Showing posts with label Xanderous Crafty Stash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xanderous Crafty Stash. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Blues and Metal

Today is the day that I can share my second guest design for Xandeous Crafty Stash! I enjoy working with metal trinkets and tid-bits and Naomi (the owner of XCS) was kind enough to let me have a play. With so many wonderful challenges going on I wanted to create a design that fit all so I decided to keep it blue. For some reasons blues are more easy for me to work with. I have been working on trying to create more layers, texture and composition in my designs. Exploring the possibility is what I am enjoying right now. Here is the final result.
I started by applying black gesso to my background board (compliments of Autumn from Sew Paper Paint) and adding some stenciling with black modeling paste. 
Then I had to decide on the composition of the pieces. Every metal piece you see is from Xandeous Crafty Stash! The paintbrushes are from my stash. Everything was glued down with multi matte medium. 
Once you have everything glued and in its place, apply more black gesso and cover it all up. 
To add even more texture I randomly slopped on some texture paste. That's the white gritty lookin stuff in the picture below. 
A thin coat of DecoArt Prussian Blue Hue was brushed over the entire piece, then another thin layer. Once that was dry I kept using different DecoArt blues to create different layers of blue colors. Cobalt Teal Hue, Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Turquoise Water. Around the edge, where most of the texture paste is I added some Quinacridone Gold. And some Q-gold in other random spots. 
Then came the dry brushing using different shades of white. The best white I use for dry brushing is DecoArt Titanium White.
I would like to share this design with these fun challenges:






*I was inspired by those lovely paintbrushes and the textured wall. 







Saturday, July 1, 2017

Altered Tree Bark

Hello all! My have the hands been busy this summer! Between my crafting and my power tools, I don't know what keeps me more happy. I have decided to alter a piece of a tree trunk that was leftover from a recent cut down. The tree was dead and needed to be taken down because it was so close to the house. This piece is for my guest spot over at Xanderous Crafty Stash. She has everything from metal trinkets, bling bling, rhinestones, lace appliques and so much more!
I started with applying a white wash to the bark just to lighten it up a bit.
 After the wash I used multiple stamps with black Archival ink and added some more interest to the bark. 
While that was drying I started heat embossing all of the wonderful metal trinkets from Xanderous Crafty Stash. Each metal piece got at least two coats of embossing powder just so I could make sure none of the metal peeked through.
I layered the metal pieces to create a butterfly and some metal coral colored flowers. Then I added some moss and grass. The sign "This Way" is from Prima. 
Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki
The stamping is subtle but in real life it pops more. Hopefully this picture below shows the stamping okay. 

I would like to share this design with:


I was inspired by all things nature