Art Journal for MarteLAB

Servus, hi and I hope you're all well and not affected too much by the spread of the Corona virus and whatever this brings along!

All over the world nations are trying to starve out the spread and to cope with how this affects everyday life and keeping one's spirit up while facing extraordinary times in isolation...over here in Austria people are advised to keep to themselves and not leave the house other than to shop for food or medicine (or walk their dogs) at least for the next four weeks (but very likely we will have to stick to that for longer than that).

It's spooky having the tele on to not miss any new announcements and directories from our government and one of our two main Austrian TV stations is reserved for broadcasting info on Corona crises developments and measures being taken all day only instead of the usual children's and entertainment program.
Seeing people hoard toilet paper (of which nobody really understands and knows why) and buy survival stock of canned food, water and what have you as if preparing for an atomic threat makes the whole situation even more unreal and weird to be honest. And the fake news that spread so easily across the internet these days bring the most ridiculous "facts" that either make people panic even more or get them to think it is all once more just a joke or the usual conspiracy of the industry or something like that.

Staying at home can be hard for people who are used to leave the house to go to work or school and who have mainly out door hobbies - but luckily crafters and mixed media fans never are at risk of not knowing what to do with their spare time, right?

And to brighten up the mood I have made something play- and colourful for you - another art journal cover - this time using Eileen Hull's "Passport" die, some Aall & Create stamps and stencils and DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints and my Gelli Pate.

Over at the MarteLAB blog there's a stepped out tutorial as well as the list of what I have used to create this art journal. Simply click HERE to get to the tuto with a lot of steps images. I hope this will brighten up your mood! Hang in there, all of you!

Stay safe!

Claudia

xxx

Hoppy Easter!

Hi, servus and welcome to my usual bi-weekly invite over to the Calico Craft Parts blog where I am sharing an Easter themed tag that was a great delight to create. It definitely looks different than my usual projects - maybe this is why I like it that much and think it is really suitable for a "hoppy Easter" ;)

And Easter is fast approaching...I can hear the clock tick....and there are quite a few new lovely Spring themed craft parts in the store waiting to be checked out too ;)

To find out more and maybe also get inspired to create a little Spring-themed tag simply click HERE.

Hope to see you over at the Calico Craft Parts Blog soon!

Have a good start into the week!

Claudia

xxx

Teaching again on Wellspring 2020!

Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by today!

The aim of this post is - as the banner above already tells - to let you know of the launch of this year's Wellspring School at Mixed Up Creative Academy.

I've been part of this programme already last year and I loved that it was a huge success and students really loved learning about many different ways of having art and creative processes become part of their self care and enhancing mental well-being.

This year Wellspring 2020 is back, brand new and with more classes from Mixed Up Creative Academy's dedicated tutors and some expert guests again to grow your pool of tools, projects and ways for better self care and wellspring through art and creativity. And I am of course so proud to be part of this again as this has always been a matter close to my heart.

I've started noticing what art practice, specific painting and drawing exercises and enhancing creative abilities in general to express yourself in your art can do for your well-being (especially when it comes to dealing with everyday life's speed and stress nowadays) almost twenty years ago when I started teaching arts at secondary school to ten to eight-teen year olds and throughout the years I have been delving deeper into that topic and have come up with two classes for Wellspring 2020 that I hope will be as much help for you as it obviously has been for myself and most of my pupils throughout my almost twenty years of teaching!

Check out additional info and sign up over here:

Wellspring 2020

There's an early bird price again (the offer lasts until midnight 19th April), which is 69 Euro and saves you 14 Euro compared to the regular price of 86 Euro. So don't miss out on this offer!

General sale and registrations close on 31st May! 

The course runs from 1st May through to 18th August and there will be 18 weeks filled to the brim with uplifting, empowering, thought-provoking and life-affirming lessons - two of which have been carefully put together for you with all my heart and experience from two decades as an arts teacher with a bit of a psychological background - so I hope you will like these alongside all the other fantastic lessons from my colleagues!

Here's a little sneak peek of what awaits you in one of my two lessons...

...and this is an appetiser of what awaits you in general when it comes to projects and creative exercises:

We will also once more have a closed facebook group as a safe place for you to get in touch with your dedicated tutors and student fellows.

You will of course have life time access to the course and there come free printables with the course as well as downloadable PDF files or videos of all the lessons.

So make sure you don't miss the early bird price offer and become part of the

  Wellspring 2020 

course and community at Mixed Up Creative Academy! 

Hope to see you over there! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Book Box Keepsake for Calico Craft Parts

Servus, dear crafty friends all over the world! I am so happy you're stopping by today!
This is my usual invite over to the Calico Craft Parts Blog, where I am sharing my latest make and tutorial.

This time I have recycled an old scrapbook attempt of mine and used it to decorate one of Calico's cool Book Box Kits.

To check out the book box cover and tutorial and to find out about the contents of the box simply click HERE to get taken to the post on the Calico Craft Parts Blog. I hope to see you over there soon!

Have a good start into the week!

Claudia

xxx

Documented - for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Servus, hi and welcome to my blog!
Today I am sharing my make for our March challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges.


As always our challenge theme is "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" and I decided to go for a vibrant orange rusty colour scheme this time.

I've used some Calico Craft Parts again (as I need to use up more of these with non-design-team-projects for their blog due to increasing storage space issues...well, I guess you know what I am talking about).

I have used one of their oval shaped MDF Mixed Media Boards together with the beautiful Steampunk Multiframe wood shape and a screw head from their collection of mini hardware wood shapes alongside some of my favourite DecoArt and DecoArt media paints and products.

The portraits of the three gentlemen were taken from a sheet of Tim Holtz designer paper (I think it was from one of his Halloween themed paper stashes) and I have also used one of his Quotations Metallic Stickers.

I started with punching two holes so the panel could be mounted if I wanted to.

Next I cut the portraits to size and glued them behind the multiframe using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. Once that had dried I added a thick layer of DecoArt Triple Thick on top of all the three portraits and set the multiframe aside to dry naturally.

This is how the dried Triple Thick looks...

In the meantime I had painted the oval board with a thorough layer of DecoArt Americana Burnt Orange acrylic paint.

While that dried, I painted the cogs on the multiframe using Burnt Orange Americana paint and DecoArt Extreme Sheen paint "Vintage Brass" using a detail brush.

For more texture I stamped a bit of a rust pattern onto the raised cogs frames using an Andy Skinner stamp and black archival stamping ink.

Later, after the Triple Thick had fully cured, I added a wash of DecoArt media Burnt Umber fluid acrylic paint on top of the painted cogs to tone everything down a bit.

I wanted to create a worn looking crackled background on my oval panel, so I used a pot of DecoArt media clear Crackle Glaze that had been open for quite a long time which had the Crackle Glaze start to dry out a little - instead of being quite liquid-y it had become a kind of paste - but could still be applied with a palette knife. I love to use this older Crackle Glaze as it doesn't level out as the fresh stuff does. This way you can build up layers of Crackle Glaze and get more uneven edges around the areas that weren't covered by it.

I've tried to capture the look of the dried and crackled plate so you can see the areas that were matte - which means there was no Crackle Glaze applied - against the glossy, crackled ones. This forms the base for a cool effect I wanted to create...

...by applying a mix of Carbon Black and Raw Umber DecoArt media Antiquing Cream onto the whole panel and letting it cure.

If you then go in with a soft damp cloth and wipe back the Antiquing Cream from the glossy areas (where the Crackle Glaze also works as a kind of resist while the matte areas take on the Antiquing Creams nicely), you get beautifully contrasting areas of bright orange with visible crackles against darker areas with matte texture.

Once that had dried, I applied DecoArt Gold Rush Metallic Lustre around the panel's edges and the edges of all the cogs using my fingertip.

Using a brush I diluted a bit of the Metallic Lustre to add sprinkles to the panel by loading the brush ad tipping against it with my other hand.

I decided to add a screw head to one of the cogs and painted that with the Metallic Lustre too.

For more dimension I stacked some sticky foam before I mounted the multiframe to the oval panel.

Then I finished off my steampunk panel by adding a word sticker.

I had added some Gold Rush Metallic Lustre to the sticker's edges too before putting it in place.

Done!

Some close ups:

and once more the finished panel: 

I hope you like it!

I hope to see you play along with us soon and of course you need to check out the team's makes to get your full dose of amazing steampunk mixed media inspiration! ;) 

Simply click HERE to get to our challenge blog to find out more! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx