Choose To Shine Mixed Media Canvas With DecoArt Media

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by today.  I have a wonderful textured mixed media canvas to share with you today that was created with DecoArt Media products very generously provided to me by DecoArt, thank you so much!

I wanted to make a mixed media study of colour and texture on my canvas so used all of these DecoArt Media products as well as several more that I had in my stash.  I took some step out photos of how I created ny Choose To Shine canvas, read on for the how to.

A flat artists' canvas was primed with DecoArt Media white gesso and then Texture Sand Paste and Crackle Paste were randomly applied with a spatula.  I made sure to leave lots of brush strokes when applying the Media gesso as well.

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paints in Cerulean Blue, Primary Cyan, Quinacridone Violet and Quinacridone Gold were then applied in layers, drying in between each colour application and moving the paint with spritzes of water.  It didn't look too spiffy at this point but I persevered, knowing that there were many layers yet to come and that all you would see were peeks of the base in the finished piece.

Stamping with a ledger and script stamp came next along with some random stenciling with DecoArt Media Interference Gold.

A wash of diluted Titan Buff Fluid acrylic paint was then added over the whole canvas and more stenciling followed through a script stencil with Prussian Blue Hue Fluid acrylic paint.

Medallion shapes were stamped onto tissue paper with a permanent ink and Distress Damask stamps;

and the stamped images were torn out and applied to the canvas with DecoArt Satin varnish.  Once the varnish had dried a few flourishes were stenciled on here and there with Titan Buff Fluid acrylic paint.

The edges of the canvas were foiled with a Deco Foil Adhesive pen and Rebekah Meier Designs Vintage Tin transfer foil.  Perfect Pearls powder in Forever Blue was burnished around the edges as well to cover any of the adhesive that was still exposed after foiling.

I'm so happy I persevered with this canvas, look at all of that wonderful colour and texture peeking up through the layers!

I loved it so much that I decided to add just a few embellishments as finishing touches.  A Quote Chip was covered with DecoArt Triple Thick Gloss Glaze and applied to the bottom edge.  Several Mirrored Stars and a tiny Mirrored Heart were added here and there;

and then dots of DecoArt Media Liquid Glass meandered around the hearts, leading the eye to the sentiment at the bottom.

Here are a some close ups of the finished canvas, despite my hesitation in the early stages I love how it turned out!

A huge thank you to DecoArt for providing me with their wonderful DecoArt Media products and I can't wait to use them again, they are the bomb!  Thanks as well to you for stopping by today and as always, happy creating!

Deb xo

Summer's Collection Mixed Media Canvas For Therm O Web

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by.  I have a tutorial over on Therm O Web's blog today for my Summer's Collection mixed media canvas, created with Therm O Web's Deco Foil Stencils, Foil Transfer Sheets and Deco Foil Transfer Gel.

Watercolour paints were used to colour the background after stenciling it with Deco Foil Transfer Gel and DecoArt Media gesso and it was then die cut with Tim Holtz's Mosaic Bigz die.

Flutter butterflies and Flower Garden and Mini Bouquet florals were stamped and watercoloured with Distress inks and some Garden Greens and Wildflowers were die cut from foiled Toner Sheet.

A small Fragment was coloured with alcohol inks and then a little flower was stamped onto it with Black Soot Distress Archival ink and centered into it's corresponding opening on the Mosaic die cut (the Mosaic die is designed to coordinate perfectly with the various sizes of tiles that you get with the package of Fragments)

A 'collection' Quote chip was lightly coloured with Old Paper Distress Ink and added to the right side of the panel and then the whole assembly was mounted onto black corrugated cardstock and an Easel die cut added to the back for display.

Hope you can take a minute to pop by Therm O Web's blog for my how to, see you there!

Deb xo

Card-A-Palooza Continues

Hello everyone, thanks for stopping by and happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!  I had mentioned in my last post that I was going to be making more birthday cards for upcoming family celebrations and I have two more to share with you today.

The first is a card for my SIL, a Flower Garden birthday card.  I started with a Rebekah Meier Designs Mixed Media Art Paper background I had in my stash (think this was Americana paint with a Brutus Monroe stamp and some of Rebekah's Mixed Media Transfer Foil).

I adhered it to the card blank then added the Simon Says's Stamp 'Happy Birthday' sentiment;

and die cut some of Tim Holtz's Flower Garden and Mini Bouquet stamps that I'd embossed with white embossing powder on black cardstock.

Hearts were die cut from silver Metallic Kraft-Stock to echo the silver foiling on the background and some Stickles Glitter glue was added around the edges to finish it off.

The next card is a birthday card for my Dad (Dad, stop reading if you don't want to ruin the surprise LOL!).  I made an easel card that he can display after the big day if he'd like, I'm hoping that he will like it as much as I do xo

I did take some step out pictures as I constructed Dad's Limited Edition birthday card, read on for the how to.

I started out with Tim Holtz's Compositon stamp and stamped it with Black Soot Distress Archival ink onto tissue paper, adhering it to some cardstock with Vintage Distress Collage Medium.  I scrunched up the cardstock after it had dried and inked it with Ground Espresso Distress Archival ink to highlight the textures.

I chose one of the Sophisticate Cabinet Card Frames, removing the backing (and saving it for another project, the design on the back of these Cabinet Card Frames are beautiful!) and gently sanded and inked the frame to age it.

Some of Tim's Paper Dolls were chosen (I added the boy and girl to represent my brother and myself :O), covered them with Distress Matte Collage Medium to give them some tooth and lightly tinted them with Distress Crayons and a waterbrush.

The Paper Dolls were adhered to the Compositon background and the distressed Sophisticate frame was added over top.

Distress Mixed Media Heavystock was stamped with Black Soot Archival ink and Etcetera stamps.

The stamped card was then dipped into puddles of Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap Distress ink and after it had dried into puddles of Iced Spruce and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink.

Some ephemera pieces from Tim's Collector Layers pack were chosen, tattered around the edges and inked and adhered to the stamped Heavystock.  The edges of the Heavystock were also distressed and inked with Ground Espresso Distress ink.

A File Tab was added to the top of the framed picture, the metallic part of the tab was inked with Mushroom Alcohol ink and the 'family' sentiment inked with Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress inks.

An 'adore' Typed Token was added to the bottom left corner of the framed picture with a brad;

and the whole assemblage was then adhered to the Heavystock background along with a 'limited edition Quote Chip that was aged with Old Paper and Vintage Photo Distress inks.

An easel card was created from Tim Holtz's Dapper Paper Stash (click here for a quick and easy video tutorial by the Frugal Crafter on how to make any size of easel card) and some 'stops' were created from hearts and a star die cut from silver Metallic Kraft-Stock.

The prepared card front was then adhered onto the easel card blank and it was done, here are a few closeups.

I ended up adding a couple of strips of Kraft-Stock above and below the hearts and star stops as the card wasn't standing up quite as high as I wanted, necessity is the Mother of invention!

Hope that you've enjoyed seeing how my Limited Edition easel card came together, it was made with lots of love for my wonderful Dad xo

I've got one more birthday card to make for my FIL but his birthday is in early July so I have a couple more weeks to get it done, whew!  I'm working on a bunch of other projects right now as well for upcoming DT posts and magazine submissions so will share them with you too as soon as I can.  Have a great week everyone and happy creating!

Deb xo

Card-A-Palooza

Hello everyone, hope this finds you all well.  We've been home from camping for the last couple of weeks as the weather has taken a decided turn for the worse with temperatures in the low teens (Celcius that is!) and even some snow on the hills just above our home, yikes!  June is a very busy month in our family with lots of birthdays and Father's Day on the horizon, so I've taken the opportunity to get some cards made.

My niece's birthday is coming soon, so I made this Celebrate Butterfly birthday card for her.

I coloured the background with watercolours in shades of purple, green and blue over some gesso and crackle paste then overstamped it with Tim Holtz's Papillon stamp and Vintage Photo Archival ink.

The edges of the background panel were edged with gold Deco Foil and a couple of Flutter butterflies that were left over from another project were watercoloured with Distress inks.

Tim's Sentiment Words, Thin die was used to die cut the Celebrate word from gold Metallic Kraft-Stock, backed with some kraft coloured cardstock.

Father's Day cards were up next, this one I'm calling Love Hearts :O)

I started with the same gesso'd and crackle paste background that I'd used for my nieces birthday card but this time I coloured it with some Paper Artsy Infusions (Sleight Blue, Golden Sands and In The Navy) and overstamped it with Tim's new Inventor 1 stamp with Blueprint Sketch Distress ink (which seemed appropriate!).

The #1 Dad crest was die cut with Tim Holtz's Regal Crest die from gold Metallic Kraft-stock and the sentiment stamped with Merchant and Worn Text and clear embossed.  The crest was mounted on a piece of die cut black fun foam for dimension.

The large heart was die cut from more gold Metallic Kraft-Stock with the Scribbles & Splat die and the smaller hearts die cut with Simon Says Stamps Large Holiday Shapes dies.

And here's Father's Day card number two, an Old Jalopy Father's Day card.

It started with Baked Texture Ancient Amber embossing powder sprinkled onto wet Deco Foil Transfer Gel that was stenciled onto the background through Deco Foil's Modern Links stencil.

Once the gel was dry, the embossing powder was activated and then the background was dipped into Paper Artsy Infusions (Golden Sand and Terra Cotta) that was sprinkled onto my craft mat.

Tim Holtz's Old Jalopy was die cut from cardstock that was coloured with more Infusions that I'd mopped up from a previous project (think this was Green Man and Olive Tree) and then I die cut the accents on the car from silver Metallic Kraft-stock.

The No 1 sentiment was die cut with Tim's Cargo Stencil Numbers Movers & Shapers dies from more silver Kraft-stock and backed with black cardstock.

And the Dad sentiment was die from black cardstock with the Alphanumeric dies and then the letters re-cut from silver Kraft-stock and inset into the black.

That's it for now, still have more birthday cards to make so I'll be back shortly to share them with you and then I have a DT post for Therm O Web coming up on June 18th.  Hope you'll be able to pop by to take a peek and that you are enjoying some lovely summer-like weather where ever you may be.  Our cold and rain is supposed to be departing soon and I'm looking forward to warmth and sunshine again!  Thanks as always for stopping by today and happy creating,

Deb xo