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

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

Be Kind Canvas with Suzi

Good Day All, Today it's my turn to share with you my latest creation using some goodies from the ColourCraft store.  This time I decided to try the Acrylic Wax along with some Brusho Crystal Colour Powders and a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil.

I have to admit when I started working on this project I was a little sad, another person had taken their own life; there seems to be lots of suicides at the moment in all walks of life and it's sad.  The world can seem to be a very dark and unfriendly place, and a lot of social media platforms seem to be adding to this problem.  We may feel as individuals that we can not do much to change the world, but we can, we just have to BE KIND, to ourselves, our friends and families and to complete strangers.  If we just treat people the way we want to be treated then the world can become a happier place for all.

So I decided that the main focal point of this project would be the phrase BE KIND.

I used the Acrylic Wax to write my sentiment onto some white paper, along with a couple of hearts, and some random shapes and marks on a couple of other pieces of paper. I then took Alizarin Crimson and Gamboge Brusho Crystal Colour Powders, sprinkled them onto my paper and activated with water, once dry I added more Acrylic Wax followed by some Sea Green Brusho Crystal Colour Powders.

I cut my sentiment and hearts out and layered onto to gloss black card, I then took a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil and added more detail.  Instead of activating with water I used Matte Medium.

Here's the other papers I created.

I then took a 9 x 11 canvas and collage my patterened papers and some black gloss card stock.

I added Doodles to my collaged canvas with the Koh-I-Noor Progesso Aquarelle Pencil activated with the matte medium.

Before adding my sentiment and the second heart to my canvas I added a little white gesso where I planned to add my sentiment, so as to give a little more contrast.

Here's the finished project, along with a close up to show the shine from the Acrylic Wax.

I'm fairly pleased with how my finished canvas turned out.  There is probably more black in the background than I would usually use, but i like how that contrasts with my patterned papers.  To me it represents the darkness in the world, but peeking through the darkness are patches of brightness, rays of hope.  The Acrylic Wax is a lovely product to work with you get quite a subtle resist depending on how much you apply, and you can add layers of colour between layers of waxes to build up quite strong colours and patterns.  

I really hope my project inspires you to create your own art showcasing kindness and the good things in the world.  Thank you for visiting with us today, 

Bye for Now

Suzi

xxx

I Believe in Magic with Suzi

Good Day All, Today It's my pleasure to share with you my latest creation using lots of yummy ColourcraftLTD products.  Our theme this month is 'Paint, Paint, Paint' so for today's project I decided to use Aztec Lustre Paints, along with a little ExpandIt Paste and Glitter.

The First thing I did was create some wonderfully sparkly background papers;

Look at the gorgeous rainbow they create when put side by side, and the sparkle is amazing.

I then created a few patterned backgrounds, and picked this one for my project;

I then decided to start work on my focal point.  I took a Unicorn Stencil and applied ExpandIt Paste through it, then added some Iridescent Silver Glitter.  

I love the texture of the Unicorn.  Next I added a little Washi Tape for pattern to the bottom left and top right corners of the background. I then added some Gold Acrylic Paint around the Unicorn and sentiment as well as onto the Unicorn to highlight the Horn, Tail, Main and Hooves.  Using a Star Stencil I added some Stars with a Gold Gel Pen.

I decided that I wanted to add some shadows to the card, the gold hadn't give me enough contrast.  I went around the Unicorn, Sentiment and the Edge of the paper with a Koh-I-Noor Aquarelle Graphite Pencil. I then added it to a card blank.

I was much happier with the contrast now, but the background was missing something, and I hated the sentiment; the texture was wonderful, but you just couldn't read what it said, so I had to change it.  

To remedy the problem with the sentiment, I stenciled the sentiment onto the Pink paper i'd created, trimmed it to size and added Gold Acrylic Paint followed by the Koh-I-Noor Aquarelle Graphite Pencil around the edge of it, before gluing over the previous sentiment.

Using a White Paint Pen I filled in the Gold Stars I'd previous created and added some doodling.

As you can see the White Stars and Doodling really complete the card.  Here's a close up of the sentiment, and a little of the Unicorn. I'm not sure if you can see the sparkle from the glitter on the Unicorn, but it looks wonderful in real life.

I'm really pleased with the finished card, to be honest at one point I really didn't like it.  I love the texture of the Unicorn, I think I'm going to experiment with other pastes to see what other looks I can give to the Unicorn.  The Aztec Lustre Paints create such a gorgeous background, and blend together beautifully, a little goes a really long way too, which is always a bonus.  Changing the sentiment worked really well too, and I love how the White Stars and Doodling brought it all together.  This was a fun project to create, I hope you like it as much as I do.

That's all from me for today

Happy Crafting

Suzi

xxx

Natured Inspired Index Cards with Suzi

Good Day All, Today It's my pleasure to share with you my latest creations using ExpandIt Paste and Eco Acrylic Paints.  Our theme this month is 'The Wonder of Nature' so I decided to have a play with ExpandIt Paste to see if I could use it to mimic some textures from nature.  I decided to use Index Cards for my project, they are a great size for trying new techniques and you can easily write on the back the processes you used, so you have a record for future projects.

I have 4 Index Cards to share with you today, I used Black ExpandIt Paste for the background on two of them, and Natural ExpandIt Paste on the other two.  I spread the ExpandIt thickly on one card, and thinly on the other.  I then heat set them all, and let to rest.

I used the thickly applied Black ExpandIt background for this project, I painted the background with Eco Acrylic Paints in Pthalo Green, Leaf Green and Cadmium Yellow Hue.  I painted another Index card with Scarlet Eco Acrylic Paint and then stamped Ladybirds onto it with black permanent ink, once dry I die cut the ladybird and triple embossed them with clear embossing powder.  I took a couple of word stickers added them to black card and them triple embossed them to coordinate with the ladybirds.  

I then wrote on the back, everything I'd used, and the processes used too;

My second Index card was very simple to make, I used the thinly applied Black ExpandIt background.  I then painted my left hand with Natural ExpandIt and pressed it onto the background.

I then heat set it.  Here's the finished result;

My third and fourth Index cards are based on flowers.  For the first one I used the thinly applied Natural ExpandIt background and painted it with Magenta Eco Acrylic Paint.  I then mixed some Natural ExpandIt with Cadmium Yellow Eco Acrylic Paint and used a syringe to apply small blobs of it to the centre of the card.  I then heat set it.  I then decided to added some shading with a Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil.

I wanted to create the impression of a macro photo of a flower.

For the second floral Index card, I decided to try to create an abstract flower.  I used the thickly applied Natural ExpandIt background onto which I applied a block of Magenta, Leaf Green and Viridian Eco Acrylic Paint.  I then applied a row of small blobs using the syringe and Natural ExpandIt and Cadmium Yellow mix.  I heat set the blobs and once dry added some shading to give the impression of a stem and petals with the Koh-I-Noor Progresso Aquarelle Pencil.

I love the different textures and effects you can created with the ExpandIt Pastes. It's such a fun and easy to use product, I look forward to using it on future projects.  If you've not tried it yet, you really do want to get some, I've only tried it on card and MDF so far, next I think I'll try it on fabric, as It works wonderfully on that too.

Thanks for visiting with us today, Don't forget to visit the ColourCraft Website to get all the supplies you need to try the techniques I've used.

Bye for now

Suzi

xxx

Computer Bug Cards with Suzi

Good Day All, Today I'd like to share with you a set of 3 cards I've made on the theme of 'Computer Bugs', Sounds a little weird, but hopefully you'll like them.  For my cards I used Eco Acrylic Paint, DesignIt Paste,Metallic Acrylic Paint, Metallic Acrylic Ink, Progresso Aquarelle Pencil and ExpandIt Paste.

The Backgrounds for my cards where all created at the same time, so I'll show you how I created them first before going on to show you each separate card.

First of All I took some Greyboard and gave it a couple of coats of Eco Acrylic Paint in Phthalo Green;

I then took a couple of circuit board stencils and using a palette knife added a layer of Gold DesignIt paste through them.

I left the backgrounds to dry a little before adding some ExpandIt paste to the bottom right hand corner of them both, I add just a little to one, and more to the other one.  I then heat set the ExpandIt with my heat gun.

I decided to cut the second background in half and use it to create to smaller cards.  I then added some Dark Green Permanent Ink to the Edges of the backgrounds, and swipe it over the raise areas of the ExpandIt.

That was my backgrounds finished, so next it was time to create my focal points and put the cards together.

For the first card I took one of the smaller background pieces and layered it onto a card blank  I'd created from a piece of Gold Mirri Card;

I then stamped some bugs onto Gold Mirri Card using the same permanent green ink, I also die cut the bugs.

I then added the bugs to the card with some foam pads for dimension.

As as finishing touch I added a little Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint to some of the background.

For the second small card I took a Steampunk Beetle stamp, stamped it in green permament ink and then added some gold details with Gold Metallic Acrylic Ink.

Before adding this beetle to the background I added a thin wash of dilute Phthalo Green Eco Acrylic Paint to the beetle and some areas of the background piece.

I then added this background piece to a Gold Mirri Card Blank I'd created, I added the beetle with a double layer of foam pads to give extra dimension.

As as finishing touch I added a little Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint to some of the background.

For my final card I die cut some bugs out of greyboard, aswell as die cutting a larger bug out of gold mirri card.  I painted the greyboard bugs with Phthalo Green Eco Acrylic Paint.

Before adding the bugs to the background I added some shading with a Progresso Aquarelle Pencil.

I added some shading in Progresso Aquarelle Pencil around the edge of my background piece before adding it onto my card.  I'd created my card blank from a piece of A4 card, so I had an A5 card, onto which I added a layer of Gold Mirri Card before adding my background piece.  I then added my painted die cut bugs.

As as finishing touch I added a little Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint to some of the background and the bugs as I felt they needed a little more contrast.

Here's a couple of close ups of the finished card;

I had so much fun with this project, especially creating the backgrounds, I love the combination of Phthalo Green and Gold.  The DesignIt Paste goes through stencils beautifully and dries to a wonderfully shiny finish.  I love how the ExpandIt looks like some sort of mould has started to grow on the circuit board.  I also love those Computer Bugs I created, I hope they make you smile, they did me!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing how I created these cards, It's a pleasure as always to share my creative process with you all.  Thank you for talking the time to read this post, I know it's a little long.  I hope i've inspired you get creating too.

That's all from me for Today

Bye for Now

Suzi

xxx