Mixed Media Place: sizzix

2015-04-30

Spring Magnets

With beautiful month of May just around the corner, let's feel inspired by blooming flowers and bring them home onto... your fridge. ;)

In the last few months I've been experimenting a lot with a freehand drawing designs.

I've made lots of art journal pages with my drawings, but this time I wanted to make something more "useful" and practical. I decided to make some fridge magnets - something nice and funny to "lighten up" my kitchen. :)

Spring is my favourite time of the year - I feel new power, have plenty of new ideas. I love warm cozy days and everything blooming.

Wild spring flowers on my fridge - this sounds like a very good idea. :)

All the magnets are made the same way - I used an ATC size die and a thick cardboard covered with watercolor paper.

I have my special technique... :) First, I draw my design with black markers then cover it with clear gesso. This way I can be sure that my design will be waterproof and also the gesso is a great base for paints and inks.

My favourite way is to mix different kind of media - here you can find amazing vibrant Dylusions inks, beautiful sparkly Silks paints and a bit of Lindy's Stamp Gang mists.

I like to combine matte and shiny medias - it makes a great contrast.

For the shadows I usually use Stamper Big Brush Pens from Faber-Castell. They are filled with India ink which makes them waterproof, but on a non-porous surface (like gesso) you actually have few seconds before they dry. That is a great moment to smudge them. You can use a cotton stick or... your fingers. :)

When I was happy with the results, I covered all the magnets with clear UTEE. It creates great shiny surfaces, almost like glass or resin. I wanted to have a smooth surface so I used three layers of UTEE. I hope you can see how amazing it looks. :)

I hope you like my spring flower magnets. Maybe you will feel inspired to make your own?

Materials from Mixed Media Place:

2015-01-02

Magic Surrounds You

Our first post in 2015 belongs to Tusia and her gorgeous mixed media magic. :)
We wish you this New Year is filled with lots of inspirations, time to be creative and many exciting art discoveries! :)

Hello :)

Usually, when I create any off the page projects, I give them away. There is always someone I can give them to. :) But this time I decided to create something special - only for me. :)

I do believe in magic - magic of positive thinking, magic of good deeds, magic of everyday happiness and laughter. I wanted to create something that would remind me about it during not so happy days that sometimes happen.

As you can see, I have altered Finnabair's Bird House metal frame - below you will see a step-by-step tutorial in which you can find all the supplies I used. The full list is at the bottom of this post.

Some close-ups:

A step-by-step - altered Bird House from Finnabair.

1. First, I removed the back of the Bird House.

2. I cut out the shape of the back of the house in one of 7 Dots Studio papers. I later covered it with media so the paper is not that important.

3. Using Sizzix die, I cut the letters from a thick chipboard.

4. I applied Finnabair White Gesso (I love the thickness of it) onto the paper and the letters.

5. With a Princeton palette knife (I love their products!) I applied Black Sand Art Extravagance Texture Paste through Finnabair Bubbles Stencil.

6. One of my favourite spray brands is Lindy's Stamp Gang - I used Moon Shadow and Alpine Ice Rose mists to add color to all the paper pieces and also inside the walls of the bird house.

As you can see below, there is a magical effect - each circle created with Texture Paste is surrounded with a white halo. :)

7. I painted the letters with Art Extravagance White Crackle Texture Paste.

8. To adhere all the letters I used Art Basics 3D Matte Gel.

9. In the meantime, I painted the inside of my B ird house with White Gesso.

10. Using Silks from Luminarte and wonderful brushes from this set, I added the colors. I used Fuzzy Peach, Yellow Rose and Iridescent Gold.

11. Then I started to create a 3D element - I cut out the desired shape from paper, covered it with White Gesso and then with Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon Shadow mist.

12. Next step was adding the embellishments - mainly Mechanicals from Finnabair covered with gorgeous Silks. I built up the whole scene, also adding chipboard letters from UmWowStudio, Prima flowers and metal embellishments. I painted the whole house also using Silks - they shine so beautifully!