Words & Paintery February Challenge, Art Journal Cover

Hi everyone!

Back to show you my designteam interpretation of the Words & Paintery February Challenge. I hope this colorful moodboard will inspire you to play along with us too. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the colors, but the team made some wonderful projects and I love my art journal cover too!

You have until March 15 to come up with something ;)

STEP 1

Get yourself an album with a cover you can embellish.

STEP 2

Apply white gesso on the cover, let it dry.

Then use a Prima stencil with TCW light & fluffy modeling paste to create a pattern.

STEP 3

Use another stencil, TCW "Art is" (261S), to create a little more patterned background. Through the CCB/TCW bloghop I got to work with this light & fluffy modeling paste and I ADORE it. If you use your heatgun the paste gets very puffy!

STEP 4

 Adhere some different frames and cover them in white gesso.

(Frames are from Prima, Action, Aliexpress.)

STEP 5

Since I recently bought myself a Bigshot, I'm learning to use it. I found that this craft foam runs very easily through the machine, gives volume and it's easily painted in another color. Finally some use for that stash of outdated crafting stuff. I don't remember what brand the die is from, but it's a tiny one. Diecut some of the figures, cut them into pieces and adhere them to the cover.

Later on I added a bit more on the upper right side, those frames needed to be connected more somehow.

  STEP 6

Use Tattered Angels glimmermists in the shades Apple, Pink Coral and True Turquoise,

and spray the cover.

Adhere the tea infuser to the cover. (This was actually the beginning of my project, to create something revolving around its oily colorblend.)

 STEP 7

Stamp some dots using a small Prima stamp, Versamark ink and

Frantage Embossing Enamel 'Aged Teal'.

STEP 8

Cover a chipboard/grungeboard letter 'A' with  bit of lace. aint the letter with TCW Gold Gesso. Add Prima Finnabair Texture Paste White Crackle, allow to dry on its own. Spray Tattered Angels glimmermists Apple, Pink Coral and True Turquoise. Add clear crackle medium and another layer of TCW Gold Gesso.

(Keep playing until you're happy with the result.)

 STEP 9

Add various embellishments like a metal lightbulb charm, little cameo, Scraberry's mask, Scrap Unlimited face, metal zipper pull, metal half birdcage, metal bird charm, wood window frame cut to size and metal wings from Scrapberry's.

Spray them in the colors glimmermist used before, and brush some TCW Gold Gesso over the surfaces.

STEP 10

Color the letters 'R' and 'T' with the pink and blue glimmermist and add a layer of clear crackle medium.

Use TCW Gel Medium and Prima Arts Stones in 2 sizes to give the project a little more depth and structure. Sprinkle some blue mica flakes over certain areas as well.

I'll leave you with some more pictures and close-ups, hoping to have inspired you to create something equally colorful and join our challenge.

You can find me on Facebook too: Less is Bore

Instagram: mandylessisbore

HAPPY SCRAPPING!

Canvas Corp Brands mixed media 4 by 4 canvas 'Finnabair style'

 Hi all!

It feels like it's been forever since I created something and shared it, though I know it's not. Not really. It's just been very busy around here because my little man turned 3 years old last Thursday! That meant shopping for a present, extra grocery shopping, celebrating his actual birthday with a select few and then on to baking cake, muffins, preparing the place where the party was held (grandpa's bar) and the actual party itself. 

Connor liked lighting the candles and blowing them out (a gazillion times) even more than the presents...

Back to normal life after those celebrations, so time was short again. and I wanted to start/finish the mini canvas for the Canvas Corp Crew so badly! It's a small canvas ( 4 by 4 inch) everyone in the Canvas Corp Crew is supposed to decorate to show (off) their own style. Today I was finally able to put the final touch on my 4 by 4 inch canvas, and even more importantly, take daylight pictures of it.

It has to be said that I work different on canvas than I do when I scrap layouts. Lately I like the canvas method a whole lot, and I want to try and incorporate this style more into my regular layouts. I'm not sure what to call it, besides the 'Finnabair' mixed media style.

Here you can see how tiny the canvas is. And the rawness of the cloth shows too. This is pure canvas, whereas usually canvasses for artists are treated with a layer of gesso already. I decided not to do that to this one, to see how the pure canvas would work with the mists.

First I applied some modeling paste through the 2 stencils, as you see below. A negative and positive version of the same pattern.

Because of the size of the canvas I didn't add more stenciling, just went ahead with embellishing. a lace border, lace figure, some chipboard and wood figures, a metal Prima picture frame, some flowers and a leave, and a cute little cherub watching where I was headed.

Next I covered it all in white gesso. After the gesso I added some glass beads texture gel here and there. Coincidentally I spotted the back of my mannequin and it was crackled. It hit me that that was because of the glue. 

Recently I saw a video of a woman who made her own crackle effect by covering an object with white glue (this was Tacky Glue from another store), let it dry a bit and then added paint while the glue was still sticky. It caused crackles indeed! The only shame is, you didn't see them anymore after I had sprayed the whole thing. (But hey, it works!)

Also I mixed some 13Arts Magic Powder with my gesso, to create some structure paste. I put that on the mannequin, swirl, scissors and crown.

Really, it's all just playing with textures until you like what you've accomplished.

I have no more further steps to show you now, but the finished canvas. I spray and ink until I'm satisfied. It's just playing and discovering what I like and what not. 

What I did not like was how the mists turned out on the un-gessoe'd parts. They looked a bit filthy. So I would advise you to apply some base coat on the canvas after all. Yes, the colors soaked in more intense, but like I said, they looked a bit filthy.

The glimmermists were first to go. I used Periwinkle Bouquet, Verdigris, Walnut Gold and Boardwalk for this canvas. Very shimmery colors and beautiful shades. I love the copper glimmer in the Verdigris!

On the text (which again is my scrap (and life) motto: 'Less is Bore') I used 2 shades of Glimmer Glam: Tail Fin and Tanzanite. They dried a bit glossy, which was exactly what I wanted. However, when I played with the coloring some more, I ended up dulling them somewhat, so I added a bit of (Tim Holtz) one step crackle medium. (Any brand will do.) I also added some more on the mannequin, because she looked a bit too boring to me.  

I gave the whole canvas a finish with some Inka Gold. On the main section I used Browngold. On the metal items I added later, like the little feet, handle and corner bits, I added some Hydrangea and Turquoise Inka Gold.

Hope you like it! Let me know! ;) 

My facebookpage is: Less is Bore!

Happy scrapping!

Adore

Hello once more,

Here's another layout featuring my little man. I love this picture! It's funny how you visualise an entirely different paper colour at first. I ended up using this one from my much loved but not much used "Rockstar" paper stack. These colours gave the picture way more attention than my initial idea would have done.

These days I couldn't scrap without my mists, crackle paints and stencils!

A layout I'm actually content with once again. If you like it too, leave me a comment!

Take care!

"The sky is NOT the limit!" Also, cowboy & king

Hello once more,

Wanting to try a more mixed media style involving gears etc, I used a picture of Connor wearing his pilot hat. (Because with me the embellishments always have to suit the theme.)
It was my first attempt in smearing gesso all over the metal embellishments (as a preparation for misting them) and I have to say I am pleased with the outcome. The whole layout happened fairly quick, it all came together like magic!

Imagine my surprise when I totally messed up the following 2 layouts. I am never doing that again, working on 2 layouts simultaneously.

The layout of Connor with the cowboy hat started out on a brown timber background with a black swirl. When I added gesso rays through a stencil it only went downhill from there. I re thunk the whole thing and decided the sepia picture needed a background that would make it pop.
Once I had settled on that it still didn't go smoothly. I finished the layout but I'm not very content about it.

Maybe it was hard because the photo had an emotional aspect for me. The morning I took those pictures all was well. But that afternoon we were involved in a car accident. Shaking off the image of Connor covered in millions of glass splinters (from our shattered rear window) is a hard thing to do. I thought I'd lost him, right then and there. And he wasn't even 4 months old... :{
In that sense the layout doesn't do my feelings justice at all. It's a simple layout with a touch of the "Western Cowboy" feel in it, without being too obvious.

Then, the other layout didn't do what I wanted it to. I had fallen in love with the paper: a royal blue flockprint, damask and stripes... I was going for red, white and blue because of a clothing tag I wanted to use along with it.
Well, the red on my gesso'ed damask turned out PINK...! Several layers of white paint, gesso and gesso mixed with white paint didn't help one bit.
In the end I was able to colour the pink a bit more sandy and decided to embellish most of that part, because I didn't wanna give up just yet. It would be a shame of the wasted paper!
In the end the layout kinda came together thanx to a few touches of green. But it's not of my favourites.

Ah well, I blame it on the new techniques I am trying as well. I haven't practiced enough to know what happens when you do this and that. And it proves once more I am not someone who can just begin, smear something on the page and have my artistic abilities make everything come together like magic. I have to think things through. But I have learned a lot in the process and am happy to apply this new knowledge in my future projects! ;)

If you have any more knowledge to share or wish to learn from my mistakes, drop me a line! Take care in the meantime!