Contented Spirit ...

Hi There 

It's that time of the week again when you can find me over on That's Crafty's blog sharing some creativity. 

I've been creating with one of That's Crafty's recently released stampsets (Arty Wings) this week along with another recently released stamp from Aall and Create (Splattered Numbers) designed by Tracy Evans . There's also some of the usual mixed media suspects thrown into the mix: inks, paints and texture paints in one guise or another. 

Heres a quick look at the layered and textured 'Art Board' I have created ...

If you  would like to 'read all about it' and see a few close up pics then be sure to join me over on the blog. 

Would love if you could join me over there.

 If you click HERE you will be redirected swiftly and safely 

Hope to see you soon 

Amanda

x

Love Rocks....

Hi Everyone

Thanks for stopping by today!  You know I love your visits 😊

As its Thursday today I'm over on That's Crafty's blog sharing some of my latest arty endeavours.

This week I have created an 'Art Plaque' using a number of That's Crafty Surfaces and of course the usual 'arty suspects' -paints, stamps, mediums etc.

If you would like to see more pics and read about my 'happy accident' then please feel free to head on over to the blog.

It would be great to have you stop by

For  a quick route over just click HERE

Hope to see you soon

Amanda

x
I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
The Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge: June
Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge #50 

'Lone Star' .....

Hello Everyone and Welcome

Thanks for checking in today - I always appreciate you taking the time to stop by 😘

Another Thursday rolls around so as usual I'm over at That's Crafty sharing some of my latest creativity. 

If you haven't guessed by now I love playing with paints, texture and layers so this week saw me doing just that treating a That's Crafty Long tag to some of them all! 

Fancy a quick look ...

You are very welcome to join me over at That's Crafty where there's more to 'show and tell'. 

It would be lovely if you could join me there 

Hope to see you soon 

Amanda 
x

X

Hi Everyone 

Its that time of the week again for me to be sharing my Guest Designer Weekly project over on That's Crafty's blog.

This time I've mixed up the colour with the grunge to create an art panel featuring my 'tie dye technique' which if you are a follower/subscriber you may recall seeing before here and here.

However here's a sneaky peek of how I have used it this time ...

For full details of  project 'X'  be sure to click here and you will be transported over to That's Crafty's blog where I will be waiting to greet you. 

  Hope to see you there soon ....

Amanda

x

Forever Autumn - Guest Designer at That's Crafty

Hi Everyone and Welcome

I have some happy news to share with you today as well as a little creativity.

First the news : I have happily accepted a very kind invite to be a Guest Designer for That's Crafty! It was such a surprise to be asked and I am honoured to have been given this wonderful opportunity. Thanks so much Laura 😊

Now for the Creativity.... Today sees the start of a new challenge at That's Crafty and the theme this time is 
'Forever Autumn'-
 We would like for your creations to have an Autumnal feel to them.

I love the rich, warming colours of Autumn and the rustle of fallen leaves underfoot both of which provided inspiration for my 'Forever Autumn' tag

I don't have many process shots but I will take you on a tour around the tag.

The large tag which I did remember to photograph before I added all the extras is a That's Crafty MDF Tag. This one is a #10 but there are a range of sizes available that can be found here. They really are excellent quality, take mediums very well and are great value for money. I have used one of these tags in a previous project which can be seen here. 

The background was created using distress inks (Fossilised Amber, Rusty Hinge, Wild Honey , Mustard Seed...), Distress Resist spray, Wrinkle Free Distress technique, Iced Spruce distress paint and a brayer.

I love the effect of the Distress Resist spray and the brayer paint over the inks gives a kind of misty feel like we often get during Autumn .

There's some script stamping too - I used Tim Holtz Ledger Script with Coffee Archival ink. 

The small tag is a #8 Tim Holtz tag cut from mountboard, crackled with Deco Art crackle paint and coloured with a combination of Tim Holtz Distress paints ( Rusty Hinge, Fossilised Amber ) and DecoArt media fluids ( Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Transparent Yellow Oxide, Quinacridone Gold)

The Leaf is a That's Crafty greyboard leaf covered with a Distress Resist sprayed Wrinkle Free background. The same distress inks were used as for the large tag background with the addition of a couple more (Forest Moss, Gathered Twigs, Fired Brick). The leaf is embellished with a piece of Tim Holtz Ideology. The frame is a That's Crafty MDF Atc frame covered with Tim Holtz designer tape . The back panel that is purposely offset slightly from the frame is a piece of 'brayering off' palette paper 

and to the top left corner of this there's a sprinkling of mineral powder

Here's a close up of those fabulous speckles of white created by the Distress Resist spray ....

The broken twigs are from the gatherings of  recent 'wood walks'. They are bound with coarse fibres and add a 'natural' element to the tag. One sits at the top of the small tag

and the other, the larger one, sits above the sentiment

The large base tag is decorated with an old rusty can pull - again a 'find' when I've been 'stepping' out this summer. I always set out 'hands free' and almost always come home 'hands full'!  I can't resist a bit of 'Street Swag/ Boardwalk Booty' as I call it!  Sure you'll be seeing some feature in my future artwork.

The tag has great dimension with all the layers and chunky materials used

and I hope it makes you think of the Autumn/Fall season.

Full details of the challenge can be found over at That's Crafty challenge blog along with a gallery of inspirational projects made by the talented ladies on their design team.

I would like to enter my 'Forever Autumn' tag into the following challenges:
Stamps and Stencils- 'Its been a while'
Creative Artiste #42 Challenge : 'Anything Mixed Media Goes'

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peak of a project I have made for my GD weekly post so hopefully I will see you then and be able to tempt you over to That's Crafty's blog to see my project in full. 

Thanks for stopping by today. I really do appreciate you taking the time to visit, follow and comment.  

Hope you all have a lovely day 

Take care 

Amanda

x

Winter Wonderland- A Vintage Journey December 2017

Hi Everyone and Welcome

Happy December to you all! According to the calendar The Christmas countdown and Winter season both start today and so does our new Challenge over at A Vintage Journey. Lovely Sandy will be your host this time with the challenge "Winter Wonderland'. 

Here's what Sandy says :

'For the month of December let's think of the season as well as the holiday with Winter Wonderland. As the song goes, sleigh bells ring, snow is glistening! Let's see some snow, snowmen, bare trees would be nice or some snow covered pines in the meadow. Whatever Winter Wonderland means to you in your vintage, shabby, mixed media; art journalling; industrial or steampunk style'.

I bought a Kaisercraft advent calender a fair few years ago now and had all good intentions to make it ready for the following Christmas but yes, you guessed it - that never happpened! So I saw Sandy's challenge as an ideal opportunity to finally unearth it from the undergrowth (my stash) and rectify my unfinished business of yesteryear. I constructed and altered the calender with paints, mediums and papers and created a Snowy Winter wonderland scene in the central window box . 

I got so caught up in the creative process that I didn't get any process shots but hopefully the photos I do have, will, with a little narration speak for themselves .

Kaisercraft make a few different styles of this sort of advent calender. I had trouble sourcing any on their website but I did find this link that shows you a few of the different styles available on the market. They all come flat packed so you have to 'self construct'- that is assemble the calender structure itself and each one of the 24 boxes. Believe me there were times when I thought I was going to 'self destruct' during this process when things weren't going as smoothly as I planned and I knew I had a deadline to meet but I carried on regardless in the hope that it would come together in the end - I think it did! 

The main Calender structure 

This was primed with gesso and painted on all sides (inside and out) with white acrylic paint. The outside walls of the structure were then painted with silver acrylic paint 

and crackled with White Deco Art crackle paint . Once the cracks start to form they reveal the colour of the paint beneath - in this case silver. 

The boxes

These were each adhered together before being primed and painted with white acrylic paint. I then selected 3 different papers that I thought would compliment the colours and tones in the focal paper - the 'winter forest 'that would set the scene for my Winter Wonderland. Only one of the papers is from a Christmas collection pad- the type print from Tim Holtz Christmas paper pad ,2017 release , the other two are from 'Engraver' paper pad by Prima Marketing. 

I cut them to size (8 of each paper) and adhered them to the front of each box, trimming around each of the box front indents by hand.

The Winter Wonderland 

I came across this fabulous 12x12 scrapbook paper of a wintry forest by Kaisercraft and knew it would be be perfect for my project.

I measured, cut and adhered the main panel in place and then because I'd cut from the middle of the 12x12 I was able to use the remaining edges of the paper for the sides and top of the window box ensuring I lined them up well to achieve a continual flow of the forest.

The base of the window box is covered with Tim Holtz Grit Paste and DecoArt Snowtex, sprinkled while wet with a little Distress Stickles glitter- just to achieve the odd twinkle and glisten here and there. 

The 2 gates are mdf, primed with gesso, painted with Tim Holtz Ground Espresso distress paint, DecoArt Paynes grey media fluid paint

and finished off with a touch of snow!L

Looks like someone's managed to snag a selfie ...

Meet Buster and his best pal Jake who have enjoyed a fun filled day cross-country skiing in the Winter Wonderland - ok Jake skied, Buster ran! 

Either way it was one of those 'Remember the Now' kinda days

Snow buddies forever!

My 'Winter Wonderland' project!

I'm not sure at present whether I will use this as an Advent Calender or as a storage unit, so have held back on adding numbers to the drawers until I have decided?? I'll keep you posted :) .

I hope I have offered some creative inspiration and that you will look to joining in Sandy's challenge. Be sure to stop by A Vintage Journey to see the gallery of wonderfully inspiring 'Winter Wonderland' projects created by some of our very talented Creative Guides.

As always at the end of the challenge there will be one lucky winner chosen by Random. Org who will receive our Sponsors Prize who this time is 

Andy Skinner

The Creative Guides will also choose 3 Pinworthy Winners who will not only win a Pinworthy badge to display on their blog but will also be invited to join us as a Guest Designer for a future challenge.

I would like to enter this project into the following Challenges:

CountryView Challenges: December 2017 Christmas

Creative Artiste Challenge #33 Mixed media 'Anything Goes'

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #43 'Believe' 

(Create a Mixed Media holiday project with your interpretation of our inspirational photo) 

The 'colour tones' and the 'glisten' in the photo were my inspiration

Emerald Creek Dares - Happy Holidays, Anything Goes 

Thank you so much for stopping by today, for your follows and for always being so kind and generous with your comments. It always makes my heart happy to know my creativity is appreciated. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Take care

and 

keep on the happy side

Amanda

xxx