I'm late (what else is new LOL!!!)

Of course I 'm late with my entry for the Craft Barn challenge. I have just been so darn busy lately, can't help it ladies! Anyhow, I just managed to get this page done in the nick of time. The letter L wasn't a problem, I had the idea straight away, it was that bl.... window that caused me trouble! I just couldn't bring myself to put it across my lovely Make it Crafty's March Hare, so I ended up with making the window out of acetate, in order not to cover up my page too much. Loved the endresult, but then I had to make the pictures. Ever tried taking a picture of something with acetate on? PFfff...

I started my page with a background made with gelatos, for the sky I used Snow and for the grass Margarita combined with Pistachio. I printed the March Hare against a background called Cobblestone Path on tissue paper. First I cut it out roughly around the image, and drew thin pencillines on the background. I painted that area white and then glued the image down with matte gel medium, after which I coloured it in with my Copics.

The clouds were made with gesso which I heated with my heatgun until is started bubbling. That gives is some texture. I then coloured a little bit of grey here and there with a Copic maker.

And then I owe you the word so here it is. I'm off to visit you all! Have a great weekend, hugs Frea

Challenge:
http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.ca/2013/10/alpha-dictionary-challenge-letter-l.html

Hello ladies, autumn is here....!

I wanted to try out my new Pan Pastels and had seen this video by France Papillon, where she used them as a resist. So here's my take. After gessoing the page I added letters with a stencil and texture paste. I then coloured the entire page with green and yellow Pan Pastel, after which I painted the paige with a green acrylic paint. Before that was completely dry, I wiped with a baby wipe and where I wiped the PP colours reappeared. Then I took some Distress Paints which I added just here and there, and sprayed water on them in order to let them work their magic and drip (love drippage).

I stamped the spider directly on the page but all the other figures were stamped on DCP paper and coloured with Copics. The forest 'soil' was made with some washi tape which I glues down with matte gel medium.

The cats have eyes made with a tiny drop of Glossy Accents. The autumn leaves I bought ages ago for next to nothing, and I have loads left.

Now this little fellow is my latest Stampotique stamp and I think he is so adorable, in a quirky sort of way LOL!

 Love the colours of this spread and love the way it turned out. I sure hope you like it too. Hugs Frea
Challenges:
http://panpasteluk.blogspot.nl/2013/10/wk42-pan-pastel-uk-challenge-autumn.html
http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/challenge-spooky/
http://www.sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/all-crafts-challenge-octobernovember.html
http://artisticinspirationschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/
http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-71-lets-stencil.html
http://haunteddesignhouse.blogspot.nl/2013/10/hdh-178-macabre-monday-zombies-and.html
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.nl/2013/10/mim-163-with-bugaboo-stamps.html
http://craftcreatoins.blogspot.nl/p/new-challenge-2110.html
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/challenge-31-anything-goes.html
http://creativeinspirationspaint.blogspot.nl/2013/10/inspired-by-anything-goes.html
http://onestitchatatimechallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-186.html

Andy Skinner was in the Netherlands and I attended his workshop!

Together with my sister who is also my bestest friend, I attended the Andy Skinner workshop at the Craftorij in Ede yesterday, and boy did we enjoy ourselves. The Craftorij is a brilliant shop, I am so glad that it is nearly 2 hours drive away from where I live, I could go bankrupt on that shop LOL!!
Anyhow, here's what we made.

It's all white cardstock, well so it was when we started hehe! After lots of embossing and adding layers and layers of paint and stamps it looks like this, sort of faux metal look. I think it looks very Tim Holtzy like, and me like a lot!! Here are some detailpictures, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my project. Have a great weekend y'all!! Hugs Frea

Challenges:
http://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.nl/2013/10/anything-goes-with-2-sponsors.html
http://www.inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-41-anything-inkspirational.html
http://stampinfortheweekend.blogspot.nl/2013/10/anything-goes.html
http://jwscrapshack.blogspot.ca/2013/10/ffc22-anything-goes-challenge.html
http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.ladyanneschallenges.com/3/post/2013/10/12-stamp-anything-goes-challenge.html
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/10/welcome-to-pennys-challenge-149.html
http://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.nl/2013/10/its-anything-goes-time.html
http://stamp-n-doodle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/stamp-n-doodle-challenge-16th-october.html

Sometimes I wish I could see beyond the horizon.....

The other day I went to this craft shop I had never been before and found this lovely stencil with faces on it by Andy Skinner. And as it happens, tomorrow I will be attending a workshop by Mr Skinner himself, how cool is that?!
Anyhow, I made this spread in my Donna Downey journal with the stencils and my brandnew Pan Pastels and Distress Paints. Love how it turned out. It has an autumn feel to it, I think due to the colours I used.

Now this page started out as a 'junk' page, in that I had made some acrylic wash by mixing acrylic paint with gel medium for another page, but of course I made way too much, and so I used the left over wash with a stencil on this empty page. That is what you see at the bottom, and after painting over it with Distress Paints I was sorry to see it covered up, and so I decided to take some sanding paper to it and I sanded the paints off again. Love it!

I painted the faces with black acrylic paint, and used the stencil on the inclusions too, so they would show also when the flap of the inclusion is lying on top of them.

Now when I finished my page it looked to me as if the face on the right page was looking down from the sky, and so these words popped into my mind. I don't think it's somebody's quote, I just made it up, so now it is my quote LOL!

Hope you like my spread, I sure enjoyed making it! Have a great day, hugs Frea
Challenges:
http://feelingcraftychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.inspirecreationz.blogspot.nl/2013/10/october-craft-challenge-autumn-calling.html

http://kreativeinkauf-challenge.blogspot.de/2013/10/8-vom-1510-141113.html
http://www.allwayssomethingcreative.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-61-herbst-halloween.html
http://thecraftingcafe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/anything-goes-dt-call.html
http://seemacrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/october-challenge-autumn-colours.html
http://memascrafts.blogspot.nl/2010/10/october-challenge-coat-of-colors.html
http://scribblesdesignschallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/10/scribbles-designs-challenge-10-shades.html
http://visibleimage.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/colours-of-autumn-visible-image.html
http://tokbobok.blogspot.nl/2013/10/tbc-5-autumn.html
http://thecupboardtrilogychallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-16-halloweenfall.html
http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/ptt142-color-challenge.html
http://www.ttcrd.blogspot.nl/2013/10/ttcrd-october-15-22-challenge.html
http://bearlymine-challenges.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-108-anything-goes.html

So proud of my 'students'!

I would like to share some pictures with you of the canvasses my two students did during a mixed media workshop they did with me. Neither have any experience in mixed media and I must say the endresults are stunning.
Now this first one was done by Heike, and she chose yellow as her basic colour.

On the sides of her painting she used a three step crackle medium with a slightly darker colour.

She added some leaves with modeling paste which she coloured with Perfect Pearls. Then she stamped some script stamp in the background and added some stamped tissue paper and lace with matte gel medium. She sprayed some Glimmer Mists on the canvas which she let drip.

At the bottom she wanted to stamp some trees, so she used the Tattered Angels stamp and Versamark to stamp. The stems of the trees were embossed with Distress embossing powder Walnut Stain. For the front tree she used Ranger Antiquities embossing powder Verdigris, and for the tree in the back, we mixed this with some darker green embossing powder by Wow called primary evergreen and I just love the depth that was created.

The second one was done by Wendy and it is totally different, but equally beautiful.

She made this canvas specifically for her twin boys who are still babies, s the colours had to match the colours in their room. She too started with some crackle medium on the sides of her canvas. She then added some stamping in the background and used 2 heart masks by Tattered Angels. First she went around with an acrylic paint which she mixed slightly darker than the background, and then sheused modeling paste for the inside of the hearts. Then she added turqoise hearts with a Grunge heart stencil by TCW.

She then used tissue paper which she stamped with all sorts of different hearts in brown Stazon and glued it down with matte gel medium, after which she sprayed with Lindy's stamp gang Starburst spray Azure Sea Asters on the hearts and let it drip down.

She then added some fabric tape and some rose ribbon at the top of her canvas.

Now the quote had to be about her boys, and I just love the one she picked. It's by Shakespeare.

So, I think now you'll understand why I was so proud. I really enjoyed teaching this class, and hope there will be more to follow.

Finally, August in October (blush)...)

As usual I am sooooo late! So without further ado, here's my calendar page for August. I promiss next week I will catch up since we are having autumn break here. A whole week off, wooohooo!

I started by painting the background cream with acrylic paint. Then I added some crackle medium here and there and after that had dried I went over with taupe coloured acrylic paint and it crackled nicely.

Now that goldcoloured roundish shape at the bottom of my page was made with my brandnew Crafters Workshop stencil called Well Rounded and my brandnew very first bottle of Golden acylic paint in Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (whoever comes up with such a name for a colour??). I then stamped several vintage looking stamps in a grey archival ink. All over the page I stamped Augustus (which is the Dutch name for August).

Now the circles for the days were cut out of a sheet of paper from K & Company calles Ancestry and it is actually 'ancient' LOL!! I added distress ink with a blender tool on one side so as to create a shadow, which I think worked very well.
Hope you like my spread. I will start on september and october a.s.a.p. Hugs Frea
Challenges:
http://www.craftysentiments.blogspot.nl/2013/10/anything-goes.html
http://creativecraftchallenges2.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-20-anything-goes.html
http://www.sparklingblackrose-craftmylife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/all-crafts-challenge-octobernovember.html
http://eurekastamps.blogspot.nl/2013/10/eureka-stamps-weekly-challenge-60.html
http://fitztownchallengeblog.blogspot.nl/2013/09/challenge-10-anything-goes-with-twist_30.html
http://ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.nl/2013/10/mim-161-with-kenny-k.html
http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.nl/2013/10/october-anything-goes-challenge.html
http://avenue613.blogspot.nl/2013/10/challenge-40-anything-goes-no-twist.html
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/challenge-30-anything-goes.html
http://thesisterhoodofcrafters.blogspot.nl/2013/10/its-anything-goes-time.html#comment-form
http://www.ladyanneschallenges.com/3/post/2013/10/12-stamp-anything-goes-challenge.html
http://www.inklingsandyarns.com/2013/10/inky-linky-32/

Craft Barn letter J for Jonquil.

Hi girls, how was the start of your week? For me it's the last week before autumn break, and boy am I ready for it!! Ahyhow, for the j-word of the Craft Barn I picked a word I hadn't heard of before: jonquil, which is a yellow narcissus. I started the page by using several brown colours of Distress Inks and applying them with a blending tool.

The image I found on the internet; I printed it out and fussy cut it. It really took me ages to do, especially in between the leaves. I glued it down with a mat gel medium, but found it didn't stand out enough against the background, so I decided to draw all around the image with a brown fineliner.

Before I glued the image down, I stamped on the background with my brandnew background stamp from Kaisercraft called Lattice and a darkgreen archival ink.

Here's the word; I put some masking tape over it before I did my background and to highlight it I went around with my brown fineliner. The roots of the bulb were too fine to be cut out, so I cut them off and drew them on with a grey fineliner. At the bottom of the page and at the top I stamped with brown archival ink and a Paper Artsy stamp from the set Swirls & Curls 4.

Hope you like my page. I was actually quite a simple one this time, but I really enjoyed making it.
Have a great week you all. Hugs Frea

I will enter my card at the Craft Barn. http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.ca/2013/09/alpha-dictionary-challenge-letter-j_29.html