Collect Moments Not Things Mixed Media Canvas

Hi Guys!
I'm back again with a Mixed Media Canvas piece for Off the Rails Scrapbooking DT project.
This canvas was inspired by Scraps N Pieces Challenge Blog's moodboard.

I love how dreamy this galactic theme is! Hence I chose blue and purple as my main colours.

Find more about the challenge here!

I first primed by 5.5 x 7 inches canvas board with white gesso. I pulled out my Tim Holtz blending tool as well as Peacock Feathers and Seedless Preserve ink pads. I randomly brushed on those inks using my blending tool onto stencils from Crafter's Workshop and Dylusions. Since the inks are water soluble, I actually sprayed water to allow the inks to flow slightly. 

See the white patches? I create the effect by 'stamping' gesso using my palette knife. I just thought that the colours are slightly too vivid and wanted to tone down my colours slightly. So by creating this white patches, I can not only tone down my colours, I can also create some additional interest and effects.

As my canvas was inspired by galactic theme, I wanted something sparkly and dimensional for my canvas. I applied heavy matte medium from Liquitex over my Dina Wakley stencil and poured a mixture of Black Sparkle and Silver Tinsel embossing powder from Ranger. As the matte medium was still wet, it managed to capture those embossing powder. The trick to this technique is to wait till the medium is completely dried before you heat-set the embossing powder to prevent the medium from bubbling.

So this is the final look after embellishments. The papers are from 7 Dots Studio Soulmates Collection and my sentiment is actually a sticker from Mambi. I used Thailand's Mulberry flowers for my canvas, but you can actually purchase these flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts. 

I used 13arts pastel mists in Lavender and Cobalt to highlight my centerpiece. I actually dipped my brush into the mist bottles and colour it around my centrepiece. 

See those texture over there? I actually mixed Glass Microspheres from 13arts with my Clear Gesso. I chose to use Clear Gesso instead of matte medium was that my matte medium will act as a resist to watercolours unlike clear gesso. So I randomly swipe this mixture onto my canvas and also sprinkle some Platinum Glass Glitter from Prima Finnabair line. I also gently brushed on white gesso as highlight after everything dried.

And who say stamens can only be used at the center of flowers? I layered stamens underneath my flower composition so that it looks like they are bursting around the flowers. 

That's all for my tutorial.

Thanks for reading! :)

Layout for Prima & Off the Rails Scrapbooking April Challenge

I seem to be blogging a lot recently! Haha.

My inspirations come from Off the Rails Scrapbooking & Prima's PPP this month. 

As you can see, the colour scheme is CRAZY! The thing that came into my mind after looking at this moodboard was that the person who designed this must be a master at torturing people. Haha. This colour scheme completely pushed me out of my comfort zone which was why I decided to take up the challenge. After all, it'll not be a challenge if it's not challenging rite?

I pulled out my A4 size canvas and began to layer a piece of Tim Holtz Idea-ology tissue wrap. It's actually my first time using it after getting it for so long. The packaging is rather interesting, like our aluminium foil packaging with a jagged edge at the side for easy tearing. 

So before putting the tissue down, I applied a thin coat of matt medium evenly on my canvas so my tissue will stick. You can use any type of adhesive as long as it's applied evenly. I then added butterflies chipboard from Maya Road on it.

A close up shot of the tissue. It's really thin so I actually adhere extra pieces so to build up the background to make it look more complex. 

After the matt medium dried, I brushed on a coat of gesso randomly.

And this is how it looks like after I began to colour it!

I used my Tim Holtz Distress Stain Spray in Shabby Shutters, Spun Sugar, 13 arts Turquoise Pastel Spray and Dylusions Pure Sunshine Spray on canvas, as well as Luminarte Silks in Pink Grapefruit and Guatemalan Green on the butterflies. 

The coat of gesso applied previously sort of created a whitewash effect on the canvas. 

And because I realised the moodboard has got hot pink on it instead of soft pink, I splattered on some Dylusion Spray in Hot Pink and some diluted black gesso. Oh! I also added in some Honeycomb chipboard from Sizzix Tim Holtz range before splattering. Haha.

This is the final look after embellishments! I used mainly Prima flowers and die cut some intricate leaves from Prima as well. I also mixed some tiny glass beads with gesso and brushed it on around the centre piece to highlight it. I also used Tim Holtz's Small Talk Sticker Book for my sentiment. As for my wood veneer, I'm sorry that I couldn't remember where it come from cos the packaging was long gone, but I think it might be from freckled fawn. 

Here are some detail shots. :)

So throughout the whole process of creating this canvas, my head was screaming NOOO as the colours coordination complete go against my natural instinct but my heart was telling me YESS and to finish what I started. Hahah. And that sounds like a song lyric. Hahaha. Despite the difficulty of executing this moodboard challenge, I had fun doing it especially the part where I had to crack my brain to somehow incorporate green in the canvas since I don't own sprays in vivid shade of green (AND I STILL THOUGHT PURPLE WAS DIFFICULT PREVIOUSLY!). Haha. 

Anyway, that's all for this week!

Thanks for reading and leave some loves in the comment section below~

Guest Designer for Frosted Designs

Hi Guys!

I'm so honoured to be invited on this fabulous team at Frosted Designs as a Guest Designer. This is my first ever designer post so I'm super excited!

I made a little 6x6 inches canvas piece meant for home decor for this tutorial. 

I first started out with priming my canvas with heavy white gesso by Prima Finnabair. I then sprayed randomly all over the canvas (Don't think too much! Just do it!) using Heidi Swapp's Gold mist, Tim Holtz Distress Spray in Tattered Rose and in Shabby Shutters. After everything dried, I pulled out my new flourish stencil from Tim Holtz and applied a thick coat of White Sand Texture Paste from Prima Finnabair. 

I have to say this texture paste has got pretty interesting texture after dried. It dries shiny and rough. It's actually very nice to touch. As you can see from the picture, I lightly brush on some gesso to make the flourish stand out better. It sort of created a white-wash effect which was matching to the background, giving off that very antique/vintage-looking vibe.

I also brushed on a light coat of Ranger's Clear Crackle and made it more visible by watercoloring Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy. 

With a new shade of dark brown, I think it made the background stand out even more as there's now a mixture of different shades of browns and greens. 

Now that the background is done, I need to think of what to embellish it.

I gave myself a challenge to use some of the stuff that was long forgotten. Haha. Such as this Tattered  Floral Bigz die from Sizzix. I actually bought it LONG LONG LONG ago but didn't use it at all. So I cut out a couple of the same sizes and layered them up. Glued down a matching button in the centre and altered the flower with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Brushed Corduroy.

This is the final look of the canvas!

As you can see, I die cut some leaves from the Prima leaves dies for layering. I also managed to dug out a long forgotten border punch and punched a strip and glued it down vertically. Most of the flowers I used were from Prima and I also added some mica fragments in Tea Stained colour from Stampendous. I loved how the dark colour of the mica fragments increased the interest of the canvas as the rest of the colours were pretty soft. The sentiment was actually a cut out from Kaisercraft's patterned paper. I also painted a light coat of gesso on the outer petals of the flowers to give some highlights. It also had the effect of pulling everything together. 

Here are some close-ups shots. 

I enjoyed the process of making this canvas. The colour scheme is actually pretty challenging for me as I never thought green and light pink (that's the original colours of the sprays, but everything became brownish after they dried on canvas. Mediums can be unpredictable! Hahah) would go well together and this is my first time succeeding in creating a vintage layout. My previous attempts didn't work out as my style of embellishing stuff is not vintage at all so I'm super happy that I can finally strike the 'vintage' theme off my to-do list as well as using those long forgotten products. Haha. 

So...That's all for today. 

I hope you like my post and also feel inspired to try out mixed media if you haven't. 

Cheers! :)

Prima Marketing Inc BAP and 13 arts February Challenge

HI GUYS! 

For this post, I created a piece of canvas using Prima Marketing's colour palette as well as Bingo from 13 arts. I'm really inspired by Prima's colour palette, everything looks so sweet and pastel, fit for Valentine's day!

As for 13 arts' bingo, I think most of the items in the bingo are something that a crafter can use easily! For me, I managed to strike off the horizontal middle row and rightmost vertical column.

Click here for more info. 

Rules of the challenge #27:

1. Create a project based on the rules of our challenge

2. Publish your project on your blog and add link directly to the post using Inlinkz tool at the right side bar.

3. Please add link and info about our challenge, where your work is published.

4. You may submit as many entries as you like. 

5. You can enter with your project to maximum 2 other challenges and your work must be new, not published before our challenge has started. 

6. The challenge ends on 22nd of February. Winners will be announced on 26th of February.

Click here for more info. 

_________________________________________________________

I first primed my canvas with a coat of heavy gesso.

This red trim was actually the wrapping of a present given to me. Haha. I trimmed it and gesso-ed it down onto the canvas.

Then I started applying colours. I basically sprayed 13 arts' pastel mists onto my craft sheet, add a splash of iridescent medium from Winsor and Newton and applied it all over my canvas.

I stamped with Staz On Black ink with the new stamp Messy from Prima Finnabair that was released in Winter CHA 2015.

I also used modelling paste with the new Prima Finnabair stencils - Weaving.

Decided to intensify the colours. So I brushed on more colours from my mists as well as gesso as highlights. 

Then I started embellishing! Those paper frames are from Kaisercraft and flowers and lace trims are from Prima. :)

Here are some close ups! :)

You can see I added more details like Prima's glitters and glass beads. The gold paste behind the glitters and beads are actually gold mica powder from Finnabair mixed with heavy matte gel. IT'S SO PRETTY! :))

HERE IS THE FINAL LOOK OF THE CANVAS! :))

I had fun making this canvas as this colour palette is probably my favourite colour combination as well as (especially!) using the new products from Winter CHA. 

Thanks for reading! 

Please leave comments to tell me what you think! :)

Xmas Layout for Blue Fern Studios and Scrap Around the World December Challenge

HI GUYS! I'm back again with a process tutorial for my Xmas Layout!

As mentioned in my previous post, my crafty friends and I finally got a chance to meet up again during the Black Friday Sales at Made With Love Store to enjoy awesome promotion on items so we took that opportunity to take another picture and make it our 2nd #STYDCHALLENGE!

So a little background story of #SYTDCHALLENGE, we're a bunch of crafters that are still or left working in Made With Love, our local craft store. It's kinda difficult for all of us to meet up, which is why we come out with this challenge of creating a project with the photos we had taken together.

The theme this time round is Christmas, and our dearest friend, Genevieve, from Sizzix Design Team (Check out her blog here!) decided to sponsor a prize for us with a tiny clause, of course! Hahahah. That we're supposed to include at least a Sizzix product in our layout. You can check out my other friends' layout by going to Instagram and search for #stydchallenge. :)

I also decided to take up the December Challenge by both Blue Fern Studios and Scrap Around the World.

This is a sketch by Blue Fern Studios. For more information about the challenge, you can click here!

And this is the moodboard for Scrap Around the World. I really like the combination of blue, gold and white. I decided to forgo red this time round cos it doesn't match my layout. For more information on Scrap Around the World challenge, click here!

I started out with priming by A4 Canvas with a thin coat of white gesso then followed by misting it with my Tattered Angels' Turquoise Mist and 13arts' Pastel Mist in Cobalt in a vertical direction following the Blue Fern Studios' Sketch.

I also pulled out my Blue Fern Studios chipboard. I really LOVE LOVE LOVE their chipboard! They always come in this kind of intricate designs that I found it hard to believe how intricate they are. Anyway, I used my stencil brush and brushed on a coat of gesso and then quickly added Ranger's Holographic Embossing Powder while the gesso is still wet so that it'll retain the powder, then I heat set it.

I also decided to cut the chipboard in half, so that they can extend from the picture. I also used my heavy gesso on the Prima Finnabair stencil on top of the blues that I misted. I layered everything following the vertical direction of the sketch. I chose this circles stencil cos it reminded me of snow which unfortunately, we don't get to experience it in Singapore, since it's forever summer here. Haha. 

Here's a closeup shot of the stencilling as well as the holographic shine of the chipboard. :)

I also decided to add in some extra circles to highlight the whole background, to make the stencilling more prominent. 

I then added more christmasy embellishment. I have to confess that I have never done a xmas layout before and before doing this layout, I was getting quite petrified as I do not own any christmasy items, I began shopping around our local crafts store and even Daiso, my best friend, which sells every thing at SGD$2. So I was super happy when I managed to lay my hands on these pretty flowers.

They actually come in a ring of flowers along with leaves and gold/white ferns/twigs? I think it's meant for decorating xmas trees but I just bought them and tear them apart and used it on my layout. And thanks Kwee Mei for donating some pinecones to me!

And then, I suddenly remembered I have some snowflakes dies that I bought from Simon Says Stamp long ago. Hahahahah. I pulled them out and die cut several pieces of them on white cardstock. Since they are very intricate, I glued around 4 to 5 pieces of the same snowflake together so they're sturdier. 

I also brush on a thin coat of gel medium and sprinkled a mixture of Martha Stewart Gold and Silver Glitter. 

And at this point, I realised I haven used any Sizzix products at all and I have to use it since it's part of Gen's rule for our layout. So I used Tim Holtz alphabet dies for my sentiment. And a little word of advice? You better use this with a magnetic platform. These little alphabets are like little monsters that'll run all over the place, but with the magnetic platform, they transformed to little angels instead. :)

So I used the dies and cut through my pale gold/silver? glitter cardstock.

I also decided that my canvas needs some texture. So I mixed some gesso with 13arts micro glass beads to create this 'snowy' effect. And I'm absolutely in love with the glass beads right now that I started using it on almost all the craft projects that I did after I bought them. Haha.

So this is the finished look of my canvas! I added some dewdrops from Robins Nest as well as some snowflake sequins that are from Pretty Pink Posh (I think? If I'm not wrong. Haha.)

So that's it for this week!

And...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I'm gonna head of the Genevieve's place for our crafty friends christmas party now. I'm also pretty sure this will lead to a 3rd #STYDCHALLENGE. Haha. 

Lemme know what you think of my layout.

Thanks for reading!

 :)