Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Mixed Media Reverse Canvas - Flying Unicorn

Hi Everyone, 

I am here today to share with you something a little different, this is a reverse mixed media canvas. Yes I understand there is quite a bit to take in here so let me explain what you are all looking at. A combination of many different mediums have been used, material, chipboard, metal, canvas, paint and crackle paste. I am very much a person who thinks along the lines of 'more is more', so I am very happy to present to you all this slightly over the top canvas :-). 

Products Used
Scrap material from my stash 


This little magenta house from Twiddleybitz was lots of fun to put together, small flat packed chipboard item.  It is super cute and the Flying Unicorn Adornments only enhance it further. 


Below you are looking at a chipboard tree decorated with material, buttons and Flying Unicorn Adornments. 


I may have mentioned one or ten times how much I LOVE Art Extravagance Copper Crackle Paste, it is an amazing product to work with and look at the results (crackly heaven).


Many thanks for looking everyone and as always if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Wishing you a happy and creative day!

~ Bex ~

Sunday, February 15, 2015

'Time' for a makeover - Finnabair Creative Team

Hello Everyone,

I am here with you today to share a vintage makeover. When my husband returned from a work trip to London with 3 in need of repair vintage clocks I was OVER THE MOON excited. I knew straight away I would make over one mixed media style and possibly restore the other two to original condition (then again, I kind of like the way this one looks, so you never know what fate the other two hold). I ordered my clock mechanism from eBay and from there I sat and stared, literally for a few days. I had no idea what to do, where to start, why was I taking on such a big project? However never one to back down from a challenge, once that mojo hit, it HIT and I was off and racing, this is what I came up with. I hope you like it!!





To begin I removed the clock face and gave the entire clock a coat of Art Basics Heavy White Gesso, this included remove the back door and giving that a little paint too.


With a paint brush I carefully applied some Art Basics Soft Matte Gel  to torn vintage book text and adhered it to the surface of the clock in random places. Some of the text I wanted to do image transfer other parts I wanted to leave. With a water mister I spritzed random sections and began to rub back the book text to transfer the image. When finished some book text was right side up, others were mirrored, I was happy. 



This time I wanted to steer away from my usual blue, green or grungy colour choice. I went with colours opposite to what I would usually choose, magenta (Viva Maya Gold - Magenta) and violet  (Lumiere - Halo Violet Gold) was chosen. I held my breath and painted the entire clock. I am not going to lie, after I finished I thought, no no no, I don't like it. I 'attempted' to remove it with a cloth and water without success (oh oh, not really sure what I was thinking, as if that was ever going to work!!). However in doing this  I did manage to rub some paint back to the wood which in turn gave the clock an amazing rustic look (see above photo), win win. 


Using a Black Archival ink I stamped all over the clock with a combination of 3 different stamps (Cirlces, Small Doily, Book) I didn't think too much, just kept it very random and stamped away by hand minus a block. 


Last month my blog post for the Finnabair Creative Team included material, I wanted to again use material as I  really love the vibrant texture of it. I cut my material leaves and using my finger I wiped on a little Soft Matte Gel and then adhered the material leaf to some card stock. One dry using my sewing machine I stitched in three lines back and forth down the middle (very roughly). All the leaves were outlined with a black Faber Castell PITT pen, in retrospect this could have also been done after adhering (we all learn the hard way sometimes right?). With a small amount of 3D Matte Gel used I began placing my stitched leaves all over my clock. Some I cut in half to use on the outer edges and top of the clock. 

To make the inner black material flowers I followed a tutorial by the very talented Anneke De Clerck which was featured in the latest Craft Stamper magazine. Thank you Anneke, I loved making them!!.


The clock bezel was given  a fairly thick coat of Art Extravagance Texture Paste in Copper Crackle. This was applied with a very fine paint brush and gave the bezel a stunning crackled look. Before installing my actual clock mechanics I installed a more important Mechanical, my Prime Large Flower Mechanical.  The inner clock bezel was further enhanced with Art Ingredients Glass Beads in colours Cobalt Blue and Licorice.

At this stage I have my entire clock a coat of Soft Gloss Gel, this sealed in all my material and also gave the surface a fabulous gloss finish.




The Cobalt Blue beads arrived in my second Finnabair Creative Team kit. I really thought I had finished my clock before that box arrived, however when I opened those Cobalt Blue beads, ooooh la la. They just had to go on my clock too, around my flowers, inside my flowers and along the clock edge. Every single bead was lovingly hand placed, patience and therapy my friends. 

Products Used
Prima Vintage Vanity Stamp - Circles
Viva Maya Gold - Magenta
Lumiere - Halo Violet Gold

If you have any questions at all I am more than happy to help.

Wishing you a very happy and creative day!

~ Rebecca ~