Gelli Time- A Vintage Journey, April 2020 Challenge

Hi Everyone and Welcome

Hope you are all safe and well? 

Today we launch our new challenge over at A Vintage Journey and this time lovely Julia is our host. Her theme is

Gelli Time

'Yes, get those Gel plates out and have a play! Printing and mark taking are unique and somewhat addictive when you start, so let us see what you create and how you use your prints in your project. Just remember to create in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journalling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.'

I don't profess to be a well seasoned Gelli plater but I always have fun playing so I am more than happy to be contributing a project for Julia's challenge.

I worked with a few of my favourite paints, mediums, stamps and stencils and of course my gel plate so there was no shortage of 'happy' here in my art space. 

Heres my project: a Gel printed project - a grungy mixed media ATB Desk Tidy

As you can see its currently keeping some of my paintbrushes (both new and used) tidy but knowing me that may change in time.

Now unfortunately I got so involved in the creativity that I failed to capture any process shots! I know, 'my bad' but I can give you a narrated tour around the desk tidy.

I covered all the sides of a That's Crafty 4x4 mdd ATB with a stenciled gel print. The prints were created with a gel plate, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints (Snowflake, Midnight, Byzantium) and StencilGirl ®products 4x4 stencils designed by Seth Apter.

Even though I used the same colours throughout there were variations in tone on each of the prints- That's the joy and fun surprise of gel printing!

Another great joy to a grungy girl like me is when you create areas like this ↓

Oh they do make me happy! 

Even happier when they are surrounded by some grungy crackle! 

Some text stamping with one of my fave Seth Apter Stamps by I.O, white splatters and loose black doodling added more detail and interest to the stencilled prints

And a Tim Holtz big chat sticker added some interrelated words 

HOPE

DESIRE

WISH

ACCEPT

Words that convey some of what I am feeling during these uncertain and concerning times. Maybe you can relate?

I had a great time creating with my gel plate and am pleased to now have a desk tidy for my brushes. Thanks Julia for the challenge ! 

I hope you have enjoyed your time here with me today and that maybe I have offered some inspiration.

If you haven't already, be sure to pop by A Vintage Journey to see the inspired projects created by some of our talented Creative Guides. 

We hope you will be able to join in this challenge as we always look forward to seeing your creativity. As aways at the end of the challenge there will be 3 Pinworthy Winners chosen and each winner will be awarded a Pinworthy badge and their winning project will be pinned to our Pinterest Board. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by. 

Your visits, comments and follows mean alot and are greatly appreciated. 

Stay safe and well, Guys 

Take care 

Amanda 

x

StencilGirl® Guest Designer !!!

Hi Everyone and Welcome

Today is one of those 'pinch me is this for real' moments in my creativity journey as I am super excited to be a StencilGirl® Guest designer !!

I have long been a fan of StencilGirl® products and to be given this opportunity to share a piece of my creativity on their fantastic blog really is a dream come true for me ! 

A million thanks to Mary Beth, John, Mary and the team at StencilGirl® -to say I am thrilled, honoured and incredibly humbled is an understatement! 

So, I would like to invite you to join me over at StencilGirl® Talk to see my grungy mixed media Art Panel and read all about my stencil creativity. 

I hope you'll accept my invite and click here to be transported over to StencilGirl® Talk where I will be waiting to greet you. 

Hope to see you soon

Amanda 

x

Discovery Shield.....

Hi Everyone and Welcome

Hope you have all had a great week and are settling back into your usual daily life after the holiday season.

As usual for me today I'm over on That's Crafty's blog with my latest creativity.

After last weeks explosion of colour I've chosen this week to tone things down and work with more of a monochrome palette - blue, black and white. 

I've created my first Art panel of 2019!

Heres a quick sneak peak ....

If you like what you see and fancy seeing more then please feel free to join me over at That's Crafty. For the quickest route there just click here 

Hope to see you soon

Amanda 

x

Own Your Story....

Hi Everyone and Welcome 

As Today is Thursday I'm over at That's Crafty sharing my latest weekly project as a Guest Designer. 

This week I have created an 'art card' that features a couple of resist techniques and a few of my favourite stencils from StencilGirl® products.

If you would like to find out more details about my 'Own Your Story' art card then just click 

here for the quickest route there 

Hope to see you soon .....

Amanda 

x

Spookilicious- That's Crafty October 2018 Challenge : Guest Designer

Hi Everyone and Welcome 

Today sees the start of a new challenge over at That's Crafty and as I am currently one of their Guest Designers I have some creativity to share with you. The challenge this month is 'Spookilicious'. With Halloween approaching we would like you to share with us all your super spooky creativity . Dance with the devil, funk up your freak and have fun trick and treating us with your take on all things spookilicious. 

I am currently enjoying creating art panels/journal pages so that's what I've created scaling up my usual working size this time to A4!!! 

Let me introduce you to Mr Trick and Mr Treat ...

Here's the background story ....

It began with a piece of A4 mixed media paper. Colour was applied with fingers using Tim Holtz Distress Paints (Twisted Citron, Carved Pumpkin, Wilted Violet). I love painting this way - I find its helping me abandon my 'perfectionist' traits (to some degree) as well as being a fun way to create a really loose spread of colour super quick .

Sorry painty fingers = no photo at the 'colour only' stage but here's how it looked after stamping and stenciling.

The stenciling was outlined and highlighted with a white pen and there's some mark making n scribbly doodling too .

Here's some close ups of the stamping and stencilling - I used a couple of Tim Holtz Layering stencils (Twisted and Crossed)

aswell as a couple of Seth Apters (Discovery and Transform) Stencils by StencilGirl®Products

There's also some crackle stamping and 'For the eye' stamping (Tim Holtz Mr Bones stamp set).

So thats the background story...

...Now for the stars of the show themselves 'Mr Trick and Mr Treat (Tim Holtz / Stampers Anonymous  stamp set- Mr Bones). They take their place amongst the tangled twigs (Tim Holtz/ Sissix Tangled twigs thinlits die) and painty splatters

Mr Trick is stamped with Archival ink

and Mr Treat is created in just the same way,  only as he's the one with the 'Treats' he's been treated too (seemed only fair) with some heat embossing.

They both have a goggly eye -they are twins after all

and of course they both want to wish you a 'Happy Halloween!' 💀💀Mwahhhh

Mr Trick, Mr Treat and I hope you have enjoyed your time here today and that we have offered you some 'Spookilicious' inspiration .

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 this into the following challenge
Craft Stamper TIMI Challenge- October

I'll be back tomorrow with a sneak peak of my weekly GD project 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 and keep on the happy side 

Amanda

x

Dreamer...

HI Everyone 

Hope you are all doing good and you are having a great week 😊.  

As today is Thursday I'm over on That's Crafty's Blog sharing my weekly Guest designer project.  

Here's a sneak peak of my creativity this time using one of StencilGirl products© stencils ' 'Angel Circle designed by Kate Thompson. 

 'Dreamer' (as I have called her) and I would love for you to join us over there.

 You're just one click (here) away 

Hopefully we'll see you soon ..... 

Amanda

x

Be ..

Hi Everyone 

I'm back again today with a little sneak peak of a project I have made for my first weekly post as a Guest Designer over on That's Crafty blog. I would love for you join me over there where I am sharing the project in full and details of how I created it . Of course I had to use some of my much loved products - I wonder if you can guess what they may be? 

A little hint by way of that sneaky peak I mentioned may help .......

If you fancy joining me just click here and you will be transported over . 

Hope to see you soon ..... 

Amanda 

x

Get Sentimental- AVJ July 2018 Challenge ,

Hello Everyone and Welcome 

Hope you are all having a great summer and the sun is shining down on you wherever you are.
 As we are now at the end of the first week of July we have a new challenge starting today over at A Vintage Journey. Lovely Nikki is our host and her challenge theme is 

'Get Sentimental' 

'Let's see lots of sentiments on your project, whether they be words, poems or quotes. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk.'

I have made a piece of art 'on the round' for Nikki's challenge with admittedly only one quote but that one quote is made up of quite a few words that give pause for thought! They are what guided my creativity!

This was my first 'play time' using the fabulous stencil designed by Pam Carriker made by Stencil Girl- for me a must have as soon as I saw!

Working on mixed media paper I applied gesso and blended distress crayons through the inner circle and outer circle sections of the stencil

to create a sense of light and shadow (the light being 'what lies before us', the shadow being 'what lies behind us') breaking it up with a delicate touch of colour (what lies within us)

I then cut out the circle design and adhered to a That's Crafty MDF round which I'd painted earlier with black acrylic paint. 

 For the silhouette head and 'Rays. I created a 'duplicate' and double embossed it using my much loved 'Rocky Road' Baked Texture embossing powder by Seth Apter/ Emerald Creek.

Look at the amazing texture, the variations in colour

the depth and grunginess of this particular flavour - these really are little pots of magic !

I then aligned the silhouette to the background stenciling, adhered in place and embossed the edges of the MDF round again with Rocky Road. 

A Tim Holtz quote token provided the words for this project and each one was highlighted using a picket fence distress crayon

'What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us.' 

I hope I have offered some creative inspiration with my 'Get Sentimental' project. Some of my fellow teammates have been busy getting 'sentimental' too so be sure to stop by A Vintage Journey to see their fabulous projects.  

Thank you so much for taking time out of you day to stop by. Your visits along with your follows, kind comments and support are continually appreciated.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges :
Creative Artiste #40 Challenge: 'Anything Mixed Media Goes'.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and hope to see you again soon . 

Until then
Keep on the 'happy side' 

Take care 

Amanda

xxx

Use a Quote! A Vintage Journey May 2017 Challenge

Hi Everyone and Welcome
 

Hope you are all ok and a good week has been had by all. Today we are all set to start a new Challenge over at A Vintage Journey and this time our lovely Jenny is the host of the challenge:
'Use a Quote!'
'Take a quote! Any quote! Whether it be on a stamp , a sticker, handwritten or sourced from the internet and make it the focal point of your vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journalling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk project. '

For this challenge I have created a piece of 'grungy' Art using a That's Crafty! 6x6 MDF Panel that allows my chosen 'Quote' to take centre stage. I'm a real lover and collector of quotes/sayings and meaningful words but I made no reference to the many I have gathered over the years as I knew which quote I wanted to use right from the get go and thanks to Seth Apters fabulous stencil,  'You got this', I was able to create my project. I have quoted these words to myself so often during the tougher, darker times of life!  The times when the self doubt, worries and concerns are heightened or the chronic pain is relentless (hence the colour palette used and the textures created) These three words act as a kind of 'note to self'!

The Quote panel
A Thats Crafty 6x6 MDF panel was primed with gesso before being painted with Deco Art Black Acrylic paint. The quote itself was then created by applying Deco Art Crackle Paste through Seth's 6x6 stencil, leaving the paste to dry and crack naturally. Once dry there were some areas where the cracks were hardly visible (the application of crackle paste had been too thin) so I risked applying more paste hoping it would give a better crack. It did even though the crackle was more closely knit.

Black acrylic paint and gilding wax helped enhance the cracks 



and a few red splatters finished off the quote panel.

The background panel.
This is an 8x8 mdf panel found in my stash and primed with gesso (similar panels can be purchased at That's Crafty.). The paints used were Tim Holtz distress paints-Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot, Picket Fence, Aged Mahogany. Application was with brush,dry brush, brayer and fingers and removed as and when with kitchen towel and damp wet wipes. I had no definite plan I just went with the flow, followed my muse and really enjoyed the process.

The detail comes in the way of some scratchy lines created using my fingernail (they aren't just for manicuring ),

some of Seth Apters fabulous stamps- Dot matrix, Morse Code, Tattered Screen (My new faves) with Archival ink (Jet Black, Watering Can, Red Geranium)

and following through from the quote panel some red flicks and splatters

The quote panel is mounted onto a piece of black card stock and adhered centrally onto the back ground panel

and that's my piece of meaningful grungy art complete.

I hope my Art has offered some inspiration and if you haven't already be sure to stop by A Vintage Journey where theres a gallery of fabulous inspirational projects created by my fellow Creative Guides.
We hope you will join us in out 'Use a Quote' challenge and as always at the end of this challenge there will be one lucky winner chosen by Random Org who will receive our Sponsors prize which this month is a £20 gift card kindly donated by That's Crafty.

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 into the following challenges:
The Craft Stamper TIMI May Challenge - 'Anything Goes'
Creative Artiste Challenge #26- 'Anything MIxed Media Goes'
Altered Eclectics May Challenge
Mixed media Monthly Challenge #36 'Put a Stamp On It'
(stamps used on the background panel)

STAMPlorations- May Mixed Media Challenge

Thank you for stopping by today. Your visits, comments and follows are very much appreciated. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend
Take Care
Amanda
xxx