Mixed media canvas "Lights will guide us home" May Challenge 'Words & Paintery' blog

Hi all!

Remember me winning the March Words & Paintery challenge with my altered fan? 

Because of that I was asked as a feature for their May challenge! You can check out their post here.
You'll find a little more info on me there as well, in case you're interested.

Secretly I have been working on my canvas using their brand new color scheme. You are so welcome to join them, the challenge is open until June 15!

Check it out here:
Words & Paintery May challenge

Those jummy and fresh colors spoke to me immediately! The quote however, gave me some trouble. Until I came up with the perfect idea...

Last Summer we spent our holidays in England, again. My husband and I love England. Only this time we brought our son for the first time (and my dad too) to share our love for England with them! This was even Connors first holiday/vacation ever.

The picture I used was taken on the boat on our way back, from Dover to Calais. Obviously the lights that will guide us home are the lighthouses and other coastal lights. Which is why I used a lighthouse on my canvas as well.

For starters I glued a paper to a canvas. The paper is from 13 Arts and is called 'Faces of Spring/In your eyes'. 

Then I applied Tattered Angels Glimmerglam 'Tailfin' mixed with gesso through a compass stencil to emphasise the 'way home'. Once dry I added some more of the same Glimmerglam. 

Through the Tim Holtz swirls stencil I used Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint Opal Magic 'pinkblue' mixed with 13 Arts 'Magic Powder' to thicken it.

Through a damask stencil I used modeling paste blended with Tattered Angels glimmermist 'Pink Poodle'. Love the razor sharp voluminous result!

Once dry I sprayed a little more of the Tattered Angels 'Pink Poodle' glimmermist over the damask patterns and a little on the paper here and there.

Stamped some rope with knots with black ink on the page.

On the spot I had thought my picture, I glued some bandage/gauche with gel medium and added Finnabair 'Artstones' in different sizes. I covered most of it with white gesso, mimicking sea foam. 

Around the edges, in the corners and on the sides of the canvas I added Prima Crackle Paste, allowing it to dry overnight. Colored the crackle paste with some Lindy's Stampgang 'Mad Hatter Mint' and Tattered Angels Glimmerglam 'Tailfin'. Same goes for the gesso'ed parts on the bandage.

I'll explain some more underneath the pictures of the finished result.

Sprayed some glimmermist on the ribbon, crumpled it and let it dry. The big blue rose was handmade by my sweet friend Jetty.

 The blue berries and twigs are from 13 Arts. The little bottle was filled with 13 Arts 'glass filler beads small'.

The chipboard letters and word are covered with gesso, Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint Opal Magic 'pinkblue' and 'bluegold', some Tattered Angels Glimmerglam 'Tailfin' and 13 Arts 'glass filler beads small'.
The steering wheel roughly got the same treatment after receiving a layer of Prima 'crackle paste' first.
The space in between is filled up with Prima Finnabair Art Pebbles in different sizes, 13 Arts 'glass filler beads small', Prima 'Artstones' and some glass balls. All was colored with Tattered Angels Glimmerglam 'Tailfin' after the gel medium dried.

 

The chipboard lighthouse is Scrapiniec, the wings are plaster and the ornament is done with a new Prima IOD baroque mold and clay.

  Filled the lighthouse up with mod podge I blended in two tones, one gold and the other mint.

 The wings are coated with Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint Opal magic 'bluegold' and brushed of with a bit of pink.

The ornament got a layer of gesso and some small art stones, the A whole bunch of different shades because I just didn't like the result. I tried Prima Mica Powder Opal magic blue and green first. Then some of Prima's Opal Magic paints, some glimmermist, some gesso, you get the picture ;) 

Just paint and play until you like the result!

Sticking to the maritime theme and our journey on the boat, my canvas needed a little boat too of course. I thought it would be fun to have some little cherubs in the boat, whispering a little secret. The secret is that they're carrying with them one of the compasses letters: 'S' for South.

Filling up the space around the picture I added shells, bits of straws, flowers, leaves, branches, chipboard, charms, etc. I wrapped some beaded string with hearts through the embellished parts. When all was in place I painted it with Tattered Angels Glimmerglam 'Chandelier'.

That's it. I think. Took me quite some time to finish this one up because I kept missing and thus adding stuff ;)
Comments and questions are always very welcome!
Find me on Facebook too: Less is bore!
And Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping!

Altered clock "3 Generations, 1 Passion" CCB May challenge!

Hi everyone, 

Today I would like to show what I made as an example for the May challenge that the Canvas Corp Brands cooked up for you guys!

It's really worth it to join us for this challenge, because there are some amazing prizes to be won!

Head over to their Blog now!

This is the moodboard:

The Canvas Corp 'Heirloom' paper series are perfect for scrapping your family history. When I laid my eyes on the paper 'Cameras on Ivory' I had an idea immediately. 

My mom, her dad and I love(d) taking pictures very much. Something in our genes I guess. My grandfather photographed professionally (he was a detective) but loved doing it as a hobby as well. My mother always loved taking pictures as well, and I am also known for always dragging my camera everywhere ;)

Lucky enough I own a picture of my grandfather holding his camera, and another picture (he took) of my mom. Holding that same camera that I have in my possession still. Sadly it's broken beyond repair, but I cherish owning a camera that meant so much to my grandfather. A man I hardly knew since he passed away when I was 1,5 years old. Which makes him all the more enigmatic to me.

The fact that my dear mom in her late teens is portrayed holding that same camera means so much more to me now she's gone as well. I'm so proud to follow in both their footsteps.

Anyway, "3 Generations, 1 Passion" seemed a very appropriate sentence. And altering an old clock seemed the right choice for a project depicting several generations...

I started out by cutting a circle from the 'Black & kraft reverse sonnet' Canvas Corp paper to fit in the middle section.

Once this was glued down, I blended crackle paste with black gesso to cover the outer edges and inner circle transitions.

When it was dry, I sprayed some 'Boardwalk' glimmermist over the painted sections as well as the rest. 

I cut out some of the 'Heirloom life story' cards and adjusted them so they would fit underneath my pictures. Made small cuts at the top and bottom to shove the pictures in. 

From the 'cameras on ivory' Heirloom paper I fussy cut some cameras to use as embellishments. 

The flowers that weren't in the correct colors, were sprayed with several glimmermists, Pomegranate, Periwinkle Bouquet, Pink Coral.

The word 'Generations' was painted with Glimmerglam Tanzanite first, then covered in plain white glue, then painted with Decor & Diy Rose. The white glue was supposed to make it crack but it didn't quite work out that way. However, I like the structure the word has now, because it sort of looks like leather. Of course I wasn't satisfied with the color just yet so I sprayed some more glimmermists on it.

The 'Tanzanite' glimmerglam had a mind of its own and chose to color more than just the few flowers I had intended to do....

Made up my title by using tags and typewriter key stickers, which I coated with one step crackle medium.

Added transparant baubles to emphasise the cameras/lens in the pictures. Used some Rusty Paper on the clock hands and some other things. Added leaves, flowers and berries, some (real) light bulbs, old (real and empty) negatives and splattered everything with the 'Decor & Diy rose' paint.

 

My grandfather, Ale (yes, I know, it means 'beer', LOL) and my mother, Henriëtte.

Hope you'll like it and will feel inspired to join our challenge over at the CCB blog! 

Questions and comments are always welcome.

Find me on Facebook too: Less is bore!

And Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping and good luck with the challenge!

"Fleeting Moments" Altered mixed media Fan

Hi everyone,

I've noticed some fans being altered lately, you too? They made me finally work on the wooden fan that I had lying around too.

My in laws got this fan for me during one of their world trips and I had different plans for it initially. 

Until I remembered the vintage photograph of my mom holding up an umbrella. Her dark hair was up in a tight bun, which she hated because her hair was thick and heavy. Her mother had even sewn two of those bun-spunges together, to make it even worse. My mom was a living doll and she hated it. I depicted that by caging one of my old Frozen Charlottes in a birdcage. 

Needless to say once she was mature enough she was thrilled to make her own decisions when it came to her hair and clothes. From a young age she already learned to make the best of (her) life.

My grandfather, whom I hardly knew since he passed away a year and a half after I was born, loved to take pictures. I'm proud to still own his camera and so happy he took so many pictures/slides of my beautiful mom. Precious memories, even more so since she passed away too young as well.

I wanted to stick with the colors from the picture and guess what? They match the March challenge over at the 'Words and Painterly' blog. Again. And yes, again using a picture of my mom. LOL.

(I already did an entry with a heart-shaped canvas starring my mom as an angel, check one of my previous blog entries.)

I started out by painting the fan with gesso. White was my first choice, but I realised black would make the picture pop even more. So I gradually blended the white into black.

By the way, I took these pictures with my new cellphone and I absolutely love them! I can do decent close-ups and the colors are almost perfect as is. The little editing I have to do is also done a whole lot faster than with my previous phone. I'm so happy! 

Once dry I sprayed everything with several Glimmermist colors: 'Cranberry Zing' (which turned out to be too purple for this color scheme), 'Crimson' and 'Pink Coral'.

I altered some of the embellishments I wanted to use. Covered the clock and Frozen Charlotte in crackle medium, then added some paint and ink.

You don't want to know how many mediums I put on the swirl. It didn't do what I wanted it to do. First I painted it with black gesso and then I added a crackle medium. I finally used one of my new Prima Opal Magic paints, pink gold. The idea was that it would crack and show some of the black gesso underneath. It didn't crack though. (On another project I noticed it didn't work either, but I blamed it on the wood surface being too coarse and soaking up all the medium.) I tried some black crackle Nail Polish and sanded everything. Not the result I wanted either. So I mixed another Prima Opal Magic paint, blue pink, with Tim Holtz clear rock candy crackle medium. That sort of worked but the color wasn't really what I hoped for. Later when I sprayed everything the color blended nicely.

The Scrapiniec ornament above the picture was done with several layers too. Black gesso, Prima Opal Magic paint pink gold, some Rusty Paper, etc.

The chipboard words "Fleeting Moments" are from 13Arts and I painted them with Prima Opal Magic paint pink gold, then added clear crackle medium and a bit of pink ink later on.

To enhance the 'Chinese' feel of the picture I made and altered some chopsticks sticking out from behind the picture. 

The little fan-like chipboard piece is from Scrapiniec as well and was simply covered in Glimmermist 'Crimson' and a bit of white gesso.

The branch underneath the picture was covered in Rusty Paper and later some crackle medium and pink ink.

The metal leaves, frames and birdcage were covered with white gesso and some Glimmermist 'Crimson' as well.

Added my glittery branches, flowers (sprayed them with Glimmermist Crimson and added white gesso) and bead/heart string for the finishing touch. Fussy cut the picture because it looked better.

Hope you like it! Comments and questions are always welcome!

Come find me on Facebook too: 

"Less is Bore! "

Or Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping!

"Sunny Days" Mixed Media canvas

Hey everyone!

The Canvas Corp Crew had a challenge I gladly accepted: make something using spring colors, English Garden style. And I have been lucky enough to have this canvas featured on their blog! 

Luckily I still had the most adorable picture of Connor, that simply screamed 'spring'! This picture takes me back instantly to those lazy, sunny days we spent at our in-laws, in their beautiful, huge, grassy garden. Thinking back still warms me on the inside.

So here's my 'Sunny Days' canvas! I'll talk you through the steps with pictures underneath.

Obviously, I started out with a 12 by 12 inch (30 by 30 cm) canvas. The paper is from the 7Gypsies 'Take our breath away' collection. I cut off the edge to fit the outline of my (reversed) canvas. I glued the outer 'frame' and the inner section to the canvas.

The transitions from paper to canvas and some of the wooden parts of the canvas were covered in white gesso. 

I covered the sides of the canvas (and some other bits here and there) with my recently bought Art Extravaganca White Crackle Texture paste. If you're a regular reader you might have heard my experience with the Golden Crackle Paste hasn't been good. But this texture paste works like a dream. It dries quickly and actually cracks. Period.

I let the gesso and texture paste air dry for some time and then I brushed some glimmermist Olive Vine all over the sides. Yes, I dipped my brush into the bottle. Later on I splattered some droplets over my canvas as well.

Using 2 masks I created a gate and some diamond patterns on my page. I mixed modeling paste with Verdigris glimmermist and applied my mixture through the stencil using a plastic card. I didn't remove the stencil immediately, but sprayed on some Olive Vine glimmermist. This turned out better than I had hoped: the colors blended smoothly and the pattern slightly repeated outside the spot I had done with modeling paste. If you haven't tried this before, you should!

Finally I had a reason to use my gorgeous Dusty Attic chipboard vines... To color the leaves I mixed the white crackle paste with Olive Vine glimmermist and got a nice, soft green color. Once this had dried, I dabbed on some more of the Olive Vine glimmermist, to enhance the cracks and give the leaves a deeper green color.

Another score from the craft fair that my sis in law Laneen (you should totally check out her blog too! Laneen's Journey Through Creativity ) and I visited February 20: Rusty Paper.

The twigs needed a brownish, textured coat, so I figured: why not? And I really like the effect!

Almost forgot to mention that I painted the 'poles' with the Emerald  Finnabair Metallique Paint.

This really had the texture I was hoping for: like Hammerite. (The paint people use outdoors and has a grainy structure.)

The wash basin is from Prima Marketing (another embellishment waiting to be used on a special project) and I aged it by applying almost all of the blends and paints I used on this project, onto it. However, the coat of white gesso I dabbed onto it afterwards, really did the trick. Everything blended together better.

The 'Sunny days' chipboard is from Scrapiniec and built up in layers. I covered the 'stripy' parts with Golden Goddess Glimmer Glam. The top part of the text was done with the crackle paste/glimmermist mixture, and also dabbed on with glimmermist afterwards. The text underneath was painted with Finnabair's Emerald Green Metallique paint.

The pieces of stone (chipboard) were coated with an orange/pink metallic paint first, then I painted the Golden Goddess Glimmer Glam over them.

Later I dabbed some Olive Vine glimmermist around the edges too, mimicking moss.

Okay, with most of the chipboards altered and the background ready, the time had come to play with placement. Time to break out my flower collection. I added a little at first, and then I added some more. And then even more. And then still some more, until the composition felt right.

To the background I glued some bits of off-white sisal. I made a circular 'wreath' around Connor's picture with the sisal as well. The parts protruding from the circle were dabbed in gesso mixed with a little glimmermist. Also, I ripped some pieces of the picture because in retrospective, a completely circular picture might have been more pleasing to the eye.

When all the flowers, chipboard and embellishments were in place, I dabbed everything with white gesso, using a foam brush.

When that had dried, I coated everything with Chandelier Glimmer Glam. I am not sure whether the white spots came from the glimmer glam or from the gesso, but it doesn't matter, because I LOVE it! It was like a glittery, jummy, edible snow all over my project! (Without looking too snowy, because it made it all look like candy. Delicious, fun candy. Cotton Candy.)

I will leave you with plenty of more pictures and close-ups to soak up the feeling of spring yourself. Comments are always welcome, as are questions.

You can also find me on facebook: Less is Bore!

Or Instagram.

Happy scrapping!