October tutorial

October's Challenge is HERE

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Hello everyone, Sammy again with our mid-month tutorial for October. Believe it or not, when I first thought about what I was going to make this month, I had all kinds of ideas involving dark colours, skeletons and all things spooky for Hallowe'en...

And then this happened:

It may be possible to get further removed from my original idea, but I'm not sure how!

Now many of us mixed media addicts have a bit of a stencil-collecting habit, and I am no exception. But when it comes to making things, I always seem to gravitate towards my favourite half-dozen or so, and the rest sit in the box, neglected.

So for this project I thought I'd use lots and lots of different ones, and make it a real stencil showcase!

First of all, I covered a piece of 8"x8" MDF with book paper and gave it a coat of Gesso.

Next, I added a coat of pearlised pink paint. Don't worry about little air bubbles and such, as 99% of this is covered up eventually, and is just to add a little interest in the background.

I then cut some mixed media card stock (literally the only thing I buy from Hobbycraft. It is fantastic stuff, and will take anything thrown at it, including copious amounts of water. It is also quite smooth, unlike watercolour paper, which I like) into rectangles and stencilled a different design onto each of them.

Most of the stencils I used for this are from AALL and Create, with one or two others to make up the numbers. Once they'd all dried, I arranged them on the board, so I could see which designs I wanted where, and which way up I wanted to put them.

Next I coloured the individual pieces using different colour spray inks. When that dried, I attached them to the board and sprayed with a coat of pearlised glimmer mist.

For the focal point I made a clay unicorn, using a Katy Sue Designs mould, and painted it in corresponding colours. I used a clear pearlised paint to add sheen to the face and neck.

I then attached the unicorn to a coaster I had painted with the same pink pearlised paint that I used on the background.

Finally, I added my focal point to the board and finished it with flower arrangements, gems and pearls, and  a sentiment spelled out with Tim Holtz Typography letters.

And there you have it. A simple, yet effective way to show off all those gorgeous stencils, which resulted in a shimmery, girly wall decoration about as far from Hallowe'en as it's possible to get!

I hope you're feeling inspired enough to come and play with us this month!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

October Challenge

Hello everyone, and welcome to another new challenge here at Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

Sammy here bringing you this month's challenge, inspiration from our fabulous DT, and of course the winners from our September challenge.

As it's October, we're anticipating lots of ghoulish entries this month, but you're by no means required to make anything with a Hallowe'en theme! Just take a peek at the DT inspiration below, and you'll see that some of us are about as far removed from that theme this month as it's possible to get. 

In other words, anything goes! As long as it's altered art or mixed media of course. And please, no papercrafted items!

Now, on to our winners from last month. As it was Lys's turn to host last month's challenge, it was also up to her to choose the winner and runner-up, and after much deliberation, these were her choices:

Winner:

#12 Deonna B

Lys loved this because of its beautiful detailed contents. Follow the link to Deonna's blog to see for yourself.

Runner-up:

#18 Paper Beauty AK

And Lys choose this one for its beautiful textures and the surprises hidden inside. again, a peek at the blog is highly recommended. 

And of course the DT got their heads together and picked a favourite too:

DT Favourite:

#17 Pooja Sharma

Such gorgeous work from all the winners. Don't forget to grab your badges from the sidebar.

Now it's time to move on to the fabulous inspiration from our team. Our lovely Sandie is taking a well-deserved break this month, but I hope you'll find yourself inspired by the gorgeous projects from the rest of the team.

Judy:

This is what I started with

This was my finished project

Julie:

I have a stack of used tins as I change some stamp storage.

You can see what I did with this tin on my blog.

Lys:

Mixing recycled containers, a little paper and tasty French products to make a gift.

Priya:

altered sweet tin box

Hema:

Sammy:

Mixed media MDF plaque

(come back on the 15th for a tutorial)

That's it from us, now it's over to you. We hope you'll come and play with us this month (don't forget to check the "rules" tab at the top of the page if you're unfamiliar with ours), and share all your gorgeous altered art and mixed media creations with us.

Have a fantabulous day!