Trick or treat!

Happy Sunday Tando fans! The blog has looked fantastic this week! I am delighted to be sharing something spooky with you today!

My knock a door run! Will there be a trick or treat hiding behind the door... who dares to open it !

For the base of this door I got creative and used a frame and panel from the {Layered Rowing Boat} I loved the long elongated shape.. just what I was looking for!

No need for any basecoat or Gesso.. I wanted rough and ready! The messier the better for an aged look.. the frame and panel were given a coat of walnut stain. Strips of left over cardboard cereal box were used for wooden door panels. 

Being in a creative mood! I decided to see if I could alter one of the locks from the {Locks and Latches} set.. 

I used the lock for the keyhole and the fancy edges as hinges for the door..

(cutting the lock top right)

I think it worked out quite well!

I used a couple of other halloweeny elements to decorate the front door..

{Mini - Mixed Halloween}

 along with this handsome chappie from the {Set of 3 Bats}

Time to add my trick or treat to the inside....... 

Booo !

Meet {Mr Skellie}

 

I hope you like my spookylicious decoration.

Gez ♥

Summer sailing..

Hi Gez here, delighted to be sharing my creation for this weeks 'summer' theme.. I used the {Layered Rowing Boat with oars} to create a little memento box and I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

After giving the pieces of the boat a coating of white Gesso I looked through some ephemera and assembled my layout on the backing board that comes with the set.

{Layered Rowing Boat}

 

I built up the frame gluing them together one by one.. saving the inserts for future projects!

I painted the oars with a coating of Gesso and some acrylic paint and texture paste to give an aged look..

the sentiment was computer generated..

I hope you like my creation and would like to wish everyone a lovely summer.

Happy creating, Gez

Two Arches with Owls

Hello everyone. For this Black and Red theme, I (Coco) have just finished a trio of lovely arches made with the inner boat pieces of my previous 'layered boat with oars' project shared with you a few time ago. They are fantastic leftovers!!!
I have created a textured and painted background, playing at start with black Gesso on the first arch, and white Gesso on the second one to try to produce two variants for the same combo. I added texture using only white Gesso and my Sequin Waste stencil. 
When dry, I used various red shades and dark/black acrylic paints (I used mainly PA Fresco Finish London Bus, Claret for the reds and French Roast, Chocolate Pudding, Mocha Mousse, London night and Little Black dress for the brown/black shades). On the first one, I added some Treasure Gold (Ruby) on the edges and on parts of the circles, and on the second one I inked the edges with Brilliance Graphite black and a bit of black paint.   

I stamped and cut out the sentiment and the bird on separate cardstock using Archival Jet Black ink. The bird was coloured with my Distress markers and a watercolor small brush, and then glued on a piece of leftover rubber to give it extra beautiful dimension. At the end I also stamped directly on the edges in white (using Brilliance ink) and black (with my Archival Jet black) some text to add even more interest to my two arches. My text and sentiments are Crafty Individuals stamps.

Here's the second one, I really enjoyed the process of creating different owl faces!...  Love this Owls Andy Skinner long Mask/Stencil, that's a great one! The little tree and birds are still Crafty Individuals stamps (I used a set of just mounted stamps sitting on my table, ready to be used haha!), I stamped them on tissue paper first, then glued with Satin Glaze (but you can use any other medium) and finally slightly painted over it... I also highlighted some areas thanks to a white Posca  marker, and then again with some light brown Distress markers...

Well, I also had fun to use my new Cosmic Shimmer Gold Twinkles you can see here and there haha!! I put a tiny drop of Liquid Pearls in Ruby Red on the eyes of this second owl...
To finish, I just added a few buttons to embellish my two arches. Et voila!

It was not an easy theme for me as Black and Red colours are not my favourite ones...  But love the result... what do you you think? Which one is your favourite?... 

I have used the following Tando products:

Thank you for popping by! Come again tomorrow for more inspiration in Black and Red! Hugs, Coco xx

Anything Goes Week - FISHING BOAT "ANNA"

Hi lovely fans ! I illustrate for the first time a "Free for All" week, and that's always a perfect theme as we can do everything that crosses our mind... For me, I fancied painting and decorating a Tando kit that I LOVE,  I find it so inspirful ! It's Layered Rowing Boat with Oars. If you like this small marine kit, please see also the versions created by Di and Karen recently on the Craft Barn's blog, they are totally different but so gorgeous both too !!!   

To do my boat, I started from a Manilla tag Size #8. I used Gesso and a Bingo mask to introduce very light texture at some parts only and I highlighted them with some blue paint sprayed with water. I also used my distress Barn Door in two ways: First I water colored a bit of red ink on my non-stick craft sheet and wiped my tag into it. Second at the last stage I also directly applied the pad in all senses on my tag.  Finally as I was satisfied with the result - it really make me think to ocean and boats ! -, I cut out the shapes of the oars and the background of my boat in it and covered the bottom and the oars by gluing the shaped pieces onto them.   

The top and sides of the boat were painted in Fresco Finish Sky and then in Baltic Blue mixed with a finger of Gloss Glaze. I dried off each layer with a heat tool. At the end I covered my boat with some translucent Inky Pool and added a coat of Gloss Glaze all over it for even more brilliance. But before that, I also stamped horizontally my large background stamp imitation "wood" in Versafine Deep Lagoon and also London bus at the top and outer sides of the boat. I also painted these latter alternately in red and blue before gluing them firmly together.

Here are some close-ups of my small fishing boat, I named it "Anna" and registered it for fun as "GV 3011", with GV standing for "Le Guilvinec". This is a nice small fishing port located in Finistère, Brittany !

I used a single fish stamp with fine details to create a lot of small fishes: red, blue... and even multicolored as you will see at the end ! :) This stamp comes from my new - very useful I find - "Tiny Things" plate by Stamper Anonymous. I stamped my fishes on some water colour paper and used my Distress inks and two Opalite reinkers I had for ages and never used yet to color them... They proved to be really perfect for fishes as they are slightly pearlised ! I all coated with Glossy Accents to do beautiful embellishments. I glued two of them on the top right side.

I also created a small jute bag with a piece of extra-large jute ribbon. I tied it up with small jute rope just stringed inside the big holes. I put some true tiny shellfishes and some remaining multicolored fishes in it for fun. I must confess that this little scene of grounded boat on the sand is not my idea, it has been made by my brother in-law and my twins in their sandbox LOL !!! :)

My small fishes hanged up to a metallic wire are done using the same tiny fish stamp but in shrink plastic this time (white or black). I'm very happy since I did them with my twins, it had been a true game for them! They have loved inking each fish and testing every Brilliance ink color, making a small hole into eye, and finally heating each one with the gun and looking at their incredible shrinking in a few seconds... Shrink plastic embellishments are a great fun with kids ! 

The little heart was done roughly following the lines of the Distress red pad (I used Barn Door). I drew it slowly, then inked it and/or painted it in London Bus and finally covered it first with a layer of Crackle Accents and next with more Glossy Accents for extra texture and brilliance. 

For my life-belt, I played with my embossing powders. I used Gold and Clear UTEE added to Distress powders (Black and Fired Red). With UTEE powders, several layers are needed to get a beautiful result... Patience is needed but it well worth doing it ! At the end I even more highlighted the red colour by inking the edges in red again before briefly heating it all again.    

And here is what I made with my leftovers of paint and fishes on a wooden tag !!!

I also realized 3 small tags just for fun freely, using the wastes of paints and playing with two beautiful masks by Andy Skinner. I used ~{Owls}~, ~{Burning Rubbers}~ and ~{SunBurst}~. Could be useful one day... :)

Et voila ! Sorry for this very looooong post... I'm used to explain my process of creation... but you can always skip some steps if it's too boring !!!  

Hope you like my project today... I had a great fun doing it, this small kit from Tando is so lovely and enjoyable to paint and assemble, I highly recommend it !!!  

Please pop over my blog for even more photos and design notes if you like this project !  Coco xxx