Another Mixed Media Project for Imagine If Design Team

I just cannot resist using the chipboard from Imagine If to make mixed media pieces.  It makes the whole process so easy.  The chipboard really takes the paint and sprays really well and add great texture to the projects.  So here is a Mixed Media album cover using heaps of Imagine If chipboard.

I have made this cover a little "girly" with the colours and the flowers and the bling.  I have 

used words and pieces that represent different stages in my life and I think it will make a great art journal for me to journal in.

The chipboard I have used in this piece is shown and listed below along with  a link to the Imagine If website.

I took an old book that I brought at a garage sale for .50 cents and covered it with white gesso. 

Once the first coat of gesso had dried I used gesso through two of the Imagine If stencils, the bubbles stencil and the chevron stencil to give the cover more texture. I also added in some pieces of book pages.

I gave the cover another light coat of gesso and then I painted all of the chipboard pieces with white gesso and glued them on the cover adding a few paper flowers here and there for interest.

Once the gesso had dried I went to town with the sprays. I used Adirondack sprays and homemade shimmer sprays in tones of pink and purple.

When I was happy with the base colour I used my Viva Inka Gold paints to highlight areas of the journal cover.  (I must say I love these paints).   I also drybrushed some of the areas with white paint to give some contrast.   Then I added the bling and flowers.  I used glitter and glossy accents on the skirt and I used micro beads on the wings.  The quotes which I thought were really appropriate and worked well with the theme of the journal are also from 

Imagine If  - Seasons in Time quote sheet.

To finish the whole thing off I added clear page pebbles and it was done.  The whole project from start to finish probably only took about 3-4 hours and this is the beauty of using the chipboard as it makes it so easy to assemble elements and pull the whole page together.  

Until next week happy crafting and don't forget to check out the wonderful products on the Imagine If website.

I have entered this project into the #6 album/journal cover challenge over at The Mirror Crack'd.

Mixed Media Canvas-Imagine If DT Project

I seem to be on a roll with canvases this month.  My project for Imagine If this week is a small mixed media canvas using some of Jo's chipboard pieces and paint products supplied by Imagine If.

Here is the finished project.

To begin I glued a sheet of Imagine If chipboard alphabet letters to a plain canvas.

  I then painted the whole thing with white gesso. 

 I then added pieces of Imagine If Chicken wire over the top of the letters.

I added three of the chipboard circle frames to the top of the canvas and then added bits and pieces and metal embellishments.

Once the glue had dried I painted everything with white gesso.

Once the gesso was dry I used various spray paints to add colour to the canvas.
Mr Hueys Desert spray and Mr Hueys Audrey spray and Dylusions Melted Chocolate spray

I then highlighted several areas with Perfect Pearls, painted the words and the butterfly with Viva Inka Gold Cobalt Blue and Viva Inka Gold Ice Blue.

I then coloured three hearts from the  Set of Hearts with perfect pearls and put them through an embossing folder,  I edge them with Vintage Photo Ink and drybrushed them with the Viva Inka Gold Ice Blue.  I then attached the hearts to the canvas to finish the project. 

I hope this project inspires you to use chipboard in different ways and I look forward to your comments and questions.

With the pink hearts on the project I have entered this project in the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge -Think Pink,

Playing with Die Cuts

I love using die cuts on my projects.  They are so versatile. I can cut them out of paper or if I want something a little more robust I cut them of card (usually recycled cracker or cereal boxes) and layer them up to give me a stronger, thicker die cut to work with.  As I use a lot of paint and other materials on my projects I quite often need the dies to be thicker and I also tend to have the dies overhanging the project so I do not want them to get ripped or crumple.  I love texture on my projects and making the dies slightly thicker can give me a better contrast especially when I am using sprays and dry brushing.  So here are a few of my favourite projects using die cuts.

I am totally in love with the Cheery Lynn steampunk wings and have used them on several of my projects and I also adore the Cheery Lynn corset and gears.  I have just purchased some Memory Box gear dies so I am looking forward to playing with those soon.

This is a sweet little mixed media canvas I made using the corset, wings and gear dies from Cheery Lynn.

This is an altered coaster made using a plastic toy and again the Cheery Lynn wings, chicken wire .and gears dies.

 

And here are the wings again in a small mini album.

 

Having made one flying horse I then decided to make another in a small mini album that I made.

And again on the cover of a small altered book that I bound pages into to make a journal. I also used the Tim Holtz clock die on this journal cover.

I used most of the Cheery Lynn die cuts again on this altered Trading Block along with the Tim Holtz clock and tattered flowers die and the Spellbinders gears die. I also used the Bleeding butterfly from Cheery Lynn.

Here is another altered coaster. I was playing around with texture, mixing modge podge and white glue and the end result reminded me of a sticky web os I added the spider and a butterfly about to be caught.  The butterfly is a Cheery Lynn die.

This is a little journal cover I made out of a cereal box and decorated primarily with Cheery Lynn dies, and a doily cut from a doily die by Couture Creations.

My latest project using die cuts is a mixed media canvas.  I used the Cheery Lynn butterflies and web border to create the background.

 

 

For the rest of the canvas I used a Cheery Lynn sunflowers die, a Spellbinders butterfly, Impression Obsession leaves die and Die Namic leaves die, a Memory Box bee die and an

Elizabeth Craft Designs ladybird.

 

 

On my Baba Yaga houses I used a Memory box die for the trees and branches and the cats and birds are both IO dies.

 

 

 

On this altered mousetrap I have used a Spellbinders window die, a Memory Box tree die and a Cheery Lynn fence die.

 

 

 

These last two canvases are early examples of me using diecuts to embellish a canvas.  These are made using Cuttlebug dies.

 

 

 

There are so many things that die cuts can be used on and they are not limited to just cards and scrapbooking.  I hope this post helps people to look outside the square and find new and varied uses for their dies, after all most dies are not cheap and it is good to find other ways to maximise their value.





Faux Metal Canvas

Before I begin with my project I would like to congratulate Joan von Metzinger, the winner of the prize draw for the Imagine If Summer/Beach products.  Joan I look forward to seeing how you incorporate these products into your projects.  Have fun.

For my design team project this week for Imagine If I have been playing with some product that I ordered from Jo and combined with some chipboard pieces I have made a small 6"x6" faux metal canvas. I love playing with texture and for me the chipboard just lends itself so well to this kind of project. 

To begin I glued tissue paper to the front and sides of the canvas.  I then used one of Jo's stencils to add texture to the canvas using texture paste through the stencil.

I then painted the canvas with black gesso.

I then chose some chipboard pieces from Jo's extensive range of chipboard products.

A arrow from the Arrow with words pack
A key from the Keys Set
A piece of fence from the Fencepost
A piece of Chicken wire
A birdcage from the Birdcages set
A frame from the Rectangle Frame set
An owl, a set of mushrooms and rushes, a star and a butterfly

I glued each of these to the canvas painting them black as I was gluing them down.

Once the glue and the gesso had dried I painted the whole canvas with Viva Ferro Gold paint.  This gives a metallic effect to the piece.  Then to try and give it a patina I drybrushed the canvas with Viva Ink Gold Turquoise and Viva Ink Gold Cobalt Blue.