I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.
I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.
To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.
I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.
The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….
…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.
I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …
I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.
So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.
Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)
I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.
Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.
Welcome to Cobs weekly confessional about the things I’ve learned this week.. I’m going to dive straight in . . .
I’ve learned (for the millionth time) that I just am not good in hot weather. I get terse and grumpy.
Hello God, … it’s me again. I’m here asking for the same thing. Could you please turn down the heat? You know that hot weather just makes me grumpy and miserable, so please could you turn down the heat – even just a few degrees would be welcomed. Thank you ~ Cobs. x
This week I’ve learned that there are some projects that just don’t photograph well, and because of that I can’t blog about them until I learn how to go about getting a decent photo. [big – s.i.g.h]
I’ve been playing with some mediums which are new to me, learning and testing them out to see how they perform and what works with them (and what doesn’t). These products are: Buff it, by Pinflair; and Brusho.
Brusho = little pots of amazing Water Colour Ink Crystals (little pots of powders to you and I) which can be used in loads of different ways.
You can sprinkle a very SMALL amount onto some watercolour paper and spraying it with a fine mist spray of water.
watercolour Brusho crystals sprinkled then sprayed
You can either then just leave it to do its own thing, or you can move it around by the use of a paintbrush or even picking it up and tipping the paper to make the colours run the way you want them to.
Wet water-colour paper, sprinkled with brusho’s then dragged across the card. The sentiment actually says: Live Every Moment. Laugh Every Day. Love Beyond Words. (but I stamped it in the wrong place and you can’t read the final line. But since these are only ‘playing’ it really didn’t matter.)
You can paint with the Brusho – and the colours are wonderful! Again, you only need to use the tiniest amount. If you add a little to some water, in a spray bottle, you can then use it as a colour spray and add a spray of droplets to your project.
Now onto my second new crafting product..
Buff It is like the most incredible wax that you’ve ever seen BUT … it’s NOT WAX! I would guess that a greater majority of readers have a pot or two of wax which we use in our crafting. But … the problem with these waxes is that they smell to high heff! Coo do they stink. It’s Paraffin. However Buff it doesn’t smell at all. You could (if you were crazy) pour a whole tub of Buff it onto your project and still not have to fling the doors open in order to get fresh air so that you don’t collapse. Again, this is another product which you only need a tiny amount of.
You can use it ‘as is’ … or you can add a little water to it. A LITTLE water. It dries quickly – so remember to take out what you need, then close the lid! Work a little quickly with it, but if it dries out too quickly you can use a fine mister spray and add just a tiny bit of water, and it’s ready to go again!
Brusho and Buff it used together. That’s the most incredible Gold colour not sunflower yellow as it looks in this photo. I so wish I could have got a better photo. Mr. Cobs saw this at this stage in the making and (in his words): Wow, it looks like the Cosmos! And I have to agree that when you see it with the naked eye, it actually does!
But … some of the projects I tried with these two wonderful craft magicals, just don’t show the real beauty which you can achieve with the products. You can ‘see the things’ … but the camera just doesn’t pick up the magic.
Moving on … Question for you: When is a Sapphire not a Sapphire? ……. [I’ll let you think about that one for a moment] ……
….. [still thinking? — Ready to give in? … ok, read on] . . .
I’ve learnt that . . . Sapphires and Rubies . . . are . . . the sameGem!
I know!Surprised me, I’m telling you!
Collectively Sapphires and Rubies are known as Corundum. Their only difference is their colour!
Also … Sapphires don’t just come in blue. Natural Sapphires can be found in pink, white, yellow, green, orange, brown, cognac, black and purple! (Did you know that you could get Sapphires in all these colours? It was a real eye opener to me.) BUT … Not only that …
Very rarely but . . . Sapphires can change colour. Colour Change Sapphires will typically be blue to violet in daylight, but will look purple to red indoors.
And a RARE PHENOMENON found in Sapphires is asterism. This is where a gemstone exhibits special optical phenomena. A six (or very rarely a twelve) pointed star will appear on the surface of the gem, that will move as the stone moves in the light.
And finally …
I’ve learned this week ….that you don’t have to be using paper to get a paper cut, and neither do you need to be in your craft room!
Out shopping I wanted to feel the softness of a bathroom ‘rug’ (a mat for when you clamber out of the shower) – so with finger and thumb I kind of ‘pinched’ the mat so that I could get a feel for it. But … (be honest, you knew there was a ‘but’ didn’t you) … in ‘pinching’ the bathroom mat, I lifted my other fingers out-of-the-way. Now that seems like a safe enough thing to do doesn’t it? [shakes head] nope. It most certainly isn’t!
The bathroom mat had a large piece of folded card over the top of it, where a hanger was for hanging the mat up for display purposes. In feeling the rug/mat, I caught my middle finger (left hand) on the really thick card, and instantly felt the pain. I looked down at my finger to see a gash with blood gently pumping out of it.
Now come on!Who would have thought that you could get a right ol’ paper cut from thick and chunky piece of card?? I could not believe it.
Mr. Cobs didn’t, in my opinion, take this injury at all seriously.Do you know what he did when I showed him my life threatening injury? He peered at my bloodied finger, pursed his lips, looked at me, made a ‘huhm’ sound, turned to walk off and as he did so he said: “Well you won’t be doing that again, will you!”
I stopped in my tracks, mouth agape, eyes as wide as saucers, … I called after him: “You do know that you can be replaced, don’t you?” … he ignored me totally, and from the shaking of his shoulders I could tell he was laughing at me. The cheek of the man!
The thing is … he knows I won’t ‘replace’ him because, quite frankly, I couldn’t bear to go through all that training again. The man couldn’t boil an egg until I whipped him into shape. He can now cook a complete Christmas dinner with very little input from me. He’s amazing. But look .. if you see him, please don’t tell him I said this because he’ll only get high with delight and strut around like a rooster in a hen-house!
Well that’s me done and dusted and now it’s over to you. What have you learned this week? Do share … not because I’m nosey … but because … no… actually … it’s because I’m nosey. So do share what you’ve learned this week via a comment in the box below …. and none of us will judge you. We might laugh at you … or we might cry with you. But we’ll certainly make you feel welcome.
Ohhhhh… I think The Lord may have heard my request because the rumbling of thunder can be heard. Maybe he’s going to cool it down by watering his garden. Oh my goodness … BIG thunder and crashing lightning! Ooo.. the lights have all dimmed, the TV has lost its signal …. awww, and the dog has come to sit on my feet as apparently I’m her best hope if something bad happens. I’m going to get this post saved and posted before I lose the computer too! eeek!
Wishing you a very happy Friday, and a wonderful weekend. May your troubles be few and your happiness be high.
Oh .. and … be nice to each other. Sending you squidges ~
The Art of Cobwebs 