Lindy's Stamp Gang November Challenge

Well it's been a long time since I've written about anything that I've done.  With all the social media out there the blog has kind of fallen by the wayside for a bit.  But I'm back and ready to go with a new project for a monthly challenge.

This month's, November, challenge is put on by Lindy's Stamp Gang.  They make these awesome sprays in both micas and flats. Every month they put together a pallet of spray/embossing powder colors inspired by a picture. The challenge to create something using these sprays/powders.  

I saw this months picture and color pallet and was immediately inspired.  How could you not be, I mean it's a lovely picture with a gorgeous pallet.

I could just picture the way that I wanted to use these colors on a mixed media canvas...And so it began...

I started with a 9 x 12 gallery wrapped canvas.  I like the gallery wrapped that have some depth to them so that I can have more room to work on the sides of the canvas.  I knew that this pallet set was going to go fan-spanking-tastic with the Graphic 45 paper, Voyage Beneath the Sea Collection, that I had recently picked up.  So I started fussy cutting...

I figured out where I was going to add my fussy cut out things.  Then I added some texture paste, cut up doilies, sand paste and then gessoed it.

I added some found items, and cameo cuts.  I even molded some bits from paper clay using a IOD and Martha Stewart mold. 

After gluing everything down it all got coated with 3 layers of gesso. Once dry I sprayed it with an array of Lindy's sprays.

 Then I had to add my fussy cut out paper and lots more embellishments.

I went back in around the mermaid with some of the sprays and a paint brush to give it the look of the water being darker and to add some color to her hair and fins. 

Some of the supplies used in this project include:

Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays - Jack in the Pulpit Teal, Sassy Sapphire, T-bird Turquoise, Cajun Carnelian Red, Cocoa Bean Copper, Opal Sea Oats. 

Graphic 45 - Voyage Beneath the Sea #4501320

IOD Prima Marketing - Paper Clay #841991, Mould Baroque 6 #814823

Martha Stewart Mold - Nautical Collection

Prima Marketing Flowers - #553302 Coventry Rose Romantique, #562472 Perles-Zephyr, #562519 Zephyr Bosque, #556358 Velvet Rainbow Spring Mix, #552237 Powder Puffs Marie, #701307 Petal Palette Tube Brown, #553012 Gillian Coffee

Plus lots of other found and misc items. :)

Making your own decorative tissue paper!

That's right you can make you own decorative tissue paper and it's easy!

All you need to start is an old sewing patter, some Tim Holtz Distress ink, or any ink would probably do, some stamps and an acrylic block for your stamps if needed.

Your patterns don't have to be new. I bought my sewing patterns at my local flea market, they were three for a dollar.  Take out a piece of the pattern big enough for your project and lay it on your crafting surface face down.

Next get out your inks and start stamping... That's it! Easy peasy.

Make sure as you stamp you rotate the direction of your stamp so the images are not uniform, unless that is what you are going for.

Here's a video of me making some for a canvas I'm planning:

In this video I wanted a sort of vintage color to it so I used some Distress Ink in the Walnut Stain color.  And because my canvas is going to be a floral piece I used the floral stamps I had; Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous - Flights of Fancy, Stampin' Up - Bloomin' Beautiful, and Prima Marketing - Hello Pastel - #563004.

Mixed Media Canvas - Inspire

It's been so long since I've posted.  It's just been crazy around here between the conventions, followed by the holidays, and then the crazy winter we've been having. The kids being home from school for what seems like forever due to snow days has not helped out the craziness.  It feels so good to be able to sit and write for few. 

My latest completed project is a mixed media canvas titled "Inspire."  I got inspired to do this piece from a sort of kit I picked up at my local scrapbook shops tag sale.  The kit contained a lot of sewing items including a smaller version of the dress from that appears on the canvas.  The dress form really got me thinking about an altered Barbie doll I had planned on making but never got very far with.  I figured I'd take what I had planned for the doll, minus the face and ear details, and put it on a canvas.

The fair wings I had made so long ago when first planning this doll. They are fabric backed, color wire formed and slightly pose-able when heated.  I add a little matching glitter to them to give them the shine I wanted. 

The dress that you see is pretty close to the dress I had planed for the doll as well.  It is made from all the fabric I had original picked up to use.  The only difference is that the black outline on the top is a 3 dimensional paint from Pebeo and not trim. 

The canvas is a brown linen canvas from Michael's that I applied clear gesso to and then layered on some Recollections Signature printed tissue paper and Prima Marketing paper Madeline Collection "Beautima" #842383.  I went ahead and grabbed my modeling paste and my Ronda Palazzari Designs "Texturized" stencil and added some texture. Once the paste dried I sprayed on some Plain Jane Baseboard "Gravel" mist and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in "Latte" and "Cork." 

I made the stain glass looking window from a dollie that was a kit I picked up.  I cut the center of the dollie out and sprayed it with some Heidi Swapp Color Shine Sprays in teal and chartreuse.  Then I drew on the design in the black Pebeo 3 dimensional paint. 

Finally I glued on all the embellishments which included Prima Marketing flowers and pearls, Tattered Angels chips, wood word Inspire, the dollie and the dress. Viola finished canvas.

Want to see how it was created or the list of products used, check out my YouTube video:

From Trash to Treasure

From Trash to Treasure...I found a broken journal at one of my local Michael's and couldn't resist buying it.  I had to see what I could do.  Looking at it the only thing wrong was that the elastic closure was pulled out from where it should have been tucked into the book. That's a slightly easy fix if things go the way they should. 

I brought the journal home, repaired the elastic (thankfully everything did go the way it should,) and got to work on painting. I painted and painted and painstakingly painted with the tiniest brush I had. 

All in all it took me about four to five days of painting on and off.  The intricacy and the tiny details made my eyes go buggy.  I had to do it in sections and at intervals to give my eyes a break. 
Looking at the brown and the gold I immediately thought that this book was screaming to be a steampunk book. I set off to find a digital steampunk stamp that would be a perfect fit for this book.

I came across that stamp on StitchyBearStamps by a creator known as BB Kakes.

Steampunk - 3 pc set

I purchased it, read the TOU to make sure it I was within the right to use it for this project, and printed it out a few time on some Copic marker friendly paper.

Why a few times you might, well it's so I can use one test colors and play with, one to lay out my colors, figure out shading and how I'm going to finish it, and the last one to do my final colors on.

Here's my second one with my colors listed so I know which markers to use where on the final.

And here is the final all colored and fussy cut out.

 On the final image I used Tim Holtz's Distress Stains and Paints for the gears and metal. I used some Ranger Glossy Accents on the glasses and the face of the pocket watch after shading in the gray color to give them the glass look.

Then it was off to the book....

I used some Prima Marketing Engraver Collection "Cesello" (845315) paper as the back ground.  Glued my stamp just off center.  I placed the "Jouranl" sticker from Prima's Engraver collection (563479) so that the end of the sticker lined up with the edge of her shoulder.
I used some Prima flowers for embellishment (Black rose -552619, Small maroon roses - 553302.)  On one of the small roses I pulled out the center of the rose and added a button (550776.) The key paper clip (564681) I cut the clip part off of to make it look like just a key.  I then added miscellaneous mechanicals, gears from Tim Holtz and Bead Landing along with some clock hands and key hole from Bead Landing.

Here's the journal all finished: