fireplace

I have had fun making this (well after I managed to work out how to put it together as although there were supposed to be instructions, there weren't any - fortunately I managed to watch the programme again and used the snipping tool to capture the relevant bits).

The finished project

Here are the various stages:  (yes I managed to remember to take some photos as it was decorated over a few days!)  I had to paint some of the parts before putting the whole thing together, after applying gesso to all of it.

I used a stencil for the brickwork and sand texture

Close up of hearth

next stage - modelling paste through the stencil

colour added to the "brickwork" and painted wood effect for mantlepiece

and just to prove I don't always get it right - spot the mistake!   (Clue look at the stockings). However, I am including the photo as it shows a different angle to the finished project.  You can see the wood effect on the top shelf, and the different stencil effect on the hearth base

The kit came with the imitation moss and the fir cones (some of which I glittered).   I also raided my cake decorating stash for some dried gypsophilia, which hadn't seen the light of day for many years. (Just as well I never throw anything away!)

There are also two holes in the back of the Fireplace to take two battery operated t-lights so it can be illuminated at night,

 Hope you like it.

Dream Catcher

Work in Progress

I had incredible fun today.  I have been meaning to paint another dream catcher for a few months. The last one I did was in gold and creams with added pearls.  (The dream catcher came from Craftwood Creations - well worth looking at their lovely mdf bits!)

I decided to paint this one as if it had a wooden ring and black cord.   The outer ring was painted with shades of brown and cream and sponged with more brown and had a smidgen of gold gilding paste applied around the edge and in carious places, in an attempt to make it appear "weathered".

The "cord" was painted with black Pebeo acrylic, and the wording had Siolver and Gold Pebeo Gilding wax applied to it.

The feathers were treated to a very thin coat of white Pebeo gesso, and thenpainted with a variety of pale Pebeo creme colours, taupe, cream, white, grey and finally pearl.   The front of the feathers were fairly easy as the MDF had guide line markings on them.  Getting the backs to look the same was more of a challenge, but can report the result was good, as I had to check when hanging them that they were the correct way round!

Almost finished

A coat of weather resistant acrylic lacquer was then applied to all the elements,   When dry I strung the feathers on cotton, adding some hematite beads, and some beading cord used for the hanger at the top.  (You can see the detail of the painting on the ring in this quite clearly).

Having taken the above photo outdoors on the back gate - I realised I hadn't stuck the wording on! - so here is the completed project hanging in my hall.

Finished

I probably should add here that the back and front of the project were painted identically (including the wording - so that should it be hung where it can be seen from both sides - they would both be the same.

Wooden Ornaments (again)

Do you remember the little tree ornament I shared the other day?  Well when I was clearing up I discovered a label that said "light up" tree - duh mine appeared to have the base with the light missing!   Bother and other words - I had painted it!   However, I popped into the works and showed them my dilemma and to see if they had a spare base "floating around".   Well they were brilliant - they just gave me a replacement.  Well done the works.  However, it was a win win situation for both of us, as the replacement he gave me was a different style.  We found a replacement for the "deer" one, and I purchased the one with the church.

So here they both are.  Once again painted with Pebeo paints, some puffy paint for the snow on the base with some Eiskristalls added to the snow and the snowflakes, and star.  I then went over everything with the sparkle overlay pen, and finally a quick spray of Spray and Shine.

another view

and the BONUS was the light up feature - the bulbs change colour!

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

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!

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

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!

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.

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.