Tears of Gold with Suzi

Good Day All, I'm here today to share with you my last project as a member of the ColourCraft LTD Design Team, I've had a wonderful two years working with the wonderful people and products from ColourCraft LTD.  

As it's my last post I wanted to create something that I truly love, so I've painted a portrait, I've done a couple over my time here but today's is a little different as I've used Metallic Acrylic Paint, Acrylic Inks and a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil with Matte Medium.

Here's a little snippet, scroll down to see how I created the finished painting;

I took a 10 x 14 inch canvas and sketched my portrait;

Once I was happy with my sketch I took a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil and using Matte Medium to activate it, I darkened my lines.  Once dry the pencil is permanent if you use Matte Medium to activate it instead of water.

I then added my first layer of colour using Metallic Acrylic Paint in Bronze;

My next layer was added using Metallic Acrylic Paint in Pink;

I then added a layer of Metallic Acrylic Paint in Silver;

Then I added a layer of Metallic Acrylic Paint in Gold to the hair;

Next it was time to darken some areas of the painting, so I used the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil and Matte Medium again;

I then added more layers of colour using Metallic Acrylic Paint in Copper, Gold, Silver and Pink;

It was now time to add details to the facial features and hair using Acrylic Ink in Dark Brown and Black.  I also added some highlights with a white pen;

At this point I left the portrait overnight, so I could look at it with fresh eyes the following morning.  I really liked her, but she was missing something.  She reminded me of an angel, but she looked so sad, so I decided she needs some tears.  It only seemed right that an angel would cry tears of gold, so I added a few drops of Gold Metallic Acrylic Ink and sprayed with water, so it ran down her face.

The Metallic Acrylic Paints are beautiful to work with, they add such wonderful colour and shine to your projects.  I've tried my best to show their wonderful shine in these pictures, but they look even better in real life.  If you are not confident in your drawing skills you can still create a similar effect using a stamped image or digital stamp for your initial line work.  Make sure you stamp in waterproof ink; If you use a digital stamp leave it to dry overnight and add a little water to the image to see if it runs, or apply a thin coat of clear or white gesso to seal your image before using the paints.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I created this project, and all my projects over the last two years.  It's been my pleasure to share them with you all, thank you to all those that have left comments for me, I really appreciate them.

That's all from me, 

Happy Crafting

Suzi

xxx

Mixed Media Canvas with Suzi

Good Day All, I hope you are keeping safe and well, Today I'd like to share with you a Mixed Media Canvas I've created using DesignIt Paste, Brusho Crystal Colour Powders, Eco Acrylic Paint and Gold Wax Crayons.

I had no idea where I was going with this canvas when I started it, I just wanted to play and see what would appear.

Here's the finished Canvas;

 

Here's how I went about making it;

First of all I took an 10 x 14 inch canvas and applied a layer of Pearl DesignIt paste through a stencil.

I then selected three colours of Brusho Crystal Colour Powders, Gamboge, Sea Green and Purple and sprinkled them over the DesignIt Paste.  To be honest I was a little heavy handed which leads to me having to add a clean up stage to this project.

I then left the canvas to dry overnight.

As you can see the Pearl DesignIt Paste has dried to a lovely pearl finish, but there is alot of excess powder.  So the next thing I did was using damp kitchen towel I removed as much of the excess powder as I could, really focusing on the blank canvas areas as I wanted to add some paint into those areas.

As you can see the blank canvas areas are now nice and clean, and the Pearl DesignIt paste is still nicely coloured.  I then painted all the areas of blank canvas with Eco Acrylic Paint in Paynes Grey.

I liked the contrast between the Grey and the coloured areas but wanted a bit more, so I added some Gold Wax Crayon to the Grey areas.

At this point I really liked the contrast between the areas, but it all seemed way to busy.  To be honest I hated it at this point.  I was seriously considering binning it and starting all over again, but then I thought I could paint over it with Gesso, which led me to decide to get the Black Gesso out.  

After a little thought I realised that I could cover some of the canvas with the Black Gesso but leave some of the patterned area as focal points.  I created a Heart shaped mask out of a piece of white card stock, and painted around it with Black Gesso.

I loved the result, it really highlighted the design and no longer looked too busy.  When applying the Black Gesso, I'd left it patchy in places, so you'd get some of the texture coming through from the background.

To finish the canvas I decided I wanted to add a sentiment, and a little doodling and frame the hearts.  I chose to used the Gold Wax Crayons again as this would tie the whole thing together.  After a little thought I decided on 'You and Me Always' for my sentiment as it filled the space nicely, and connected to the heart theme of the canvas. As a final element I added a little doodling with white pen.

I'm pretty pleased with the finished canvas, It's still not one of the my favourite projects but i'm happy with the end result and glad I didn't give up on it halfway through.  We can't love everything we create, but some project are more about learning what works and what doesn't, and just seeing where the project wants to go itself, it's organic and raw.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how my project came together and reading about the turmoil it caused me.  I think it's important to share projects that don't work the way we want, It helps to show that none of us are perfect, and that our projects don't always turn out how we planned.  We are all still learning, and that is part of the fun.

Thanks for visiting with us today

Stay Safe and Well

Bye for now

Suzi

xxx

We're All Mad Here Journal Page with Suzi

Good Day All, Today I'd like to share with you an Art Journal Page I've created featuring Brusho Crystal Colour Powders, Koh-I-Noor Polycolour Pencils and some wonderful stamps.

The first thing I did was to take a page out of my A4 Art Journal, then using the Bubble Wrap Texture stamp from Crafty Roo Designs along with clear ink and white embossing powder I add texture to the top and bottom of my page.

Next it was time to add some colour to my page,  so I sprinkled the following colours of Brusho Crystal Colour Powders across the page in strips starting at the top with Ultramarine, Turquoise, Sea Green and finally Leaf Green at the bottom.

Once dry I used the Sketch Lines Texture stamp from Crafty Roo Designs and Green Permanent Ink to add lots of lines to the bottom of the page to give the impression of grass.

I then added Sketch Lines in Blue Permanent Ink to the top of the page to enhance the sky.

The Next step was to stamp my flowers to create my garden, I used a selection of Funky Flower stamps from Crafty Roo Designs.

To colour my flowers I created patterned papers with Brushos in shades of Blue, Purple and Orange, I then stamped my flowers onto them and cut them out ready to layer onto my journal page.

To colour the leaves I created a patterned paper with Brushos in shades of Green, stamped the leaves and then cut them out.

Before sticking the flowers and leaves down I decided to add some more texture behind them using the Cluster Texture stamp from Crafty Roo Designs.  Once I'd stuck the flowers and leaves down I added Blue inks to define the stems and flowers and edged the page with the same ink.  

I then added shading to the flowers and leaves with Koh-I-Noor Polycolor Pencils.

.I then decided to add some extra elements to my page, namely some Butterflies from Crafty Roo Designs, and Anya, Ian and Cat stamps from The Greeting Farm.

To finish the page I stamped my sentiment onto some leftover papers, cut the words out and edged with blue ink before sticking them to the page.  For final details I used a white pen to add highlights.

Here's a few closeups to show the details;

I had great fun creating this page, I love Alice in Wonderland and it's quite a while since I created anything inspired by it.  I love how the little characters make the flowers look really big and magical.

We are living in crazy times at the moment, so it's good to believe in a fantasy world were everything is beautiful and magical.  Hopefully our world will stop being quite so crazy soon, but in the meantime, lets all stay safe and look after each other.

Thanks for visiting with us today,

Bye for now

Suzi

xxx

Mixed Media BookMarks and ATCs with Suzi

Good Day All, Today I'd like to share with you some fun Bookmarks and ATCs I've creating using Brusho Crystal Colour Powders, Koh-I-Noor Polycolor Pencils and some lovely stamps from Crafty Roo Designs.

Here's what I came up with;

Here's how I created them;

I'd previously created a sheet of Background Paper using Brusho Crystal Colour Powders in Gamboge, Sea Green and Alizarin Crimson, I had enough left to create my Bookmarks and ATCs.

For my project I've used the following stamps from Crafty Roo Designs; Chirp, Ewe and Bible Journaling set 1

I cut my backgrounds to size, then punched some 2 1/2 inch circle out of white card stock and stamped my focal images onto them.

As you can see, I stamped onto one of the bookmark backgrounds creating a nice repeat pattern.

For the second ATC I decided to use the Ewe stamp, coloured with Brusho Crystal Colour Powders in Gamboge and Alizarin Crimson.  I painted water onto the areas I wanted coloured, sprinkled my Brushos and left to dry.

I painted all of my focal images with Brusho Crystal Colour Powders and left them to dry.  I also added a little blue and purple to my ATC backgrounds using the leftover Brushos I had on my glass mat.

Once dry I added my elements to the Bookmarks and ATCs and adding some final colouring and shading with my Koh-I-Noor Polycolor Pencils.   I used a Black Fineliner  and White Pen to add thin borders to my projects.

  Here's the finished results in detail;

I love how vibrant the colours are, that's one of the joys of Brusho Crystal Colour Powders they are pure pigment, so you can get really intense colour; add lots of water and you get really subtle colours too, so versatile and fun.

I hope you'll agree that the background papers were far too pretty to go into the bin, and made wonderful bases for these cute projects.

That's all from me for today, 

Happy Crafting and Stay Safe 

Hugs

Suzi

xxx

It's A Cat's Life with Suzi

Good Day All, It's the start of a new month so time for a new theme, this month's theme is 'Mixed Media' so for today's post I've created a Mixed Media Canvas using Acrylic Inks, Modelling Paste, Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil and some fun stamps from my stash.

You've probably figured out by now that I love using Acrylic Inks, they are so versatile, and rich in pigment.  I decided to try a couple of different techniques with them, mixing them with water to create sprays;

As well as mixing them with modelling paste;

Once I'd finished mixing sprays and pastes it was time to get started on my project; I took an 8 x 10 Canvas and added a few layers of the sprays I'd created.  I also sprayed a piece of white card stock which would use to stamp my focal images and sentiment.

Once the sprays were dry I used a stencil from my stash along with the blue and green pastes I'd created to add some texture to the canvas.

After the pastes had dried a little I added another layer of the sprays. This added more definition to my stenciled texture.

Next using a stencil I'd created with a 2 1/2 inch circle punch I added 3 circles of white gesso.

Using another stencil and Black Acrylic Ink I added some black to my canvas.  I also added more white gesso.

Once the white gesso was dry, using the circle stencil I added some yellow paste to my canvas. 

After the yellow paste had dried a little I added more of the sprays.  I then set about stamping my images and sentiment.  I left my images to dry and them fussy cut them out before adhering them to my canvas.  My images are some of the Cats from Katzelkraft, I used an old alphabet set from Graphic 45 for my sentiment.

My canvas was nearly finished, but I wanted to add a little colour to the cats' eyes as well as ground the cats.  To ground the cats and outline the sentiment I used a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil dipped in Matte Medium; You can draw on your project and then activate the Pencil with water, but if you dip your Pencil into Matte Medium before you draw it activates the Pencils more and gives you a really dark mark, once dry these marks are permanent.

As you can see the Koh-I-Noor Pencil adds wonderful definition to the canvas.  You could use Black Acrylic Ink instead, but I find the Pencil is a lot easier to control.  Here's some close ups of the Cats;

This was a fun project to create, I've had the cat stamps in my stash for ages and this is the first time I've used them, I just love their characters. The colour scheme I chose was more muted than my usual choices, but it's still pretty dramatic with that pop of black, I love the contrast.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I've created my project and the different ways I've used the Acrylic Inks and Aquarelle Pencil.

Thanks for visiting with us today

Bye for now

Suzi

xxx