Mied Media Monday: Anything Goes with Distress Stickles

Time for Monday and a dose of Mixed Media by Ann from the All that Stickles Design Team and the blog:  Annmakes.  I have been enjoying working with these new dies and stamp sets from Tim Holtz by Ranger and of course pairing them with more Ranger products such as their distress inks and my favourite: STICKLES!!!   I am trying to warm up to the idea of winter coming by creating things that make me happy, such as Christmas themed projects.

                                      

I am going to hang this on a wall in my house this coming holiday season.  I made this canvas from an old box, vintage and recycled tissue paper, vintage ribbon and a bunch of newer supplies. :)  

The supplies I used are:  Gesso,  Light Modeling Paste (Liquitex), Modge Podge, Distress Inks; Tea Dye, Fired Brick, Broken China,  and Lemony Yellow (Ranger).  Distress Stickles by Ranger in: Scattered Straw, Fired Brick, Broken China, and Fired Brick.  I also used some Yellow Stickles.    I stamped the "Tree Blueprint" (Sizzix, Tim Holtz"Alterations" by Ranger) onto scraps of scrapbook papers and some American Craft card stock.  The dies I used instead of fussy cutting (Love that) are from the same kit as the stamps.    This set made it easy to create the 3-D effect I wanted.  

I hope that you are inspired to get crafting through Winter now!  Thank you for stopping by.

Mixed Media Monday: Harvest Time.

Good Monday to everyone and welcome to Mixed Media Monday.  It is I, Ann, from the All That Stickles Design Team with an 8"x10" canvas I made.  This is my version of the present theme at our Linky Party: Harvest.  I present to you my mixed media canvas titled "Harvest Time".  It is a picture of an actual Russian Sunflower that I successfully grew and managed not to kill in my flower garden.  These are stalky plants with nubby short stems and big, bold and beautiful blooms.  I was attracted to the seed packet because of the deep red almost maroon shade of the petals, I planted the seeds directly in the soil, forgot to water, did not weed and despite all of my terrible gardening skills I was still rewarded with some gorgeous flowers!  Hey if I can, anybody can.  I photographed and then made this.

There are a lot of elements, mediums and techniques that went into making this piece if you want to learn about ALL the products I used to make this, please go over to my blog: Annmakes and there I will list the supplies and techniques(briefly).  But hold on, I am not leaving you high and dry.  Let me tell you here which Stickles (by Ranger) I used.  The Stickles used were"  Distress Stickles "Spiced Marmalade", "Black Diamond", "Paprila", and "Cinnamon".   I will let you in on another tidd bit:  I took the original picture with my mini iPad!  Oh yes, the picture is on that canvas it has been altered with a variety of water soluble mediums,  permanent inks and oil and a whole bunch of interesting ingredients.

I hope that you enjoyed your visit here today.  Please leave me some comments, I love to read them.

Here is a little reminder  to you about who supplies those prizes, and a big thank you to our sponsors this month:

Mixed Media Monday: Beauty is truth...

Hello, and welcome to our second Mixed Media Monday.  It's Ann here from Annmakes and the All that Stickles Design Team.  I have something to show and share with you today that I worked pretty hard at putting together but I also had a wonderful time doing so.

The Linky party "Anything Goes" runs until august 16 and so I went with that theme.

I did do just about anything on this piece.  It is a square 7"x7" canvas, recycled from a liquidation sale at a closing discount store.  It originally had some hideous design on it, but I saw its potential and altered it.

 There are many layers of texture and mediums, papers, plastics, wood, metal, clay, brass,jewelry, feathers, beads, and STICKLES (Diamond, and Copper).  It all started with my wanting to experiment at making gel prints with my new homemade gel plate.  I used a stack of card stock that was unsuitable for my stamp and ink work but faired well in this project.  I had scored a big box of leftover paints at a Church rummage sale earlier this summer and put it to use to make my own papers.  Once dry they were beautiful and I wanted to make flowers out of them.  I pulled out some EK success die punch makers that are perfect for cutting long borders that you roll into flowers.  I inked the edges of the flowers(with Vintage Photo Distress Ink from Ranger)  and added the stickles (Ranger) and some Goosebumps (Tsuikeneko).

 I got hooked on making the flowers but what to do with them?  That is when I got inspired to make this canvas.  The colours of the flowers inspired the rest of the colour scheme for the whole piece.  Obviously this week I am in the mood to use warm colours and so I went with that.  Lately I have been into working with dolls and faces and I wanted to incorporate that too, so in my digging through my hoarded stash of supplies and ephemera I found a mask, but it wasn't quite right, and altering it still wouldn't do, so I did the only thing I could.  I made my own clay doll face.

That's right not only did I experiment with home printing but I grabbed some clay and got messy. Boy, that was fun.  I love working with this natural clay, who would have thought?   While the stickles on the flowers were drying and the clay face was drying I worked on the canvas.  It has layers of texture and acrylic paint as a base, on to which I added more textures with a variety of materials: plastic fruit basket, dry wall tape, masking tape, plastic mesh, chip board die cuts, hand made paper trims, heavy gel medium and gesso.  I used some oil based paint and water based paints, mica glazes and walnut ink. I pushed and pulled, added here and there.  I glued on the face, flowers, feathers, the beads and other trinkets.  I added some faux gems and pearls to the flowers and I used my old Dymo label maker for the sentiment.

Sometimes I use those lovely Stickles by Ranger as the crowning touch on my work and then there are times when the Stickles are the inspiration for the beginning of my work.  I love that versatility.

I hope that you are inspired to get stickler, have fun!  Thanks for viewing.

Tips & Techniques Thursday: Making Mixed Media, and Distress Stickles

Hi, its's me, Ann, from the Design Team at All that Stickles.  For today's Tips and Techniques, what  I am sharing with all of you is about using those awesome Distress Stickles in your Mixed Media. Now, for those of you who are not sure... Mixed Media is about making art using multiple forms of medias.  For example, a painter that uses more than one type of media on the same canvas, such as oil, pastel, and pencil is considered to be doing mixed media. Today the vogue is about taking scrap booking to another level by altering other substrates than just paper into more complex pieces, or by altering existing objects with various mediums. Then, there are those beautiful canvases that we can paint and glue and distress.... the possibilities are limitless. Basically there is no wrong way to do this.  Making Mixed Media is often the process of evolution many artists go through. We learn the basics, the how to's, what works with what, etc.  Then, the artist just gets this natural feeling of "hey there is more out there", and "let's see what else I can do with this...." Making any art is truly an organic thing.  Therefore, if you ever feel that you have learned everything you can about scrap book making, or card making, or any other craft, but you still want to create, then you just might be ready for this Mixed Media Art. Look out! You just might be an Artist!

Next week on the blog we have a Linky Party going on where we encourage our followers to post projects that show some and ANY Distress Stickles. Shhh! I wasn't supposed to tell you this!  The team members have also been busy creating some great examples to share with you, make sure to come back and check it out.

First, here is a picture of some of my handmade books and journals in and on which I have used Mixed Medias and sometimes stickles.  Because I like to antique my new creations I often turn to the line of Ranger's Tim Holtz Distress products, including the Distress Stickles.  For one thing, all the products in that line are all colour coordinated.  That simplifies things quickly.  So I can use the acrylic paints, the alcohol inks, the Dye ink pads, and of course the coordinating Distress Stickles, and voila I have mixed medias!

I tend to apply the distress or any Stickles for that matter over a dry, and usually as the final layer on my projects.  I use the Distress Stickles to high light or add some dimension to my piece.  Therefore, I want them to be seen, not covered up by another opaque layer.  For example, on my Art journal (book on the left with binder rings) I used some Antique Linen and Rock Candy Distress Stickles, sparingly. Just enough to put some glitter back onto some of the elements after lots of pushing and pulling with layers of paint and ink.  I put just a bit of glitter in some nooks and crannies because I wanted to give my journal an old book look with some fancy jewels and buttons from a long time ago.

In this example (above) I used some Walnut Stain Distress Stickles to enhance my attempt at making rusted metal.  In this instance I had put just too much of the Stickles, so I added some more paint to camouflage the shine but left the grittiness behind.  I also used the paints and inks from the Distress line.

On the page just above (which is a page from inside the journal on the far right in the first picture),  I used Worn Lipstick Distress Stickles on the pink elements.  Notice how it adds dimension but it is not too shiny, it looks more worn. On the green elements I added Vintage Photo Distress Stickles, this gives the rusted look.

Now if you are wondering just how many colours of Distress Stickles are available, check this list out, I got this from the Ranger Website.

Distress Stickles TDS28888 NEW! Barn Door TDS28895 NEW! Bundled Sage TDS28901 NEW! Chipped Sapphire TDS28918 NEW! Crushed Olive TDS28925 NEW! Forest Moss TDS28932 NEW! Pumice Stone TDS28949 NEW! Rusty Hinge TDS28956 NEW! Spun Sugar TDS28963 NEW! Stormy Sky TDS28970 NEW! Tumbled Glass TDS28987 NEW! Victorian Velvet TDS28994 NEW! Wild Honey TDS26334 Aged Mahogany TDS26457 Antiqued Bronze TDS24958 Antique Linen TDS26341 Black Soot TDS24965 Broken China TDS26358 Brushed Corduroy TDS26464 Brushed Pewter TDS26365 Dried Marigold TDS26372 Dusty Concord TDS24972 Faded Jeans TDS24989 Fired Brick TDS24996 Frayed Burlap TDS25009 Milled Lavender TDS26389 Mustard Seed TDS26396 Old Paper TDS25016 Peeled Paint TDS26488 Picket Fence TDS26402 Pine Needles TDS26563 Rock Candy TDS25023 Scattered Straw TDS26419 Shabby Shutters TDS25030 Spiced Marmalade TDS26471 Tarnished Brass TDS26426 Tattered Rose TDS26433 Tea Dye TDS25047 Vintage Photo TDS25054 Walnut Stain TDS26440 Weathered Wood TDS25061 Worn Lipstick

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The glitter in these stickles tends to be bigger than those in the regular line, which adds to its nostalgic feeling, just like the entire Distress Line.  I also find the glitter to be more subtle in its shine, which I love for my altered and distressed projects.

I hope that you enjoy this tutorial and are inspired to give Mixed Media a try.  Just use some stickles and have fun!  Thanks for viewing.

For more inspiration please visit my blog http://annmakes.blogspot.com