Susan Seabert: butterflies

Showing posts with label butterflies. Show all posts

Friday, 17 May 2019

Blended background using acrylic paints

I love my DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paints and I have blended them for this journal panel using blending tool and foam.

I took quinacridone violet, cobalt teal hue and transparent yellow oxide which are all DecoArt Media transparent colours and translucent white which is semi transparent and blended them over a textured gesso background blending with a blending tool and blending foam and rubbing back with dry kitchen paper. When I was happy with the pale colours I then sanded lightly over the surface to reveal some of the white of the gesso below. Using ground espresso distress ink I blended around the edges of the card to give it a more vintage appeal and rubbed a little in the centre too wiping it back with a damp cloth.

These gorgeous transparent butterflies are from Tim Holtz. They are shiny and because I wanted it matte I painted a coat of DecoArt matte medium over it which dulled it down beautifully. I love how the background and particularly the text shows through.

I die-cut some wildflowers and used one of the photobooth vintage photos in my collage along with some bits and pieces I collect to use for putting my collages together. I also love adding natural elements to them.

The quoteid from one of Tim's sets of stamps called 'Nature's Wonder'.

I shall now add this to my 'Nature' journal I am slowly filling up.

hugs Brenda xxx

Bumblebees and Butterflies

Available from the shop

Tim Holtz stamps

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics

DecoArt Media white gesso

Distress Inks

Transparent Butterflies

Wildflower stems #1

Wildflower Stems #2

Friday, 15 June 2018

Great cards using Collage Paper

There are times when you need some simple, quick and easy cards that have maximum impact. The Tim Holtz collage paper can do just that. Here are four made in one sitting.

To start I cut four pieces of Tim's papers 12 x 12 cms to fit a 5 x 5 card.

I then cut four pieces of the floral idea-ology collage paper exactly the same size.

The collage paper was adhered to the patterned paper with matte medium and I brushed a light layer over the top to seal it. The collage paper is very strong when it is dry, not at all like ordinary tissue paper but it needs some gentle handling once on the glued background then it does resemble tissue paper.

I think I needed more glue on the back as it didn't become as translucent as I thought it would. Lesson learned for next time lol.

I also think the striped background showed up more than the neutral text and picture backgrounds.

Next step - mix some white gesso on your craft mat with spritzes of water to create a watery white wash and dip and dry the cards

Roughen the edges of the cards with a paper distressing tool and adhere the background to the card. I usually blend brown distress ink along he edges but decided I wanted it cleaner to create a more shabby look.

I then glued them to the cards and added some butterflies downloaded as free images from the internet and a stamped greeting.
Here are the four finished.

For me making four cards in one day is a miracle - I just loved using the collage paper but be careful when gluing it, it's just as vulnerable to tearing as good strong tissue paper.

There are three patterned designs and one blank one for you to stamp your own images on and they can be found in the shop here.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com

Monday, 26 June 2017

Oxides backgrounds and quick cards

Hi it's Brenda here today from Bumblebees and Butterflies with some more doxides (that's my shorthand for Distress Oxides lol) backgrounds which were actually left over pieces from other projects and helped made some very quick cards that I needed a while ago. You may remember the background masterboards I made as my first outing using the new Distress Oxides (here if you missed it) and then the two cards I made using some of it? (Again here and here if you missed those too).

Here's a reminder of the pieces I'd got when I had finished playing.

And here's what I made from the left over pieces. I stencilled and stamped to create some depth and interest ......

I inked the edges and added it to a 4 x 4 card .....

.... and then just added a butterfly - die-cut from left over pieces ......

..... and a stamped sentiment.

The same process with this one ......

.... choosing the left over bits carefully to tone in with the background colours ........

.... and using a different sentiment.

I have to say the feedback from my friends was so lovely I am now making little sets of these to sell.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

I can't get into Inlinkz for the moment but here are the links to the Country View Crafts shop for the products I used.

Distress Oxides
Simple Sayings stamps set
Hashtags stamp set
Detailed Butterflies thinlits dies

Friday, 28 April 2017

Round wooden box with Tim's butterflies - Flutter

Hello everybody, it's Monika here with two wooden boxes.

When my hubby saw one of these boxes - the blue one - he suddenly told me this:

"Now, this is beautiful!"

It was a really big compliment from him because mostly he just says 'hmmm' and sometimes he nods in addition when he takes a look at my creations :-)

Unfortunately when I was making the blue box I forgot to take pictures. But don't worry I made another one, a more feminine version of the original and this time I clicked a few times.

Well, here is the blue box:

I used poplar boxes. The blue is 14 cm, the pink is 16 cm in diameter.

I painted white the top with DecoArt Americana White Wash acrylic paint. I put at least two layers.

After drying I sanded with a very soft sanding paper to get a smooth surface for the easier stamping. So, I started to stamp the butterflies with Ranger Distress ink (Old Paper) and melted Ranger Gold embossing powder. (For the blue one I used silver embossing powder.)

The next step was to smear pink dye ink onto the top. For the pink I used Ranger Archival ink (Peony Pink) for the blue one Tsukineko Memento Sky Blue and Ranger Cobalt blue.

Then I coloured yellow the butterflies with Ranger Distress marker. For the blue one I smeared yellow dye ink all over the top. And actually I achieved the same effect with the pink box too because the Distress ink blotted when I applied the matte varnish in the end. And that was my goal.

I sanded the edges and inked with Ranger Archival Potting Soil.

I painted the bottom of the pink with Razzle Berry and I put Uniform Blue for the blue one.

Now let's see what I used:

DecoArt Americana acrylic paints (White Wash, Razzle Berry, Uniform Blue)
Ranger Archival inks (Potting Soil, Peony Pink, Cobalt)
Tsukineko Memento inks (Summer Sky, Dandelion)
Ranger embossing powders (Gold, Silver)
Ranger Distress inks (Old Paper, Iced Spruce)
Ranger Heat It craft tool
sanding paper
matte varnish

I hope you like it!

By the way, which one do you prefer?

Big hugs, Monika

Monday, 24 April 2017

More oxides and butterflies

Hi it's Brenda here with you today.

I so love playing with the oxide and butterflies together I have another design for you today.

I found some pieces in my bits box that I was really happy with when I did them and I'm still happy with them now and rather than let them just sit there I decided to retrieve them and make a couple of cards. I thought these infusions and stencil backgrounds would make the perfect backdrop.

Whether it's because of Spring I don't know but I seem to have butterflies on my mind and I took one of Tim's stamps and his oxides and using peeled paint, broken china and walnut stain I stamped two mixed colour butterflies and before I knew it I had spritzed one with water - I just wanted to see what it would do .......

....... my brain was working overtime so I quickly heat dried the watery mess and re-stamped the butterfly again over the top and look what happened once I had cut them both out ........ one beautiful crisp and multi coloured butterfly and one beautifully smudged looking one - I don't think I can choose between them so I'm pretty glad I had enough backgrounds to make two cards.

I continued on with some more edge inking and sentiment gathering until I was happy to assemble the cards together.

I kept it fairly simple even though I sat for ages trying to add other embellishments and stamps that I knew would clutter the design and spoil it.

Thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda

Friday, 8 July 2016

Infusions and a stencil.

Hi Brenda here. I love reverse mono printing with stencils so I thought I would experiment with some of the infusions and a stencil.

I used Daler Rowney mixed media paper and a stencil from Country View Crafts.

Place the stencil on the paper and spritz over it with a water mister.

Take the infusions and sprinkle them over the stencil and spritz again with water. (Next time I might try spritzing with tattered angels sprays).

Remove the stencil and place the wet side down on the paper beside the print you'd already made.

Rub over the back with dry paper towel and lift to reveal the reverse print.

Take a clean piece of paper, spritz with water and lay the wet side of the stencil down again and rub and you will get another lighter print ......

..... repeat to see if you can get another one.

This is what I got. It may be I can use some of these for card making.

At the end of my experiments I had used several pieces of paper and cut out eight backgrounds to make cards. I inked the edges with shabby shutters, broken china and ground espresso distress inks.

I then took Tim's butterfly duo die and cut butterflies and embossed them. I painted them with water and some diarylide yellow media acrylic and when dry added watery abandoned coral distress ink and dried again then rubbed dried marigold and ground espresso distress ink pads over the top. I stamped the sentiment from Tim's perspective set, inked the edges with shabby shutters, broken china and ground espresso distress inks and coloured the word with a broken china distress marker.

Just before I took the photos I pinned a small key onto the bow with a small yellow pin I had in the drawer. This is one finished, I also have most of the elements to now make up the other seven for my box.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like these artsy background and if you try this technique do let me know, I would love to see what you make.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx