Artist Trading Post Exchange Blog - Soooo Excited!

Hello everyone. I've been sitting on this news for some time but I can now reveal all. I am super thrilled to be part of a new design team for a new challenge blog called the Artist Trading Post Exchange (ATP Exchange for short!). The blog is attached to a wonderful crafty emporium called Artist Trading Post which I'm sure many of you have heard of. If you haven't heard of them, it's worth popping over and looking at all the goodies they have on offer!

Throughout this week, the DT are being introduced and it's my turn today along with the super talented Yvonne from Meggysway. Why not pop over and see what Yvonne gets up to? The other ladies on the team would love a visit too I'm sure.

We go live on Thursday 2nd October and then fortnightly after that. The challenge blog is essentially a mixed media style blog so if that's your idea of fun - and it's certainly mine!! - please join us for our launch. You will be able to read the 'terms and conditions' for participating when the blog opens.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Sponsor Spotlight At Our Creative Corner. . . .

Good morning. I'm back again with a little sneak peek of my latest project. The lovely people at Tando are our Sponsors this month at Our Creative Corner. 

I've used one of their kits for my spotlight and I do hope you'll pop over to have a look at the full project.

Picture Inspiration At Our Creative Corner

Good morning everyone. Today sees the start of a new challenge at Our Creative Corner and our host is the wonderfully talented Claudia.

Claudia has provided some image inspiration this month. You are asked to create a project using themes, colour, textures, images etc from the selection of photographs.

Here's what our wonderful host would like you to do:

It is an "anything goes" challenge - as long as there are visible influences from the inspirational image! You can use only one or more of the images from the photographic collage as inspirational source. You can go for a colour scheme you saw, a texture or shape, a theme you associate with the collage (in whole or partially). As long as you explain in your posts how your creation is linked to the inspirational image you can go for whatever it sparks in you. 

I decided to choose the central picture of the leaves as my main inspiration. I also like the colours from the some of the other photos - green, neutrals and browns - so these are included on my project.

Here's what I made:

An altered gift box.

Some knotted chunky string to finish the lower edge of the box.

The box before alteration.

The box was given two coats of gesso. The second layer involved some tinting base mixed with a few drops of acrylic paint. This is used as a base coat to save using expensive paint as an undercoat. The final coat involved mixing the three colours above to achieve the desired shade and applying a decent coat.

The body of the box was then altered using a 'torn paper' finish developed by Andy Skinner which I just had to try. If you'd like to see his video on this technique, click here. 

These are the colours and the stamps I used for my torn paper finish. I forgot to show the light coloured paint but it is another DecoArt Media acrylic colour called buff. I used stazon ink to ensure the stamping remained unsmudged.

Once all the layers were fully dry, I sanded the edges to give a shabby look to the box. This has the effect of revealing some of the hidden layers of paint which is a look I rather like.

Some of the leaves were stamped onto card and coloured with acrylic paints. Others were made using Transfer Artist Paper and fabric. The paper has a special coating on one side. The image is stamped onto the coated side and left to dry. It can then be gently coloured with paints, inks, stains etc. If using pencils, I would urge extreme caution as it is very easy to damage the coating on the paper. Once dry, the design is ironed onto cotton fabric - just follow the instructions on the packet.

The leaf on the right is made using the transfer paper. Once ironed onto the fabric it was cut out. At this stage you could add extra stamping, stitching or colour to enhance the leaf. I've left mine plain on this occasion.
The leaf on the left was stamped onto card and coloured with media acrylic paint. Crackle glaze was then applied and left to dry. The final step was to add some DecoArt antiquing cream to show the crackled areas.

The leaf at the top right was stamped using acrylic paint and then coloured with other acrylic colours. Finally a coat of Ultra Matte Varnish was added.

Some rusty wire was added around the stems of the leaves.

I've had these skeleton leaves forever and decided to paint some with acrylic and added them to my collection on the box.

More rusty wire amongst the leaves.

 I hope you like my altered box and how I interpreted Claudia's image inspiration. Remember to check out the projects made by the other DT members over at Our Creative Corner - are you in for a treat! Just check out the few rules we have for our challenge and then it's your turn to create. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

You may be lucky enough to win the prize provided by our generous sponsor:

Click the image to go and have a look at the wonderful products on offer.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.