Wet and wild in the tub!

So now we are down to 3.  Yep. The tub can no longer fit 3 nephews + 1 niece.

Nephew #1 has been ousted because of space constraints! *LOL*

But these 3 still got pretty wet and wild in the tub! *winks*

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

*Edited* This layout was one of the September faves at The Studio Challenges.

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My little helper...

My niece gets really excited when she gets to be my little helper...*winks*

I like to remove the packaging from my embellishments and put them in clear containers for easy viewing. My niece would happily help by separating them by colours and types...while telling me how pretty each embellishment is. :)

It's nice to have a little helper who appreciates my taste in embellishments...*LOL*

Playing along with Stuck?! Sketches.

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The document holder got a makeover..

Apparently, nothing is "safe" from me and my need to alter stuff....[sinister music plays in the background...]

The document holder BEFORE the makeover...

The latest "casualty" is my trusty document holder. It has of course seen better days. In its heyday, all its tabs were clearly marked and it was the storekeeper of many important documents. 

Some lace fabric, matte gel and scissors...

And a much prettier document holder! *winks*

P/s: Happy weekend friends! :)

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Trying my hand at a skinny card...

I haven't made a card in ages so I got to work last night on my first mixed media skinny card. Okay, I wanted to make a tag at first but added it to a kraft card base when it was done. *winks*

The cardboard was from packaging. I tore off portions of it to expose the corrugated portion..then a coat of gesso and play time with Liquitex white opaque flakes, The Crafter's Workshop stencil and Faber Castell gelatos. 

Playing along with The Mixed Media Card challenge.

This card was highlighted in The Mixed Media Card Challenge. :)

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Mixed media on a mooncake box cover

So I've amassed quite a massive collection of mooncake boxes over the years. These are my fave boxes to alter because they are nice and sturdy. Like this one.

I love the copper finish of the exterior and the gold interior so I decided to just decorate the box cover. 

The textures here were created with wrapping tissue, resin sand medium, chipboard and mica flakes.

I really wanted to use the gorgeous trim sent to me by my bloggy pal Suman Pandit so I added the blue and teal colours.

Playing along with The Mirror Crack'd, a new mixed media challenge blog. :)

*Edited* This project made Top 5 at The Mirror Crack'd.

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My first love is altered art...

Even though I dabble in a variety of projects, my first love is altered art. There's something magical about taking an ordinary item and giving it a "makeover". Check out my cute little "scene" on a canvas! :)

Plain old wrapping tissue + light modeling paste + gold glaze = wallpaper.

Lightbulb casing + gesso + gold paint = vase

Toy + sponge + lace + gesso + paint = pouffe

Starbucks bottle cap + gesso + texture medium + paint  + patterned paper = frame for map paper 

Old mirror from travel kit + MT tape + lace + paint = framed mirror

Old jewellery + gold paint + vintage buttons + pearls = chandelier

This mixed media canvas was done for LESSology Challenge #40: Travelogue. 

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The last-minute mixed media canvas...

Text-message conversation with my mother two Fridays ago...

"Can you make an art piece for my colleague's house-warming lunch party on Sunday?"

"Huh? So last-minute? Dunno if I can finish in time. What size? Colour? Theme?"

"Just like the one you taught in class last week. I will get the photo for you."

"What? I don't repeat designs. And that took many many hours over a week...Oh well, I need a good quality photo."

Photo was finally emailed to me late Saturday afternoon....

Now, what do you do when you are crunched for time? You cheat, right? [I really mean, take a shortcut..really...*winks*]

So I distressed a 12x12 patterned paper and adhered to the base of a 12x12 canvas with matte gel. Then I painted the paper with a coat of clear gesso. Afterwhich, I lightened some areas of the paper with watered-down gesso.

After stamping [random text] the edges to add depth and map out my "visual triangle", I adhered mesh tape and applied Liquitex Sand Resin medium and Liquitex Blended Fibers mediums with The Crafter's Workshop stencils. When that dried, I added my first layer of colours with Faber Castell Gelatos.

You can see that the Liquitex Blended Fibers medium gives a very subtle texture [the random arcs] while the Liquitex Resin Sand medium [the area near the mesh tape] gives a more grainy texture. The glittered bits on the top right corner are mica flakes.

Then comes the fun and most time-consuming part...embellishing. I started embellishing this canvas on Saturday night...until I couldn't keep my eyes open [which was like 10pm...yeah, late nights are not my thing...*LOL*]...

Then I woke up at 5am to continue embellishing [okay, I woke up to watch South Park on cable...they show it at odd hours... *winks*]. And finally finished the canvas at 11.30am, took some photos and sent it off with my mother [okay, so I took time out to eat breakfast, worked out, did my laundry, vacuumed the floor before I completed the canvas...hey nothing like last-minute finishing touches, right? *LOL*].

There you have it....the story of my last-minute mixed media canvas. What do you think?

P/s: If you are interested in learning more about how I created depth and the textures on this mixed media canvas, please read this post on The Crafter's Workshop blog - How to create depth and textures.

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How to eat a turtle...*winks*

Okay, the title is a little misleading. It should be.."How to devour a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Krispy Kreme donut...the Yam boys way". *LOL*

Here was the obligatory photo I got from the nephews for the sweet treat they were about to devour...*winks*

I'm not much of a donut person but these were so cute...

Nephew #3 chomped off the left side of the head, along with an eye with his first  bite, giggling all the way.
Nephew #2 ate the back of the head, leaving the face intact.
Nephew #1 took small bites while laughing at his brothers.

Boys will be boys.:)

Playing along with Sketchabilities.

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Quick and easy paintbrush container...a project for Xyron

So Xyron is featuring back-to-school projects all week. As you know, I'm all about getting organized and prettying up containers...so here's a simple paintbrush container. :)

1. Start with a food/storage container.

2. Spray-paint with Krylon silver metallic paint. 

3. Measure and cut lace, then run it through the Xyron 9" Creative Station.

4. Adhere lace to tin, add MT tape to top edge and embellish with pearls, lace trim and bling. 

Even your paintbrushes need a pretty home, right? *winkis*

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A lazy person's mixed media canvas....*winks*

Meet the lazy person's [aka me] mixed media canvas....*LOL* Sometimes when I don't really want to work on an entire background on my canvas, I just use a sheet of patterned paper. :)

The colours on this patterned paper were pretty muted so after a layer of clear gesso [gesso provides the tooth for colorants to stay on the substrate], I added a tea stain wash [yes, I was enjoying a cup of tea!] and then intensified the colours on the patterned paper with Faber Castell Gelatos.

I added some stamping on the edges to create some depth, then embellished with mica flakes, bloom, leaves and bling. The chipboard bird was covered with Liquitex sand resin, coloured with Gelatos and finished with a sprinkling of mica flakes. The "adventure" sticker is from 7 Dots Studio.

Playing along with 7 Dots Studios Five Senses challenge.

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