Embossing Fun

I recently treated myself to the Lumbar 3-D Texture Fade and finally found a bit of time to play. The canvas is 9inches square and I built up a textured background using lots of layers of torn, embossed card.

 Then I got to work painting. I have one work in progress shot...yes it really did look this bright at one point - I wanted colour but knew it would be knocked back quite a bit!

I used washes of Distress Paint in Festive Berries (centre) and Mermaid Lagoon (outside) along with some white to knock the colours back. Once I was happy I highlighted all the embossed surface with black oil pastel.

I repeated the process on an MDF circle for my central piece and also cut and embossed one the Butterfly Duo butterflies. The embossed butterfly was treated in a similar way and a little sparkly matt medium added.

I would like to enter the latest challenge at Frilly and Funkie where we are being asked to 'Impress Us' and Simon Says Stamp - Take Flight.

Have a lovely day

Nikki xx

Texture and colour for A Vintage Journey

Embossing or texture pastes is the theme of our new challenge at A Vintage Journey. I had lots of fun creating this reverse canvas. 

I started by using tissue tape to hide the staples on the reverse of the canvas and gave the inside a coat of gesso. Not sure where I was going at this point - but in the end all the tissue tape is hidden!

I added various distress paints randomly on the 'frame' and once dry added clear embossing paste through Tim Holtz latticework stencil.

Once dry I took Deco Art Prussion blue and covered the frame - wiping it away from the embossed areas but letting dry in between.

For the inside of my canvas I added texture paste to the ornate frame cut from grunge board. I just added with my finger to create texture.

Once dry I added the same colours of distress paint and a little prussian blue to tone it down.

The butterfly was cut and embossed on card before sticking to a grungeboard die cut for strength. I used a black oil pastel to highlight the embossed areas. 

I hope you like my colourful canvas - it really shines in the sunlight!

I would like to enter The Mixed Media Monthly Anniversary Challenge - my chosen theme is Texture!

Have a lovely weekend

Nikki

xxx

Inspired by Kassa

Hi everyone and welcome to my 300th post! Wow how did that happen and where does the time go?

I have been meaning to post these for a while - completely inspired by some recent creations of Kassa Hayselden - do check out her blog! 

First I played with a canvas - lots of distress paint colour in lines and splatters and then an upcycled picture frame. My butterflies are Tim Holtz butterfly duo - and I added sparkly mod podge to give a bit of sparkle to my dark images! 

Some close ups:

I would like to enter:

Anything but Cute - Celebrate your style

Mixed Media Monthly - Butterflies and Blooms

We love to Create - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Till next time - happy crafting

Nikki

xxx

Wonderful World Canvas

Hi everyone. Today I am very happy to be a guest designer over at Anything But Cute. I am sure you all know this blog, created by the amazing talent that is Pamellia! 

Their current challenge is celebrating Earth Day - what a great theme - chosen by Samra. Here is how she describes it...

Create a mixed media project inspired by the beauty of our planet and tell us what inspired you. It could be echo friendly, or even recycled item, or depiction of sea, mountain, river, forest...let's celebrate our planet!

I decided on a canvas using Tim Holtz's globe die. 

I smooched the die cut in distress inks until I was happy with the result. I painted my canvas with sage PaperArtsy paint and once dry coated with crackle medium. (Just a thin layer - using a credit card). Again when dry I added my dark blue paint - this is actually just household paint but works perfectly for this technique.

I die cut and embossed two butterflies (Butterfly Duo). I then took an oil pastel and covered the embossed area. The oil will then resist anything water based. This is great for then adding distress inks or stains but I actually went with paint in the end. As the pastels do not resist this as well I added another layer once the paint had dried. My word used the same paint (PaperArtsy Banana) and I added touches of the same oil pastel.

I hope you like my canvas celebrating Earth Day.
Thanks for stopping by.

Nikki

x

Spring Floral Canvas

My second post of the day... if you missed my Spring shadow box for A Vintage Journey you can find it here.
Ah April...I love spring, hopefully full of bright days and the emergence of colour as summer approaches. Our April challenge at Country View Crafts is Spring. I have created this canvas for my first project of the month.

Now I must firstly say - this is a remake of a project from one of Brenda Brown's Country View Crafts workshops from last year. You can see what we all made on her blog and Brenda's original project design on the CVC blog - here.

This canvas is a little smaller and a little greener than the one we did at the workshop. I have made this for a friend who asked for a piece of Nikki artwork - no pressure then! I don't have any process photos but here are some close ups:

Do check out the Country View Crafts challenge blog today for more ideas ideas and spring creations from the team.

Nikki

xxx

'Industrial' Butterflies

Hello!

A little update to this scheduled post....
A big thanks for all the lovely congratulations messages on my lucky Tim Tag win for January - thank you all.  Coincidentally I refer to it in this post, so if you missed it see below!

Well this looks like a simple project - but it took me ages! Well, ok, lot's of that time was looking, procrastinating and leaving it for another day.... ever do one of those - when you just can't decide how to proceed?

In the end I kept it fairly simple as you can see. Today see's a new challenge at A Vintage Journey - the theme being to use the Industrial technique. I didn't want to make an industrial project though - so went with the strange combination of rusty metal and elegant butterflies.

Quite timely using this theme following Tim Holtz's January tag - so if you missed how to do this technique - check out the master himself - here. If you have time and missed it - here is my version of Tim's January tag - quite different to his!

So back to my shadow box (Ikea by the way). These are the inner elements...

The background panel is just vintage photo ink off the craft mat and a little flicking of water. I then added some perfect pearls gold spray which you may not see well in the photos.

The butterflies were cut from metal foil stuck to card and then embossed. Black soot paint was added and wiped away after drying a little. I added some rust alcohol ink and lightly sanded.

My frame was covered in tissue wrap before adding watered down paint and a little gesso in places. I sanded the edges a little and added darker paint. The inner frame was sponged with brown paint and once dry a little gesso.

 

As I write this I am looking forward to seeing what my talented team mates at A Vintage Journey have created - do hop over and take a peek and maybe join in the challenge.

Talking of challenges... I would like to enter:

Frilly and Funkie - Enjoy your Embossing

Love to Create - Anything Mixed Media

See you next time

Nikki

xxx

Butterfly Duo Canvas

Today I am sharing on the Country View Crafts project blog. Be lovely to see you there. This canvass uses lots of lovely distress paints!

Nikki

xxx

Butterfly Wall Hanging

Hi everyone. It has been a quiet month at Addicted to Art in October - only 3 posts, good grief what have I been doing! Here is a wall hanging I made a few weeks ago but didnt get round to posting. Luckily it fits into 3 current challenges:

Love to Create - Premium Art Brands - Anything Goes / Mixed Media

The Mirror Crack'd - Wall Hanging

Mixed Media World - Anything Goes on Wood

This is a 9 x 3 inch MDF panel - I used my brayer to to paint the base and then sponged some paint through a stencil. I die cut some hearts and used used a crackle medium to create the effect. The butterflies are die cut and embossed with Tim Holtz - Butterfly Duo and I added some treasure gold to them.

'Till next time...

Nikki

xxx

Here and Now

 

Hi everyone... a quick post from me today. I spent the weekend with friends crafting so I got some proper craft playtime - hurray. Here is one of my makes from the weekend, a card combining the latticework die from Tim Holtz Mixed Media framelits with the latticework stencil. For the latter I used texture paste followed by distress sprays, scraped gesso and then some distress paint.

My background was a combination of distress sprays, then ink, then some spritzing and a little picket fence distress paint.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Mixed Media World - Gorgeous Texture

Mixed Media Card challenge - Butterflies

FanTastic Tuesday - Anything goes with a butterfly

Try it on a Tuesday - Stencils

Nikki

xxx