Rusty Tin Signs - How Distressing!

I love playing with distress, grungy and faux techniques and have the opportunity to make a series of cards for an ATC swap this month.  What better chance to record the making of at least one card on video.  This will be a series of 3 ATC with the theme name 'How Distressing'

The first ATC is called Rusty Tin Signs and is painted with Americana and Traditions brand paints in Butter, Mint Julep Green, Burnt Umber and Quinacridone Gold.

I'm feeling a little distressed today Part 1

I made the key with scraps of polymer clay and the two tiny safety pins are from my stash of embellishments.

I'm still not good with recording and editing video, but you can check out the video on YouTube.

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment, it's always appreciated.

This old heart of mine

I was so excited when I was asked to host at Take A Word this week, that I immediately started the concept drawing (such a child).  I hope you get some inspiration from the piece.

Heart in my art

Starting out with 300gsm water colour paper and using a fan brush I applied light strokes of white gesso.  Once dried I made three very weak washes using distress ink re-inkers in Milled Lavender, Tattered Rose and Old Paper. I applied a tiny bit of Old Paper, and then much more of the lavender and rose.  (The gesso acts as a resist).  Once dry, I applied some glass bead medium in patches over the gesso.  While the medium was drying, I cut a heart from rusty metal (it's real metal and real rust) and, cut the heart in two.  Using a Crop-A-Dile I punched the holes and applied large grommets.
Next came some 'industrial' stamping with Black StayzOn, the stamps are all circuit boards and warning signs.  Then I laced the two sections of the heart with some soft apricot ribbon finished with a bow.

 Several more layers of the weak distress wash, each one dried before applying the next, then a drop of  undiluted re-inker over the beads.  Next came some stamping with swirls using London Fog Archival Ink and then Golden Iridescent Bronze was dry brushed over the beads.
The words were printed on my computer and edged with Tattered Rose and the small hearts were painted with Golden Iridescent Bronze and punched with a small heart punch.
Finally, I dusted the edge of the whole piece with Pumice Stone distress ink.
Thanks so much for looking and your comments.

Let's get industrial

At Sunday Postcard Art today they have an open theme, which means I have the opportunity to play with my Christmas gifts, even though there is no relevance to the season.

Welcome to my industrial playing

Oh hello rust!

For Christmas this year I got some amazing stamps and embossing folders, many of which relate to grunge, industrial and steampunk.  Although one of the stamp sets randomly is Circus - a theme I don't care for too much.
I was playing around with a rust technique I found on the net and I love it.

It isn't my technique so I won't describe the process but instead I will recommend Andy Skinner, who is a genius :)

A little bird told me....

When I saw the topic from Three Muses for this week, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

There were so many different layers that I won't go into them all here.  The paper is standard card stock with a coat of gesso to stop it buckling and pilling with the water and glues.

The first layer of paint is Golden Liquid Acrylics in white, red and yellow (heavy blending and then stippled to give texture).  Then I attached some old paper and started to apply the various layers.  Finally spraying with a gold mica spray! phew...

Sing birdie sing!

 Once I finished the background, I cut the bird and cage from the same card stock as the background but the scroll to hold the cage is a Tim Holtz grunge paper element.

I gave the cage and the scroll a distress treatment to make them look like tarnished metal.

I coloured the bird with Shabby Shutters distress ink and then splashed him with water (you can't see the lovely colour variations well in the pics.  The eye of the bird is a dot of black enamel from Ranger.

You can see the tarnished metal effect better on the scroll work.  I also over heated it to make the under layer of paint bubble a little, this makes it look like the metal is corroding under the outer surface.

I've just noticed that the bird and cage is Tim Holtz and the quote is Lou Holtz - It's a Holtz collaboration :)

I made a video and for once loaded in time and can be found here.  Approx 10 mins long

Technique Time

About a year ago I was very interested in card making and decided to take the Jennifer McGuire course called Inspiration Canvas.  It was a great class and I learned lots of techniques, with each being produced on a small heart along with an embellishment in many cases.
As soon as I had completed 80% of the hearts, I watched the rest of the videos, played with the techniques on paper and then gradually put everything away in a cupboard.

This weekend I took everything out of the cupboard and finally finished the canvas!  It's not exactly my style now but I'm glad I did it.  The techniques are still great and the canvas will be a prompt for alternative techniques for things I'm currently working on.

12" x 12" Inspiration Showcase canvas

While I was finalising the remaining hearts and attaching it to the canvas, I realised that I really don't like following what someone else has done.  I would probably have been happier attaching the hearts to swing tags and writing descriptions on the back, but didn't think about it early enough.

Various techniques including resist, dry embossing and stamping with paint

Stamping on canvas, painting with pearl, heat embossing, mica powder and rust techniques

Rosette and Canvas heart

Embossed canvas 

Various ink, stamp and embossing techniques.  'Create' is coated in Glossy Accents

I couldn't resist switching out one of Jennifer McGuire's techniques and replacing with one of my own - rust!