Today is Nicole's tutorial

Adding Texture on a Mixed Media Canvas by Nicole Doiron

Hello to all my dear fabulous readers at Off the Rails Scrapbooking!

Nicole Doiron 

here today to share with you a step by step tutorial

on how to create lots of texture on a mixed media canvas

that I created for the October mood palette challenge.

Without further ado, let's get on with getting our hands messy!

First step, I added a heavy coat of acrylic gesso on my canvas

that will help seal all the different mediums that I've added on after.

A little Distress Crackle Paint is always a good way to add a cool effect

on your base.  It creates cracks in your paint when dry.

I later on realized that the colour wasn't exactly what I wanted

so I covered the beige spots with white paint but the cracks still showed through

which is what is awesome about crackle paint!

I then used 2 of my favorite stencils and with thick molding paste,

I added some nice designs to my canvas.

Next up was time to add colour.  This process is always very long for me as

I normally have no clue what I'm doing and what final result I will get.

The main thing is to not think too much about it and not be too hard on yourself.

There is ALWAYS a way to fix any spots on your canvas that you don't really care for.

Here, I sprayed on some Perfect Pearls Mist.

I then dabbed a lot of Distress Stain on to the stenciled design.

Here, you see the aftermath of many spritz of Heidi Swapp Colour Shine

which are some of my favorite mists.  I then used my heatgun

to dry all these different products in order to go on to the next step.

I dabbed on some liquid glue here and there on my base

and then sprinkled on  and glitter.  Then, using my finger (I told you 

it would get messy!), I mixed up the sparkly stuff with the glue 

to make sure that it got really stuck to the canvas, 

in preparation for the heat gun. 

Even after all that, I just didn't have enough texture,

so I used some more crackle paint, this time in white.

 Finally, I dabbed on some acrylic paint, metallic aquamarine and white,

all over my canvas.  I always use lots of white paint all over my projects...

it blends together every colour so nicely and gives a lovely whitewash effect

which I just love.

Here are 3 close-up details of the added texture:

This is my finished project which you have seen during the mid month reveal:

Did you like my tutorial today?

Please leave me some comments to let me know

and visit my blog at http://scrap-utopia.blogspot.com

to see more of my creations!

Have a fabulous creative day!!

Art Journal Tutorial

Hello lovely OTR friends Fiona here with you today to share a journal page I created using the more feminine mood palette for April. (The one with the pink in it) But before I do, I would like to mention that, once again, this month the wonderful Pam Kuhn is sponsoring our challenge. You could win yourself a $25.00 voucher (International winners stamps only).

So here is the second mood palette. It is very similar to the first in colours except for the added pink! So for those who love to dabble in complementary colour schemes .... this one is for you!

I decided to try out these colours in my art journal and this is what I created.

I have several journals I play in but this one is my favourite. It is an old book that I picked up in a trash and treasure store while away one weekend with some scrappy peeps having a mini retreat time.

I didn't prep the pages at all I simply applied some modelling paste directly on to them and then carved some circles into it.

Next I sprayed some Heidi Swapp Colour Shine in the green directly onto the modelling paste while it was still wet. I love the shine these sprays have.

To make the paint circles, I mixed some gloss gel medium with some acrylic paint in a small needle nose bottle. The gloss medium helps to give it some body and a beautiful glossy shine after it has dried.

I left it over night to dry. When I came back the next morning, it had dried a lot darker than I had anticipated, so I decided to add some more pink by mixing matt gel medium with glitter.

It makes the best glue for applying glitter and beads and such and it dries clear!

Next I decided it needed some black paint flicks. Recently I've been using chalk paint for my flicks. It's nice and thick and just the right consistency for flicking!

I added some stamping using some of my favourite stamps. These ones are designed by Daniel Torrente and you can purchase them from Stampotique. I've just recently purchased some more. YAY!

Finally I created a hand drawn border using the Kaszazz 5502 fineliner set on page 227 of their catalogue. These pens are my favourite go to pen for journalling!

You can see how easy and unstressful this was to create.

That's what I love best about journalling. Make some time to have a play and remember your challenge piece can be a journal spread too. We accept all kinds of art in our challenges.

Thank you for checking out my tutorial. See you on the flip side.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Lizzy introduces us to "UTEE"

Hey there! Do you know Utee? Nope, it's not a person! It stands for Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel....& it's just that. It comes in a range of colours, but I only have the clear one. I really like the thick, glossy effect it gives when heat set. 

Here's how I used it for a simple Chrissy tag, using up some BUTTONS.

 The crystals are MUCH coarser than 'normal' heat embossing powders & you're best to heat set from UNDERNEATH so they don't blow off everywhere!

Above is a sample, but for this tag, I mixed some normal Gold embossing powder in with the UTEE, to get the effect below:

 I used a damp piece of old foam spritzed with Heidi's spray colours to colour the manila tag [which was also lightly dampened with water]...

these are the TRUE colors, below...

 ...for some reason, the rest of the photos turned out wishy-washy colour wise....??? Who KNOWS!!!

Poked the holes through when I popped my buttons into the places they looked 'right'...

  My trickster way of attaching threads! I mean....knots to tie thread? That would be, like, waaay too hard for this sewer-hater! Besides, this was heading to being attached to the front of a card, so no-one will see the back.

IF it's going to be a 'stand alone' tag, then you just need to thread the button first, tie a knot behind the button, & then use a hot glue gun or strong PVA glue to attach to your tag. Or not even USE thread. They look nice just as they are, too:)

 A bit of diagonal washi tape for pop.....& it's finished. Simple, neat, easy, effective AND a stash buster for a few more of those buttons!!!! Hope this inspires your creativity in one way or t'other...

...& can I just wish you, one and all, a most amazing, wonderful, joyful, peaceful, fun & happy Christmas....

BLESSINGS to each & everyone one of you out there ~ Lizzy ♥♥♥

September Memory Planner with Felicity

Hi :)

Hope your having a good month and managing a little creativity somewhere along the way. Its sure starting to get busy with the 'silly season' just around the corner now.

Its time for September instalments of the Heidi Swapp Memory planner.

Nothing special this month.

just documenting day to day life.

My little boy had his first kindy school photo, I wanted to include them, so I just held them with one those pretty butterfly clips from Heidi swap.

 Hope this inspires you in someway.

Felicity XO

August Memory Planner with Felicity

 Hello OTR fans!

Felicity back here today to share with you my august memory planner.

This month as all about family. I wanted to reflect in my memory planner this month love, gratitude and care.

It was made easy by using the free Heidi Swapp printables again.

I had a lots of photos I want to include, so I made a few flaps to add a few extra photos.

I really hope you are all enjoying my memory planner this year.

Felicity

XO