Love You To Pieces - Grunge Valentine's Day Cards, by Natassa Blazaki

Hi all! Natassa here.

Hope you're doing well and keeping safe. We've lost touch for quite some time, but 2021 started with so much going on. I really wish the whole situation cools down soon, cause I'm sure we all need a break!

Anyways, today I'm here to share with you a project quite unusual for my standards, since I'm not a card maker and also I never make Valentine themed projects.😁 However, Andy's stamp designs are always so inspiring to me and I decided to use them in order to create some grunge style Valentine's cards. I kept them simple and what I focused on was the combination of different stamps, in order to alter the style and look of every card, keeping the CE Heart Rubber Stamp as my focal point. All of my cards measure 4 1/4 x 6 inches and I used precut black cardstock bases. Of course, you can use any cardstock you may have available.

So for the first card, I wanted to create a background full of hearts and then have one of them stand out. I took a piece of thin white wrapping paper and stamped a few rows of hearts. Because the paper was semi-transparent, I stamped every other row on the backside, so that it looked like I did mirror stamping.

Then, I took a piece of light cream cardstock and collaged a page from an old book on it. On top of that, I glued the piece with the stamped hearts, and this way the text from the book page picked through. I stamped with red ink a heart, which I fussy cut and glued on top of the middle heart on my card. I handwrote the sentiment on a piece of black cardstock.

For the second card, I used the CE Circuitree Rubber Stamp and stamped around the heart. I also used the CE Enigma Rubber Stamp to fill the empty space on the top, bottom, and sides of the design. Then, I stamped with teal ink and fussy cut a heart that I glued in the middle of the design. Also, I used some Cobalt Teal and Yellow Iron Oxide  CS Artist Pigment Paint, to tone down the brightness of the paper.

Lastly, for the third card, I went for a dark chic look. First, I stamped the card base with white pigment ink and used the CE Vintage Background Rubber Stamp. This gave me a very subtle background effect. On another piece of black cardstock, I stamped with gold pigment ink and used the CE Winter Trees Rubber Stamp. I wanted to make it as if the trees grew from the heart. I fussy cut the whole design and matted it with craft cardstock. Then, I glued it on my card.

These are really quick and simple cards to make and I'm sure you'll find they are much different than the classic Valentine's cards. Also, I think the designs are suitable for masculine cards, so you can make them and give them to your boyfriends, hubbies, or just your loving guys!

I truly hope you like this project and get inspired

Sending big hugs from Greece

Natassa

💖💖💖

Gears Turning in My Head

 

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. 

As finishing touches, I added one of my favorite rub on designs, the one with the pile of skulls from Andy’s Mixed Media Transfers “Curiosities” and did some partial stamping with one of the new stamps, the “Circuitree”.

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!

I will soon be back with another spooky project.

Hope you have fun!

Natassa

👻🎃💀

Andy Skinner Creative Expressions

Artist Pigments 

Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Cobalt Teal Hue, Quinacridone Gold, Raw Umber

Chalk paints

London Brick, Mustard Seed, Chestnut

Rubber Stamps - "Circuitree"

Quick Grab Glue

Cosmic Shimmer Mixed Media Embossing Powders  - "Crystal Glaze"

Mixed Media Transfers - "Curiosities"

Tando Creative - Industrial Elements Kit

Sugar Skull Jewellery - by Nikki K

 Morning everyone, 

It's been a while since I posted, but wanted to share these fun necklaces with you using Andy's fab Sugar Skull stamp, which is a great size for cards and art, but also for jewellery, it makes a large necklace easily.  It's also great for coming Halloween, to make your own decorations!

I used some of Andy's Rice Papers, and stamped the skull out in different places.  This is fun as you can use any of the rice papers and get a fab different pattern on each skull.

The next bit is tricky, you need to leave the skulls on the paper, and wind some wire, probably 18 to 20 guage (it's slightly more pliable), around the skull.  I cut a long piece, then start at the bottom of the skull, and work my way up both sides.  Keep it flat on the paper, and glue with strong glue as you go.  You will need to hold this for longer than you think, and get sticky fingers.. lol.  Don't hold it down with anything other than your fingers as the paper has a chance of sticking and ripping.

When you get to the top, bend one piece of wire straight (90%) and make a large loop (like making an earring).  I would cut the wire a bit shorter for this step, but not so short that it can't be hidden.  Take the other end of the wire, and wrap around the loop to hold and secure.  Only when this has completely dried, did I cut out close to the wire on the outside.

Once you have this done, cover the whole of the front of the pendant with glue (pva) is fine.  Do this 2 or 3 times, making sure there are no gaps between the edges of the wire and the paper.  You are making a bezel to hold resin.  If you don't have resin, you could use melted UTEE, or another 3d Glaze.

When completely dry from the glue, you can add your resin or glaze, according to manufacturer's instructions.

You don't need to coat the back of the necklace, it has a rough texture but is sealed from the layers of glue anyway.  I like it this way as it shows it is handmade.

Hope you like them, 

Have fun making. xx

Nikki K.

xx

Products Used:
Andy Skinner Creative Expressions Sugar Skull Stamp
Andy Skinner Creative Expressions Rice Papers,
Andy Skinner Quick Grab Glue.

Other items: Versafine, Resin, jewellery wire & findings.

'Dead Stylish' Tag

Hi all,

A quick post to show a fun tag I've created using some of Andy's new stamps from the Illusionary Artists 'Spook' set. 

I used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics on the stamped images, and several Metallics on the background and part of the crown and strap. 

The background is a Tando Creative greyboard tag. This I split into 4 layers (details on my blog) to make the tag a bit thinner, then I embossed it with Andy's Starburst stencil before decorating. Products used are in the pic below.  

 I used a pyrography tool to singe the edges and add the dimples.

Little tip here, the Spook stamp set also gives you a FULL alphabet to play with (it's the Ouija stamp!) and that's what I've stamped, embossed with Stampendous Black Pearl Lustre embossing powder, coloured with paint washes and cut out to create the words. Having snipped out the letters I glued them onto a background I had painted with the red. Then the shrink plastic sign and wire were added to finish it off. More details on my blog. Thanks for looking! Suz x

Picture of products used - though forgive the stencil being in the wrong packet - it's called Sunburst not Tornado!

Click HERE to visit the store

DecoArt products used:

Media Fluid Acrylics: Cobalt Teal, Titan Buff, Pyrol Red Quinacrydone Gold, Paynes Grey

Dazzling Metallics and Extreme Sheen: Copper, Splendid Gold, Zink, Tin, Iced Espresso

Andy's products used:

Spook Stamp Set and Sunburst Stencil

Tando Products used:
Greyboard Tag

From my general supplies I also used Archival and Versamark ink pads, jewellery wire, shrink plastic, cosmic shimmer glue a hole punch and the pyrography tool.

Introducing Illusionary Artists

I would like to Introduce you to some amazing new stamps!

Illusionary Artists is the product of the collaboration between mixed media artists France Papillon and myself. 

To ensure the quality of the stamps, we called on the English manufacturer Chocolate Baroque. The result are quirky designs in high quality rubber stamps, unmounted, to suit as many mixed media techniques as possible.

These sets are all in A5 and I very much hope you like them! 

They are NOW available for purchase on Pre order as from 9am GMT this morning, January 10th until 5pm on Friday January 12th 2018 on my online store here: Store

For wholesale trade orders with Chocolate Baroque? go 
here: http://www.chocolatebaroque.com/wholesale-enquiry.html

Already have a trade account with Chocolate Baroque then go here: http://www.chocolatebaroque.com/

To find out more about France Papillon visit her blog Here: https://www.france-papillon.com/blog

Thanks for taking the time to look,

Andy