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

Experimenting Again - Mixed Media ....

...   with a Vengeance!

Top View

Well I got carried away with this project!   It started off as a metal cigarette tin.

A sheet of Pebeo cotton canvas was painted with blue and green metallic acrylics (non Pebeo)and then run through a Sheena Douglass embossing folder.  

It is too difficult to get the canvas to stick to all of the top of the tin, so the edges had a mix of Pebeo modelling paste (relief paste) and gesso applied to them, and then painted with the metallic acryllic paints as before.

Painted canvas was then cut up and stuck to the tin on the top and sides with pva glue.  Everything was then over-painted with Fantasy Prisme paint in turquoise, and the leaves picked out with Pebeo Ceramic leaf green.  (I am not too happy with the result - think I should have used the Vitrail Glass Paint.)  I also lost some of the depth of the embossing in the glueing process, which didn't help with the painting of the leaves.

Another View showing side

I made various flowers in Cloud Clay, using a daisy cutter.  I used white, and blue mixed with white Cloud Clay.   I shaped the blue ones with a modelling tool for one, and also cutting the petals in half and using a modelling tool for the other one.  The centres were also made in white paste, and textured with a cocktail stick.   When dry the flowers were painted with Fantasy Prisme Turquoise and Yellow Vitrail for the centres.  As an experiment, I used my airbrush and some Culpitt white airbrush colour.  (I bought this this week,  as our little local shop couldn't work out why you would want white airbrush colour! - so I offered to try it out!  - I can see it being useful on coloured paste/icing.  It will also be interesting to see how ti works when mixed with other colours. )  It has just given a sort of speckled effect as obviously the enamel repelled it slightly.  It would be different on a matt surface.  I sealed it with a spot of Spray and Shine.

I also made leaves from a mix of blue and green Cloud Clay, and these were painted with a mix of Prisme turquoise and Vitrail Chartreause Green.

So there we have it - a real "Mixed Media" project!

Close up of Flowers

I also had a little play with an odd piece of card left over from making butterflies the other day, and ran it through another of Sheena's embossing folders, and then painted the dragon fly with drops of turquoise and pink Fantasy paints, and some red Vitrail.

Thanks for dropping by.

Still Experimenting with PEBEO

I am such a lucky lady to get to play and experiment with a whole lot of goodies.  I have been playing in the Den over the past couple of days, and having such fun.

To save me having to keep writing out what I did I put the pictures of the items into CAP2 and wrote up what I had done.  (Actually I have been very good for once - I normally just "create" and then forget what I used, so I have put to good use a little altered art book I made, and am writing down what I have done as I do it!)

I have to apologise for the first two pictures as there are some typing errors, which I failed to see and didn't correct - unfortunately I didn't save the project in CAP so can't rectify the mistakes without starting all over again - so as the saying goes "bear with" !  Remember you can click on the photos to make them larger so that you can read what is written.

First Play to see what products I had received

The Phospherescent Gel said it glowed in the dark (haven't checked on it in the dark yet).  Bit out of my comfort zone doing an abstract sort of composition, but I think something like this would be quite good for a lad's bedroom.  I am calling it "Planets".  Would probably look good with a few gilding flakes added too.

Playing with Phosphorescent GelI

I had an idea in my head that I watned to create a "Tree of Life" on canvas - like the ones that are done with wire.  I confess I didn't quite work - I should have done it on a circular piece of MDF or similar and then added resin to encapsulate it - but sometimes you need to record your failures!

Tee of Life Experiment

Well that was yesterday.  I think I was lacking in inspiration a tad, maybe because I have been in a bit of pain with a cracked rib!  Anyway when I hit the sack last night, ideas suddenly were popping into my head - Why do they do that when you want to go to sleep?   Of course this morning I couldn't remember half of them,, but I did remember this one -  In my goody package, I had a pad of cotton canvas sheets, and wondered if they could be embossed ......

...well yes they CAN and the effect is fab!

Embossing on Canvas 1

To get a comparison with the effects on a plain canvas and on a painted one - I prepared the other half of the canvas with metallic paint - oh WOW!   Having played with the different effects on the leaves, I have chosen the effect I like best and am going to prepare some sheets and apply them to a project - they are so flexible, they will be like material. It reminds me of oilcloth.  (so watch this space!)

Embossing on Canvas 2

and finally, I had a play with an "Art Nouveau" piece, using the coffee jar we had just emptied!  I didn't have any Pebeo Liquid Leading in my goodies, so used my Martha Stewart Gallery Glass one.  It was a little thick for the effect I wanted, and let's be honest I am not very good at free-hand drawing, I was using inspiration from a Sharon Duncan cd)   (yes ok I know I should have printed the image to the correct size and put it inside the jar, but why make my life easy!)   The red is Pebeo Vitril red glass paint, and the black squares are filled with Pebeo Ceramic black paint.

Art Nouveau Coffee Jar

Thanks for popping by.  I hope I have inspired you with my experimenting and you will try some of the ideas out yourself - particularly embossing canvas paper and painting it - you will love the result!

In the Den

My eldest granddaughter's school had a fire, so at the moment the girls are taking turns going into school for lessons.  Today was one of her "home" days, so naturally we took ourselves off to the Den to do a bit of crafting.  It was a tad cold out, but we were snug in the Den.

faux leather

I made some faux leather (yesterday), using one of Sheena Douglass's embossing folders, and today I coloured it up.  Having done the basic colouring with ink various distress ink pads, I then went in with  the mown grass distress ink, using an ink duster brush to colour the leaves.

I cut out the various sizes pieces, and glued them to the tin I had prepared .  Then added some gilding wax along the edges, and a small wooden butterfly which also had gilding wax applied (mainly so that I knew which was the opening side of the tin!)

It was quite difficult to cut the shapes to fit the tin,  I am going to cheat with the lining on the inside and do some printed faux leather with copy paper using CAP2 

Finished tin

The original tin, which had black gesso applied before the faux leather.

As it was quite difficult to cut the pieces to fit, as I have some more of these tins, I may try a different technique and either using modelling paste and do some altered art with that, or maybe try using up some of my papers and do a sort of decopatch finish.

My granddaughter was obviously "playing" along side me.  She did some more to a project she started last week, working on a stationery box that a craft friend had given me for her bedroom.  It is still work in progress.  I am not sure whether she is going to do some other decoration on it, but it needs some varnish on it.

Granddaughter's Stationery Box

She then tackled started another project, whilst waiting for the box to dry.  This is also work in progress. She painted the wooden plaque first with a little tinted gesso, and them stamped the fish, water and lily on in Stazon.  She then painted them with Luminarte Primary Elements and the clear glaze medium.  I believe she is going to put some sort of words on it and then varnish it.   I am not sure if she is going to paint the other side, so that she can have an alternative image on that.

Wooden Plaque

So all in all a productive day in the Den.