Hello all, Its been awhile since I posted here for Andy Skinner. Its been just a matter of time trying to get the time to sit and write up some posts. I have some bigger projects in the works but again the time factor is getting the best of me. But I would love to share with you some door hangers I made with the new Rice papers from Andy and Creative Expressions.
I actually made two of these, I made two different colours. Here is a small video of the creative process.
https://youtu.be/WzOIvWfDrSk
I love the resist paste and the true distressed feeling it gives to any project. Something I would love to try on a much bigger piece.
Here are a few close-ups of the rose door hanger.
I kept the same technique on the other coloured one. I cut out the rice paper elements and formed a cluster of flowers and metal embellishments. I used some of the new stamps including the labels.
I changed up the colour to match the rice paper on the other side of the door hanger. Enjoy the close-ups.
Thank you for your constant support and understanding.
Only a few days away, it's time to share my vintage style Scary Skull Bingo Card created just for Andy. I love dimensional pieces and this witch hat and netting does just the trick.
This is the last week for sharing our Halloween Spooktober with you. This week's theme is
"THE WITCHING HOUR". Consider this skull a witch's skull! After all, she IS wearing her hat!
Such a fun little project!
Let's get right to the instructions as to how to create this and then I will provide the every essential supply list of Andy Skinner and Creative Expression's fabulous products!
The inspiration for this piece is Andy's Sugar Skull stamp from Creative Expressions. I stamped it onto a piece of specialty stamping paper using Black Permanent Ink. Then I fussy cut around it.
I used the skull to create a witch's hat our of black construction paper. After cutting out the pieces from my plain cardstock pattern, I cut it out of the black construction paper; slit the back of the hat brim and cut a slit across part of the center of the oval brim so that the skull top would slip into it (slit in the back of the brim to the back of the skull). Next I cut out the cone shape of the hat, rolled it a little and pressed the tabs left on either side to the back so that I could glue it onto the Bingo card base.
I used a Halloween Bingo card from one of my many computer files of things found online. Next I brushed Andy's Cosmic Shimmer Super Matte Varnish over the paper Halloween Bingo card. Heat set it dry and then mixed Andy's Cosmic Shimmer Artist Pigment Paints in Primary Yellow and Primary Magenta with a little water to create a wash. I quickly brushed over the Bingo card base with the orange mixture and heat set it dry before it could buckle the paper Bingo card. Then I dabbed a paper towel into the paint mixture and randomly dotted it over the Bingo card and heat set it to dry.
Again, I added a topcoat of the Super Matte Varnish to seal it. It leaves a soft finish that is still feels like the paper; no shine or shimmer.
I had stamped several of the Sugar Skulls in order to experiment with colors of green for the base of the skull. This is a witch's skull after all! Using Andy's Cosmic Shimmer Matte Chalk Paint colors of Olive Grove and Mustard Seed with a little water, I made four different color combinations and finally decided on my favorite; a bit more green than the yellow base.
After creating the base color I really liked, I used a very small detail brush to fill in all of the wonder details on the Sugar Skull. More like a Cinco Di Mayo skull style, I added shades of orange and green to fill in all of the flower petals, leaves and decorative additions. There are also little touches of white in the eyes to make them pop.
After the skull is complete, I added the witch's hat using glue to the backside of the skull.
Here is the closer look at the witch's skull with the hat in place (before I added the vintage soft black netting to the brim. I also "cleaned up" the teeth using a small permanent black ink pen to make the dark lines on the teeth completely black again.
It's amazing how a little piece of netting can completely finish a piece! I love it! I mounted the Bingo card on a piece of 5 1/4" x 4 1/4" black cardstock. Done!
Morning all and happy week, this is Natassa Blazaki,
with a new project for Spooktober. That challenge inspired me so much!
The Witch Behind the Mask
So, it’s the last week of October and the theme now is
“The Witching Hour”. As I was google searching for witches and witchcrafts to
get some inspiration, I saw a poster from Disney’s Snow White that shows the
face of magic mirror and the reflection of the Witch’s face. I got the idea of
creating this canvas with a mask, that behind it hides the wicked witch.
Of course it had to be rough, with lots of texture and
rust. Rust goes with everything!
I used shades of yellow, orange and purple, which is a
classic color palette for the Halloween.
To create that rough, uneven texture on the canvas, I
used a lot of Structure
Paste, which I thickly applied with a pallet knife in a stippling motion. To
color the background I used a combination of Artist
Pigments and Matt
Chalk Paints.
To create the “hood” around the mask, I used a piece
of denim, cut from an old pair of jeans. I glued the mask on the canvas and
then I cut the fabric in smaller manageable pieces and built the “hood”. I glued
the fabric with gel medium.
Then, I decided that my composition needed an
industrial touch, so I used some of the gears from Andy’s greyboard cutouts by
Tando Creative.
The tricky part was to do the stamping on that
surface. I just couldn’t get a nice crisp impression until it hit me! I took a
piece of rice
paper from Andy’s “Abstraction” collection, and stamped on it. Then, I cut
it to size and glued it on the canvas with matte medium. This way, the stamp
was beautifully embedded on the rough surface and had a gorgeous cloudy faux
encaustic look.
I also used lots of Mixed
Media Transfers on the canvas the mask and the fabric. To make them look
distressed, I sanded them with a piece of 240 grit sandpaper.
I truly hope you enjoy the project and get some
inspiration.
Remember to play along at Creative Expressions
Spooktober Challenge and use the #cespooktober tag, so we can find your
projects.
Hello
dears, it’s Natassa here with a fun project for Spooktober Week 3 “Day of the
Dead”. And what could be more iconic symbol for DÃa de los Muertos that sugar
skulls.
Below,
I have got a video tutorial for you, where I’m showing exactly how I created my
sugar skull plates. What is clever about this project, is that since you use clear
plastic plates and do all the decorating on the back side, they are
perfectly safe to put food in them!
For
this project, I used first of all Andy Skinner’s
“Sugar Skull” rubber stamp by Creative Expressions. I stamped many skulls on regular printers paper and colored them with alcohol markers. I fussy cut the skulls and glued them on the center of the back side of the plates with matte medium. Let them dry very well. If you are ipmatient like me, you can use a hair drier, set to cold air, so that the plastic plates do not warp from the heat.
Then,
I chose to paint the plates with Andy
Skinner’s CS Matt Chalk Paints, because I needed opaque colors with a good
grip on a non-porous surface such as plastic.
For
the decoration of the plates’ bases, I also used Andy
Skinner’s Stencils and a couple of acrylic permanent markers in black, white,
and gold.
What
you have to keep in mind is the order you put the skull and the colors. First
you want to glue the skull cutout , then make the background design either with
a stencil or do some doodling, then the background color and lastly a layer of
black chalk paint or black gesso to seal everything. That black color makes the
other layers pop up.
Lastly,
a couple of layers of Andy
Skinner’s CS Super Matt Varnish, will protect the paint from chipping off.
And if you want to give your plates a more luxurious look, you can dry brush
some golden acrylic paint on the black paint, just before the varnish.
Hello
lovelies, this is Natassa Blazaki and today I am sharing one of my projects for
the Spooktober Challenge run by Creative Expressions UK. If there is one team that’s
always inspired by Skulls, Apothecary elements, Spells, Witchcraft and all sort
of Dead Man Themes, that’s definitely Andy Skinner’s Creative Team. All the
members will be sharing amazing spooky projects here in the blog but also over
at Creative Expressions Facebook page. So,
stay tuned for the whole month October and head over to Creative Expressions’ page
to play along at the Spooktober Challenge.
For the “Skull
Week”, I chose to alter a plastic skull, that I had bought from a toy store.
I
wanted to give a grunge, industrial look to the skull, so I chose to embellish
it with gears from Andy Skinner’s Industrial
Elements greyboard kit by Tando Creative.
I started by
applying a first coat of black gesso. I glued the cutouts on the skull with Quick Grab
Glue. The tricky part was to fit the gears onto the skull’s rounded surface,
because the greyboard is thick and does not bend. So, I spritzed the pieces
with water and let them relax for a few minutes. Then, I split them in half and
glued them on the skull while still damp and flexible. I added some crackle
paste to create more texture.
Next, I mixed
Andy’s Chalk
Paints with Artist Pigments, creating a dark reddish-brown color and applied
a coat. I did not mix the paints completely, to achieve a variation in tones and
left some of the black to peek through. I let dry and then I continued only
with Quinacridone Gold in random areas, but mostly around the gears. I let that
layer dry well and then with a piece of natural sponge I dabbed a very thinned
layer of white acrylic paint. I let it dry naturally and then I with an old
brush I applied a wash of Cobalt Teal
and Transparent
Yellow Iron Oxide.
I did some
dry brushing with white acrylic paint and continued with one more layer of
Cobalt Teal and Quinacridone Gold, this time concentrating on the gears. I also
used some Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media
Embossing Powder Crystal Glaze to add to the gears’ texture.
I really
hope you enjoy this project and get some inspiration for your Halloween projects.
Enter your projects to the Spooktober Challenge and use the #CEspooktober tag.
You may be a lucky winner!
