The Mirror Crack’d - 01 Anything Goes

I have a brand new blog launched just yesterday for all your mixed media/altered art style challenges. There is a fantastic global team of very talented ladies and we can be found at The Mirror Crack’d.

Our very first challenge is nice and easy and is an Anything Goes challenge. So as long as it isn’t wholly digital, or a card, and is mixed media or altered art we would love to see it.

I have never made anything like this myself, as I am a bit too regimented with how I create. I struggle with things that aren’t uniform and symetrical so whilst the new blog will be challenging all sorts of people (I hope) it will also be challenging me too!

Anyhow here is my very first project, which I hope you will enjoy.

It’s a place mat! And it started life looking like this

Ugly looking isn’t it! I was after something I could practice on that wouldn’t cost a fortune, like canvasses or art journals and I spotted a whole big box of these down the local recycling centre. £2 for 40 of the large mats, 30 slightly smaller and around 20 coasters ….. not bad eh??

However they do require some work to make them ready for creating with. As I could well imagine paint etc. not wanting to stick to that shiny surface, so I set too with my little Black and Decker sander (boy was that messy) and removed the patterned layer, and white layer beneath to reveal the mdf or ply (not sure which) base.

 

After it was prepared I applied a couple of layers of gesso and left it to dry out fully.

The next step was to colour it with gelatos, apply a few random stamped images, and also stencil the text about ‘best friends’.

As you can see, I intended this to be a portrait design, but in the event it ended up as a landscape one instead, so the text was on it’s side.

I had to emboss the stamped images too, for some reason the Distress Ink just didn’t want to dry against the gelatoed background. I also used a damask stencil and wiped away some of the gelatos to reveal the white gesso underneath.

I could see that nothing was gonna stay put so I gave it a good spray with inkjet fixative before going onto the next process.

I stamped up and coloured in all these fabulous Doo Lally Pip images from Lindsay Mason, in bright shades of copics and then glued them on with mod podge. I also created the sentiment on my pc and stuck that down too, but it didn’t look finished. I have to admit to being scared I would completely ruin it if I went any further. Normally with a card it wouldn’t worry me, but it did take me a long time sanding down the place mat to start with and I didn’t want to waste all that effort, but I bravely went on after some encouragement from my team!

And this is what I finished up with….. I added some glitter glue to their clothes, I darkened some highlights with Faber Castell Big Brush Pens, applied some areas of texture paste, some in gold pearl, some in white, some with the same damask stencil I used to remove the gelatos earlier and some random stencils from Tim Holtz and other people. The texture paste in white ended up flattening down a bit when it dried, which was not the look I was going for so those areas I went over with the big brush pens and then rubbed the ink off before it fully dried, so there is just a hint of the colour.

I also added a few little stamped insects. It’s not exactly a work of art, but for my first attempt and bearing in mind how buttoned up I normally am, I was quite pleased with it. I do hope as the blog evolves so will my crafting!

Anyhow please come and see what the rest of the team have created, I promise you it’s not as poor as my effort, and if you are so inclined then why not join in the fun and enter something of your own?

I’m going to risk embarrassment and enter my efforts here:-

Altered Eclectics – Sept: Anything Goes
Art By Miran – #14 Anything Goes
CMD challenge – Everything Including Copics was used
Copic Marker Europe – #13 Anything Goes with Copics
Crafting By Designs – Sept: Anything Goes
Dragons Lair Design – Anything but a Card
Moo-Mania & More – Recycle something
Rhedd’s Creative Spirit – Sept: Anything altered art Goes
Scrapper’s Delight – #29 Anything Goes Twist New Beginnings…… first challenge on my new blog?
Simon Says Stamp – Sept: Stamp It and Blog Hop