Rain Forest

It is time for a new month-long challenge at Anything But Cute and this time Samra is our hostess and calls it Earth Day.

Before I tell you about the challenge and my project, I want to let you know that this will be my last post for Anything But Cute.  I want to say thank you to Pamellia for the opportunity to be in from the start of her challenge blog and I want to wish her and the rest of the gals on the team all the best.  

Samra describes the challenge this way:

"Create a mixed media project inspired by this mood board and the beauty of our planet. Please tell us what inspired you. Entries for this challenge can be echo friendly, or even recycled/upcycled items; or depiction of the sea, mountain, river, forest, flowery meadow…let’s celebrate our planet!"

I decided to go to the rain forest for my Earth Day offering and was inspired by a trip I made in 2008 into the rain forest of Costa Rica.  I went on Google to see what kind of snakes live in rain forests since I didn't come across any on my trip and discovered that there are some bright blue species so I added some to my project, which is as close as I want to come to them.  There are lots and lots of trees in the rain forest and I was conned into going zip lining between some of them.  I did it twice that day - the first time and the last time - LOL.

This is a 5"x7" canvas that I picked up at the dollar store.  I coated it with Liquitex Gesso and then I covered it with various die cut and punched leaves, vines and butterflies.  Another coat of Gesso was added and then I painted it with Guacamole and Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paints.  I used some Wendy Vecchi Tree Branch Archival Ink and a stamp from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge set to add a  few splatters.

I used a Dylusions stencil called Leaf Flourish Small and some Wendy Vecchi Fern Green Archival Ink to add the hanging vines.  After the ink was dry I replaced the stencil and added some Wendy Vecchi Translucent Embossing Paste.

I made the branch and bird from Martha Stewart Crafter's Clay and a Wilton Silicone Mold.  The branch was painted with some Folk Art Coffee Bean Acrylic Paint and then inked with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  The bird was painted with DecoArt's Pumpkin and Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint, Tangerine Acrylic Paint by Folk Art and Liberty Blue Acrylic Paint from Accent.  Then I handmade a couple snakes from Crafter's Clay and painted it with Ice Blue Metallic Acrylic Paint from DecoArt.

Next I made a couple of ferns from Crafter's Clay and painted them with DecoArt Plantation Pine Acrylic Paint and inked them with Forest Moss DI.  I picked up a really cheap and really ugly floral pick from Michaels, took it apart and altered it by coating it with some Ceramacoat Acrylic Paint called Leaf Green mixed with some DecoArt Fabric Medium so it would stay flexible and now I had rain forest flora and fauna.

I thought it needed some earth so I mixed some large seed beads with some light molding paste and dabbed that on and then painted it with some Coffee Bean Acrylic Paint from Folk Art.

Pot of Posies

The new March challenge starts today at Anything But Cute and this time Branka is our hostess and she is calling it Crazy For Colour.

Branka describes the challenge this way:

"To celebrate the springtime, we would like you to create a mixed media project using vibrant colours! It can be a tag, a card, an art journal page or anything else! Just be sure it's vibrant! It's time to go 'crazy' with colours!"

 
I decided to make an art journal page that I am calling a Pot of Posies.  I spritzed a piece of watercolour paper with water and then I sprayed Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and Dirty Martini ink onto my craft mat and dragged the watercolour paper through it to create the base for the background.

Next I did a bunch of stenciling as follows:

• Wendy Vecchi Lovely Leaves with Fern Green Archival Ink and Dots and Stripes Borders with Orange Blossom Archival Ink
• TCW Tiny Circles with Magenta Hue Archival Ink
• Dylusions Dotted Flowers with Bleach
• Circles Mask (Manufacturer Unknown) with Magenta Hue Archival Ink
• Swirls (Manufacturer Unknown) with Dandelion Archival Ink

The next step was to make the paper for the pot.  I used a piece of heavy card stock and painted it with the following acrylic paints in random areas:

• Folk Art Medium Yellow
• Deco Art Pumpkin, Wild Orchid and Electric Pink
• Apple Laguna

Before they could dry I loaded a paint brush with water and covered the sheet with strokes to blend the colours a bit.  Once the sheet was dry I used an old DVD as a template to cut a circle making sure to leave a flat bottom and I also cut a strip for the pot rim.  I decided it was brighter than I wanted so I inked the pieces with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The next step was to take a .05 Micron Pigma Pen and draw all the lines freehand.

Next I worked on the flowers.  I made different kinds of paper for the loopy doodle flowers.  The first was done by swiping some old Tombow markers on a plastic bag, spritzing it with water and then smooshing it around a piece of watercolour paper.  The second paper was made by rubbing Orange Blossom and Dandelion Archival Ink on some Specialty Stamping Paper.  Once the paper was made I stamped the flowers using Jet Black Archival Ink and the smallest flower from Dylusions Fancy Florals set and then fussy cut them.

I decided I didn't have enough flowers and really wanted some different ones but since that was the only stamp I had I went looking online and came up with some freebie doodle flowers.  They were printed onto card stock and then coloured with Forget-Me-Not, Red Geranium and Deep Purple Archival Ink before I fussy cut them.

To make the butterfly I coloured a scrap of card stock with some Artist's Loft watercolour pencils, blended them with water and then stamped the butterfly with a Hero Arts stamp.  The butterfly was fussy cut and some black wire from Artistic Wire was added for antennae.  The sentiment was computer generated and then coloured with some Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink.

Grungy Valentine

The new challenge starts today at Anything But Cute and the lovely Sara Emily is our hostess this time and is calling the challenge Grungy Love.  She describes it this way:

To celebrate St. Valentine's Day, we would like to see you make a Grungy Valentine's project for your sweetheart! It can be a card, tag, or anything else you might give a loved one to show them how much you care. Just be sure it's grungy!

I decided to make a grungy valentine card with some feminine touches.  I started with some grey card stock from Bazzill for my blank and then added a red panel of card stock from my stash.

The next panel had a number of steps.  First I took some Black Soot Distress Ink and patted it in on my craft mat, spritzed it with water and smooshed it onto a piece of Terra Skin paper.  This paper is very thin and has a plastic feel to it but it will not warp when you add lots of wet mediums to it, which is a good thing.  The downside is that it is best left to dry on its own and if you do use a heat tool you have to keep it very far away or the Terra Skin will start to buckle and shrivel.

Next I added some Golden Light Molding Paste through a Tim Holtz Flourish stencil in opposite corners.  Then I dripped some FW Crimson Acrylic Ink in various spots and blasted them with some canned air.  I watered down some white acrylic paint and dabbed it all over with a natural sea sponge, let it dry for a few minutes and then carefully blotted it with a paper towel to take a bit back off.  Then I gave it a light spray with Hickory Smoke Distress Spray and again blotted it to take some off.  Finally I used some Wendy Vecchi Red Geranium Archival Ink through a heart stencil that my husband cut for me on the laser cutter.

The next step was to dye some cheesecloth with Black Soot DI and lay it down.  I had the crackled heart already made from a cracker box, coated with paint and then topped with Clear Rock Candy Distress Paint but the colour was all wrong so I painted it with some Deco Art Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint.

The metal key and lock were in my stash and I painted them with some Deco Art Black Coal One Step Metal Paint and then highlighted them with some Treasure Pewter wax paste.

The flourish was a little wood piece I picked up at WalMart and I covered it with Folk Art Metallic Silver Sterling acrylic paint and then rubbed it with the Treasure Pewter.

The sentiment is from TPC Studios and was stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink, distressed and inked with some Black Soot DI and attached with a little red clothespin that came in a little goodie pack from The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Finally I added a big button from The Funkie Junkie Boutique along with some buttons from my stash and some beads from Michaels.

I hope you will join us for this grungy challenge.

Tag Trio

It is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute and this time Anne is our hostess and she is calling it "Ring Out The Old, Bring In The New".  She describes it this way:

To celebrate the New Year, we would like you to create a mixed media card or project using something 'new', perhaps you got some fabulous new craft item for Christmas or you have something new that you have not used yet - just remember to tell us what the new item is!

My husband is retiring and he started to bring things home from his locker and bits and pieces from his desk. He brought a whole bunch of small tags (Avery Shipping Tags #6) and I thought I would use them for this project since they are new to me. They are rather thin so I wish I had glued two together to give them a bit more stability but if I am careful I can probably do that now as long as I am willing to refinish the background since I did both sides.  OK, so I am not adding another tag - too much work.

I didn't take photos of my process but I will explain in my narrative how I created the tags.

I started by coating each one with Liquitex Clear Gesso on both sides.  Then I inked them with Twisted Citron, Carved Pumpkin and Mustard Seed Distress Ink all of which are new colours that I just purchased.

Next I sprayed them with some Lindy's Starburst called Ramblin Rose Pink, dripped some Tim Holtz Barn Door Distress Spray Stain on them and added some Liquitex Red Oxide Acrylic Ink with a natural sea sponge.

I did some stenciling with Wendy Vecchi Fern Green  Archival Ink and a TCW stencil called Mini Circles along with Wendy Vecchi Tree Branch Archival Ink and a TCW stencil called Mini Chicken Wire Reversed.

Next I added some stamping on the fronts only with Jet Black Archival Ink using a stamp from Kaisercraft called Sheet Music and a stamp from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge set.

Now it was time to embellish and for this first one, I adhered some old book paper to a scrap of card stock and traced around a couple butterflies on a Heidi Swapp stencil using a .005 Pigma Micron Pen.  I fussy cut the butterflies and then inked one with Wendy Vecchi Orange Blossom Archival Ink and one with her Dandelion Archival Ink.   I layered them and added some pearls for the body.

I dyed some seam binding and some cheesecloth with Carved Pumpkin and Mustard Seed DI.  Then I added a little strip of corrugated cardboard over the cheesecloth that was painted with Medium Yellow acrylic paint from Folk Art.  Then I coated it with Gloss Mod Podge and highlighted the raised areas with some Classic Treasure Gold wax paste.  I added some small beads to the top of the cardboard.

The key is new came from the clearance section at Michaels.  I altered it with some Poppyfield Alcohol Ink.  The button is from my stash and the text is computer generated and then inked with Carved Pumpkin DI.  The fiber around the seam binding is really old and has been in my stash for so long I do not remember who made it.

On this next tag, I adhered more old book paper to a scrap of card stock and used an EK Success punch to punch out three flowers.  They were inked with Wendy Vecchi Red Geranium Archival Ink and then outlined using the Micron Pen.  I stacked them and added a button from my stash.

I ran a scrap piece of orange card stock through a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Victoria and then punched flowers with a smaller EF Success punch.  The raised areas were highlighted with Rose Quartz Treasure Gold wax paste and a pearl was added for a centre.  All the flowers were mounted on a strip of red burlap.  The bronze butterfly was altered with a mix of Sunset Orange and Lemonade Alcohol Ink.  The text was done the same as the first tag and I finished the top with the same seam binding and fibre.

On the final tag, I created the butterflies in the same manner as the first but just reversed the colouring.  The strip of cardboard was painted with Pumpkin acrylic paint from Deco Art.  The arrow is from my stash and was altered in the same manner as the key.  Again the text was done the same as the first tag and I finished the top with the same seam binding and fibre.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge  - What's New
Crafty Friends Challenge - Use Something New
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Something New
Live and Love Crafts - Something New

Mixed Media Christmas Card

The December challenge starts today at Anything But Cute and Niki is our hostess this time.  She is calling it You've Got Happy Mail.

She describes the challenge this way:

"We all like Happy Mail right? That feeling of being spoiled rotten when you receive a handmade card from someone is better than being wrapped up in a soft blanket near a fire, sipping on a hot latte. So, for this challenge I would love to see your mixed media Christmas cards, tags, ATC's or whatever papercraft you are mailing to a friend! Just make sure they are inspired by the spirit of the season!"

I love this theme and was especially happy to know that I could meet my commitments as a Design Team member and add to my stash of cards for family and friends.

The vintage image that I found somewhere online became the driving force behind this card design.  I used a piece of card stock to make the background.  First I covered it with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then I took my natural sea sponge and dabbed on some Antelope Brown and Silver Moss Ink from FW.

The snowflakes are from a Recollections set and are stamped on a piece of transparency with Adirondack Snow Cap Ink, covered with Recollections Snow Embossing Powder and carefully heated.  If you wave your heat tool over the embossing powder and don't get too close, you will not melt your transparency.

Next I die cut some pine branches from Impressions Obsession and inked them with Evergreen Bough and Forest Moss DI.

The poinsettia was cut from a Marianne Creatables die and painted with Pearl White Metallic acrylic paint from Deco Art.   The petals were shaped and layered and then some little white beads were added to the centre.

I added a row of lace from my stash across the bottom and then added my vintage Santa image.  I dyed some seam binding with a mixture of Forest Moss, Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint DI and made a loopy bow that I tied with a piece of burlap string.  I rubbed a little charm with some Renaissance Treasure Gold wax paste and hung it from the burlap string.

Then I used my fingers to dab some Golden Light Molding Paste on the Merry Christmas, which was cut from mat board by my husband on his laser cutter.  Once it was dry, I coated it with some Stardust Stickles.

This challenge runs until January 4th so I hope you will join us with your mixed media happy mail.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Galz - Vintage Christmas
Scrap and Craft - Christmas Cards
Time Out Challenges - Snowflakes are Winter's Butterflies
Stampavie and More - Shabby or Vintage
The Crafty Addicts - Anything Goes/Celebration
A Snowflake's Promise - Winter/Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Embossing
Always Playing with Paper - Make a Non-Traditional Christmas Card
Craft-Dee Bowz - Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow
Glitter N' Sparkle - Include a Bow

It's Ornamental

It is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute and this time I am the hostess and am calling the theme It's Ornamental.

Since the holiday will be coming up pretty quickly, we want you to create a mixed media ornament for your Christmas tree or a Christmas decor item for your house or table.

About 4 years ago I decided it was time to hand over the tree with all the kid-friendly and kid-created ornaments to my Grandchildren and get a new tree that I could decorate in a more adult fashion - besides I was tired of stringing all the lights on it and wanted a pre-lit tree.  I really want it to be chock full of ornaments so I decided this was a perfect time to make more.  My tree is red and gold with touches of white.  For this challenge, I stuck with the red and gold.

This ornament started as a wooden tree cut by my husband on his laser cutter - I am loving his new toy.  I coated it with gesso and then covered everything with some Golden Light Molding Paste that I dabbed on so it would be bumpy.

Once the this was dry I added some other wooden shapes cut for me by my husband and some lace strips.  I have discovered that Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel makes a terrific adhesive for this sort of application.

Everything was then given a good coat of Deco Art Champagne Gold Metallic Acrylic paint and then dabbed lightly using a sea sponge and some Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint from Deco Art and some Antique Gold Acrylic Paint from Folk Art.

Then I added lots of beads and gems from my stash.

I made a second ornament and this time after the Molding Paste was dry I added some chain, nut covers stolen from my husband's work shop, buttons, bead caps and wood shapes.  Then I painted everything with Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint from Deco Art.  The next step was to add a bunch of gold beads from my stash.

To make the base of this tree since it didn't have a base in the raw form, I covered a Styrofoam ball with gold sequins and then used Xmas Red Stickles in the centre of each one.

I thought this one was a bit flat looking so I gave it a spritz of Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist.  I think I like the gold tree better but both will look good on my tree and fill more spaces so I am happy.

I hope all of you will create something for your holiday tree or home decor and share it with us.  You have until December 4th and that will be just in time for decorating.

I am going to enter the gold ornament in the following challenges:

City Crafter - Getting Ready for Christmas
Altered Eclectics - Anything Mixed Media or Altered (no cards or ATCs)
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Mixed Media or Altered (no cards. scrap pages, ATCs)
Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge - Christmas Decorations
Mixed Media World - Anything Goes on Wood
We Love to Create - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Allsorts Challenge  - Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas Goes

31 Days of Halloween

It is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute and this time Sara Emily is our hostess and she has chosen to call it 31 Days of Halloween.

She describes it this way:

If you love Halloween like I do, it's more than just one day out of the year, it's a season! For this challenge I would like you to make a mixed media card or project for Halloween. It can be spooky or not, but you MUST include the number "31" somewhere in your project. We can't wait to see the creative ways you'll be incorporating this number in your mixed media piece! 

I decided to alter a bottle that I picked up at a local thrift store for next to nothing.  Here are some views of the other three sides.

I started by coating it with Americana Decor (by Deco Art) Chalky Finish Paint called Carbon.  The chalky finish paint sticks fairly well to glass and gives a base for adding other materials.  I then added a piece of black lace around the middle of the bottle.

The next step was to print and fussy cut some vintage Halloween labels that I found on the internet (I forgot to write down the sources so I can't give credit - my apologies).  Then I cut a copy of each one from scrap card stock slightly larger than each label.  I temporarily attached the copies to three sides to get an idea of placement along with a rectangle on the front.  These scraps allowed me to work on the bottle without damaging the actual labels but still leaving me with a flat spot to attach the labels when I was ready.

Next I mixed Liquitex Black Gesso with Golden Light Molding Paste and covered the bottle using a palette knife to pat it on so it would be bumpy.  Then I used Mod Podge to glue pieces of cheesecloth randomly on the bottle.  Once these texture elements were dry, I covered the cheesecloth with Black Gesso.

The next step was add different spray inks - Lindy's Stamp Gang Pegleg Pete Purple Moonshadow Mist and Wild Honeysuckle Coral Starburst.  I also dabbed on some Folk Art Metallic Silver and Peridot acrylic paint.

I created the front chevron from some Tim Holtz paper called Regions Beyond and used Jet Black Archival Ink to add a skull from a Recollections stamp set called Witch's Dust Halloween.  The 31 are wooden pieces that I coated with Black Gesso and then with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle.  Once they were dry I dabbed on some Treasure Gold Pewter wax paste.

The front chevron and the other three labels were distressed on the edges and inked with Black Soot Distress Ink and attached to the bottle in the spots that were being saved for them by the scrap pieces of card stock.   If there were any gaps in the texture around the labels where the card stock scraps had been, I used the end of the palette knife and some of my black paste to carefully fill those in.

I wound some black burlap string and some copper wire from Artistic Wire around the neck of the bottle.  Next I used beads from Michaels, Arton Bead Supply and Dollarama to make three charms and hung them from the wire using a jump ring.

Once the bead charms were in place all that was left was to add gems, some black glitter spiders from Michaels and some bead clusters.  The black beads are from Michaels while the coppery beads are from my stash but were leftovers from one of the many bathing suits I decorated when my daughter was a competitive synchronized swimmer.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Mixed Media Goes (no cards or ATCs)
Our Creative Corner - Horror
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Mixed Media Goes
That Craft Place  - Mixed Media Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create - Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

Peacock Wall Hanging

The new challenge at Anything But Cute begins today and is hosted by Niki.  She is calling it Mixed Media Makeover and here is how she describes it:

"Pull out an old card, tag, project, masterboard or embellishment that you weren't completely happy with or never completely finished. I want you to recycle it. We all make "mistakes" with our art right? Now's your chance to fix it. Redo it, hide the mistake, make it bigger, make it better, make it more beautiful or rip it apart and use the pieces! Give it a mixed media makeover! For this challenge you will need to include a before picture so we can see what you started with."

A year or so ago and before I got into mixed media I purchased this wooden shadowbox frame with the intention of painting it some lovely colour and filling the inside with mementos of either my grandchildren or perhaps of my daughter.  I wanted the frame to be nice and smooth but after hours and hours of sanding that wasn't going to happen most likely because I was going cheap and got it from the dollar store.  Once I reached my frustration level because it was staying rough, I stuck it in a plastic bag along with the latex gloves and sanding block and shoved it in a cupboard and there it sat until Niki told us her challenge and then I could actually create something with it that I knew I would be happy with. 

I yanked the little hinges off and set the cover aside and perhaps it will be something in the future if I can cut the plastic window out of it - yes plastic, I told you it was cheap.  Then I got to work transforming the bottom.  I decided to make a wall hanging out of it and treated it much like you might treat a canvas.

First I gave it a coat of Liquitex Super Heavy Gesso just to eliminate the chance of giving myself slivers since this thing was so rough.  Next I crumpled up some tissue paper, opened it back up again and glued it all over using Mod Podge.

I used a Prima flourish stencil with some Golden Light Molding Paste and gave the piece some texture on the sides and top.  Then after that was dry I glued cheesecloth all over the top, letting it hang over the edges.  I also added little pieces of an open weave fabric to the sides.  I didn't add any additional texture to the back since you won't see it.

The next step was to dig into my stash and add lots of lace strips and motifs, flowers, buttons, beads and bauble trim using Mod Podge.  Once everything was dry I gave it a coat of Liquitex Gesso to unify the colour since everything was a different colour.

Then I painted the whole project, including the back with some Craftsmart Aqua acrylic paint.  To create the peacock colours I dripped on some FW Silver Moss, Sun-Up Blue and Antelope Brown Inks and spritzed them with water to make them run.  Then I followed with Deco Art Peacock Pearl, Ice Blue Pearl and Purple Pearl acrylic paints that were dabbed on with a natural sea sponge.

Next I created the image by making the background of a free image from The Graphic Fairy transparent and adding it on top of free digital vintage script paper from Creavapeur.com.  Once the image was printed and cut to size I inked it with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and distressed the edges.  I added a piece of chipboard to the backside in order to raise the image up a bit before I glued it to my hanging.  Then I added a few sequins from the dollar store to the image and the background.

Finally I covered a couple of screw eyes and a length of wire with some Ranger Aqua Alcohol Ink and then added beads from Arton Bead Supply, Michaels and Dollarama to create the hanger.  In order to ensure that the beads stayed where I wanted them, I added bead crimps.

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Altered Eclectics - Anything Mixed Media Goes (no cards or ATCs)
Shopping Our Stash - Put a bird on it
That Craft Place - Mixed Media Anything Goes
Mixed Media World - Gorgeous Textures
We Love 2 Create - #18 - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

I hope you will join us for the September challenge and show us what you have made over.

Making Magic

The August challenge starts today at Anything But Cute and Georgie, our hostess this month and is calling it Making Magic.  She describes the challenge this way:

"Most of us are drawn to the magic of fairy tales and fantasy. The colours are often hypnotic and your mind is free to explore outside the limits of reality. For this challenge, I would like you to create a magical mixed media project strongly inspired by the moodboard. Be inspired by the theme, the colours, the textures or all three. Lets bring a little magic back!"

I decided to try to channel my inner Finnabair or at least to see if her inspiring talent could rub off on me just a little so I made this canvas in her style.  She posted a canvas with a paint brush recently and I used that as my jumping off point but the rest of the layout is mine.  You can click on the image to get a larger view.

I started with a 9" x 12" canvas from the dollar store and covered it with Liquitex Gesso.  Next I added some texture with Golden Molding Paste through a stencil from TCW called Mini Hexagons and a few randomly placed pieces of mesh drywall tape.  I also dabbed some of the paste on for more texture.

Next I raided my sewing stash and added some strips of denim and lace along with a long piece of cheesecloth from my kitchen supplies.  The paint brush that I picked up for a dollar at Wal Mart came next and then I started to add all sorts of bits and pieces from my craft room and my husband's tool shelves - screws, gears, washers, metal medallion, buttons, flowers, beads mini clothes pin, can pull top, wooden shapes, electronic bits, etc.  I used Liquitex Matte Super Heavy Gel Medium to attach everything and found once it was dry, it really kept everything in place.

Originally I had decided on a different way of doing the text but didn't like it and changed my mind after everything was done so in this case the letters, which were cut from wood on our new laser cutting machine were altered after the fact ( what a pain that was since they are tiny).  Normally they would have been added along with all the other bits.

The next step was to give everything a couple coats of Gesso and then a coat of Leaf Green acrylic paint from Delta Ceramcoat.  Once that was dry I went over it with some Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paint.

The next step was to add lots of inks, sprays and more paints.  I used Burnt Sienna Liquitex Ink, Antelope Brown and Silver Moss FW (Dalex Rowney) Ink.  The sprays I used were Lindy's Glitz Spritz Blazing Sun and Lindy's Starburst Jack in the Pulpit Teal.  I mixed some Lindy's Magicals My Mojito Green with water and used my natural sea sponge to dab it on as well as some Folk Art Peridot Metallic and Deco Art Champagne Gold acrylic paints.

Here are a couple of close-up views:

I had a blast making this and hope that I did Finnabair proud.  I also hope that you will join us in Georgie's challenge and make something magical.

I am going  to enter this project in the following challenges:

That Craft Place - Mixed Media Anything Goes
Simply Create Too - Anything Goes
A Sprinkle of Imagination - Anything Goes
Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes (must be mixed media or altered items)
Altered Eclectics - Anything Goes (must be mixed media or altered items)
Mixed Media Mojo  - Anything Goes (must be mixed media or journaling)
Mixed Media World - Stencils
We Love 2 Create - Anything Mixed Media/Creative/Inky Goes

Spotlight Post at Anything But Cute

Today I am doing the Spotlight Post at Anything But Cute and am showing how to create with metal foil tape so pop over and see how it is done. Among other things you will see how I turned this;

into this .....

Summer Romance

It is time for a new challenge at Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge and Samra is our hostess this time.  She is calling the challenge Summer Romance and would love to see projects with a romantic theme, a beach/sea theme or both, BUT they must be strongly inspired by the colors of the mood board. For this challenge you MUST display our graphics badge in your post along with our blog name and challenge link.

I decided to go for the romantic theme and created a Tussie Mussie in the colours from the mood board.  A Tussie Mussie would have been carried by brides in Victorian times but in this case I gave it a modern and shabby twist.

I started by making a cone from paintable wallpaper and gave it a coat of Robin's Egg Blue acrylic paint by Folk Art.  Once dry I very carefully painted all the raised areas with Folk Art Ice Blue Metallic Paint.  Then I mixed some Blue Hawaiian Blue from the Lindy's Magicals Drink Me Silly set with water and painted the ridges of all the raised areas (just click on the photo to get a closer view).  I punched small holes on either side at the top and added a length of organza ribbon that I picked up for a song at a bead supply store.

Next I made some fabric flowers from a variety of materials from my sewing closet - blue shimmer organza (from a 25 cent table cloth that I bought at a fabric warehouse in Fancy Gap, Virginia), white organza, white tulle, lace trim, lace fabric and sheer drapery fabric.  I added a pearl to the centre of the blue flower and a pearl button to the centre of the lace trim flower.

I embossed some white card stock with an Elizabeth Crafts feather embossing folder and then fussy cut the largest feathers.  They were lightly inked with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and then I mixed some Snow White LA Colors eye shadow from the dollar store with Gum Arabic and painted it on each feather to give it some shimmer.

I added a row of lace around the top and then inserted a styrofoam ball that I carved into an egg shape so that it would fit down inside with only a small dome on the top.  All the flowers and feathers were added to the styrofoam with small straight pins.

Next I took a metal lock and key and coated it with Liquitex Clear Gesso to give it some tooth and then added Tim Holtz Picket Fence Distress Crackle.  Once the lock and key were dry I knotted them onto another length of organza ribbon.  This was layered with some Hug Snug seam binding dyed with Tumbled Glass and Broken China DI, a strip of lace, a couple strips of the blue organza and a couple lengths of the drapery fabric and the whole lot was added to one side.

Finally I painted a bead cap with white acrylic paint, inserted a stick pin from my stash to which I added some other beads and glued it into the bottom.

I hope you follow the mood board to create something that reminds you of summer romance and then share it with us at Anything But Cute.