Eileen Hull Tiny Book with PaperArtsy Stamps and Paints

Hi everyone - tonight it's a redirect post over to the PaperArtsy blog where I am sharing this Tiny Book made from recycled packaging (Eileen Hull die) using PaperArtsy Paints and stamps.

Nikki

xxx

Books and more books!

Hi everyone. Just a quick post to share the bookcase and books I made for Lisa Horton's show on Create and Craft last week. I am sharing more details on one of these over on Lisa's blog this evening too. Here is a sneak peak!

Nikki xxx

Altered Coffee Tin for Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone. It is an honour today to be Guest Designer over at Stamps and Stencils. I have a step by step over on their wonderful blog today.

Nikki

Industrial patchwork framed heart for A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone. It is time for our June challenge at A Vintage Journey; this month our host is Astrid and we have a favourite theme: Stencil It.

I recently took another Andy Skinner class and we were using his various paint techniques to alter an MDF box - you can see my post here if you missed it.

I also used this style on an altered coffee tin last year:

As you can probably tell - I do like this style and although it is quite time consuming it is effective!!

So for our Stencil It challenge I challenged myself to use a stencil on each of my patchwork elements within the frame.

The base board (blue) is a combination of PaperArtsy grunge paste and Deco Art crackle paint - although I may have painted over most of the crackles!

My heart is MDF and is altered with a texture medium and then painted with red and brown colours.

The frame and cogs have been given the rust effect treatment with Deco Art paints - Quinacridone Gold, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide and Paynes Grey.

Thanks for stopping by. Do head on over to A Vintage Journey for more stencilling inspiration!

Nikki

Scrap Metal Book Box with Andy Skinner

A couple of weeks ago I attended an Andy Skinner workshop - Scrap Metal Book Box. Great day with Andy as usual - packed with paint techniques and a little humour!

For Andy Skinner followers you can probably spot many of his techniques on here, many he has shown on Hochanda - so while I would love to share the details, they are not mine to share!!! Although there is a bit of Nikki thrown in too!

So lots of pics of the finished project....

I am back on Saturday with a project for PaperArtsy. Have a lovely week.

Nikki

xxx

Altered Box for A Vintage Journey

Hello - we start a new challenge today at A Vintage Journey. Our host is Deb and she is asking us to 'Think Inside or Outside the Box'. Here is her description:
For our first challenge of 2018 we'd like you to create with a box. Any box of any size will do, it can be one you have made yourself or one that you are recycling or even one that you have drawn. We'd like you to make your project either inside the box itself or do something imaginative on the outside or both if that's where your muse takes you.

I began with a small box that once contained some chocolates - it is about 2.5 x 3.5 x 2 inches. I gave it all a coat of black paints and sealed...

I took a sheet of A4 card and just played! Scraping paint with a credit card, a little brayering and finally some stencilling:

Before I added anymore detail I cut my card to size to fit the box and then added some additional stencilling and stamping onto each piece.

I adhered each section to the box and sealed again with matt medium. I finished with a star I painted in the same colours and added an embellishment.

Thanks for visiting, see you soon.

Nikki

x

Altered Notebook Version 2 - New Challenge at That's Crafty

Hello again. It's been a busy 24 hours here at Addicted to Art. I am back with Version 2 of my altered notebooks - this time for the new challenge at That's Crafty - Rustica - use rust techniques in your project.

Version 1 can be found here -  a little more feminine.

And talking of Altered Art and challenges the new challenge at A Vintage Journey is Altered Art and I have used Andy Skinner techniques to alter a coffee tin. Again if you missed it earlier today - here is the link.

So back to the Rusty Altered book!

Like the first book I began with a coat of black gesso and sealed the surface with varnish. I painted a piece of card with black chalk paint and embossed before sanding to reveal the white areas. I used washes of paint to colour adding Quinacridone gold at the edge to give that rusty effect.

For my embellishments I die cut Seth Apter's Steering Wheel and cut it in half and adhered to his Pathways die. I sponged paint in yellows/reds/brown and black to create the rusty tones. The cog and corner nuts are That's Crafty greyboard embellishments which were treated in the same way and a little PaperArtsy Green Patina added for some contrast.

For the back and spine I took That's Crafty Alphabet stencil and sponged white chalk paint through. Once dry I added a 'dirty wash' - Paynes Grey and Quinacridone Gold.

I would like to enter Frilly and Funkie latest challenge - A Little Rusty.
Once again thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

Nikki

x

Altered Art for at A Vintage Journey

Today we have a new challenge at A Vintage Journey, hosted by the uber talented Alison of Words and Pictures - I am sure she needs no introduction! Our theme for the next 5 weeks is Altered Art.

We'd like you to get creative with recycled objects in a vintage; shabby, mixed media; art journalling; industrial, timeworn or steampunk style, . Turn something unloved and unwanted into a work of art. Try some repurposing - make something new out of something old, or incorporate an unwanted object into your artwork. Think tin cans and jars, old bottles, toothbrushes - the more inventive the better. 

Be warned this is a long post for me - lots of photos!

I decided to alter a tin that used to hold my favourite coffee - and started by giving it a coat of sealer.

I then added some black paint... I knew most of this would be covered but I wasn't sure at this point how perfectly I could achieve my patchwork effect over the curved surface so better to be safe than sorry!

To create my patchwork around the can I measured the height and circumference ( pi x the diameter or just use a tape measure!). So I needed to cover a surface of 23.2 x 12 cm.

I drew this out on some grid paper so I could plan where different colours were going to go - making sure the 2 ends were different as they would meet.

 I was mostly using Andy Skinner techniques and, of course, the idea developed after recently attending one of Andy's workshops. If you missed my Fishy project you can see it here:

I began on my different techniques.

Some I could do as an A5 piece - others I needed to cut to actual size as I was using Andy Skinner's technique or adding hair product around the edges.

These pieces are coated in a base colour, some hair product added to the edges and a second colour over the top. Once dry - scraping away the hair product reveals that chipped paint look. On many of the pieces I added some additional stamping.

Here they are all complete:

Now the difficult bit! Adhering to the tin in the correct order and hoping I had the correct amount of space. You can see some tiny gaps in places so it isn't perfect..

Once all the pieces were secured I coated the entire tin with varnish just to make sure. I took some That's Crafty greyboard cogs and added a little sand texture paste, some paynes grey, a little raw sienna in places and finally quin gold.

and a few close ups:

Eeeek I was a couple of mm out!

I hope you like my altered tin! I am back in a few hours with another Altered Notebook so do pop back. In the meantime there is lots more Altered Art inspiration over at A Vintage Journey.

I would like to enter Frilly and Funkie latest challenge - A Little Rusty.

Nikki

x

Altered Notebook - Version 1

Hello and welcome to my regular Thursday post. Today I have all the details of this project over at That's Crafty.

Do pop back tomorrow for Version 2 - the second one is a little more grungy! 

Nikki

xxx

You Love it or Hate it

Hi everyone. Today it is my turn over at A Vintage Journey for a Destination Inspiration post. Each month we select a technique, product, substrate and colour and four or five of us each create using that mix. 

I needed to work on glass - which was a bit of a challenge at first! I decided to alter a Marmite jar and after a few false starts created this vintage Marmite jar! Do hop over to A Vintage Journey for all the details.

Nikki

xxx

Grungy Wall Hanging

All Things Grunge is the new challenge today at That's Crafty!

Do play along for your chance to win £20 to spend in the shop.

I decided to share a design I did for Mixed Media Magazine a few months back.  I used the That's Crafty MDF Rectangle Hanger Kit.

Here are steps I took, many of which are based on Andy Skinner techniques:

Base

1. Painted with burnt umber

2. Stippled Paynes Grey, Cobalt orange, cadmium red and quincridone gold

Blue Panels

1. I added texture paste through That's Crafty bubble stencil

2. Covered in silver paint

3. Added black antiquing cream, wiped and sealed

4. Added a wash of Cobalt Teal Hue and sprinkled salt. Wiped salt away once dry.

5. Added Quin Gold to the edges 

Hearts

1. Coated in gesso

2. Crackle texture paste through stencil

3. Added washes of quin gold and raw umber

4. A little antiquing cream and treasure gold to finish

Top

1. I started as the Base (above)

2. Added Vaseline to the edges to protect

3. Brushed white gesso over the surface

4. Once dry added washes of raw umber / quin gold and added salt. 

5. Finally I stamped the words and wiped away the Vaseline revealing the darker edges.

Nikki

xx

Altered MDF Clock

Welcome to my Thursday post for That's Crafty. For all the details on this altered MDF clock do head over to the That's Crafty blog.

Nikki 

xxx