MIxed Media Monthly Challenge

I have been in crafting heaven lately, the weather has been cold and we have been house bound. Luckily Alex is at an age where he doesn't need constant monitoring.  So I have been creating tag and more tags while exploring new medias.

Today i finished a tag for Mixed Media Monthly Challenge here is their challenge board

with a few of my favorite things.

And here is my take...

I used rock candy transparent crackle, acrylic paint, mica powder, mica fragments, glass glitter, distress embossing powder and lindy's spray. The final product is not where I started but sometimes that is how it goes.

I started with spraying the tag with various lindy's sprays, and swiped on rock candy distress crackle paint.  Allow to dry

Next I added an assortment of embellishments, ribbon, twine, chipboard, metal accents.

I wanted to paint the embellishments black and leave the crackle so the color would pop through but nope i didn't like it so I painted the whole tag with black acrylic paint.  I love how the paint looks on the crackle.

I lightly dust the tag with black paint (so mica has something to stick to) then dust with mica powders.  I used Art Ingredients frozen lake, gold and cold pink.  Once applied i misted with water to set the mica powder.

Close up of the mica along the crackle paint.  LOVE IT.

I added swipe of gel medium and sprinkled on glass glitter, mica fragments, and distress embossing powder.  Lots and lots of texture.  I added white lines by running the edge of my palette knife through white paint and pressing into tag.

I allowed this to dry overnight to make sure everything was set.

 Finally i added metal wings antiqued with lindy's spray, added a clock face on top.  I have been saving this clock face for a couple of years.  Next i added claws along bottom of clock face.  In the center of claws is a spinner and actual clock piece.

Both the clock face and claws hands i got from Treasured Memories in Edmonton.

Really loving mixed media right now.

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Here is the color challenge over at Lindy's

I like this one a lot, nice muted colors

and here is my take

I watched a bunch of u tube videos and tried some of the techniques.  I love how it turned out.

Problem- I love making tags but now i have quite the collection of tags - what do i do with them?  So far i just put them in a basket.

 I covered a tag with encyclopedia paper, my mother in law has a gem of collection of old books.  Layered tag with vintage tile chipboard, ribbon, washi tape, thick twine that was stapled on (my favorite), and some really old mesh tape (another favorite).  I added some rock candy in the right top corner.

Finally i added some flowers into the corner cluster then, brick texture with transparent gel medium.

Once everything was dry i painted the whole tag with white gesso.
Since i had created the brick texture with transparent gel medium i was able to wipe off the gesso so the print paper was visible.

I applied moon shadow mist Van Dyke Sepia along the outline of the brick.  I unscrewed the mister and used the bottom tip of the tube to apply color.

Added starburst bells of ireland green  and starburst Jazzy Jivin purple along corner clusters.  Again i applied with the bottom tip of spray tube then misted with water.  I reapplied colors until I had dark sections.

In the top corner i just wiped some color on i didn't want anything dark or bold so it wouldn't draw attention away form the focal point.  The crackle texture pops out once color is added on top.

Next i highlighted the brick texture even more, I painted the brick outline with paint acrylic paint.  now it pop pop pops.

Added some final details, i stamped with white acrylic paint and dot texture along top right corner.  The final affect is fantastic it looks like burlap.  Finally i dry brushed the whole tag with acrylic gold paint.  It gives it a transparent shimmer.

 some close ups- this one was fun to create!  I had three days off and it was a fun crafting weekend.

3-D Steampunk Eyewear

So here in Cold Lake it is -30c, so cold, freaking cold.  We had an indoor day staying in our PJs all day.  I had a very productive day, i took on SanDee & Amelie's Steampunk Challenge- anything steampunk.

So my son and I have been playing this app- The Room, it is a puzzle game and it has this eyepiece you use to see secret codes.  (if you love puzzle and finding clues you need to play this game)  Anyways the eyepiece intrigued, so there is the inspiration here is the final take.

I love how it turned out, loved it so much i made this a new chipboard kit on my etsy store, 3-D Steampunk Eyewear.

Here is from the side, the goggles have a lens added onto.  How FUN!

 I layered together the goggles, then added 1" high piece of empty toliet paper roll. (it was the exact size i needed)  Next layered gears on top of roll.

 I rolled 0.5" thick piece of cardstock in an 1" tube and glued a gear lens on top of it.  I painted it gold on inside and out.  I painted a section of vanilla cardstock with chipped sapphire distress paint and glued the lens tube onto it.  Allow to dry.  Once dry add glossy accents inside- a lot of glossy accents.  This will take awhile to dry.  It will look like a camera lens.

 I glued the lens tube onto the bottom lens tube on the goggles, added wood dowels along the outside of the bottom lens tube.  Painted the whole thing gold with acrylic paint.  Next i highlight with black paint then dust with mica powder.  I used teal, purple, and rust.  The black paint tones down the gold goggles and gives the mica something to adhere to.  Once i finished i sprayed the whole piece with water to set the mica.  If you want more gold to shine through just wipe off some mica and black paint with a baby wipe.  I just did small sections at a time otherwise the black paint will dry before i get the mica on.

The finished goggles.

 Now the tag, i watched a bunch of u tube videos on mixed media, art journal pages before i started my tag.  I wanted to see how Lindy's sprays would work on several difference media.  First i painted the tag with white acrylic paint, allowed to dry then sanded some off.  Next i added crackle paint onto the tag with a palette knife, nice and thick.  This i allowed to dry overnight so it was 100% dry and crackled.  Over that i added harlequin pattern with modeling paste.  Allow everything to dry.

 When dry i added some color with lindy's moon shadow mist, treasured island aqua.  I added some water as well to blend the edges and get some drips.  I held to tag up vertical to get the drips.  I loved how as the drip ran down the tag the spray seeps into the cracks.

Next i added some Lindy's magicals (i love these)  time travler teal, steel summer, and shabby turbine teal.  I just added some powder right onto the tag.  The magicals  react with water and you get a couple of tones.

 Sprayed with water.  I also loved how all the sprays settled into the medias differently.  The color will settle into the modeling paste, and cracks but not onto the crackle surface.  Color also saturated the sanded areas deeper than the painted areas.  Again i held up the tag vertically to get drip.  I just love how the color travels into the cracks.

 Here is a close up of the colors.

 I have discovered the key is to stop when you have got something you love, sometimes if you keep playing everything just gets muddled. I added some distress ink around edges.  Now even though it is dry if i was to spray with water or any liquid medium the magicals would still react and i didn't want that.

 So i used a palette knife to apply gel medium over top.  The magicals will react with the gel medium as well, so i worked fast.  This is a heavy coat of gel medium so it took all afternoon to dry.  I love how the final tag looked and felt- like plastic

Once the gel medium was dry i added some stamping with texture stamp and black acrhival ink.  Added some rub ons, rubbed white acrylic paint along tag edges and outlined harlequin pattern.

 Added more rub ons and journal strip.

I didn't added a lot and embellishments to the tag, the background turned out so beautiful i didn't want to hide it.  I also didn't want to take away from my eyewear.        

I am in LOVE with this tag!

Sneak Peek

here is a sneak peek on my newest kit.  So my mother in law doesn`t throw anything out - ever. Which mostly i love i am always finding treasures and absolutely love everything vintage but yes sometimes i get stuff that needs to see the dump alas its worth it.  Downstairs the bookcase beholds old encyclopedias just what i needed.  The cover and last page are my favorites,

I wanted to cut- i love to cut things up.  I glued several pages together in bundles using gel medium.  Then cut a frame in the cover, then the next bundle a slightly smaller frame, and go on.  Just like that a layered frame.

I covered with pattern paper then, ripped out the section where the frame was.  Glued a funky image behind the frame and glued all the bundled pages together.

Final touches included gold paint, mica powder, and distress ink and of course chipboard and metal.  The key is strung with thread so it is balanced above the frame, its fun adds another dimension and casts a shadow.















Here is my favorite page, same idea bundle pages together, and cut a frame.  For this one i added elastic (an oldie but i love these) to hold a mini folder album

I used a color page which ironically has honeycomb the same as my chipboard.  That was a happy convenient.  Added more dimension with the fragment (another oldie but goodie)  I glued onto fun background paper with glossy accent and cut around.  I need to add some alcohol inks along the fragments- more distressing.  But i can`t seem to find my alcohol ink maybe once i clean up.


More to come- maybe it will happen quicker than usual i wrote instructions as I went.

New to My ETSY Store

I have added a couple instruction packs to my etsy store

Compass Steampunk Album

 Album finished size is 8.5" x 11", has a bottom hinge with 5 pages decorated front and back.  Album is grungy steampunk with chipboard accents, pull out tags and mini albums.  Chipboard used is available on my etsy store as well

Also added Steampunk House with Pull Out Album

Steampunk house created with chipboard and pattern paper decorated with metal and chipboard.  Pull out 9" x 9" album with envelope flips, and flippy flaps.


HAPPY SHOPPING!