Proud Guest at A Vintage Journey - Going Round in Circles

Hi all,

So proud to have been asked to contribute over at A Vintage Journey, it's my first time as a Guest there, and I couldn't be happier!  The theme this month is 'Going Round in Circles', and I went 'small' for this one!

The matchbox was treated inside, and on the top, with DecoArt Media Crackle paste.  Once dry I painted in Media fluid acrylics in Prussian blue hue, and Quinacridone gold, using a wash of each colour, and letting one dry in area's before adding the other.  This gave a distressed old look.

I stamped the postmark and stain stamps in raw umber paint.  And dripped more quinacridone gold down the sides of the box.

The crackle and antiquing process was repeated onto a simple piece of card, to use in the circular necklace.

I cut the card to fit my circle bezel, glued and sealed with matte medium.  I stamped the Toxic word in raw umber onto a piece of card, and aged with quin gold.  Some cogs were added and glued in place, and then resin was added to dome in the bezel.

Inside of the matchbox and underneath were also aged, and the necklace fits perfectly to give as a gift.

I so enjoyed making this and following the theme, don't forget to check out the rest of the projects over on A Vintage Journey's blog.

Best Wishes,

Nikki

xxx

Products used:

DecoArt Media:

Media Crackle Paint

Media Fluid Acrylics - prussian blue hue, quinacridone gold, raw umber.

Stampendous/Andy Skinner Stamps - Toxic, Shabby

IndigoBlu - Diamond Resin

Matchbox, bezel, chain & cogs from stash.

Hope - an Art doll.

Evening peeps,

Today I'm sharing a creation I made for a challenge, and because I had this large cotton reel hanging around the house for the last five years..  I knew she would be an art doll, but it's taken until now for me to see how she would come to life.

The spark of inspiration came from the Andy Skinner/Tracy Weinzapfel collaborative Dare to Create challenge, called 'Skinzapfel', that they are doing in their respective facebook groups this month.  (Click on links on names to find groups).

The challenge was to create something a little bit Andy, a little bit Tracy.  So Hope was born.  Except of course there is a little bit of my brain in there too, hence the weirdness..

The body is a cotton reel, and the head a little silver plated photo frame from a cracker.  Both were treated to Andy Skinner's rust treatment, using Decoart Media paints and texture pastes.  The chain around her neck was done in the same way.  I used sand texture paste around the frame and the base of the cotton reel, which also had it's own texture to add to the rust feeling.  Her little 'arms' are Tando tree branches that come with the little birdies!  They too got the rust treatment.  This is the pic I shared a couple of days ago as a teaser, so you can see how she turned out now.

Her face is a print of one of my original paintings, and I just touched up her lipstick and gave her a coat of ultra matte varnish.  The flower's are from a masterboard I created in 'Tracy' colours, using Decoart mister's and media acrylics.  The little bird is a Tando Creative bird, and is sprayed in misters, and stamped in primary yellow with Andy's Toxic stamp set, the peeled paint/crackle effect.  The heart is also Tracy style, for the wing.

She has huge heart wings, which I glued dictionary paper to a metal frame, painted in pyrolle red, and coated in Decoart crackle glaze.  I didn't like the crackle effect at this point, it was too shiny.  I tried to antique it with the white antiquing cream, and again, didn't like my result.  So I repainted in pyrolle red, which led to a much more muted effect, and then antiqued with the black antiquing cream, which gave a nice grungy feel to her red heart wings.  (And those cracks are awesome!).  It's protected with a coat of ultra matte varnish.

The reason for calling her Hope, was that from all that rust, things can still grow.  So she has a little stem climbing up her body, painted in white gesso first, then Green gold.  It's doodled around in black micron pen.

The bird brings colour, as do the flowers in her hair.

I hope you like her, she posed a few problems for me but I'm happy with the outcome, and I thoroughly enjoyed the creative process, especially as it was so many ideas that have been bunched up in my head a while..

Right, I'm off to do some more rusting....  not personally of course...

Best Wishes,

Nikki
xx