Through the porthole

I love paying with cardboard. It has so many uses and was ideal to show off Lynette Jasper's Sprays. Here is the first project I made for the Pretty Gets Gritty Shows on Hochanda TV Friday 27th July at 10am and 3pm.

This took quite a bit of work but I love the way it looks like the inside of a rusty shipwrecks porthole showing the blue sea and its underwater sea life outside.

The bolts around the porthole are chipboard discs and a flatback bead on top.

The rivets are also flat backed pearls

And the lovely fish, crab and Starfish are all on the show.

The process I followed was this:
I used the back of my canvas as a base. I cut pieces of old corrugated cardboard and fitted it around the canvas and the MDF wreath shape I used as my port hole.
When I was happy with the look I stuck all of the cardboard in place but not the wreath.
Once dry I peeled off some of the cardboard to show the corrugated texture.
Next I added pearl as rivets along the joins in the cardboard. Once dry I started to Build my colours by painting the whole thing (and the wreath) in black gesso.Once dry it started spraying the background with Lynette's sprays, starting with the chalk sprays and allowing it to dry between each colour.
I followed the same process with the wreath/porthole but before I sprayed I used some of the marble effect texture paste to make the rust marks around the edges. Next I sprayed to match the background.
For the sea I scrunched up some kids drawing paper and then flattened it out. I then used the new chalk sprays and powders to create the background. I allowed this to dry naturally so that I got maximum lines and puddle marks.
I placed the paper under the porthole and stuck both in place on the background making sure that i created a small dip in the sea piece for the sea creatures.
Lastly I painted and stuck the sea life in the post hole and allowed to dry thoroughly.
The canvas looks very different in different lights. You saw the finished piece at the top of the page. Here is another photo taken outside.

If you have any questions please comment below and make sure you watch Lynette Jasper. The design team have all been busy making wonderful inspiration for you.
#prettygetsgritty #lynettejasper #hochandatv #craftbuddy #mixedmedia #newnanny

It's just a bottle

As my love of mixed media has grown I have found myself squirrelling away all manner of bottles and jars. I just can't bear to throw them out and as if that wasn't enough I have actually been buying empty bottles from Poundland and adding those to me collection too.
Here is photo progress of one of these bottles and its transformation into a usable water bottle for the table.

So to start I painted the bottle with white gesso. I used Prima's Heavy Gesso as it covers really well. Next I added all manner of stones, sequins, beads, etc to the surface using 3D Matte Medium. I then left it overnight to dry thoroughly. 

Next I went over everything twice with the Heavy White Gesso and allowed to dry thoroughly. 

To finish I sprayed the bottle using three different sprays in blue, green and white. When dry I then dripped some more colour onto the top of the bottle and sprayed with water to allow it to run easily through the embellishments. 

Doing something like this is easy and cheap to do. You can use ANYTHING like small stones from the garden, buttons, shells from the beach, the possibilities are endless.x

Beginners Kit

I often hear people say that they would like to have a go at Mixed Media but that they don't have any of the things that they need. With this in mind I have made up a beginners kit with a few bits and bobs you can use to play with. Here is the video of the contents with me yapping on in the background lol

You can find this in my Etsy Store The Kit Cafe and if you click on the tutorials tab at the top of the page you can find the recipe for the Texture Paste. Have fun xx

Die-versity Number One

I tried this technique using die cuts for a class a few months ago and decided to have another go to make some of my own art for the walls in my house.

I discovered two things which you need to know if you are going to have a go at this. 
Firstly use a white water colour paper. It wasn't until this morning that I realised my paper has a grey/blue tinge to it so I going to have to do it again.

Secondly less is more. You definitely need to leave more white space. The framed card looks much better minus the greeting of course.

So here is the process video speed at x2. Hope you enjoy it and if you have a go please leave a link to your piece in the comments.

Sorry that the design is sometimes out of shot. Definitely didn't look like that when I was filming. Will improve next time xx

Christmas In July

Yes I know beautiful sunny weather outside but if you don't start now you won't be ready in time lol. This next project is one I made for Lynette Jasper's DT Pretty Gets Gritty airing in Hochanda TV today.

It is very difficult to show how beautiful the sprays are used on mdf but here are a few close ups which might help

and here is the process I followed.

Stick your baubles around the mdf wreath using Gel Medium and making sure that they are piled on top of each other. Leave to dry (this takes about two hours in this heat)

Now paint the whole wreath with white gesso and while this is drying pick out a word, some trees, stars and poinsettias and also cover with white gesso.

Use your sprays to colour the wreath and embellishments and allow to dry naturally (this will make the colours more intense.

Stick your trees to the back of the wreath as shown in the main picture.

Add the poinsettias, stars to the wreath and add some glitter to the stars.

Add the red dotty paper to the back of the wreath and stick in place.

To finish heat emboss your word using gold embossing powder (I did this twice) and stick the word in place.

Here are a list of the products I have used. You can find them all HERE

Craft Buddy Mixed Media Double Sided Papers.
MDF Wreath Blank
Lynette Jasper set of 96 MDF Baubles
Lynette Jasper set of 18 MDF Words
Lynette Jasper set of 48 MDF Trees
Lynette Jasper set of 78 MDF Christmas Shapes
Pearl Spray Winter Cherry (FDPS 10)
Spray Chameleon Gentle Shabby (FDSH 03)
Spray Metallic Greens With Gold (FDML 17)

I have another project to share tomorrow xx

Playing with butterflies

I love butterflies and of course I have many, many butterfly stamps so I thought it was time I used them.

You can make this really easily and I think that the white space really makes the butterflies stand out.

Colouring has been done using Pro Markers but you could easily use Distress Oxides or paints x