Crackle Paste/Glaze week - with Nikki

Morning everyone,

I kind of mis-read the brief for this week, and thought it was texture, but that's next week.  So my make has a mix, but there is crackle glaze there :)

I started by using a small Gothic mdf arch from Tando, and put some black gesso through a brick stencil for a little texture.  Next was Texture Sand Paste all around the edge with a palette knife. 

Paint over the whole arch with white Gesso:

Make a very watery wash of Pthalo Turquoise and Pthalo Green blue, and add the turquoise at the top, merging into the green blue towards the bottom.  Try and keep inside the arch.  The paint will pool nicely in areas.

Take Medium Grey Value 6, and paint your edges, and the brickwork carefully.  Water some Paynes grey slightly and use to deepen the edges of the bricks and highlight the arch texture.

Add a wash of Quinacridone Gold, in areas, and splatter some over the blue area, not fully covering the whole arch.  Mix a little Pthalo Green Blue with Quin Gold, and repeat the wash just on the right hand side, this gives a bit of depth to the colours.  Stamp and cut out images from the Spook set (Illusionary Artists).  Colour the Gargoyle with some of the green-gold wash you have left to tie in the colours.

I also stamped in Versafine Toffee ink some text across the background of the tag.

Emboss the crosses with Stampendous Aged Green Embossing Powder, and then give a Payne's grey wash over the top, to age further. 

Stamp some words onto card, and emboss with clear embossing powder.  Make a wash of Quin Gold and Payne's Grey, and coat the card.  Edge with neat Paynes Grey. Heat dry.

Glue the stamped elements on the Arch, adding some more Paynes Grey around the Gargoyles feet on the brickwork to ground him, just a shadow.  Add Crackle Glaze on top of the Gargoyle and leave to crack. 

Here are some close-ups and the finished piece:

Hope you like him :)  Remember to catch up with the rest of the team's makes this week too,

Thanks for stopping by,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xxx

The new flexi spine mini album

Hi it's Brenda here and with an 'Anything Goes' week I am taking the opportunity of showing you how I decorated one of Di's new mini albums which are being released at Stitches next weekend.

This is a fabulous little mini with a flexible spine that just bends to create the whole album in one.

Take a look at the photos to see what I mean.

 I created a panel for the front cover and used some of the brand new Andy Skinner stamps

I used the slots in the spine to sew my pages in ....

 .... and have dipped a piece of fabric in watery paints to create the tie.

This is a fantastic small mini that just feels so comfortable and cute when holding it in your hands and Di has also made an mdf stand that can be decorated and will hold quite a few of these which will look fabulous on a shelf. I'm sure someone will post one of these on here soon.

Keep a look out for these in the Tando shop, at about 3 1/4 inches square they are going to be fantastic for making little gifts for friends and photo albums for family members and if you want to see how I did my pages then pop over to Bumblebees and Butterflies to see a few more photos.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xxx