Coffee Time - Guest Designer Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone. I am thrilled to be Guest Designer today at Frilly and Funkie. The challenge this month is 'In the Kitchen'. I decided to include a kitchen theme as well as using a kitchen item - salt.

My panel is around 6inches square with a slight recess and frame. I decided to work directly on the frame but worked on measured heavy card stock for the central area. For both I started by creating some texture using stencils and texture paste and allowed to dry. For the centre panel (card) I added watery washes of Deco Art Media paint in Quinacridone Gold and Paynes Grey - allowing them to merge together a little and then sprinkled salt on, leaving it to absorb the moisture and pigment before wiping away once dry.

I also used the same technique on the border with 2 blue tones - but with less salt to create a more subtle effect. I also dry brushed gold paint over this surface to reflect the colours inside the frame.

I die cut the tea cups (coffee in this project!) from Tim Holtz’s Tea Time Bigz die and sponged with blue paint. before returning to my stencil and added gold paint. I added blue archival ink around the edges of the cups to make them stand out a little more.

I reached for the quirky quotes from Tim Holtz Snarky Small Talk and decided this coffee one was perfect! A little sponged paint toned down the white card.

I think there are days when this quote is very appropriate for me!

Nikki

xx

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

Rusty and Crusty with Texture Paste, Paint and Seth Apter's Baked Texture

It's the first Friday of the month so another double post day for me! First up we have a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and this theme is perfect for me! Rusty and Crusty!! Our host is the creative genius Autumn Clark.

Now first up I must say my inspiration for this came from the wonderful designs of Lisa Rasmussen - who I have been seeing all over Pinterest - if you want some male card ideas - I recommend you pay her blog a visit. 

I made this while away at a craft retreat, so sorry, no process photos. I began by formulating a composition and collating my pieces - the 6 inch wooden panel as the base, some corrugated cardboard, some wire mesh, greyboard cogs and bolts (That's Crafty), Tim Holtz hardware findings keyhole die cut in greyboard, some cheap plastic chain and 2 strips of greyboard.

Each were given varying amounts of texture paste / texture sand paste and allowed to dry. I covered them all in black gesso and once dry dry brushed with white gesso for contrast and to highlight texture. 

Next I began adding paint - Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylics in Quinacridone Gold and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide plus PaperArtsy Green Patina. The corrguated card was roughly painted brown with some blue highlights.

The combination of the texture sand paste and Deco Art paints makes for great rust - thanks to Andy Skinner for this one. Finally I took some versamark and added around the edges of the panel and the keyhole before apply patina Baked Texture.

Thanks for stopping by - don't forget, if you haven't already, to visit A Vintage Journey for more inspiration and to, hopefully, join in our Rusty and Crusty challenge this month.

I would like to join the following lovely challenges:

SanDee and Amelie's SteamPunk Challenge - April

Mixed Media Monthly - April - Compimentary Colours - Green and Red - Rust and Patina

Nikki

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

A bit fishy with Andy

I spent a happy Sunday last week at a workshop with the ever creative Andy Skinner. The workshop was held at Let's Be Creative - if you live in the south of England and don't know about it - do check out their website. It is a wonderful location for workshops, easy to find, easy to park and great space! 

Website here

I had seen sneak peaks of the project and wasn't quite sure what it was - but here you go:

A Tando Creative kit / Andy Skinner designed for hanging fish key rings - I love these fish!

I changed the design from Andy's sample slightly but you get the idea! As usual lots of mixed media / paint techniques that you can see on the main panels and the different elements of the fish.

Not really my techniques to share - but pretty sure Andy has shown a lot of these on Hochanda - the ones with crackle paint and salt etc. I am currently working on something very different using some of them so I might sneak some how to's in when I blog that make...

One final photo...

Have a great weekend.

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

An old rusty shrine....

It's Thursday morning which means I have a step by step over at That's Crafty today. Do hop over for more details of this project featuring Deco Art Media Fluid Acrylics, Andy Skinner techniques, Tim Holtz Chipboard quote chips and That's Crafty Surfaces.

Nikki 

xxx

Bright and Scary? Guest design for Simon Says Stamp

Hello! I am very honoured to be guest designer at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for the month of October! Today is my first creation with the theme of Halloween.

I decided to use Andy Skinner's 'Day of the Dead' stencil on my canvas with Dylusion's paints in Postbox Red and Lemon Zest. I began with a mix of the two to create an orange base coat. I then took my stencil and used Black soot distress paint. I also stencilled the skull onto white card and cut it out to create a mask.

Using the mask to cover the skulls I applied Postbox Red through Tim Holtz layering stencil (Shattered) to create cobwebs around the skulls.

Once dry I added a little Lemon Zest around the edges to create a halo effect. 

Finally I dripped red paint onto the edges of the canvas and drew and painted a couple of bats in the corners.

A big thanks to Lols for the invitation to join the Simon Says Stamp team this month - I will be back with my second creation next week.

Nikki

xxx