Andy's London workshop

Hi Everyone.

I took myself off to Andy's London workshop yesterday and had a fantastic time creating an ATC box and 5 ATCs using lots of his products including the new pastes. I thought I would show you how I finished the ATCs off at home with more of Andy's and some of my own supplies.

Andy demonstrates his products through Creative Expressions on YouTube and I have given you the link to them with each of the samples below.

Structure Paste
This is a beautiful smooth textured paste great for using with stencils but Andy shows you other fabulous ways to use it which included the background on this sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2OiABlheB8

Strata Paste 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAYl2vDdTp4
This will give you some incredible textures and on this ATC you can see how well his transfers work even with the bumpy textured surface.

Resist Paste and Rice Papers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCzXNHYYN0c
Andy's video shows how you how to see the resist paste with two layers of paint but we used it over his rice papers and it worked beautifully.

Lava paste
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0bsUUA-zVw
As you will see on the video Andy demonstrate great ways to use this product which has another amazing texture. At the workshop we used it with a palette knife and a brayer.

I am already looking forward to the next workshop as Andy thinks he will use the London venue again. You have perhaps already seen photos on FaceBook. It was a great room with plenty of space, Di from Tando brought along a pop up shop with lots of gorgeous goodies and lunch provided for extra if you wanted it, just soup and bread but perfect for the day.

Have fun playing with the new pastes and don't forget to take a look at the videos for lots of ideas.

Thanks for stopping by.
hugs Brenda
Bumblebees and Butterflies


Products

You will find all of Andy's products with Creative Expressions HERE
Structure Paste
Strate Paste
Resist Paste
Lava Paste
Rice Papers
Transfers
Stamps
Paints

The Circus comes to town - Brenda

Brenda here with another panel using some of Andy's new stamps and transfers.  They are brilliant put together in a project or can be used mixed with other stamps and products you might already have.

I collect old vintage photos irl and free ones that can be found on the internet. This character looks as though is is having great fun at the circus doesn't he? I wonder what it was that tickled him quite so much?

I have more details and photos over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you'd like to pop over and take a look.

As always thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Andy Skinner stamps, stencils, transfers

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics and Mediums

New transfers and stamps - Brenda

I have really fallen in love with Andy's new stamps from Creative Expressions especially the 'enigma' one which is fabulous for using on a background. It is so versatile and cleans so easily too whatever the medium used.

This became a journal panel, so I decided to start a new visual journal to which I will add 5 x 7 inch panels.

I used several bits from my leftovers box to create this especially the crackle frame and in the background to it is one of the new mixed media transfers from the 'French Fancy' set.

I often make up my own quotes and do myself sheets of them on the PC, they are printed on an inkjet printer so I give them a coat of matte medium to seal them

If you would like to see more details you will find them over at Bumblebees and Butterflies with process steps and additional photos too.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xx

Supplies from Country View Crafts
Andy Skinner stamps, stencils, transfers, Quick Grab glue
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics and Mediums

Media Board - Book Panel - Brenda

I have been having fun with chipboards for this project. I love layering up greyboard shapes but sometimes they end up protruding too high especially if you want to use some in a journal or on media boards. So for this project I have soaked some of my Andy greyboard shapes and pulled them apart and it's amazing how you can then play with distressing the layers of the greyboard and even get to put some back together again to create different shapes as I have done here.

I am using a piece of greyboard cut to the size I want as a page for the Andy book I am making.

I took my chosen greyboard shapes and soak the ones I wanted to split into thinner pieces and distress. These can be dried with a heat gun.

I split the industrial wings into 4 pieces and took the two thinnest ones for this project. When they were dry I glued them together to create a new shape with a hole in the centre and added the very distressed heart. I decided to use a retro palette for the rest of the colouring up.

There are more details and photos over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you would like to see how this came together.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies

Andy Skinner stamps - Stampendous - Curiosity and Unexplained

Andy Skinner greyboard shapes - Tando Creative - Industrial Wings, heart and miscellaneous pieces from kits.

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - cerulean blue and prussian blue, quinacridone red, carbon black, cobalt turquoise, transparent red iron oxide, titan buff, yellow oxide

DecoArt Media Speciality - white gesso, white crackle paste, matte medium, heavy gel medium, 

ultra matte varnish.

Book Panel by Brenda

I have a problem!!!! I seem to make endless projects for design teams and for myself but many of them are sitting in boxes as I just don't have enough room to display things. So my projet today is on a 22 1/2 x 15 1/2 cm piece of greyboard which I am going to use as a book cover and make more projects in the future that can be put together with this as a book.

Whilst making this I was inspired by Teamie Hannah's FaceBook live video on creating rust and I followed along when rusting the telephone dial.

The little bookplate was in a tub already rusted and it fitted perfectly with the word I had found to use. You can also see some of the texture I added to get this good grungy look.

Sometimes less embellishing is so eye catching and it lets the design in the background show through more.

There are some process steps and more photos over at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you're interested in seeing how this came together.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies

Andy Skinner stencils - Fossil and Bubbles

Andy Skinner stamps - Curiosity

Andy Skinner (Tando) kit - So Call Me Already

DecoArt media fluid acrylics - phthalo green-blue, prussian blue hue, cerulean blue, titan buff, paynes grey, silver metallic, yellow oxide. metallic gold, quinacridone gold, burnt umber, transparent yellow oxide.

DecoArt Media - white crackle paste, sand texture paste, black modeling paste, matte medium

Art Journalling vintage/mixed media

Hi it's Brenda here today to share an entry I created in my vintage altered journal. This is an old reading book with gessoed pages where I love experimenting with layers, mediums and paints and keeping it to a vintage theme.

I have used  some of Andy's stamps and stencils in the layering processes.

I started with the white gessoed page and added textures by using black modelling paste through the stencils.

After several layers of paints and more gesso I ended up with a wedding/anniversary themed page. As I had no idea where I was going when I began the double spread I am quite happy with the outcome.

For more details and photos please join me at Bumblebees and Butterflies where I explain the steps and techniques.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies

Illusionary Artists stamps - Gothic Grunge, Tech Trauma

Andy Skinner stencils - Creativity, Time Warp, Halftone

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics-cobalt blue hue, prussian blue, medium grey value 6, cerulean blue, titanium white, english red oxide, raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow oxide and burnt umber

DecoArt Media mediums - black modeling paste, white gesso, heavy gel medium.

Winged Heart Tag

Hi lovely readers, it's Brenda here with a mixed media tag for you today. I really enjoyed making this as my first team project for 2019.

I focused on the background first with three layers of gesso to build texture and used glazing medium with paint to create the grey layer. Of course next came some quinacridone gold and paynes grey and some stencilling.

I love to create mostly with a focus on using timeworn, vintage, mixed media and collage on my projects. I gathered some bits and pieces to build up a collage band to sit across the tag .....

 

.... and I used one of Andy's stamps to create my focal element.

  

I finished off with the specimen number as I felt it needed a little more balance to the left hand side.

I have a step out at Bumblebees and Butterflies if you's like to see the process of how I built up the layers and textures.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

Supplies

 
Andy Skinner - Stencil - French Elements

Andy Skinner - Stamps - Handle With Care and Skuldoggery

DecoArt - Media white gesso, Americana glazing medium, Media white modeling paste

DecoArt Media fluid acrylics - dark grey value 3, quinacridone gold, paynes grey

 

Tando Creative - Size 8 greyboard tag