Always... by Katy Leitch

I was lucky enough to receive the Gothic Grunge set from Illusionary Artists for my debut DT piece. As soon as I saw it I thought it would pair beautifully with Andy's skull stencil for a monochrome project. The word stamp comes from the versatile IA Word Up set - I decided to give this romantic sentiment a sinister twist....

Here's how I made it:

1 Repeat stamp the arch window in a pattern onto the journal page – be sure to use permanent ink. Overstamp areas with the smaller arch.

2 Mute the stamping by covering with a thin coat of white gesso.

3 Add colour wet-in-wet with Dark Grey 6 and Translucent White DecoArt Fluid Acrylics

4 Stamp the gravestones in Watering Can Archival and again over the top in Jet Black (this gives an illusion of perspective).

5 Stamp all around the edges using just the very top of the scenic stamp and one of the ‘fig’ text stamps to create a 'frame' to your page.

6 Draw the outline of the skull through the stencil with pencil and block out in white gesso.

7 Position the stencil again over the gessoed area and apply Carbon Black Americana Premium through it with a stencilling brush.

8 Use your finger to apply more Carbon Black around the page edges.

9 Finish with the word ‘always’ stamped into a white area of the skull image.

I hope you like my Gothic-inspired journal page!

Katy x

 Gothic Grunge and Word Up sets from Illusionary Artists - available here

Grungy Chic Up Cycled Wine Crate

Thank you for stopping by, Mark here with my first make for the new Andy Skinner DT and wow what an honour to be part of this amazing team, Thank you Andy for inviting me along.

For my first make I have decided to go down the up cycling route and heavily distress a wine crate that was given to me a little while back.

This is how the crate started life,

I started with layers of Decoart Chalky Finish paint sanding back between layers to get a nice naturally distressed finish, added some extra detail with some of Andy's Decoart Stencils as well as stencils from the Chalky Finish Line.

To start with the aged and grungy process I used the dark cream wax's wiping off the excess wax almost straight away to leave a dark stained finish.

Additional distressing was added using Decoart Media Fluids, Quinacridrone Gold and Carbon Black added as colour washes.

The whole crate was given a coat of Decoart Decor Satin Varnish and the handles were added to finish off.

Thank you for stopping by and having a look, keep popping back as we share more creations from the new Design Team.

 xxx. M.

New Stencil and Chipboard Releases!

Hi everyone,

I am very excited to announce some new product releases launched today with Tando Creative.

First up is my venture into chipboard and I wanted to design something decorative which also had a functional use.

Can you guess what it is yet??

Its a Reversible Retro Clock.
I saw this type of style which looks like old American number plates years ago on a framed mirror and clock and fell in love with them.

This clock is 29.4 cm x 29.4 cm approximately in diameter and consists of a round backplate, 12 segments which can be decorated individually and placed onto the backplate, an inner round plate, a clock mech and some very very cool retro numbers.

Whats more, because the clock has been designed to the same diameter as the largest 3 clocks in 1 pack from Tando pictured above, it also includes the larger clock ring which can be used on the reverse of the clock to give you two clocks in one!  You can turn the clock to suit either your room or your mood!

I have also designed a mini version which is approximately 18 cm in diameter (not too mini)

This kit includes everything that the larger version has apart from the clock ring. 

It is designed to have the same diameter as the medium size 3 clocks in one ring so it is still an option.

The back is ideal for decorating with card-stock, image transfers or paint to design the perfect opposite side.

Here are a few examples of my image transfer versions.

I will be putting a collection of image transfer sheets which I have designed on my website in the next few days, these will print to the exact size for the clocks and will also be free downloads, I will let everyone know via social media where to find them soon.

Finally I have released two limited edition stencils before my main release in February 2014.
These stencils are for my darker friends :)  They are 6x6" and will be available only until the end of this year December 2013.

First up is The Reaper.

The second is for all the Doll lovers out there........ Heeeeere's Dollface lol!

Andy Wardoll

New Tando Mixed Media Cards

These new mixed media cards from Tando are fantastic, they are great for practice and for sharing art with friends, a bit like a mixed media ATC but bigger and can hold lot's of product

Please do not ask me where you can purchase these as I myself have no idea yet as they have only been released today, hopefully shops that stock my products will have them on the shelves soon :)

Thank you so much for reading,

Andy

Anaglypta Frame

Here is a great way to up-cycle that old plain frame and give it a shabby vintage look using anaglypta wallpaper.

Glue the wallpaper to the frame, I used Decoart Decoupage.
After a few layers of paint and a final antiquing with Raw Umber this old frame looked so much better.
I am going to be putting a tutorial together on this soon before anyone asks :).

Ok, I have been quiet on here because of soooo much work but will post some recent stuff... I know many of you already follow my Facebook page but for those of you who do not but want to keep updated more regular here is the link, My Facebook Page

Clean and Simple Canvas

Traditions Acrylic on Canvas.
I wanted to paint a canvas but keep it simple for a change without the use of any mediums, here is the result, lots of fun doing this.

Moving on from Clean and simple here is another using lots of Decoart Mediums, specially loving the crackle on this.

Young Einstein.

Hopefully that's brought you all up to date, sorry this is a bit brief, need to get back to it.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

A day at the beach

This mixed media work was completed on artist paper and features two children playing on a beach, I printed onto tissue paper the text and numbers in the background,  The tissue was then applied to the artist paper using Decoart Faux finishing medium with a little bit of Titanium white mixed in to dull the text slightly, its a really nice way to start the layering process.
Here is a youtube link with instructions on how to print onto tissue paper.

The rest of the painting is built up with collage, stencilling, image transfer and Decoart Traditions Acrylic paints.

I have been spending a little of my time designing masks,  this one contains famous street names from around the world.

I decided to test it on this Ikea mirror and was so very happy with the way it came out.
The frame was base-coated with two coats ofAmericana White Wash, when dry Americana Charcoal Grey was dabbed through the mask.
Finally It was distressed with various grades of graphite pencil and sealed with Americana Matte spray sealer.... Simple!

Thanks for reading,

Andy

Work in Progress

A quick post to share a couple of canvases I am painting for a new live workshop at the Craft Barn on the 19th May

The first has been grunged up a little while the second is more calming I think.

A quick reminder that The Book of Ruination lifetime online workshop goes live 10am GMT this Friday, the introductory offer then ceases and the price will be £29.99

Thanks for reading,

Andy

Strange Goings-On at the Craft Barn

Yesterday was the last club day at the Craft Barn at its current premises, the next will be at the all new barn!

Grotesques were the item of the day, these little fellows are made from earthenware pottery which we painted with a mixture of Decoart Traditions and Americana acrylic paints.

Aren't they cute?!

Just a little?? lol

As it was the final club workshop there we decided to take a group photo.
When I returned home and viewed it on my computer I noticed something strange lurking in the background.... Is this the Ghost of the Craft Barn old??? lol

Bye for now and thank you for reading.

Andy

Wobble Wobble

Not completely happy with the colour combo on this but thought I would post the video anyway, still recovering from CHSi so I am a bit quiet at the moment, catching up on emails etc.... normal service will be resumed shortly :)

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!

Busy, busy, busy here this week preparing for Stitches, here is one new product that I am loving and is one I will be Demonstrating with, it's Decoart's new Metallic Lustres.
I will pop up some picture of some samples I am working on before Saturday.

Here is another Gelli Print using my new Stencils, before anyone asks they are out on the 18th February, I do not have a US distributor but I am working on it! & some shops are now taking pre- orders :)

Colours in order are: Americana Desert Turquiose, Traditions Quinacridone Violet, Traditions Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide.

Cobolt Blue & White plus a mix of the two where used through stencils afterwards.

Close-up

Still Loving the Gelli!!

Thanks for reading,

Andy

Brayer Backgrounds and Voodoo

When Gelli printing I clean the acrylic paint from my brayer onto a sheet of paper as I think most do, these can make great backgrounds, the one below I glued to a book box.
I then started to decorate with my Skulduggery and Voodoo Stencils using Decoart Modelling Paste scraped through the Voodoo Stencil for dimension.

Here is the nearly finished Book Box.

It was aged afterwards with Decoart Traditions Transparent Red Iron Oxide

Thanks for reading,

Andy..... Oh P.S

Those on my workshop yesterday will recall that I painted my nails on one hand with Iridescent Pink paint??  Well I stopped at the Motorway services on the way home and was happily eating my burger when I noticed people staring, then giving me strange looks and muttering to one another.... Yep you guessed it... I forgot to scrub it off!!.... Hey just call me Twinkle in future..... actually don't!  lol!!