Sunday, June 19, 2016

Time Moves On

Well it sure has been a busy time here at my house. I am painting and designing my master bedroom and is a big undertaking but the end is in sight! I really wanted to share this Time piece and stamping into modeling paste again. Fun stuff, this is sort of where my stenciling brayer technique came from. Anyhow, I altered this cover. It was black and white with a lot of poof to it, like it was stuffed with something and I figured it was TIME to change it. Lol.
I started with DecoArt black gesso, then some DecoArt modeling paste. Waited for it to dry a bit then grabbed lots of stamps and stamped away! Then added some skulls, an old door plate, some gears and some more skulls, and a pull handle. An eclectic mix but it makes sense in my brain. :) Then painted with black gesso again. This is an Andy Skinner technique.
I then applied a wash of Titanium white paint, let it dry, then a wash of my new favorite DecoArt color Prussian Blue Hue! Gorgeous color!!! I left some areas white for a nice ghostly contrast. 
Random spots of DecoArt Q-gold and Red Oxide. The Media line of acrylic paints from DecoArt are awesome sauce for layering. 
You may have noticed I left the drawer pull alone. This is a play on words. My Skellies and other pieces have been "aged" by time and have essentially died but metal stays around a lot longer hence the sentiment "timeless". Although I did apply some paint to see what it would look like, in the end I wiped the paint off.  Multiple dry bushing with Titanium white was done as the last step. This design took time because of the layers of paint and I wanted to try different colors. There was some Phthalo Green-Blue and Titan Buff but I covered those up. 
Hope y'all are having an amazing weekend and enjoying everything you do! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this altered cover with these challenges: 











Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Steampunk Bee Keeper Bracelet

Another awesome sauce challenge awaits at SanDee&Amelie's Steampunk challenge! This month as usual, it is Anything Goes-Steampunk/Industrial! We have some amazing prizes up for grabs but in order to win you have to play. Easy right? Yeppers! I started this process with no ideas and just created freely. Toilet paper anyone? Mine looks a bit different than most. Hehe! It's a Steampunk Bee Keeper bracelet!

I started out with a regular roll of toilet paper (minus the toilet paper) and cut it in half, then used a straight edge to make sure all of my edges were good. Then I grabbed some black Leather Paper from Sizzix (totally loving this stuff!) and ran it through an embossing folder. I glued this to the front of my toilet paper roll and spritzed the back with some water. While it was drying I put a few HEAVY books on it. 
Then I cut out some leftover fabric to fit the back of the toilet paper roll (the side that sits against your skin). That was glued with Tacky Glue, not something that I use a lot but glue that I will totally use again. 
I punched some holes on each side of the bracelet and used waxed thread to create my closure. Very hard to lace this up by yourself but somehow I managed. BTW-I have 7 tattoos. This one on my wrist is the day when I met my husband. V.II.MMX

The lace up step should have been done last as I had to take out the thread in order for the bracelet to lay flat while I used metallics paints, mica powders, LSG sprays and magicals. 

I then added by metal embellishments and glued this with glossy accents as well as using brads to help anchor everything. 

I do believe this turned out okay and may have to try my hand at a few more. Here is a side view. Yes, that is my arm and yes I have multiple scars on both of my arms. Scars always tell a story. :)

I do hope I have shared something new with you and have fun creating! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would love to share this design with these challenges:


Bees come out midsummer in my neck of the woods. 




Sunday, June 5, 2016

The Birds and the Bee's

Hello lovelies! What a whirlwind May was! Whew. Thankfully the warm weather is finally here and I can sit outside and enjoy hearing the sounds of Spring although I don't care for getting stung by wasps. Seems like those critters set up a nice hive in my outdoor umbrella and my dog and I were both stung. Ouch! We are better now and got rid of the hive so everything is good but this helped inspire my design and the theme for this month at Anything But Cute!


I am the hostess this month at Anything But Cute and the theme is: The Birds and the Bees! With the lovely warm weather in my neck of the woods, I am seeing so many wonderful birds and bee's, so I would love to see those in your mixed media makes! Pull out those bird stamps, think of feathers and maybe some honeycomb. Or you could even go for a non-traditional interpretation like a family crest that has a bird emblem on it. The sky is the limit but NO BUTTERFLIES please!

I started with an old red book (I bought a bag of books for $1) and lathered some modeling paste to it, then waited for it to mostly dry then I grabbed a stencil and used a brayer to push the stencil design into the modeling paste. It worked for the most part. I painted it with DecoArt paint then added a layer of crackle glaze. Once the glaze was dry Raw Umber antiquing cream was added then wiped with a damp baby wipe.
Then I traced out my shield pattern onto some thick matboard and played with some chippies until I like the layout. The picture below is what everything looked like before I went to town with the mixed media part. Hehe! 
All of the chippies were painted with white acrylic paint then a layer of DecoArt crackle paint and when that was dry and the cracks showed it was time to apply a layer of Raw Umber antiquing cream and wipe it with a baby wipe. The shield was painted with Tansparent Red Oxide, a layer of crackle glaze and then Raw Umber. 
While the book was drying I worked on the spine piece. I used paper leather and ran it through an embossing folder then used multiple Distress Inks to age it. 
It took me a loooooong time to find an eagle I liked and so this metal pendant was antiqued with alcohol inks, crackle glaze and antiquing cream. The metal  axe looking swords behind the bird were fringed up with alcohol inks and dirt. 
I applied the chippies with Tombow glue and added bronze brads to the shield and built up the bird nest then glued the bird and the axe things with glossy accents. 
The picture above shows the dirty bird with some rusty goodness but I had to change the design because it didn't feel "done" to me. You all know how that goes. So I used the white alcohol inks and paints and was finally satisfied. :)
Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome sauce day! Feel free to see what my lovely teamies have designed as well. Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this family crest book design with these lovely challenges: 






Anyone that works with red paint knows how messy it gets! My red acrylic paint bottle exploded to top everything off. Hehe! Oops.