Crafty Hands Mixed Media: steampunk

Monday, 5 December 2016

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Welcome to December!
I'm hopelessly behind with my holiday preperations but I have found time to make these cute little mixed-media wreath ornaments.

I started off by cutting a circle from strong black card stock and sticking a ring of buttons around the edge using my hot glue gun (I made sure that about 1/3 of each button overlapped the edge of the card circle). I left a gap at the top of the circle so that I could add my hanger & ribbon later.

I then added a layer of smaller buttons onto of the first layer as shown below. Try to choose a few buttons with text or detail on them as this will add texture later.

Next, I added a couple of embellishments from my Finnabair Mechanicals stash to the centre of the wreath using Art Basics Heavy Body Gel.

I then added a couple of beads I had lying around and filled in some of the gaps around the embellishments with Finnabair's Art basics Art Stones and mini-art stones. This also gives you some great textures.

Once the gel was dry (you can speed this up with a heat tool) I painted everything with a coat of Pebeo Black Gesso and dried it off.

Now everything was black, the magic could begin! I dry brushed my wreath with Finnabair's Art Basics Opal Magic. I used two different colours to get the effect I wanted, dry brushing one onto of the another. The magic of these paints is that they change colour depending on the colour you paint them over so you end up with a subtle range of tones.

You can add more colour to certain areas to give the wreath a 'worn' effect and make elements stand out.

I wanted the ribbon to have a vintage feel to it so I simply dry brushed double sided black satin ribbon with my opal-magic paint. As well as giving the vintage look to the ribbon, this has the added bonus of helping stiffen the ribbon slightly so it keeps it's shape better.

I glued a key ring chain in the centre of the 'gap' on my wreath to hang it, then made a bow from my satin ribbon and attached that with hot glue.

I hope you enjoyed this project.

Don't forget to follow the blog and if I have inspired you to try a bit of mixed media you can find the supplies I used in our online shop (just click the links) or pop in and see us at Craftsite in Cramlington, Northumberland if you are passing!

I would love to see your mixed-media art. Please share it on Instagram and tag me @craftsiteshop.

Supplies used are available to order from Craftsite.co.uk. Just click the item to go to the website.

Art Basics Heavy Body Gel

Pebeo Gesso

Art Stones

Opal Magic Acrylic Paint

Embellishments from a wide range in our shop

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Steampunk mini-top hat

Hi everyone,
I can't believe it's blogday again. Where did the week go?
I've been getting messy in the workshop this week steampunking up a mini-top hat favour box I had left over from a wedding.
What do you think?

The favour box was ivory so the first thing I did was cover it with black gesso
I then added a band of fake leather I cut from a strap I salvaged from an old pair of boots (never throw anything out!).

Once the gesso had dried I began to punk up the hat using cogs and elements from my stash including the industrial heart from one of my Finnabair Mechanical's set and a 3 part poinsettia from a Tim Holtz Christmas embellishment set which I put on the top of the hat.

I also added some chains from a cheap piece of costume jewellery I picked up on sale in Primark from 50p!

I used Art Basics Heavy Body Gel to stick everything as it holds so strong.

I wanted to add a couple of more things that I didn't have ready made in my stash - a clock and some copper piping so I made those myself.

For the clock face I cut a clock from my Tim Holtz Lost & Found paper pad and I stuck it to the bottom of a melange pebble with soft gel paste and left it to one side to dry.

The piping I made by cutting lengths of paper drinking straws then splitting them lengthwise. This allowed me to roll them tight and slide them inside some shorter length of the same paper straws giving me a 'joint' effect.

Once all the gel had dried I grabbed my black gesso again and painted over everything.

The next part is always my favourite. I love taking everything back to black then seeing the details reappear as I apply gilding waxes and paints!

I ran a light coating of Pebeo Renaissance Gold gilding wax over some of the embellishments then took some Art Alchamy Opal Magic in green-gold and dry brushed it across the hat & embellishments.