Creative Artiste #56 December 2019

Christmas prep is coming along nicely with most food, presents and cards sorted, so, I'm giving myself the weekend off to attend a Tracy Evans workshop in Lincolnshire organised by Art Workshops. But, before I pack up and go ....

....Welcome to my December challenge post for 

Creative Artiste

Creative Artiste is a challenge blog for everyone who likes to mix their media. So, as long as you like to use various mediums on your creations, we'd love to see you enter the challenge.

A big Thank You to everyone who entered the challenge in November. Your projects were all fabulous and our winners have been announced on the blog.

Our theme is always
"Anything Mixed Media Goes"

This is one of those projects that I've wanted to do for ages but never got around to.... until now!
It's an altered book based on another of Finnabair's projects. Anna calls it "Rusty Heart".

I started by hollowing out an old hardback book with a craft knife. I used an Aall & Create stencil with texture paste around the edges. After painting Prima's Flaming Heart in black acrylic I gave it a coat of DecoArt crackle paste.

I added small random black splashes, crackle paste and some DecoArt Quinacridone Gold fluid acrylic on the inside front cover. I painted the hollowed side with white gesso before adding cheesecloth and Prima Artstones.

I glued the pages of the book together and painted the sides with Quin Gold and crackle paste.

I painted the hollowed section with DecoArt Prussian Blue Hue fluid acrylic and added Quin Gold to the heart and base and sides.

The next step was to add some random text and clock stamping and drips of DecoArt's Payne's Grey. The Fleur de Lys was cut with a Sizzix Bigz die from thick card and painted with Payne's Grey and Quin Gold.

On the outside of the book I added some texture paste, metal and clay embellishments and cheesecloth. Everything was painted with black gesso.

Lastly I used DecoArt Americana acrylics and Prima's Patina Effect Pastes to create an old rusty look to the book covers.

Now it's your turn to have fun and create your mixed media projects. You can enter our challenge up to three times. A full list of the rules is on the challenge blog. For more inspiration please visit the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog to see the wonderful mixed media projects created by our talented team. Remember to have fun crafting and enter your "Anything Mixed Media Goes" creations in our December challenge.

 Have a fun weekend with whatever you've got planned. I'm looking forward to the Tracy Evans workshop. If I don't see you again before the end of the year:
 Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Crafts Galore Encore December 2019

The long awaited month of December is finally here and children, big and small, are getting excited for Christmas. Me, I'm rushing around trying to get everything done so I can relax next weekend at an Art Workshops class with the fabulous Tracy Evans. After that I will panic buy all those things I've forgotten to get to make the big day a success. But, before that ....

.... There's a new challenge at  

Crafts Galore Encore Challenge Blog. 

Thank you to everyone who joined in with November's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular
"Anything Goes"
and our sponsor this month is:

Gecko Galz
who are offering a $25 voucher for their store to our lucky winner.

Seeing as it's nearly Christmas I have made some festive cards. Here are six of them. They are all on 8"x 4" (20cm x 10cm) card bases.

The design team was very fortunate to get to choose a set of papers and a set of toppers from our generous sponsor. I chose the lovely Merry and Bright digital paper pack which is full of gorgeous vintage papers in rich festive colours.

The delightful images are all from the Happy Holidays digital collage sheet. There are nine fabulous vintage images and a sentiment to instantly download and play with.

I matted and layered all the papers and images onto card that I had distressed and coloured with inks. I added strips of lace, die-cuts, MDF sentiments, threads and gems. They were fun to make.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the fabulous projects and cards created by our talented design team using Gecko Galz papers and images. Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in the December challenge.

I have entered this card selection in the following challenges:
https://lovetocraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/ltccb-41-december-anything-goes.html
https://merrylittlechristmaschallenge.blogspot.com/2019/12/mlccb-17-december-anything-christmas.html
https://morgansartworld.blogspot.com/2019/12/morgans-artworld-challenge-12.html x