SheepSki Designs November Challenge

Hi again - yes I'm back again so soon!!

 Design Team Special Discount

Use code SKIMICHELLE10 at checkout at SheepSki Design Etsy Shop for 10% off any order.

This time I'm here with my November DT inspiration for this month's challenge over at SheepSki Design Facebook page. I chose Skully Roses for my image and decided to attempt to create something dark and metallic looking from things that are more wood or paper based.

I started out with a thick MDF plain wood heart base and glued some cogs and bones from Things to Alter around the perimeter of the front with Ranger Matt Medium. I then covered the front and back with a thin layer of Matt Medium and affixed normal aluminium kitchen foil all over, pressing around the cogs with a spatula to get it in the crevices. Once dry, I covered with acrylic paint in Walnut Brown, then in Black. I used Liquitex Heavy Gesso and Tim Holtz Crackle Glaze stencil and added the effect in the middle of the heart. Once dry, I added gold crackle paint around the outer edge area and onto the cogs and bones.  I then added pink blush gilding wax and gold ink to the crackle glaze area and on the raised cogs and bones to further accentuate them.

Here's a close up of the image and crackle glazed area.

The image was coloured with Polychromos pencils in reds, pinks, greys and black and I used Ranger Distress Crayons in grey around the perimeter of the image plus a touch of Wink of Stella on the lighter areas of the roses, the teeth and top of the skull, then roughed up the edges of the image with scissors then added some gold ink and dark brown distress crayon with my finger to the edges before affixing to the heart with Matt Medium.

As a final touch, I threaded a red ribbon through the hole and affixed a Tim Holtz buckle with a brad to the ribbon and created a buckled loop for hanging.

I hope you enjoy my latest project.

I will be entering this project into the following challenges:
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - #16 AG 
Daisy Chain Challenges - #2 All That Glitters
Your Scrapbook Place - Fall for November Challenge
Dream in Darkness - November Grumbacher's here
Dark n Daring Challenges - #7 Anything Goes 
Crafty Friends - #45 Blossoms

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle xxx

Feisty Ladies over at Left of Center

Hi again folks!!

Well it's that time agaiin, my fortnightly project over at Left of Center. This week's theme for our #146 Challenge is Feisty Ladies and our sponsor this week is Oddball Art Co Stamps by Lizzy Love.

 

I decided to use Creepy Cute Big Eyed Girl in Chains - DeeDee Image 265. She is indeed feisty wouldn't you agree?

I used Digi Paper Deisgns by Lozzy - The Paper Wall paper for the background, with strips of washi tape and some stickers from my stash to add some 'graffiti' aspect to it. I then printed out and coloured the big eyed girl with my Polychromos pencils and my Zest It blender. I used black and purple because it went with the look I was going for. Instead of using the chain image that comes with this gorgeous digi (it comes with a brick wall too), I used part of an old bracelet to attach her to the wall. The sentiment was also part of the digi set. I used Tim Holtz Distress Crayons in neutrals - brown and grey - to add colour and texture to the base of the wall and to add the shadow to the girl on the wall. I coloured up with Stazon black ink and used silver pen on two barbed wire corners from Things to Alter and added these to my art journal page top and bottom.

I hope you enjoy my latest make. Do come on over to Left of Center Challenge #146 - Feisty Ladies or go LOC as long as it fits the rules of our group. 

I will be entering the following challenges with this art journal page:

Dream in Darkness -September AG

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle xxx

Left of Centre Challenge #138 - Animals

Here we are again - those 2 weeks flew by didn't they? I'm back with my next project for Left of Center Creative Challenges.

This week's challenge requires an animal to feature and our sponsor for this week is Delicious Doodles.

 

  

I chose the blue tit from the lovely digi stamps available. I have a big reason for choosing it. I had a family of blue tits with a huge batch of eggs in a nesting box on my front porch, and someone knocked the box down, destroying half and then came and stole the rest. So- upset and angry about that, I thought that I'd transfer that into my art, and came up with this. It's premise is that nature is never ending and perseveres regardless - whilst humanity is a small blip on the conscious of the world. 

I found the perfect paper for a wonderful 
background at Paper Lozzy on the gorgeous paper pack Mixed Media, it had the right colours that would coordinate with the coloured image.
I used Promarkers to colour the bird and branch, layering up colours from pale to bright yellow, cool grey, and three shades of blue plus black. The branch is a mix of cool grey and two different browns.

The MDF pieces for the nest and the skull with roses are from a wonderful lady called Jac and her company is called Things to Alter. I left the nest as it came, such wonderful detail. With the skull, covered it with Liquitex Heavy White Gesso and used my finger to rub it over the area, then a baby wipe to take off some of the thickness so the details still show. I added a bit more gesso on a baby wipe after it dried to whiten it up a bit more. Once dried, I used Promarkers to colour the skull, teeth, and the roses. I used my finger to blend the colours together on the roses, and added deeper colour to the cracks and crevices in the skull.

I ripped the A4 printed background around the edges to give it an aged look, and used a deep pink ink around the edge to take away any white. Once stuck down, I added some Liquitex Heavy White Gesso in places with an old credit card. Once dry, I used a brown Promarker to add a trunk along the left hand side of the page. I added the nest so it would be in the background for perspective and placed the coloured and fussy cut bird slightly staggered and down from it. To fill in the area between the trunk,  bird and nest I used Petaloo Botanical Mini flowers in Pink. The skull was placed at the bottom and a shadow added with brown Promarker.

The two layered die cut pieces of card in deep orange canvas effect and plain white are from my stash, as is the stamp I used for the quote.

I hope you like my latest project. Don't forget to pop along from 8pm Saturday 9th July for challenge #138 - Animals. I look forward to seeing your makes.

I will also be submitting this project into the following challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft - #23 - Anything Goes
Dream In Darkness -a July - Anything Goes
 Art Journal Journey - In My Garden
Altered Eclectics - July Anything Goes 
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - #285 Anything Goes
SLS Lines Digital Stamps Challenge - Anything But A Card 
Paperbabes Stamps- #37 Anything Goes

Thanks for coming by.

Michelle xxxx