Tuesday 31 May 2016

Cold Enamelled Tiles, Oak Tree....2 versions


I created 2 versions of my twin tiles as the first attempt didnt produce the results i was after....although they are cool in themselves....Here i will show you how i created both sets of tiles. Starting with the second version...

Ingredients

* Efco Cold Enamelling Starter Kit
* Aluminium Tiles
* Spectrim Noir Pens
Stencils created on coke cans using * Crafters Companion Mixed media dies and X-Cut dies

*Products purchased from Hochanda

How To Version 2

1. Both of the tiles i used here  had used previously to play on....i coated them both with white Cold Enamel powder and 'fired' them in my little stove to create a white base to work on

2. Using Spectrum Noir pens and starting with the furthest point and work forwards...colour in the sky and distant hills


 3. I am using the chisel end for a solid application and if ink from previous colour colours a pen i scribble it out onto paper......Keep working forward building in the nearer hills, the Hedgerows are added with the bullet tip and 'scribbled' for a little texture



4. Keep moving forward until u have a landscape of sorts...i love the effects of the alcohol pens on the cold enamelling....almost watercolour...gawgeous




5.Using the coke can branch stencils add a branch to each tile and fire it....this will also fix the background into the cold enamel.....Once cool i added shading with the bullet tip end of a dark brown.

6.In several firings add acorns, shade with pens....then begin to add leaves


7. You will note that i have used 3 shades of green to create the leaves, while the starter kit only has one, to create the dark green i premixed some of the green with ultramarine blu and a dash of black and the light green is green premixed with yellow.



VERSION 1


Ingredients

* Efco Cold Enamelling Starter Kit
* Aluminium Tiles
Crafters Companion Mixed media dies 
  X-Cut dies
  Coke Cans 

*Products purchased from Hochanda

How To Version 1

1. Use 2 new aluminium tiles and key them with sandpaper...this seems to help the enamel stick to the tile but if you forget dont panic.

2. Create the sky with white and turquiuse...swirl with a cocktail stick and then fire, add some clouds by gently waving pot from left to right (white with a touch of black added) and refire



3.Tear a peice of paper to make a slightly wavy line and start building in the background firing between each application of powder...as the hills come forward feel free to add extra 'wonk' to the paper...for hilly effect.





4. To create the hedgerows i tore a wonky line out ofpaper and then went along and nibbled bits out of the tear to create trees




5. Now you have your background its time to die cut some bits from your coke cans....2 branches, 12 acorns, 28 oak leaves and the toadstool foreground...give them a gentle key remember to be careful, those edges are sharp.


6. Enamel all the die cuts in required colours...use a scrap of paper to separate colours...

7. Layer a fine coat of clear enamel powder and then add the enamelled die cuts and fire.....you will notice that the cuts wont lay flat...dont panic just make sure all your required peices are added and the fire one final time


8. When the final firing has softened all the enamel, remove and press a cold tile on top of the hot tile as hard as possible to push the metal cuts into the softened enamel.


I hope you have enjoyed these two versions of the same idea....Im off to play now lol


Wednesday 25 May 2016

Baby Girl Christening Card



This was a Baby Girl Christening Card i created for a friend many moons ago.....its a cute pic and i thought i would share what i have. Actually bought to mind by watching the Rowandean shows on Hochanda yesterday.

Ingredients

  Water Soluble Fabric
  Stranded Cotton in Variagated Brown, Variagated Red/Purple, Variagated Pink and Green
  Peice of back Ground Fabric
  Flower Gems
  Cute Charms
  Gold Thread

How To


1. Draw your picture...i traced the rocking horse but the bear is all my own handywork  :-)

2. Trace the final image onto water soluble fabric and embroider carefully ensuring all the stitches are linked so the picture won't break up when you dissolve the fabric.

3. Dissolve the Soluble fabric and allow to dry

4. Add a Bead eye, some gold thread for the tack and some cute baby related charms

5. Fix to a fabric backing...this is a peice or Red Silk, i stitched but you could glue.....add some grass in the foreground to 'ground' the rocking horse

6. Add some bling in the form of flower gems

7. Mount to Card...In this case i used an oval window card.......


I Hope you like this.....if you want to try it out you are more than welcome to the sketch, but dont forget to share your work if you do.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Machine Felting Project No 3... Glow in the Dark 'Twofer' Cityscape



Space.....the final frontier......I dont have many images for this one...not even a framed finished image......but this picture is a 'twofer' as it has alot of glow-in-the-dark elements incorperated into it....giving you a daytime image and a nightime...slightly spooky image. I love glow-in-the-dark products...so creepy and such fun...

Ingredients

* PFAFF FELTING MACHINE
* Variety of Merino wool Felting Tops
  Sheet of made black felt with glitter
  Glow-in-the-dark Fabric....white and blue
  Selection of scraps of knitting wool
  Glow-in-the-dark Pigment powder
* Sheena Douglas Stamps...'City in the Clouds'
* Archival Ink...Black
* Collal All Purpose Glue

* = Items purchased from Hochanda


How To

1. Stamp the planets onto the white Glow-in-the-dark Fabric with archival ink....cut out and glue to background felt

2. Cut a large planet and rings.....Machine felt fine scraps of merino wool onto planet to create cloud effects (These will come through dark against the planet when it glows)

3. Machine felt rows of knitting wool scraps onto ring to break the solid ring into individual rings....again this will show dark against the fabric when it glows

4. Fix Planet and rings to backing Felt (Glue)


5. Machine Felt brightly coloured merino clouds in the foreground

6. Stamp Sheena's City onto white Glow-in-the-dark Fabric, paint glue over cityscape to highlight windows and any areas you want to glow at night....Dust with the Glow-in-the-dark pigment powder and fix to image



7. Mount. Then Charge...either in sunlight or with a UV Torch and turn out the lights to get the nighttime effect 

There....I wish i'd taken more WIP pictures and that i had been able to capture the Nightscape...photography is definately not a strong point lol....Hope you enjoy




Thursday 19 May 2016

Autumn Trees, Pop Can Cold Enamelling


This picture evolved from my desire to test out the Crafters Companion mixed media dies.....more on that later...i am very very pleased with the results and have ideas flooding the grey matter like there's no tomorrow......which is weird cause my current reading matter of choice is Zombie apocalypse stuff.....

Ingredients

  MountBoard
  Acrylic Paints...i Favour System 3...Colours used = Cobalt Blue, White, Mars Black, Paynes Grey, Raw Umber, Pale Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Light Green, Deep Green and Pthalo Green.
* Cold Enamelling Starter Kit
* Crafters Companion Die'Sire Mixed Media Die Branch and leaves
  Pop Cans
* Spectrum Noir Alcohol Pens
* Imaginations Crafts Sparkle Medium = Peppermint, Hunters Green and Lapis Blue
* Imaginations Crafts Stencil = Dragonflies
* Collal 3D Glue
* Collal All Purpose Glue
* Double sided tape
  XCut Dies from a set that included an build a fox, leaves and an acorn....fab and im sure Hochanda will be bringing such to us in the future

* = Items purchased from Hochanda

How To

Background First....i sketched from the madness that is my head but you could use a picture just as easily and trace it onto your chosen peice of mountboard....The mountboard i used was a peice of scrap and i set the picture margins using the width of a ruler.  Once the sketch was laid in i painted the background with acrylic paints.....steps below












With the Back Ground Finished i Used my Mixed media dies from Crafters Companion to cut branches and leaves from pop cans....the branches will become trees. Some thoughts on the Crafters Companion Mixed Media Dies....well they cut alot of materials, they also chewed up my clear plates and the branch is now bent.....but they do cut probably a bit to well as when i tried mountboard i ended up with the pokey holes embossed as well.....but i cant dismiss them completely as they did cut..i think they need work....anyway...onwards

Once cut i coloured with spectrum Noir Alcohol pens


Then each leaf and Branch was cold enamelled with clear enamel....i wasnt happy with the leaves so each set was dusted with the relevant enamel colour to boost them a little... A Note here... the branches are flimsy and the enamel cracks and falls off because of this....be gentle

This is the fun bit, Starting left with the brown leaf trees and working as per pics i fixed each tree to the painting.





Closeup
 Wasnt satisfied and wanted to add more so i found my imagination Crafts Dragonfly Stencil and my sparkle Mediums and had a little play




Because i had smudges some of my stencil work i needed a few 'Butterflies' to cover the mistake....in this instance i used my Xcut Toadstool Dies to cut out a pop can and cold enamelled the cuts to make Fly Agaric Toadstools (My Fave) 

Before adding my little 'shrooms i mounted the picture...i chose a grey mount to push all the colours in the picture forwards...i toyed with blue which would have emphasised the sky and river in the background but decided against it as i wanted the foreground to be the focus....Grey it was

The Finishing touch is the little 'shrooms......and i am dead chuffed with the results...i hope you enjoy this 'How to' and look forward to seeing your ideas