I saw a canvas made by someone on FB and I absolutely loved it. so I decided to have a play and put my own touches to it. Although, I have to say, I loved it so much, I didn't change too much but didn't want to completely replicate it.
I used a full face mask and a fancy brown decoupage mask, I fitted them together to make on mask. Used t-shirt fabric and paper deco with bronze powertex.
Once completely dry, I started adding hardware and wire.
I painted over the top with silver acrylic paint.
Added red paint and red pigments to the canvas once really dry.
Took a quick photo outside before it rains again!
A few close ups. Added pieces of wire to the eye sockets.
I tried to re-create the effect of barbed wire.
I added three netting staples over the mouth.
A line of screws to the forehead.
Red acrylic paint around the eye and mouth area. Lots of waxes and pigments also used.
This is the original that I was totally inspired by. Cate Wilshaw of Dark Imaginings was the creator of this fabulous piece. She completed it nearly 3 years ago, but I have only just come across it. I love it.
This time last week I was on a 3 day workshop and one of the things we were asked to do was to take anything rusty we could find. Although I had a fabulous time, it wasn't what I expected and so I brought the bits back and a few more that Judith kindly let me use on the day, to do something like what I thought we'd be doing, but didn't!
I look a large mdf tag and laid bits and bobs out how I roughly wanted to place them.
To create some texture on the tag I used kitchen roll. Paint the mdf and then just lay a small piece of kitchen roll on and dab it with the end of the paintbrush until it's all covered. Then take another small piece and continue until you've covered the tag. You could also use fabric too, or a mix of both.
Whilst it was still tacky I started to place the pieces of rusty metal.
Powertex also acts as a glue, so it's very easy to stick most things down.
Then I added all the washers, screws, nails and the clay skull.
I made sure everything had a good coat of the black Powertex. I also decided to add strands of Power Cotton to create even more texture and set it aside to dry.
This is how it looks this morning after spending a night in the airing cupboard.
Close up of the skull. All the metal is stuck on with Powertex.
Close up of the tag and now it's dried you can really see the Power cotton.
So onto the dry brushing. I used white to start with.
I got a bit brave and tried to record it. I have uploaded it, but please bear in mind, it's the first one I've done, and I had the camera in my left hand and was trying to dry brush one handed!!!
Press the triangle in the photo above if you want a laugh.
So this is what I ended up with after adding the white pigment.
Just in case the first one didn't work, I tried it again with another colour.
Again press the triangle for the video to play.
So this is where I kind of got to after I'd stopped videoing. If you didn't manage or want to watch it, I did another layer of dry brushing, but this time used the red pigment.
And to brighten it up a little, I used the bronze and rich gold pigments. You'll be pleased to know I didn't video this one!!
Close up - you can really see the single strands of Power Cotton now.
And here I Powertexed the tacks using the heads onto the forehead of the skull.
Another close up to show off the textures.
A closer close up of the tacks on the skull head.
And this is what it came out like, I'm rather pleased with it.
If you liked this step by step, why not leave me a comment and you can also let me know what you thought of my little videos. Be honest, I won't be offended, it was off the cuff and not planned at all. Next time I'll use a tripod so I have both hands free!
After I'd printed some images onto fabric and cut them up, I started to lay fabric and trims around them to start to build up a page.
I did the same for all of them and added a few emblishments.
Nothing is stuck down yet as I was still playing around with placement etc.
Ribbons, lace and ric-rak.
Once everything was glued down on the pages I played around with the placement of them and paired them up.
Then the pinkish set of pages.
And the next two pages, these are five and six.
And the last two pages.
I put the pages together in the same way I'd made the other two books sandwiching lace inbetween the layers. I laid out the pieces for the front and back covers. At this point, nothing is stuck down.
This is the front cover stitched and glued down with all embellishments attached.
And the back cover which I've left pretty plain as it needs to be flat when laid down.
And this is the spine which has been re-inforced with cardboard to give it extra strength.
And finally a view from the top with the book closed.
And this is the bottom.
This was a thank you gift for Sheilagh who very generously posted me a huge stash of fabric. I made her this because she showed an interest in the first one I'd made, but I couldn't give that one away.
This one is a little smaller and measures approx 6.5" x 9". I just hope she likes this one as much as the first one.
This is the third size of the collection of TH Idea-ology vignette boxes. Tissue tape added to the back along with some Calico Crafts windows and a couple of little pieces I made using wooden spools, mini bulbs, washers and more Calico wings and hearts. Rusty nails, more washers and some rusty wire.
I switched this one around and did the modelling paste and stamping on the inner frame. I only took one photo as the process is exactly the same as it was in the previous frame posts, but I did use different colours and missed a couple of stages out.
Dry brushed and outside edges darkened.
Unfortunately you can't see it too well here, but I added interference blue and turquoise.
Hopefully you can make out the shimmer.
Onto the outer frame which was gesso'd and painted with three shades of green media paint.
Weathered wood and white crackle paint.
Lots of greens, blues and a purple painted over the top of crackle until I was happy with the colours.
After putting it all together, I decided the outer frame needed a little something else, so added some stamping in black stazon.
Rusty washers added to each of the corners.
The chipboard die cut heart was crackled, painted with antiquing cream and most of it removed to enhance the cracks.
