Ministry of Mixology Make & Take

Hi all,

Today I'm doing a bit of catching up, and blogging my make and take for the Ministry of Mixology which was held at the Holiday Inn Coventry on 9th/10th April.

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thankyou to Andy Skinner, and Di at Tando Creative, for giving me the opportunity, and letting me help throughout the weekend as well.  I had the BEST time, and met the nicest bunch of creative people, everyone was amazing, teachers and attendees alike.

So this is for those who want a recap, or didn't get to do the make and take with me, and would like to.

Firstly I took some Mini Arches from Tando, and gesso'd with Decoart Gesso.

I then took Decoart Media paints in Turquoise Blue Hue, and Primary Magenta.  Paint the boards with the two colours, allowing some to dry, and some to mix in area's. This will give you a lovely turquoise, magenta and purple mix where the two cross.  You don't have to worry too much about this stage, just get the colours down.

On top of the background, I took the peeled paint effect stamp from Andy's Toxic Stamp set, and stamped in Cobalt Turquoise Hue.  To do this, put a little paint on your craft mat or a pallette, and spread it out to a thin layer with a paintbrush.  Then you can load your stamp without it being too much.  Stamp the turquoise, and then clean your stamp immediately, you don't want to leave paint on to dry.

Next we stamped in Titanium white media paint, with Andy's Steampunk stamp set, and I used the steampunk controls stamp.

I then stamped the Steampunk text from the same set, in Versafine black, or you could use paint again.  

After this, I took some of the scrumptious Decoart Metallic Lustre in Brilliant Turquoise, and you only need a teensy bit, and rubbed round the three frames with my finger.  This made the colours on the frame pop, and added a lovely metallic element. 

Finally on the frame I stamped the scratches stamp from the Toxic set in Versafine, all around the edges of my frames.

The butterfly and clock (Andy's steampunk set) were created by painting the same colours, primary magenta and cobalt turquoise hue, onto a piece of card.  They were then stamped with black versafine and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  On top of this, a little metallic lustre was added, and then a coat of Decoart Media Crackle Glaze.  And after that, I used the white Antiquing Cream in some of the cracks when dry.

The Tando mini skull was given the same treatment, painted, lustre, then glaze and antiquing.  I bent it slightly and glued it on with silicone glue to give dimension.

Finally I added some mini hinges that I found on Ebay, or you could use ribbon or washi tape too.  These were glued to the back of the frames, and then for strength I cut out some patterned paper to the shapes of the arches, and aged and distressed it, then glued it down over the hinges and backs.

Here is the finished arch, apologies for my pics as they were taken in a hotel window!  Hopefully some of the colours are showing ok.

If anyone wants to make this or has any queries on it, just give me a comment and I'll come back to you.

It was great to see lots of little finished arches, and different colourways, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all.

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx