Andy Skinner week: day two

Hi,
And welcome to the second day of our Andy Skinner week. Today Chris Dark is using one of our ceramic tiles to create a beautiful piece. Hope you like it.
Here's how Chris made it.

After spraying with Decoart spray sealant I painted the ceramic tile first with a coat of Americana lamp black paint followed by a layer of slightly thinned down pva glue. 

While the glue was still wet I painted with the white paint. When everything was dry I stamped images from the 'back to nature' clear stamps set using Archival ink Saffron, Vermillion, olive, Cocoa and black. 

The sentiment was highlighted by outlining with a black fine liner pen and then adding glossy accents. I've also added a wash of Americana Raw Sienna around the trees and grey in the sky area of the scene made up by mixing the black and white. The patterened border was added by painting first with white paint and then adding black permanent pen and this was also highlighted with glossy accents. I did a bit of doodling on the trees with a white gel pen to finish off.

Materials List:

Country love 8x4 inch ceramic tile

Andy Skinner Stamps: Back to nature

DecoArt Matte Sealant spray

Americana acrylic paints: Lamp black, Raw Sienna, Titanium White

Archival inks: Saffron, Olive, Vermillion, cocoa, black

Glossy Accents

Black permanent pen

Inkssentials white gel pen

Isn't that gorgeous? 

There is more! come back tomorrow for a beautiful altered frame by Gio

Andy Skinner week: day one

Hello everyone,
Hope you had a wonderful bank holiday weekend.
This week is a special Andy Skinner week. Some of you have already met him at the June Extravaganza, and if you go to the shop next weekend (Sept 3rd and 4th), you will have the chance to meet him during the demos on Saturday or (if you have been one of the very lucky ones to secure a place) during his class on Sunday.
Andy, who is a very talented and knowledgeable artist and tutor, has been our guest designer for a few weeks now and we are honoured to have him on the team.
He now has his own line of clear stamps so our talented DT has been playing and created some gorgeous samples and step by steps I will share with you this week.

So guess who is starting today? Andy himself of course ;)

First project: Weathered box

 Here's the step-by-step for this beautiful project: 

Lightly sand the box and seal with Multi medium matte and allow to dry.

Next apply a watered down wash of Decoart Gesso to the entire surface, you should be able to see the wood grain through the gesso. Allow this to dry.

Paint a little pva glue in random areas where you would like the paint to crack. Apply Vaseline with your fingers to areas you would like the paint to peel.

Pour a little Americana Indian turquoise and Snow (Titanium) white onto a pallet, with the pva glue still wet pick up the two colours onto a brush and apply this to the box, mixing the colours lightly as you go.

Once dry you will notice that the paint has cracked where the pva glue was applied. Now take a cloth and rub over the surface to start the paint peeling where the Vaseline was applied.

Sand the surface lightly with a fine grade sandpaper to soften the edges of the peeled paint.

Water down some Americana Burnt umber and Lamp (Ebony) black and pick up the paint onto a toothbrush. lightly speckle the box by flicking the bristles with your finger. Note: It is advisable to test this on some scrap paper first.

Highlight the edges with a little gold rub on using your fingers

Stamp the script with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. Stamp the dove, cherub and antique sign with Black archival ink.

Highlight some areas within the stamps with a little titanium white to make them pop.

Finally, once fully dried attach a metal clasp, and spray with a light coat of Americana Matte spray sealer.

Materials List

Stamps: Batik Garden, Antiques, Simply Angelic

Wooden Box

Decoart Americana in: Indian Turquoise, Snow White, Burnt Umber, Lamp Black

Pva Glue

Multi Medium Matte

Decoart gesso

Walnut Stain Distress Ink

Black archival ink

-----

Simple tag

Position the Tando clock mask over the tag. Pick up a little Americana snow white onto a stencil brush and paint in the numerals, allow to dry.

Using a blending tool apply mustard seed distress ink to the entire surface of the tag. Next blend barn door Distress ink, top left and bottom right of the tag.

Stamp the script top right and bottom left of the tag, using Broken China distress ink.

Stamp butterfly’s, berry bush and Object d' art using black archival ink.

Colour in the butterfly’s with fired brick, broken china and spiced marmalade distress ink using a brush.

Highlight the body's with an inksentials white gel pen.

 Materials List

Stamps: Batik Garden, Antiques, A Winters Tale, Gothic

Tando clock mask

Americana snow white

Distress Ink in: Mustard seed , Barn door , Broken china, Fired brick, Spiced marmalade

Black archival ink

Inkssentials white gel pen

Here's another tag for you

Andy has also made a couple of sample using our bisque embellishments.

Basecoat the bisque heart hanging ornament with Multi matte medium.

Once dry apply clear rock candy to the surface. I prefer to use a slightly stiffer brush than the one supplied with the bottle, to give a more even application.

Once cracks appear, finish the drying process with a heat tool.

Paint surface with Americana lamp black and allow to dry for approx 2 minutes.

Wipe back black acrylic using a baby wipe until it remains in the cracks only. 

Sand surface with 280 grade wet & dry fine sandpaper, this gives a smooth professional finish which is ideal for stamping onto.

After stamping apply Rub 'n Buff: Gold leaf to the edges.

I dipped this heart ornament using the alcohol ink floating method with brights, then applied the same technique as above.

Materials List

Bisque Heart ornament

Multi Medium Matte

Distress rock candy

Americana lamp black

Rub & buff gold leaf

Adirondack Alcohol inks in: Plum, Pool, Citrus

Stamps: Simply Angelic

Lindsay Mason Designs: Tattered Butterflies

so how about this for a fantastic start of the week?

Let us know what you think in a comment below

See you tomorrow, 

Inspirational Blog Award - August

Hi,
Hope you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend.


Today is a "Inspirational blog award" day. Remember last month we gave this award to Clare and Elisa, who had been very close to getting on the design team. Well, these two other talented ladies  were high on our list too. So we wanted to share their work and blog with you here.

First one up is Carmen Sanchez aka "Cuchy" from Spain.

Hi all, 
I'm M. Carmen, but you can call me Cuchy. In fact, nobody but my mother call me M. Carmen :) 
As far as I remember, I’ve always been interested in any kind of arts & crafts 
I have been married for 20 years now and I have 2 children (15 and 7 y.o.) who also like the crafty side of life. I started playing with digital scrapbooking with no idea that scrapbooking even was a “craft”. I found a digital scrapbooking gallery and I knew I wanted to do “that”. The next step was to “touch” the papers and textures, so I tried scrapbooking in a more manual and traditional way.

I am now more into mixed media and altered art. I love to try, experiment and learn new techniques with paint, papers, textures and everything within reach. 
If you want to know a bit more about me, I kindly invite you to visit my blog http://la-almohada.blogspot.com , where you can see my latest projects.

Thank you so much The Craft Barn for this award. I will proudly show it on my blog.

Cuchy made a beautiful sample altering the ART letters with all sorts of paints and pastes.

Here is what Cuchy used for those letters:

Letter A 

Tim Holtz Ornate Plates

Tim Holtz Adage tickets

Versamark

Clear UTEE

Gesso

Template from The Crafters Workshops 

Tattered Angels chalkboard mists

Cosmic Shimmer Mists

Dreamweaver Embossing paste 

Letter R 

Stamps by Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz:

Urban chic

Fairy Garden ATC size

Tatto You ATC size

Reflections

Papillon

Archival ink Jet Black

Alcohol inks and Mixatives

Decopatch paper patch glue

Tattered Angels chalkboard mists

Cosmic Shimmer Mists

Martha Stewart butterfly punch 

Tissue Paper 

Letter T 

Papier mache letter T

Gesso

Americana acrylic paint

Jacquard Lumiere paint

Distress inks

Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Lava Red - Ocean Sunlight

Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Chalkboard - Sprout

Viva Decor Croco Paint - Gold

Viva Decor Ferro Paint - Golden Green

Vintaj embellishments

Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze - Flirty - Waterfall

Hero Arts Rubber Stamp - Dots & Flowers.

Thanks again Cuchy for this beautiful sample :)
-----


Our second "guest" today is Willy Anderson, originally from the Netherlands but who lives in Tenerife now (lucky her!)


My name is Willy Anderson. I’m Dutch but since 2004 I am living on Tenerife, one of the Canarian Islands in Spain. 
2004 is also the year of my first contact with stamping. And it has become a real addiction! I don’t have a favourite style or technique; I love to try everything about stamping and art journaling. I design for Stampotique Originals and Art Journey. 
Occasionally you can find my work in the Craft Stamper magazine; my flagbook was on the front cover in June 2009. 
I´m very honoured to receive this award from The Craft Barn!!


And Willy has also made a couple of beautiful Samples for us using Crafty Individuals stamps. 

Here's what Willy used on her samples

For the tag:

-    Ranger Manila Tag No. 8

-    Crafty Individuals ci-159

-    Distress Stains (Wild Honey, Broken China, Antique Linen)

-    white acrylic paint

-    StazOn Jet Black ink

-    Versafine Onyx Black ink

For the card:

-    Crafty Individuals ci-113 & ci-258

-    cardstock (ivory, black)

-     Distress Stains (Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Antique Linen)

-    Distress Ink (Peeled Paint)

-    StazOn Jet Black ink

-    Versafine Onyx Black ink

-    clear embossing powder

-    The Crafter's Workshop 6"x6" template (Harlequin)

 Thank you Willy for those stunning samples and for being our guest today. 

We are still looking for our next guest for the September Inspiration Blog Award post.

So don't forget to leave comments on our blogs so we can go and find out more about your work. 

See you soon, 

Simply Saturday

Hello:)

Last brayering day for this week for our Simply Saturday post.

Gay used the brayer with a masking technique to create a beautiful background.

Love this card! What do you think? 

Here's how Gay made it...

I used a nestie cut out from card which is thicker than paper for the template because I wanted a soft edge to the finished circle. Tore paper for the horizon, and used Copics to colour. 

Materials:

Crafty Secrets Bathing Beauties stamps

Big and Juicy Happy Birthday ink pad

Speedball brayer

Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles large

Copics to colour

Have a wonderful weekend
(bank holiday in the UK, right?...enjoy!!)

Wishing Well: Using brayers day three

Hello again,
Here's another simple yet effective technique Gay has come up with for you using the PaperArtsy Fresco Paints. It makes a gorgeous card (me think).

Gay dropped 3 drops of paint and brayered right across the the front and the back of the card. 

She then masked the stamp and inked with Memento Tuxedo Black. 

Love the metallic shimmer!

To make this card, Gay used:

Crafty Individuals CI-284

Fresco Finish paints, Moonlight, guacamole, metallic glaze

Speed ball brayer

Let us know what you think in a comment below... 

See you tomorrow for Simply Saturday

Wishing Well: Using brayers day two

Hello again, 

We are back with a second "Brayer day" this time with a card and a tag from Chris Dark. 

Here's Chris' details on how she made them.

For this card I used my brayer with a Tim Holtz texture fade embossing folder. I inked half of the brayer with chipped sapphire distress ink and the other half with forest moss distress ink and then brayered the ink onto the embossing folder. Depending upon which side of the folder you ink, you'll get a positive or negative transfer of the ink onto the card, so you can get two effects from one folder. After inking the folder I popped the card inside and ran it through the cuttlebug to end up with my inked embossed background. I did a watercolour distress ink stamping effect with the Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge circles stamp and text stamp. I cut a strip of the text stamping and added over the background, the circles were cut out and attached to the card together with an extra piece of the circles at the bottom which are mounted on foam tape. I added some glossy and enamel accents to a few of the circles.

For the tag I used the brayer to pick up the ink that was left on my craft sheet after stamping the card and swiped it once across the tag on a diagonal. I did a bit of flicking with the ink from a brush and then stamped the circles again using the same watercolour effect as before. I added the text and ribbon to finish.

Materials:

Brayer

Tim Holtz Texture Fade embossing folder Checkerboard and cracked set

Tim Holtz stamps- bitty grunge

White craft barn card

Tim Holtz Alterations bigz die Tag and book plates

Distress inks, forest moss, chipped sapphire, barn door

Ranger ink blending tool

Craft Sheet

Ranger mini mister

Ranger glossy accents

Ranger Enamel accents

See you tomorrow with more samples

Wishing Well: Using brayers day one

Hello everyone, 

Back from holiday... I actually need another week to get over my "holiday" week spent mainly redecorating... (what a silly idea that was LOL). Anyway, happy to "see" you all again.

This is a Wishing Well week with a wish from Netty...

Netty said...

I'm rubbish with the brayer. Can't keep blaming the brayer and would love some help please.

ok, Netty, here a special brayer week for you but first, as your wish has been granted, you have won a £10 voucher. Please email me with your full name and I'll send you the code for the voucher. 

Gio will start this week, with a beautiful project, as colourful as ever. You are going to love this one!

 For this project I use a brayer, acrylic paints and lots of book pages.

The first background is made putting the colours on my craftsheet and rolling 

the brayer on it. 

Once dry, I put an elastic band on my brayer.

I put gesso on the craftsheet and started rolling. Then I rolled the brayer on the painted 

background and also on a blank page book.

The second one is coloured with Distress Ink: the gesso worked as a resist.

You can use whatever your want...sequin waste, lace, fun-foam ,

metallic wire, etc.

To make the matchboxes, I covered them with my altered book pages. 

Then I stamped them with Katzelkraft stamps - Cage et chandelier and added some beads.

Materials

Brayer

Katzelkraft rubber stamps - Cage et chandelier 

Teal, Red, Cream acrylic paint

Distress Ink Mustard Seed - Worn Lipstick - Dusty Concord- Broken China

Beads

Glossy Accents

Cream pearls

Alcohol inks

Metallic wire


Aren't those super cute?? 
Hope you like the sample today. Let us know in a comment below... 
See you tomorrow for another brayer project. 

Simply Saturday

Hi,

Here is our final Cosmic Shimmer day for this week, which is Clean and Simple, like every Saturday.
Gay and Gio are with us today with two beautiful samples...
Let's start with Gay....

 For this card, the background was made by putting the WHITE shiny paper on the floor and standing up to spray to get a very fine mist of all three colours. I stamped the butterflies in Memento tuxedo black and then again on acetate with Stazon. I painted the back of the butterfly with the ancient copper and let it dry, before cutting it out to glue it onto the card using Art Glitter dries clear adhesive.

I used Cosmic shimmer Ancient copper

Chalk misters , yellow and blue

Tim Holtz Papillon

Acetate

Happy Birthday sentiment from Crafty Secrets Bathing Beauties.

This is beautiful Gay, thank you :)

-------

Now for Gio's card...

I cut two hearts from the sprayed books pages (see Thursday's post).

I sewed them along the borders. I glued to the white cardstock and glued the

little fabric embellishments.

I stamped the sentiment with Katzelkraft rubber stamps - Cage et chandelier 

Materials:

Cosmic Shimmer Mister: lava red

Cosmic Shimmer Mister: Mango Blush

Cosmic Shimmer Mister: Scarlet Mist

Cosmic Shimmer Mister: Teal Wash

Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium

Katzelkraft rubber stamps - Cage et chandelier 

LOVE this card too. How about you? 

That's it for this week. 

We will see you next Wednesday for a new Wishing Well

Have a great weekend

Product of the week:Cosmic Shimmer - day four

hello,

And welcome to our fourth Cosmic Shimmer day, Today, Neil is with us to show you some beautifully altered frames using The Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals.
I'm sure you will enjoy this project. Here is how Neil made it...

I used Cosmic Shimmer Lapis black Ultra Thick embossing crystals to cover the frames, just one layer and used a bronze paint to cover the sides and any gaps roughly.

Inside the frame I covered the inner with vintage photo distress stain and stamped a script (CI 017) over in brown stazon.

 To do the centres I cut grey board to 5 x 5 cm did two layers of Lapis black Ultra Thick embossing crystals and the last layer is clear into which I stamped butterflies from CI135 and used a rub n buff in silver to highlight.

The butterflies were embossed the same way.

The flowers were ones that I had made and I embossed the edges with the same Ultra Thick embossing crystal and coloured with bronze paint and finished with a mini mister with walnut stain re inker and water. The fringing was coloured with the same mixture and lastly I added the scrabble tile stickers to finish.

Neil explains here, on his blog, how he made the flower.

Materials list

Cosmic shimmer Lapis Black and clear Ultra Thick embossing crystal

Crafty Individuals script (CI-017) and butterflies (CI-135)

Walnut stain re inker and mini mister

Vintage photo distress stain

Grey board

Brown StazOn

Stunning !! Thank you Neil. 

Tell us what do you think

See you tomorrow for Simply Saturday