Sea themed mixed media canvas

Hey all,

Recently I started working on a mixed media canvas with a beach theme. This is going to be a gift for my friend Monique who (finally, LOL) gave birth to her daughter. She shared the decorating of the new baby's room with me, and I was inspired immediately to do a canvas once I saw the sea/beach theme. Running into a steering wheel with the perfect size brought my ideas even more to life!

I started out with a blank 12' by 12' canvas and painted the upper 2/3 section with a light blue paint. The section below that is supposed to be the sea, I painted that with a mix of texture paste and teal mica.

The bottom section is supposed to be the sand/beach so I painted it with a structure paint turned a sandy colour and sprinkled sand on it afterwards. 

First, I draped some fishing net over the canvas.

Then I started embellishing with everything sea/beach themed I could think off. 

A firehouse, shells, seastars, fish, boats, seahorses, a bottled message, anchors, steering wheels, beach houses, slippers, seagulls. 

Quite the colorful display :P My aim was to end up with the colours of the canvas, because those are the colours of the baby's room. 

So I added a few coats of gesso on everything. Painted a few clouds with gesso while I was at it.

Then it was finally time to bring out the glimmermists and Lindy's stamp gang sprays!

I'm ashamed to say that I have about 50 different colors... But still didn't really have the colors I had envisioned! 

I chose for a blue/grayish one for the top section, a mint one for the sea part and a brownish tone for the bottom part.

In the meantime I distressed the too white steering wheel all sorts of ways. 

Covered it with a crackle medium and painted light blue over that. Felt it became too blue then so I added some more white paint. Brushed a few little streaks of Inka Gold here and there, etc.

Because I needed 3 e's I couldn't use any of the chipboard alpha's I had wanted to use. Chose for these felt alpha's instead and altered them later on by painting them with a mixture of glass beads texture gel mixed with mica powder teal.

Once my spraying was done it was time to emphasise everything with Inka Gold. I chose to use an anthracite color. 

Afterwards I added some of the glass beads texture gel here and there, which I probably should have done earlier. It dried up looking very shiny and glassy, absorbing the Inka Gold. So I redid those bits a little.

I wasn't happy yet but that's just me. So I sprayed a different tone of brown at the bottom section, and used my glass beads texture gel with teal mica powder (left over from coloring the alpha's) here and there some more. Used a bit of brown Inka Gold to emphasise things, after I tried to dry brush some parts with a linen colored paint.

Finally I was (rather) happy and glued some thick rope around the steering wheel and canvas. Which I sprayed with the same color sprays I used on the canvas. Glued the steering wheel down and then it was done.

I really hope my friend will like it. It's not as subtle as I was planning. Though she's not into pastels, these aren't the exact colors of the baby's room either. Well, it's a gift I lovingly made for her and her baby and that's what counts. Right? ;)

Happy scrapping and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! You can find me on Facebook too: Less is bore!

Cinnamon sidecart (Kaneel & Zijspan) Mixed media layout

Hey everyone! 

So I have returned with the next layout in my 'scrapiniec alphabet challenge'. 

We're having some time off, the dental  laboratory I work at is always closed from Christmas until New years and my husband Pascal is a school teacher. 

So yeah, we get to sleep in alternating, one of us has to go downstairs to take care of Connor (who's almost 3 years old) while the other can catch up on some much needed sleep. (Our little man hardly ever sleeps through the entire night and wakes up around 6.30 every day.)

Thinking about what to do with all my letters, I suddenly got an idea for the 'Z': ZIJSPAN. Which is Dutch for 'sidecart'.

My husband loves to ride motorcycles and didn't want to wait until Connor was old enough to take him along. So, he bought a motorcycle with a sidecart!

A lovely, vintage, blue, German 'AWO' motorcycle from the fifties. 

And Connor and he have been going for rides ever since Connor was about a 1,5 years old. Connor enjoys the 'speed' very much, even though it's hardly any faster than a moped, LOL. (They are overtaken by cyclists even...)

And the husband? He loves to share his passion with his little man.

Anyways, gears popped up in my head too for this layout, obviously. So I altered the Z a little by adding some (half) gears. Quite happy with the result so far.

Then I made my own blend to recreate the tire tracks (with a Tim Holtz stencil) by mixing a gray structure paint, black gesso, some 13Arts Magic powder to give it more structure, and cinnamon. (Which in retrospective could have been left out easily, it didn't show. But it smelled great when I dried the tracks with my heatgun, hahaha.)

After application I sprinkled some sand on the tracks.

I stamped some numeric and text stamps (not entirely random) over the page with black ink. When I found out this particular piece of paper wasn't very sturdy (Echo Park collection something something, from my stash, a few years old at least) I adhered it to a piece of plain black cardboard. Then I distressed the edges and inked them with black as well.

Then it was time for the gears, which I wanted to have 'surrounding' my picture. I glued them down and let them dry overnight. (Bedtime anyway, so.)

Next, I gave my gears and the 'Z' a coat of anthracite Inka Gold. (Which was hard with all the teeth and points and holes. Took me forever! Spraying them beforehand would have been easier I think.)

After unsuccessfully trying to mix gel medium with cinnamon (my almost 3-year old boy asked me if it was poop...) I simply applied the gel medium on my gears and shook the cinnamon on top. I let it dry and tapped the excess off. And them brushed some more. And sneezed. (But the effect is worth it!) 

After I painted the edges of my Z with a dark blue glimmermist I gave it the same cinnamon treatment as the gears. 

To make my gear-wreath more exciting I twirled some iron wire along it in loops and glued down some (non functional) Christmas lights. Added some chain, brushed some silver micro beads/ nail caviar on the gears (blended in gel medium), added a bit of turquoise alcohol ink to emphasise the rust and then added some crackle medium. Once that dried I inked it a little to bring out the cracks more and dull the shine somewhat. Next day I brushed some brown/gold Inka Gold over the micro beads because the silver stood out too much.

Meanwhile I basically gave the Z the same treatment. I adhered it to a piece of currogated cardboard (which I altered with 2 shades of silver/anthracite and a rust colour Inka Gold and... yes... here it comes... cinnamon! ;) )

Made the rest of the word 'Zijspan' on my Dymo labelwriter and added a few word stickers from 7dots 'Nature Walk'.  (Altered their color a little and covered them in crackle medium.) 

Glued a little licence plate from Prima with the text 'Dreamroad' to the bottom of the page and altered it with alcohol ink and crackle medium. 

There you have it, my cinnamon sidecart layout. Hope you like it. Comments are much appreciated. 

Also, you can keep up with me through my facebookpage Less is bore! 

Or you can follow me on Instagram: ladyguinevere77

I'll leave you with a few more close-ups! 

Happy scrapping everyone! 

Mini chopping boards mixed media Christmas presents

Hey everyone! 

Over here in the Netherlands Christmas is over and we're having a lazy day with our own family of three. Hope you had a lovely Christmas surrounded by loved ones. We did. Sort of ;)

Only a couple of days before Christmas I decided to turn these cute little amuse chopping boards into finnabairesque gifts. (For measure: they are a bit smaller than my hand.)

I took a picture of the crackle paste coat I applied at first, but that has vanished somehow. Unfortunately this crackle paste as well as the 13Arts magic powder do not go give me the crackle effect I desire, but at least I have some structure. I let this dry overnight before I proceeded.

So sorry I didn't take any pictures of the next steps but basically they're quite simple.
Pick out the embellishments you like. I took the first letter of the names of my uncle and aunt, our host and hostess, R and Y.
She owns a bird so I went with that theme for her, and he's sort of a locksmith so that was my theme for him.
Added some drywall tape (mesh) on his, some lace paper on hers. Some micro beads (nail caviar) on both theirs.
Then I painted all of it with black gesso. Dried it with a heatgun, then sprayed both with various glimmermists (drying in between steps) and finished it with different shades of Inka Gold.
Added some chain and a key to his, and some pearl string with a little 'made with love' charm to hers.

Honestly, I like the result! And asides from a little more preparation and drying time, they're made almost as quickly as a card. If you know the receiver will appreciate (your) handy work, it's a much nicer option.

I'll leave you with some pictures and close-ups.
If you want to keep up with my work, like my facebookpage Less is bore!
         
                    Happy scrapping!

"Worth the weight" Mixed Media layout

                    Worth the weight

Scrap around the world december challenge 

Hi everyone! 

Are you enjoying the holidays? Or do you still have to work a little, like me? It's still doesn't feel like Christmas is almost near. The older I get, the faster time seems to go by...

I'm not someone who participates in scrap challenges a lot, but I couldn't pass up the challenge over at "Scrap around the world." Sadly it's their last challenge. It runs until the end of the month so you can still play along!

The moodboard colours spoke to me, I thought of a sheet of paper by Prima (Royal Menagerie series) I had recently bought and wanted to use with a picture of purple, pregnant me ;) 

The flowers and leaves would be easy to incorporate as well, since this would be a girly layout for a change.

I even thought about using the sentence "The future looks bright" but somehow the 'F' didn't match ;) 

I started by choosing some chipboards from Scrapiniec. (The "W" monograce being one of them, in order to fulfill my second scrapped layout with a letter, from the monogram alphabet I won.)

My layout title would be "Worth the weight/wait" so I chose to stencil clocks with modeling paste. Once dry I sprayed some golden glimmer mist over the areas I stenciled.

Altering the chipboard was the next step. I sprayed the swirls with the same golden glimmer mist, then added some golden Inka Gold and golden micro beads blended with a gel medium.

While working on my previous layout I discovered the monograms look at their best when the inside swirls are a different colour from the outline. I sprayed the letter with golden glimmermist and gave the outline a pink/purple coat with Inka Gold.

I added a clockface from 13Arts to the chipboard clock and altered both of them as well.

Time for embellishing... I adhered my fussy cut picture to a little piece of journaling paper and started embellishing alongside the outlines. (Using the picture only to refer to the placement, I didn't glue it down until I had the sides fully embellished.)

Because my motto is "Less is bore!" I couldn't stop... Seriously, sometimes I wish I could add less. Ugh. 

The rest of the title (it's a joke referring to the weight rather than the wait) I made by writing on a wooden tag with a versamark marker and heat embossing the words with golden embossing powder.

When everything was in place I sprayed some more golden glimmermist over all the embellishments. I gave the die cut cherubs and wooden tag a coat of crackle glaze to age them. 

I added the gel medium blended with golden micro beads on the flowers.

And that's that. In case I forgot to explain something, don't hesitate to ask. If you like it, leave me a comment. 

I'd love for you to like my facebookpage Less is bore! as well!

I'll leave you with some more close-ups of my page and wish you a very merry Christmas surrounded by loved ones, and happy scrapping :)

Scrap around the world december challenge