'Lost' ......

Yet more mixed media .... I'm on a roll here!!
This project was totally fascinating as it started off as an experimental piece. It was an old 'painting' (a not very good one lol) which I painted over with white gesso. I decided on some collage background which consisted of some thin card that had been embossed on my big shot for another project and again unused. Tore them up and stuck them down randomly. I wanted to make the texture a bit more interesting so raided the recycling bin and found some netting that had previously contained satsumas!!

Because it was coated and bright orange I smothered it in gesso as it would give it a good Base to colour later......and this is where I got a bit 'stuck' and 'Lost' with what I was going to do next!!
So, went off and had a coffee and a good think!
It was then I remembered I had bought the Seth Apter Spellbinders 'Broken Maze' die a few weeks before and thought it fitted well with the getting lost part. So cut that out on the big shot using an off cut of card that I had been spraying and distressing other embellishments.....was a great colour and lots of random 'stuff' on there!!

One side of the canvas seemed a little bare so I added some lace to give it a bit more texture. Because of the different textures they all took on the colour differently when sprayed so this whole took a completely different direction colour wise! I wasn't  sure about the colour to start with but thought I'd leave alone to see what happened when I added the smaller embellishments of buttons and generally stuff that gets lost.

I decided it needed a bit more blending and then used the Cosmic Shimmer antique wax just to finish it off.
This project took me on a bit of a journey but I was an interesting one and at least I didn't need to 'fight' with it to get it to work! Loved the learning process in this piece and SO wish all my projects were like this.

Thanks for dropping by

Take care

Jackie x

More mixed media madness!!

Woah !!! COLOUR!! Something a little different colour wise from me this time! Turned out a little stronger than I thought it would and not my usual choice of colours but I am pleased with it anyway.
I started off with texture paste through a small Tim Holtz stencil (alphabet), then when dry I set about building up layers of colour using Cosmic Shimmer sprays and Pebéo Dyna iridescent paint in blue and green. The door hinge,  key and keyhole are alterations dies from Tim Holtz which were painted with a rusty look for a previous project but left unused so I painted over them to try to blend them in a bit better.
I also painted and stamped onto a chipboard tag, then stuck that down over some printed calico tape that was sprayed to change the colour. Paper flowers were sprayed with Cosmic Shimmers and stuck down over a distressed tag.

The frame was created by using UTEE in a silicone mold as was the gem in the centre. I was going to use resin but I was a bit too impatient  (us crafter usually are lol) as it takes a few hours to set so thought i'd experiment with the UTEE to see how it would turn out. Really pleased with the result so i'll be using that technique again at some point!

The paper butterfly was cut from patterned backing papers from my stash and stuck stuck down over fusible fibres. I added a couple of decorative pins for the antenae.

Really pleased with the way this turned out despite the strength of the colour.

Thank you for dropping by
Take care

Jackie x

Mixed media madness....

Many apologies for the lack of blogging recently but I have been busy creating!!
It has been thoroughly enjoyable being able to get back into my style of work and just generally  doing what I love best. This was quite a large a project but a fun one.
After spending three years at college studying contemporary art it was nice to get away from how things 'should be done' and be able to experiment with all my craft stash that I have accumulated over the years as well as experiment with some new things as well.
I have only recently discovered https://www.craftbox.co.uk/ ...yes I know ... where have I been?!! Well wow! What a stunning box to receive.  All beautifully presented with the most scrumptious embellishments, ephemera, charms, resin frames and card and papers, all wrapped in a beautiful quality box!
I REALLY need to get my budget in order a bit to get more of her gorgeous products! Especially the paints and sprays!!
Anyway....I digress.... back to the project...
I used a mixture of two craftboxes for this project. The Apothecary Box and the Steampunk box..... I just sat and played and had some serious fun mixing and matching the contents of both boxes to decorate each individual little box.

Above is a photo of the book style box, the inside cover is decorated with tissue paper and then painted with acrylic paint mixed with matt medium to make it transparent as I wanted the images to show through slightly.

Here is a better view of the seperate boxes within the main box itself. Lots of different embellishments and techniques used creating them.

This little box was fun to put together and just slightly quirky! I used a tiny balloon shaped jar embellishment from the Apothecary Craftbox , I turned it upside down and created a little hot air balloon using some string, a tiny crown embellishment from my own stash and hot glue. Has a bit of a Steampunk feel which fitted with some of the other elements from the Steampunk craftbox.

Another fun and quirky box. This embellishment is simply gorgeous! It is articulated and also headless (a bit like me most days)! I used a paper flower for her head and a metal flower to further embellish as well as a quote sticker. It always makes me smile this one!!

This box contains a heavy wooden quote whit was then sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer inks and then stuck down over backing papers and stickers which also came with the craftbox.

This is part of a set of three and was the first one I tried. This embellishment came in the box and I had planned to 'set' in CLEAR UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) but I lifted the wrong pot and ended up using interference blue instead, which was opaque and obliterated the charm. I managed to salvage it though by adding some copper coloured embossing powder to kill the colour slightly. The other little boxes I did with clear UTEE! That'll teach me to pay more attention next time!!

All in all this project was really fun and I enjoyed it immensely.  Was so good to get back into my crafting style again.

Thank you for dropping by

Take care

Jackie x