Remembrance

Dear Friends,

Benefits of using monotone color schemes are many. It gives a sense of simplicity and harmony to the product and also makes it easier for the artist by eliminating the mammoth task to match the colors to be used.

This is my first attempt of doing a monochromatic art work. Benefits were many but frankly I found it challenging to depict a theme through just one color.

Me being a person who once in a while traces my path back into my memory lane, find that always monochromatic. No candies for guessing why I chose Black here.

An illustration of various stages this journal went through is given below.

Step 1

As usual, nothing in mixed media starts without Gesso. Give a nice coat of Gesso to the pages. I used art basics Heavy Gesso - White on the cardboard substrate.

Step 2

I chose Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Gears to provide the "mechanical edge" to the monochromatic art work and applied Ranger texture paste through it.

Step 3

The black tone - I wanted to use Distress Sprays - alas I did not have it with me. I went forward with Lindy's Spray. The spray usage was tricky. It was more of a "controlled detonation" so as to avoid landing up with a black sheet in hand! Had to dab out lots and also had to make sure in diverting the color flow to the needed places.

A word of caution

Be very careful when you spray darker shades.

Step 4

To add something from my "floral side" stamped floral image on to the background. Used strips of Tim Holtz tissue wrap melange on the inner edges of the page to depict my theme of "remembrance"

Next was to embellish with Mannequin from Tim Holtz Ephemera pack and square cuts from Tim Holtz Laboratorie paper.

Materials Used

• art basics Heavy Gesso - White
• Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Gears
• Ranger texture paste
• Lindy's Spray - Black
• Tim Holtz tissue wrap melange
• Tim Holtz Ephemera pack
• Tim Holtz Laboratorie paper

Love

Remya

Linking this to A Vintage Journey - July Challenge.

The Mother !

Dear Friends,

A family is an eco-system that revolves around a pivot - Mother. And no family is complete without a Mother. Being a mom myself, I cherish every moment I spent with my kid. The Love , the warmth we give goes a long way and helps them to be a better person. Thought to make "The Mother" focal in my new mixed media journal.

Once the picture was decided upon I went about thinking how I could enhance it with a background which would match the real HERO in everyone's life. Out came my little box of die cuts and chose Ornate Frame Die. Its so Elegant and Charming - matching the lady in the center !

A bland die cut did not do justice to the excellent image. So gave a coat of distress crackle paint Rock Candy. Once the cracks appeared, smudged it with Brushed Pewter distress paint. This gave the Vintage effect to match it with the monochromatic picture.

Once the frame was finalized, the background had to be prepped up. Used red, yellow and white acrylic paints for the background. To give another dimension to the work, got the Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Flourish and applied Ranger Texture paste over it. Viola - the background was ready for the frame.

Finally embellished it with few flowers and leaves - you may hardly see any of my creations deprived of flowers. The leaves are from Sizzix Die - Garden Greens. To give a shine and gloss to the leaves - I embossed it using Fern Green embossing powder.

Materials Used

• Image Courtesy : gomakesomething.com
• Distress crackle paint rock candy
• Brushed pewter distress paint
• Ornate Frame Bigz Die
• Acrylic Paints
• Layering Stencil - Flourish
• Ranger Texture paste
• Fern green embossing powder
• Sizzix Bigz Die Garden Greens

Linking this to Frilly and Funkie Challenge : All in the Family

Altered Empty Duct Tape Rolls - A Tutorial

Dear Friends ,

Altered duct tape roll into a trinket box !

I love to alter things lying around and its quite therapeutic too. Whenever am in dearth of creative ideas I start to do such alterations :) 

There is a tutorial below explaining how it was done.

Step 1

Collect empty duct tape rolls. The Nomads that we are, we do have a big bunch of empty duct tape rolls and we never run out of this.This is typically 2 inches in height.

Step 2

Stick two empty duct tape roll together one above the other using any glue of your choice to give a 4 inch depth to the trinket box.  Did I say earlier that I use GESSO ? Yea, I use it a lot. Have given a wash to the "roll well" with a generous coat of GESSO.

Step 3

Cut two circular card board, one for the base which would be exact diameter of the Duct Tape Roll and another one which would be couple of millimeters. The wider one is to be used as the lid and the smaller one is the base. Glue the base on to the roll and give that too a neat coat of GESSO. The lid is not glued for obvious reasons ;)

Step 4

Now comes the tough part of the exercise. Choosing the pattern paper for the duct tape roll and the lid. This can be contrasting or similar in color but make sure they compliment each other. Embellish the work with items of your choice.

This is my second trinket box - first one can be viewed here. Lazy that I am, was not in a tutorial mode then. :)

Love

Remya

Linking this to Rhedd's Creative Spirit : July Challenge 2016

Journal Page "Enjoy"

Layouts are fun to make and there is no dearth of inspirations around . There are a few crafters of my  personal choice whom I follow religiously. One among them is Martha .

Enjoy the Little Things in Life

Someone rightly said "Enjoy the little things in life because one day you would look back and realize they were the big things".  We would have lost many of those "little things" already however, now on, We need enjoy those moments when life gives us !! I have kept this in my mind when making this Journal page - that inspired me to keep the little butterflies which were etched into my mind from my childhood village memories.

In this project, have used images from old magazines, cut into circles and have used water soluble pastels to provide a smudged look to gel into the background.

Materials Used
1. Gelatos® :Faber - Castell
2. Kaisercraft stamps
3. Urban Stamp - Butterflies
4. Gesso
5. Water Colour pencil : Faber - Castell

Love,
Remya

Linking this to LESSology : Challenge #59

Earth - A Floral Beauty !

Fellow Crafters !!

Technology is great, Internet is brilliant, Everyone has a train to catch or a place to reach. As part of all this excellent deal, did we miss something ? Did we go missing ?

In this mad rush, we forget to stop and observe things around us. Around you and me there are lot of things to observe, learn and get inspired. Am very fond of flowers and there are no prizes for guessing why Flowers end up as focals to many of my creations.

To start with, was very happy to get "Stampendous Stamp : Hummingbird and Flower" in my hand and had started using it  - did I say I love flowers ?

For this, Stamped "Stampendous : Hummingbird and Flower" onto Cardstock, fussy cut it and coloured it using Water Colour pencil from Faber - Castell. A tip for you - you can cut multiple pieces of them and stick together with a good glue to create an pseudo three dimensional effect - "Paper tole" it is.

I said, Focal is important, so is the background. You can use your ideas to create a background that would ensure that the focal jells into it. In the project, have used images from old magazine cut into circles. Every beautiful thing in nature is a circle ? Including Mother Earth. They were pasted on to thick card stock which is my frequent substrate for journal. Used Water soluble pastels to color this before arranging the focals on to it. One suggestion is to keep the background simple to ensure that the focal always remains in focus and the view is not distracted by a gaudy background.

Materials Used
1. Gelatos® : Faber - Castell
2. Kaisercraft stamps
3. Stampendous Stamp : Hummingbird and Flower
4. Gesso
5. Water Colour pencil : Faber - Castell

Happy Crafting

Love,
Remya

Linking this to 
Stamps and Stencils : Floral Frenzy
Country View Challenges : Have fun with Circles