Artist Trading Coins

The hot weather is getting to me, making me lethargic. To get motivated to do something, I watched a couple of YouTube videos today hoping to get a bit of inspiration. I'm never disappointed, there is so much talent out there.

I found a great demo/tutorial by Mike Deakin for Artist Trading Coins (AT Coins), a new trend in miniature works of art which I had not tried until today.
Here is the link to Mike's blog with the video embedded:
https://mikedeakinart.com/other-mixed-media/snippits-artist-trading-coins/

I pretty much followed the tutorial but I used Fresco paints for my backgrounds. These are fun to make and a good size for experiments too. I like to make small things. The coins are 2.5 inches in diameter.

Here are my coins :

Ingredients I used:

Paperartsy Fresco Paints 

Tim Holtz Paper Dolls

Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers

Potting soil archival ink

Happy Sunday everyone. x

Paper Dolls

PaperArtsy challenge Topic 10 : Paper Dolls

I just love these Tim Holtz paper dolls. Each character fires up my imagination. Who are they? What are they thinking?
These two are all dressed up but tough, serious little girls. I sent them out into the early summer woodland where there are foxgloves, butterflies and the sounds of birds singing.

Here is my small canvas for the challenge;

Ingredients.

Rubber Stamps : PaperArtsy EKC08 by Kay Carley

Fresco Paints :  Glacier blue, Venice blue, Spanish mulberry and Steel grey. 

Washi tape

Tim Holtz paper dolls

Tim Holtz paper punch butterfly

Happy weekend everybody x

Vintage Neutrals

PaperArtsy challenge Topic 9 : Vintage Neutrals.

A great topic and some fabulous inspiration on the PaperArtsy blog. For my project I decided on a tag and my inspiration was Alison Bomber's beautiful tag which you can see under the above link.
My tag is nothing like Alison's apart from using Tim Holtz paper dolls for the focal image. I have used one of Alison's lovely quotes from the Dreaming and Doing set (Eclectica EAB07).

I started with a painted background with Chutney and Tikka Fresco paint which looked too dark so I knocked it back with some watered down gesso. Still too dark so I dry brushed chalk fresco paint on top of that. Then I used a Kay Carley stencil (PS061) to add some leaf fronds. The paint I used was Irish Cream.

I tried a bit of crackle glaze which worked a little but not very well, I will need to practice.

I added some flowers from ESC03 by Scrapcosy stamped with watering can archival ink and stamped the quote on a Tim Holtz die cut wood plank which I had painted with chalk and white fire paint. A couple of brads and a button to finish it off.

The photo looks a bit blue, that's the photography, there is no blue on my tag!

A great topic again and a chance to use some paper dolls. I am quite pleased with this one.