Live out Loud by Brenda

Good morning, Brenda here with my first post of January sharing some of my Bird creations from Lesley's recent Hochanda shows. 

As I have been rather poorly for the last couple of months I am being ably assisted by hubby in writing up my posts, I can push inks and paints about and my stamping platform is a wonderful asset but not too good stringing the words together so we will blame his lack of crafty knowledge if there are a few faux pas!

The top card started with an oxide ink background panel with repeat stamping using the flourish from Dawn Chorus and the focal panels with images from Live out loud, again using versafine black and heat embossed with detail clear embossing powder. The edges of each panel inked with versamark, dusted with detail gold powder and heat embossed, then layered up with foam pads to give some dimension.

I am rather obsessed with MDF monolith's, they make a nice change from cards and are fun to work with. This one was given a quick coat of gesso, followed by Little Birdie chalk acrylic paint which I am equally obsessed with along with the Little Birdie crackle medium which I also used on this piece. It really is one of the best I've used and perfect for both the experienced and new crafter. Next some texture paste added through a stencil and the Owl from Wise owl stamped with Versafine black and gold accents added to both the Owl and stencilled elements. Some feathers from Dawn Chorus stamped here and there, sentiment from Sing your song, ribbon and finally liquid pearls to highlight.

Finally a bright and cheerful card using lots of masking and the bird images from Fly away with me, I created masks for the three images, using three lovely bright colours of Versafine Clair inks and just repeat stamped using the masks to move across the squares of card. It takes a little time but is fun to do and providing you remember to place the mask where you have stamped you can't really go wrong.

Many thanks for popping in today and wishing you a Happy and Crafty 2019.

Festival Elephant - by Penny

Goodly morning peeps!  Well here I am again to share another of my Indian inspired samples from last months shows.  I can't believe we're at the end of September already!  This year has flown by - it's ridiculous!

Anyway - back to business, I have a pretty piece of home decor for you today.  I love creating home decor and I wanted to do something different from a canvas. I have used stamps from the Paisley Elephant, Indian Elephant, and Indian Textiles sets; Distress inks, Versafine ink, clear embossing powder, Crackle Medium and some acrylic paints from my stash.

On a piece of white card I stamped and embossed a large elephant.  I then used several small worker images to decorate the elephant's skin.  I've seen pictures of elephants that are decorated and painted for festivals in India, and I wanted to re-create this in my artwork.  I painted the elephant with Distress inks and a gold pen.  It didn't matter about stamping outside  the lines as I would be painting the background.

I painted the background with a dark acrylic paint, when that was dry I added some crackle medium around the edges of the focal panel and left it to develop.   Then when that was dry I used a dry brush to add a neutral colour chalk paint, giving the piece some texture. To complete the vintage, shabby effect I blended some Distress ink and gold pen along the outer edges.
 

I created a frame for the focal panel using greyboard and cutting it to size, and cut an aperture in the front.  I then stamped and embossed some floral and paisley images onto black card, painted them and cut them out.  I painted the frame, added the focal panel and attached the embellishments.  And there we have it - a lovely piece of home decor that will cheer up any room.

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you have enjoyed reading this post.  I'll be back next month with more crafty fun and ideas to share, meanwhile my lovely teamies will be here each day with more beautiful projects for you.

So until next time,

                                                             x Penny x