Friday 29 July 2016

Let's Do Distress - Part 2!

For the A Vintage Journey Monochrome theme this month I shared 3 tags I had made - all in blue! Well there were actually 5 (once I had finished them) so just popping back today to share the final 2.

If you missed the original post you can find it here - with details of how I created these backgrounds using various distress products.

Here are two I didn't show last time and the image above shows all 5 together. 
 It is Tag Friday at a Vintage Journey - so if you are looking for more tag inspiration do hop over!

Til next time
Nikki
x

Thursday 28 July 2016

Colourful butterfly cards!

Distress Crayons and Paints - Addicted to Art
Hello - just stopping by to let you know I am sharing a project today over at Country View Crafts. Thought I would make 2 similar cards - one with Distress Crayons and one with Distress Paints.
Distress Crayons and Paints - Addicted to Art
Nikki
xxx

Monday 25 July 2016

Love abstract art!

Our current challenge theme at Country View Crafts is all about circles so I decided to create an abstract painting. This canvas is 8inches x 8inches and is one of my previously used ones - creating lots of additional texture underneath.
I started with a coat of white paints to cover the previous work and then lots of texture paste through varying stencils.
I then got my paints out - distress paints - the bright ones -and just worked in random (ish) blocks - blending the edges. I then added some black paint with a credit card.
Whoops got carried away here and stopped taking photos. I replaced some of the stencils and highlighted some of my circles with paint. I added some additional circles with a swirly stamp and a cork. 
Finally I added a little treasure gold in places. In a moment of madness I decided to coat in a metallic glaze - which has really subdued the original colour intensity - not my wisest decision, it was better before!

Linking up with Simon Says Stamp - Monday - Add some texture
Thanks for stopping by!
Nikki
xxx

Monday 18 July 2016

Deli Paper Collage

Addicted to Art - PaperArtsy and Deli Paper
Just a quickie today to redirect you if you would like to pop over to the A Vintage Journey blog where I have a step by step for this card featuring PaperArsty Fresco Paints, Lin Brown PaperArtsy stamps and deli paper.
Nikki
x

Saturday 16 July 2016

Guest Design for Calico Craft Parts - part two!

Happy Saturday!
I am sharing my second project today over at Calico Craft Parts - be lovely if you could pop over!
If you missed my first guest design post you can find it here.
Nikki
xxx

Thursday 14 July 2016

Getting crazy again....

Crazy Cat canvas - Addicted to Art
Hi everyone - thank you for all the lovely comments recently - I really appreciate you stopping by!
Today I am over on the Country View Crafts project blog sharing my Crazy Cat canvases - I have made about 12 of these I think for our little pop up shop. Do hop over to see the process and for a few more examples. Wish I had photographed them all now!

I will be back on Saturday for my second guest design project with Calico Craft parts - if you missed the first one you can find it here.

Nikki
xxx

Sunday 10 July 2016

Tissue Stamping with PaperArtsy Fresco paints

Hi - today see's the start of  #3UP over at the PaperArsty blog where 3 different designers are featured each day for the next week using the fabulous PaperArtsy products. I was lucky enough to be selected and today we are featuring the stamps designed by Lin Brown and Darcy using an autumnal colour theme. 

This is quite a long post - with lot's of photos!

I have used the following stamps:
Leaves – ELB04
Butterfly – EDY19
Words – EEG13
Background stamps – ELB27

I decided on a canvas to feature Darcy's butterfly. I began by adding various Fresco paints to my surface.
To get the stamped images onto the canvas I used tissue paper. I love the effect this gives - adding a little texture where it wrinkles. I first planned out what I wanted to stamp on card:
I then placed my tissue paper over it so I could see exactly where to stamp on the tissue paper.
Stamping was done with Fresco paints - allowing me to mix the colours on the stamps.
Once both the canvas and tissue were dry I added matt medium to my canvas and carefully placed the tissue paper on top. (You can't see very well from the photos - but my piece of tissue is way bigger than needed and I mark where the corners of the canvas will be to help with positioning.)
Once in place I carefully stipple a little more matt medium over the top - being careful not to tear the fragile surface.
Leave this to dry naturally and then I use sand paper to remove the unwanted edges of the tissue.
I stamped the butterfly with archival ink on card, painted it and fussy cut.
I then adhered to the centre of my canvas. I added some words from one of Emma Godfrey's stamp sets.
I then decided to add some additional stamping with white fire Fresco paint.
I also took a marker and added a few highlights around the leaves and added some Guacamole and Copper Fresco paints to add some additional contrasts.
Finally I gave the canvas a coat of Satin Glaze.
I am sure there will be some fabulous creations every night this week over at PaperArtsy as #3UP continues so do check them out!
Tonight you will also find projects created by  Katy Leitch and Clare Snowden.
Nikki
xxx

Saturday 2 July 2016

Summer with Calico Craft Parts

Happy weekend everyone.
So I go quiet for the latter half of June and then I post 3 times in 2 days! I seem to have been a little hectic with various things including work, a short break to Cyprus and a few social events.

Today I am elsewhere - over at the wonderful Calico Craft Parts blog where I am guest designer this month. Do pop over and see my summer creation.

Nikki
xxx


Friday 1 July 2016

It's all perspective

Addicted to Art - Butterfly Canvas
Welcome to my second post of the day! My earlier post was for the new challenge at A Vintage Journey, where we are focusing on monochromatic. If you missed my blue tags - Let's Do Distress - do check it out!

It is also time to introduce the July challenge at Country View Crafts where we are Having Fun with Circles. I decided to recycle a previously used canvas. A lot of the texture you can see is from the previous design.
I stripped it of all embellishments and gave a coat of black gesso before adding various Deco Art Fluid acrylics and some dry brushing. I added some crackle stamping with black archival.
I then die cut some circles and frames out of white card and used the same paints to colour them. No set process here - I just played until I was happy. The little wooden butterflies were dry brushed with white gesso before adding transparent yellow iron oxide paint.
A few remnant rubs and a chit chat sticker finished my project.
Thanks for stopping by.
Nikki
xxx

Let's do distress - with blue!

Welcome to my first post of the day - there is another in a few hours. We have a new challenge at A Vintage Journey where we are doing - Monochromatic. Well I decided to do Distress Monochromatic!
It has been a while since I have done a tag and had a good distress play - so when I went to a crop recently I just took everything blue. I was playing around - there are actually 5 tags - I will share the other 2 later. As I was getting messy I scribbled on the back what I had done and as I knew I was going to mount them I recorded the details when I got home - so here is a little chart. This is just for the backgrounds, not the embellishing.
Addicted to Art - Distress Monochromatic tags
I also took to the crop a load of scraps lying around my desk - things I had stamped or die cut and not used. As long as they could be made blue I wanted to use them.
I added some cogs, die cut letters, butterfly and game spinner.
I added fabulous wildflower die cuts - after painting with distress paints, a little wooden butterfly, some tissue tape and sentiment.
I stamped on this one as it didn't have texture paste and added some more wildflowers and the travelling bird from one of Tim's older stamp sets.

Here is the framed version:

Do check out the rest of the creations on show over at A Vintage Journey today and come and join us with our Monochromatic challenge.

I would like to enter the following:
July challenge at Craft stamper.
Simon Says Stamp - Tic Tac Toe (Spray Stencil Stamp)

Nikki
xxxx