Mixed Media Altered Canvas Tutorial

Hi everyone, I'm Christina.

Today I'm going to share with you the mixed media altered canvas I created, for this months challenge theme: Celebration with a twist Wedding.

Meet Pricilla. She's full of spirit and has a heart of gold....waiting for the man of her dreams. In the meantime you can see her all dolled up as she heads down the aisle with her abundance of flowers and glitter in her hair.

Let's get started......

Grab any size of canvas (I chose a 5x7) and cover it with Tim Holtz idea ology adhesive sheets, burlap. Then cover it with distress spray stain black soot. Heat set.

Next I used TH layered stencils, Industrial and Halloween with texture paste and let air dry. Once dried, apply distress inks Wilted Violet and Candied Apple on top.

Stamp image twice with Ranger archival ink - black on TH distress watercolour card stock (on the smooth side) and colour with various distress oxides and a h2o water brush.

Using TH mini snips, fussy cut "Pricilla" all the flowers and use pop ups for dimension. Add rhinestones in her hair and color them with an oil base marker. I used a copic marker. Doesn't she look pretty.....

Using a mini sponge tool and distress ink black soot, go over edges of stamp to make her pop out. The stamp I used is from Stampers Anonymous Day of the Dead 1.

For an added touch I used some of my favourite Tim Holtz idea ology finds - arrow adornment, skull (notice I added a couple rhinestones for the eyes with a little color for creepiness), metal corner.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and it leaves you feeling inspired.
There is still time left in the May challenge Celebration with a twist Wedding. We'd love to see what you create.

Have a great day,

Christina

Welcome to the OxSide

Hi everyone, I'm Christina.

Once I had an art instructor at college tell me that I should incorporate my fears into my art, because it gave it character and brought out my true self. The assignment was to interpret a Chagall painting - it was a circus. One of my many fears....clowns etc. I created a piece with my fears to make it my own. I received an A-

I remember that day, and I think I still have my art piece, in the basement.

So now, onto the good stuff.....!!!
As promised I'm doing a tutorial on my mixed media tag I created for this months challenge: April - Spring with a twist Showers.

As most of you know, Tim Holtz has come out with a very exciting product, Distress Oxides. This type of distress is a lot of fun to play with and I'm going to show you how awesome the colours work!

First I took a #8 Kraft tag and tapped it over the distress oxides, Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans (already spritzed with water) then heat set. I repeated this step till I got the coverage I wanted. Hint: to prevent the colours turning into mud, heat set after each application.

Next apply Ranger texture paste - Transparent over Tim Holtz stencil - Splatters with a palette knife, let it air dry. This gives the illusion of rain droplets/showers.

Randomly stamp images using Ranger Black archival ink on top of tag. I used Wendi Venchi Art for You stamp set, honeycomb.

Distress Oxide Vintage Photo and Faded Jeans were used to watercolour the butterfly on TH mixed media #8 tag. This surface sturdy and holds the color for a nice deep effect.

To make Tim Holtz Salvage doll less "creepy", I painted her with an alcohol ink mixative in gold, to give her a more angelic vibe. For those of you that don't know, I have a doll phobia. So it was a little challenging for me to add her. But I'm glad I did, as she is the focal point of this piece.

Did you know that you can oxide TH crinkle ribbon?? Just swipe the oxides on your craft sheet, make sure they don't overlap, spritz them and scrunch the ribbon till it's covered and heat set it. It's pretty cool to see the colors layering on top instead of blending.

Next I grabbed one of my hubby's spare guitar parts (a spring) and covered it with black gesso. Any kind will do. To speed up the drying process, heat set it.

This is the fun part.....! Be prepared to get messy, using your finger smudge various colors of beeswax over the spring to your desired taste. I used Art (c) beeswax in copper and Viva Decor Inka Gold in steel blue. Then sand it down so it's not as vibrant.

Here you can see the effect of the beeswax and how vintage the spring looks.

Attach everything in place and let it set. For the metal spring and "angelic" doll I used a very sturdy glue called E 6000. You can buy it at any local craft store. Mine was from Michaels in the floral section with the other glues.

I do hope you enjoyed my tutorial and if you're feeling inspired,  join in the fun in our April challenge: Spring with a twist Showers. We want to see what you create!!

Christina

Brave Heart

Hi everyone, I'm Christina

I read somewhere that you should do one thing a day that scares you. For me that would be stepping out of my comfort zone in the creative world. Sometimes I tell myself to breathe, get back to work and create something brave and new. So, I decided to alter Tim Holtz idea ology mini clipboard and make it my own.

So here we go.....!

Title: Brave Heart

Start by taking apart the clipboard holder.

Apply black gesso to the clipboard, any brand will do.

Die cut and emboss the layered bee die out of chipboard from Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations

Using the Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations mixed media die, I used manilla paper from the #10 tag.

Apply Ranger texture paste through a variety of stencils, I used Tim Holtz Flourish, allow to dry or to speed dry use a heat tool. 

Once you have everything in place, the layered bee, gadgets/gears/beads etc. cover with a layer or two of black gesso. Heat set.

Now the fun begins......!

Using your finger, start rubbing in beeswax of various colors to give dimension and make your pieces come to life. I used Art (c) beeswax in gold/silver/bronze. For the more detailed parts I used a fine paint brush to add colour. 

Distress crayon, Smokey Sky was used to add more colour and give a vintage vibe to the piece. All you need to do is rub it in and a helpful tip....a little goes a long way.

Apply black gesso to the clipboard piece, heat set, then rub in a bit of the gold beeswax for a vintage effect

Here are two different techniques using the same layered bee die. As Tim Holtz would say this is definitely a "game changer"

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial and when you get a chance come on over and join the fun at our February challenge Love with a twist Wings. We can't wait to see what you create!

Christina