Colour Inspiration January 2023- Fiona Randall

Hello and welcome to my contribution for the January Colour Inspiration.

Here are the colours provided to kickstart our mojo for the New Year.

For my project I decided to construct one of the Tando Mini Books.

I started by constructing the book and gave it a coat of DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish in Carbon. I then gave it a coat of DecoArt Media Ultra Matte Varnish when dry to protect and seal.

I then cut two pieces of cardstock for the back and front covers. These were sprayed with spray stains from the Steampunk Soiree set from Lindy's Stamp Gang and dried with a heat tool. Stencilling was added with white gesso and stamping with Black Archival Ink. The edges were also inked before adhering to the front and back covers of the book. Nect up I embossed a Small Tando frame with some Embossing Powder. I then stamped a Butterfly from a  Chocolate Baroque Stamp Set onto white card and fussy Cut out. The frame was attached to the front cover and the butterfly glued into place as shown. To finish I added sentiment strips made with a Dynamo Label maker and attached to the front cover as shown.

A quick and easy project with limited supplies to kick start the New Year.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read.

Hugs Fiona.

PRODUCTS USED.

A Sized Book Covers and Spines Kit

Tando Small Bookplates

DecoArt Chalky Finish- Carbon

DecOart Media Ultra Matte Varnish

Aged Aqua Embossing Enamel

Archival Ink Pad- Jet Black

Chocolate Baroque- Just Butterflies Stamp Set

Other Products Used

Lindy's Stamp Gang Steampunk Soiree Shimmer spray set

 

Hex Tech Tuesday - Freedom by Kim

 I'm trying something a bit abstract this time. I hope you like it.

"Freedom!"

From the Tando Creative Hexagon set I used 3 x 3.5mm hexs, and 3 x 5mm hexs (that's length of the sides)

I started with the cage. For the bars I used clean bamboo sticks from a room infuser (the thing that has smelly oil in the bottom and sticks poking out to make the room smell nice). I drilled holes (as shown) in two of the 3.5mm hexs to take the bamboo sticks. The sticks were a bit too long so I cut them to 8cm. Before I glued them in I bent and broke two of them to allow the butterflies to escape.

Next stage was to glue the remaining ten sticks in place. I put them all in one hex then lined up the second hex to complete the cage. I glued the third 3.5mm hex on the top to cover the drill holes. I added some washers and rivets left over from Tando's Industrial Elements kit to decorate the top of the cage.

The stand is made from a piece of cardboard tube cut from a cooking foil roll. I wanted the whole thing to be skew-if, so I cut the bottom at an angle, and the top at an angle but not matching the bottom angle (see picture). I stuck the cut piece on a large hex. All was set aside to dry while I arranged the butterflies.

I took 11 butterflies from a set of Tando Mini Butterflies. I used six, three matching pairs, attached to a pile of four washers from Industrial Elements, to make a firm base section. The remaining butterflies were arranged as if flying out of the cage, their wing tips were glued together with PVA.

Before I assembled the sections I painted them. I used black and white for everything except the cage bars and escaping butterflies.

The cage floor was painted with a harlequin diamond shape, as was the top hex base. I feel there is something sinister about the design. The two remaining large hexs are painted one black, and one white.

The tube support for the cage was painted Lamp Black. When dry a coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood was applied and allowed to dry. White was painted over that to give the lovely crackle finish.

The cage bars are painted with Venetian Gold. The escaping butterflies are stippled with bright colours - I used yellow, green, red and blue, with the top two having gold edges to their wings. The three pairs of butterflies not escaping from the cage are painted black, with Zinc (grey) and white lightly dry brushed on to add texture.

Assembly (not the sort we had at the start of our school day!)

Glue the two large hexs under the base section. Make each one twisted slightly out of alignment, black on the bottom, white next.

Glue the dark and coloured butterfly sections together at the wings, making sure they fit nicely in the cage. When they are dry glue them in the opening of the cage. I added a bit of support by glueing the wing to the top of the cage. Allow to dry.

The broken cage bars can now be added, arranged to look like they have burst open. It is a bit fiddly and you will need to support each bit until the glue has set - might be worth using a solvent, quick drying glue here.

Last is to glue the cage to the stand, sit back and admire your handiwork!

I hope you enjoyed this Hex Tech. Thanks for stopping by!

Product:

Tando Creative Hexagons

Tando Creative Mini Butterflies

Bamboo sticks, or similar

DecoArt Americana Colours

DecoArt Weathered Wood

A Magic Roundabout - February Kit by Kim

 Fondly known to the design team as the spinny, roundy-round thing, I present my version of Tando Creative's Twirly Whirly Art Stand ...

Please note the curved round boards and circus top are not included in the kit - they are constructed from off-cuts and spare parts. See 'Bend it like ...' on tomorrow's blog for details of forming the curved surfaces.

Assembly of the greyboard kit is straightforward but note there are two large discs - one has a larger hole than the other - the larger holed one is the bottom, the smaller hole is atop the X section. 

  

Also note the upright end pieces that slot into the large X have their tabs downwards and slot to the top (see picture).

My first job was to base coat the whole thing in white, to make sure the colours are bright and vibrant.

Next I painted a 'leafy glade' scene as a background. I used three greens, first a mid-green dabbed on all 

over but leaving gaps. Next a darker green dabbed on but mainly in the lower half, finally a lighter green, mainly to the upper half. There is no skill needed for this, it is just dabs of colour to give the impression of leaves. I added some brown lines to suggest branches, and brown 'ground' for it to stand on.

Next I worked on the round boards and side panels. I started with a base coat of Primary Yellow, then using a dry brush technique added a boarder of Tangerine, and a slightly narrower boarder of Calico Red. This gave me the basic fairground look I needed.

Using Primary Blue, Festive Green, and Calico Red I added the brush stroke design to the round boards and side panels. I added dotty scrolls in Venetian Gold to complete the design. To make sure the scrolls were all the same I sketched out a suitable size and shape on stiff card, and using a pokey tool pierced the design. I used this as a reversible template to mark the shape in pencil.

Last I added the large white dots - reminiscent of the bright lights found on fairground rides.

To make the circus top I used a cog wheel left over from Tando's Industrial Elements kit and six wooden coffee stirrers. I glued these with all purpose glue as in the picture to make a cone shape. I glued a large washer, also from the Industrial Elements kit, inside the cone for strength. I left this overnight to make sure it was dry.

I measured the height, to get the size for the circle needed for the 'canvas' cover. It just fitted an A3 sheet of paper. I estimated how much of the circle I would need and painted on the red and yellow stripes. I wrapped the paper carefully around the legs of the cone, using PVA to glue it to each one as I went round.

Rather than horses, I thought butterflies would be more magical, so I used a set of Tando Butterfly Minis.

While they were still in their original frame I base coated them in white, and then with Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Primary Blue, and Festive Green I dry brushed random areas over the board, ensuring each butterfly had some of each colour. A little gold edging to finish them before gluing them on poles made with jewellery wire to hang in the carousel.

A Magic Roundabout

I added flags on cocktail sticks, just for fun.

See the carousel in action on my Instagram page

Products:

Tando Creative Twirly Whirly Art Stand Kit

Tando Creative Mixed Media boards (for the round boards, see tomorrow's post)

Tando Minis - Butterflies

DecoArt Americana Colours - White, Primary Blue, Primary Yellow, Calico Red, Festive Green, Burnt Umber, Leaf Green, Foliage Green, Forest Green, Yellow Ochre

Spare parts from Offcuts and Industrial Elements

Coffee stirrers

Product Focus By Nicky Roussou

 Welcome to my blog for Tando-Creative

This week is 
product focus and I have been wanting to make a Guitar Clock for ages but have never got around to it so this was great fun!

This photo catches the colour better. 

I started out by laying out the Guitar and clock.

I cut sheets of card stock and ran them through my big shot in a Tim Holtz 3D wood embossing folder ( one of my favourites ever!)

 I then stuck the paper over the entire Guitar, leaving the edges really rough so I could peel them up.

Then covered with distress ink.

For the Layered Butterflies I painted them with a beautiful rose gold paint and some large grain medium.

For the Guitar strings I used this rusty wire I've had in my stash for a while which I've dying to use and was perfect for this project. 

Doesn't this look great with a bit of gilding wax to bring out and highlight the string.

I repeated the same process for the other Butterflies and the cogs and I added Angel Wings too.

The clock and wings were coated with Lava Paste and heated and painted over.

I added some crackle pates over the Guitar randomly and gave it a coat of Decoart Quin Gold

Finally a coat of watered down brown oil paint.

and some gilding wax to finish off.

PRODUCTS USED

Tando- Creative Guitar Clock

Tando-Creative Butterflies

Tando-Creative Wing 

Tando-Creative Clock

Butterfly Week- Fiona Randall

 

Morning all,

 The theme on the blog this week is 'BUTTERFLIES'

You know that I have a passion for this subject matter so this was a no brainer for me.

I used one of the Tando Size 8 Tags and a Piece of Tando Grey Board cut to size to mount the Tag onto to create a panel. A piece of watercolour cardstock was cut to fit the tag and glued into place.

The tag was stamped with the leaves and embossed in gold embossing powder. This was then Water coloured with Lindy's Magicals and Distress Spray Stains and finally a few splatters added with gold paint. 

The flowers were stamped and gold embossed onto vellum and fussy cut. The Butterfly was stamped and given the same water colour treatment as the leaves on the tag.

The flowers and the butterfly were then added to the tag with off cuts of Grey Board to give depth and dimension. Finally a simple sentiment was added as shown.

The panel was given a coat of DecoArt Chalky Finish and the edged by swiping gold wax.

The Tag was then mounted onto the panel with off cuts of grey board to give depth to finish.

I love how this has turned out and the soft dreamy effect I was going for I think I achieved.

Thanks for stopping by today

Stay Safe

Fiona xx

PRODUCTS USED.

Tando Size 8 Tags

Tando Grey Board Sheets

Deco Art Chalky Finish- Honour.

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic- Metallic Gold

OTHER PRODUCTS

Watercolour Cardstock

Vellum Sheets

Stampendous Gold Embossing Powder

Versamark Embossing Ink Pad

Lindy's Flat Magicals Set- Summer Meadow

Distress Spray Stain- Pumice Stone

Finnabair Wax- Aged Brass

Stampendous Stamps- Jumbo Butterflies

Paper Artsy Stamps by Tracy Scott- set TS058

All and Create Stamp set by Tracey Evans- Butterfly Meadows