Just Green

Our Mixed Media Moods is celebrating it's first full year with an awesome mood board and giveaways. I'm planning to see how many of the mood board images I might have time to be inspired by! Here's the moodboard. I started at the top left with the green thread. Entries by other people and linkups to inspirational videos can be found behind the following link: 

https://deedeecatron.blogspot.fi/2017/07/moodaversary-week-1.html

And this is what I started with: cleaning previous clutters from my desk and searching my stash for stuff in the mood board colours...

After pondering different options, I decided to go for a very lightweight CAS look.  I'm feeling a bit awkward about not having any stamps and splatters here, but of course I'm glad about using stuff I never used before. My mom dumped those reeds on my craft table about half a year ago. I guess the bundle is supposed to smell of lavender, but doesn't any longer :) I just cut a pinch of the straws in two and sewed them on a 6x6 card base. Easypeasy!

Blue and Ochre

I am playing with the "Blue and Yellow Ochre" challenge at Paperartsy, but also with the moodboard challenge at Our Mixed Media Moods. The moodboard has a mustard theme that fit well with the Yellow Ochre, and I was especially inspired by the photo with lines of stones. I have had something like this in mind for about a month (since I got the background done...) and I'm glad this is done at last!

I want to link this straight away, so here is the link to the Paperartsy challenge: 

http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2017/03/2017-5-blue-and-ochre-challenge.html

And the "Our Mixed Media Moods" linkup:

http://deedeecatron.blogspot.fi/2017/03/metaphysical-our-mixed-media-moods.html

I'm posting this on my tablet, so I can't make a neater link :)

The background is a square piece of junk wood that has been covered with book paper and painted with a rylic paints. I sprinkled pigment powders into the pain while it was still wet and spritzed some water. I had planned to use it for a previous project, but just didn't want to cover so much of it, because it turned out quite magical, so I set it aside for the right moment...

I decided to combine the background with a gelli print that I had stored away. The print has yellowish and white acrylic paints, and Infusions (The Sage and Golden Sands) have been sprinkled in the paint before drawing the print. I cut out some wonky circles and smudged the edges with acrylic paint. (Actually I used more Quinacridoe Nickel Azo Gold than the Indian Yellow) I considered inks, but I only have Distress Inks in suitable colours, and being water soluble, they wouldn't have worked with the gel medium I used to adhere the pieces.

While I had the gel medium out, I decided I wanted some glitter too... so I took fake gold leaf and added little bits here and there. I finished the piece with some metal wire and a frase sticker from Tim Holtz. Here are some more closeups :) 

Catkins and Snowdrops

Joining in the fun at Our Mixed Media Moods (moodboard with grey shades), Paperartsy (doors, windows and architectural structures) and SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk/industrial challenge.

I made a wall spring themed wall-hanging in black and grey colours.

The base is a wood panel that I covered with some stamped scrap paper (the squiggly plant is from Designs by Ryn) and coloured with acrylic paints in grey and white and pigment powders. I sprinkled black bister and Paperartsy Sage infusion onto wet paint, spritzed and let dry. I sewed together a pile of fabric and started stitching snowdrops by hand. I was quite surprised how fun that was (I'm not really that interested in embroidery, but knowing the back could be full of strings and jumps made it a bit easier). I found some welding practices in the trash of a metal classroom at school, straightened one out and decided to make it a wonky window.

Actually I felt a bit bad about covering the embroidery. I wanted to add a bit of air to make it possible to see the sewing behind the frame. I nailed four nails so that the frame is on top of them. Right now it's fastened with glue dots, but I think they aren't enough against gravity, so I'll have to figure out something stronger. It's hard to show the dimension with pictures from the front of the project.

Stars

Joining in three challenges with this mixed-media card: Our Mixed Media Moods (used the colours, blotches, tiles and stars on their moodboard), Paperartsy (I don't have blue infusions, but used Bister with gloss gel), and SanDee and Amelies steampunk challenge (new stash/forgotten stash, I used my new alcohol inks and a bunch of stuff that's been lying around for ages.

I had an old metal background in my stash. It's aluminium tape on card, and I've embossed it with a stencil from Designs By Ryn. A stencil doesn't give as deep impressions as a folder, but it's a way to get a favourite pattern embossed. I had originally coloured it with light green alcohol inks, and now I took out my new inks in denim, eggplant and slate... I went for a blotchy inky look, but it really didn't work out for me! Still need quite a lot of practice with those inks.

I created the tile effect with gloss gel on waxed kraft paper (Paperartsy). I sprinkled blue bister crystals on the wet gel and got some nice spotty tiles. Then I spritzed with a bunch of sprays, bothe mica and not. Both the paper and the gel resist the colours, but ... it just works anyway. I dried the sprays with my heat gun, and tore a piece of suitable size.

I sewed together my papers and some metal stars that I've dug from a trash bin (there's a metal-company near us, they make lanterns with star-shaped openings... and throw away the  cutout stars!). I decided to sew the stars in place, perhaps gel medium would have worked too, but I think this is quite cool.

I twirled the twine several times wondering how I could get it to work without bulging the card. This was the best I came up with: pieces of corrugated cardboard so there is space for the bundle of twine. I laid this on my card base  under pressure for a while before adding the dimensional Finnabair stars.

Here you can see the sewing over the stars and the way the heatgun boiled the gloss gel.

I like how the torn kraft papers give light frames to the otherwise dark surface :)

A little fragile

A last take on the fabuluos mood board at Our Mixed Media Moods. I used the gorgeous deep red, the lead grey, fibres and butterflies. I'm also posting for the Designs By Ryn customer creations challenge and the Craft Stamper Take it Make it challenge (anything with stamping goes). I usually do cards and work in my art journal, but this is a wall hanging (as soon as I find a way to hang it up...)

On Thursday evenings I have a furniture class, where I'm working on fixing an old sofa. The class is tought in secondary school craft classrooms, and I dug into the trash bins in the woodwork room (found some nice square panels) and in the metalwork room, where some students had been practising welding... from trash to treasure that is! I covered the wood with bookpaper and painted over it with acrylic paints (golden quinacridone crimson, magenta and violet) and layered on some fabric and the metal square. These were simply fastened with some small nails.

I stamped the moth (Designs by Ryn) and sentiment (Dina Wakley) with Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The moth got some colour with the same acrylics I used in the background. I adhered the sentiment on the side of the panel, kind of as a bonus detail for someone who cares to take a second look at the project. I love the contrast of the fabric and metal!

Melanthium vulgari

Posting for the challenge at Our Mixed Media Moods. They have a beautiful moodboard, from which I took the deep wine red colour, texture, fabric/threads and black and white florals. I'm also posting for the VivaLasVegaStamps challenge (used reds, oranges, pinks, purples, splatters, drips and drops, check their moodboard behind the link) and the Craft Stamper take-it-make-it challenge where anything with stamping goes.

I made the background by scraping heavy body acrylic paints on a card with black gesso. I used some texture paste and heat embossed it with sparkly pink embossing powder. I didn't like the effect (it turned somewhat silvery) and continued with the acrylic paint, making it thick layers and continuing with the palette knife.  I mostly let the paint airdry, even though the heat gun gave some lovely bubbles (when I tried the heat embossing). The embossing powder still shows, but just as a gritty texture, which I like. All the stamps I used are from VivaLasVegaStamps: the lovely detailed flower in the foreground , the ledger and some botanicals and a plate number (the plate with the melanthium vulgari) in the background. 

Rust and fibres

I got inspired by several moodboards, and ended up with this card. I'm posting it for the VivaLasVegaStamps challenge, check the moodboard and links here (inspired by foliage, nature, bugs, wings, numbers, script, invoice, background stamps, tan, black, white, brown, distressed, grungy and Corrie's lovely butterflies in this DT-post). I'm also linking to the challenge at Our Mixed Media Moods. Their previous moodboard had lovely rusty bits and bobs, and that's when I started building the dragonfly. The new moodboard has wings, copper flower stems and fibres, so all in all the result is using everything but the magenta colours. All the stamps I used are favourites from VivaLasVegaStamps.

I like to collect rusty bits that I run into outdoors, and this nail is one of those... I used pliers to straighten it a bit. The wings of the dragonfly are from "girl with wings". I stamped the wings twice on acetate, fussy cut them and tried to adhere them to the nail with gel medium. I wanted them on top of the nail, like on a real dragonfly. It didn't work, but they attached to each other, which was a step in the right direction. The next step was Glossy Accents, which seems to have done a good enough job. The fibres have been adhered with gel medium and once that was dry, the dragonfly was stuck down with some rolled glue dots.

The background is cardboard with a layer of gesso. I stamped the Invoice and Numbers -stamps with Archival ink. This Tree Circle stamp is one of my first VLVS stamps! I stamped it with Versamark and embossed it with WOW Copper Pearl embossing powder. 

A last photo of the whole piece. Love it! And by the way, I bought one of those bright light- lamps... I'm overjoyed to be able to take pictures like this without daylight :) 

A Misty Morning

Joining in the Country View January challenge and the Craft Stamper "Take it Make it" challenge. Both are running with anything goes, and that's great for getting rid of some bits and bobs that have sat in the WIP pile for too long :) I'm also joining in the moodboard challenge at Our Mixed Media Moods, because it made me remember these pieces and dig them out. The Craft Stamper demands stamping in their challenge. Well, I haven't actually stamped, but I've used a rubber stamp to make the focal piece... hope that counts!

Here are the pieces, all experiments from last summer. I played with Paperartsy infusions on several surfaces. The large background piece was made with Sage infusions sprinkled on thin wrinkly kitchen wrap. I spritzed with pearl spray and pulled prints onto inkjet photo paper. I love the hazy, misty looka and rusty spots from the walnut stain in the Infusions (fits perfectly with at least parts of the OMM mood board). The small paper is the same infusion dripped onto the photo paper and rinsed away with water. The walnut stain rinses of and the intensity of the colours depends on how long you wait before rinsing. The focal piece was made with a rubber stamp and gel medium. I spread the gel medium over the tree stamp (Paperartsy Urban Snapshots), left it to dry till the next day and peeled it of the stamp. Not only did the stamp become red and clean, but the negative silhouette really worked nicely to give a good relief. It's been spritzed with different sprays and perfect pearls etc. Not all of it stuck to the surface, so I can't really say what I would use to repeat the same effect...

Here's a closeup that gives a hint of the subtle shine on the different layers.

Happy New Year!

A really last minute entry for the VivaLasVegaStamps December challenge! Check the lovely moodboard and other challenge entries here. Since the colours are similar to the moodboard at Our Mixed Moods, I'm also posting for that too. It would of course be impossible to ride a hot air balloon in space, but... who cares? I'm really looking forward to everything we're headed for in 2017 :)

I used a mixed media background (scrap paper glued on scrap card and covered with gesso), sprayed with Dylusions Calypso Teal spray. The stamp is from Viva Las Vega Stamps and I stamped with Versafine Onyx Black. I was quite satisfied how well the image turned out, even though the background is uneven. I added texture paste through a star stencil and since the spray seeped into it, I  coloured over the stars with a paint marker.