Here at Anything But Cute we love to see all the seasoned and expert mixed media artists, but we also want to encourage those who are just getting their feet wet. Our design team will always be on the lookout for these exceptional artists, and you just never know when we might be giving out something special to a talented mixed media newcomer.
Make sure to put 'newbie' after your name in the linky so we know who you are.
(new refers to 'new to mixed media' NOT 'new to our challenge')
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Sunday, June 26, 2016

Spotlight Artist - Lisa - Brushos Techniques

Hello, everyone!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!! I'm going to share some techniques with you today using Brushos, a highly pigmented, incredibly versatile water color powder. Brushos can be used on paper, canvas and even wood and are completely non-toxic and non-hazardous. The results are never the same and can be vibrantly unpredictable...in a good way :)


To start, I punched holes in the bottles so I can easily sprinkle the powder without opening the jars each time. I used a Tim Holtz pick tool to punch the holes.


Technique #1) Brushos on Wet Paper


To get started, spritz paper with water. I used Strathmore Watercolor paper for all of these techniques.


Sprinkle as many colors of Brushos as you desire onto the paper. They react instantly with the water.


You can keep adding water and Brushos until your happy with the result.

Technique #2) Brushos on Dry Paper


Sprinkle Brushos directly onto paper.


Spritz with water and watch the colors blend!! You can either let it dry like this or...


...dab with a paper towel or baby wipe for softer, muted colors.

Technique #3) Fireworks Effect


This one I discovered completely by accident :) Spritz paper with water. Open the lid of one of the  jars and pinch a small amount of Brushos with your fingers.


Drop onto the wet paper. I love how the edges fan out, giving a beautiful exploding fireworks effect.

Technique #4) Starch on Dry Paper


For the next couple of techniques, we're going to use starch. I chose this brand with a lovely scent of mountain lavender...pretty colors, pretty smell :)


Sprinkle Brushos on dry paper and then spritz with starch.


Continue to add more Brushos and more starch to intensify the color.


Move the starch around to blend the colors.


You can pat some of the color with a paper towel or baby wipe for a nice ombre look.

Technique #5) Starch With Cling Wrap


Sprinkle Brushos on paper and the spritz with starch.


Keep adding Brushos and starch and move the starch around until you get a nice blend.


Crumple a piece of cling wrap larger than your paper and then unfold it. Pat it onto the wet starch. Let dry completely before you remove the wrap.


Once it dries, you get a nice depth of colors.


Here's another example of this technique with different colors.


And the finished result.

Technique #6) Sea Salt


You can get beautiful color and texture using sea salt.


I love this one...it looks like blue marble.


You never know what you're going to get...I love the color and texture of this one.


And one more using rainbow colors.

Technique #7) Embossing


For this one, I inked a Wendy Vecchi stamp with Versamark, then heat embossed it. I used clear embossing powder since I wanted the white paper to show through.


After embossing, sprinkle Brushos onto paper and spritz with water. You can see the circle pattern showing through. You can see it better in the next picture...

Technique #8) Bleach


To add more depth, stamp an image onto the paper (please ignore the face on my acrylic block...that happened the first time I used the Stampendous Beauty Face stamp :)


Fill a waterbrush with bleach. Paint inside the petals...the bleach will remove the color.


Here's another example using a flower stamp.


The bleach works on both lighter and darker colors.


And one more using a checkered floor stamp.


Technique #9) Using Stencils


There are several ways to use Brushos with stencils. For this one, I sprinkled Brushos onto my craft mat and then spritzed with water. Dip paintbrush into mixture (you don't want it too wet or it will bleed beneath the mask) and brush over stencil.


A pretty blue butterfly :)

Technique #10) Brushos, Stencils and Texture Paste


Cover stencil with texture past and then sprinkle Brushos over the top while the stencil is still in place.


Spritz with water and then remove stencil. I didn't show this step, but you can then turn the stencil over on another piece of watercolor paper for a beautiful background.

Technique #11 ) Coloring Texture Paste with Brushos


Combine Brushos with texture paste and stir with pallet knife until completely blended.


Spread blended mix over stencil. The color options are unlimited...you can make your own custom color of texture or crackle paste.

These are just a few techniques I've learned. I would love to hear about some of your techniques using Brushos in the comment section below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Don't forget to join in our current challenge hosted by Niki, The Birds and The Bees. You have until July 4th to link up. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Lisa

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Feature Artist - The Birds and the Bees - Welcome Miranda

Hello Everyone!

Pamellia here and I am so excited to introduce you to our Feature Artist for June. She was the winner of Samra's Earth Day challenge in April. Welcome Miranda Burhenne of Miranda's Art Journey!! 

Miranda is a fantastic mixed media artist! She has so many styles and excels at every one of them! She is incredible with hand drawn art but she also does journal pages, ATCs, canvas art, steampunk, fantasy... you name it and Miranda does it with style! 

Miranda has put together this wonderful project for Niki's current challenge THE BIRDS AND THE BEES. Feast your eyes on this beauty!!

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Hi there! I hope you are having a great time with this months theme The Birds and the bees. I am so proud to be the eature Artist at Anything But Cute.


My name is Miranda Burhenne,I live in the Netherlands and I'm 35. My name is also the url to go to my blog. But along the way I changed the tittle into Miranda's Art Journey,because it is still a journey through Art for me at this point.

I have always loved crafting ,making cards for birthdays , scrapbook the baby albums for my three daughters until i discovered Art Journaling and Mixed Media just at the right time for me. Because i totally lost my craft mojo. Wauw this Mixed Media world is so exciting and I am trying new things every time and enjoying all the lovely work and tutorials I come across.

For this Journal page I was already dreaming of a vacation with Tropical birds, the sun on our skin and of course a mojito!!

The Flamingo gives me that Tropical feeling I need but I wanted it to be in my favourite steampunk style. So I draw the flamingo from a picture I saw on Pinterest and gave it a little steampunk make over


For the beach I mixed some
Finnabair - Texture Paste- White Sand
Amsterdam acrylic paint- sienna natural

I wanted to use my Gelli Plate and decided not to use the first print but the ghost print so you can see my beautiful scrappaper from kaisercraft through it. I tryed to print the birds onto the background with the gelli Plate but it didn't work for me. Stamped the birds again onto my page with Archival ink
Background colours
Americana/Deco Art:
Yellow Green
French Mauve
Wisteria
Carousel Pink

Then painted some gears pink,Crazy color for gears, but I just love it and embossed with Tim Holtz- Distress powder- Black soot. You can see a little bit of Pink shining through.


Mixed Americana Yellow green with liquitex and put it trough a stencil this gives a lovely texture and gloss or maybe this colour represents  the mojito i was thinking about.

I coloured the flamingo with copics and polychromos, put a eyelet through his eye and some brads. Finally i wrote my quote on the page from where it all started.

Life takes you down many paths
But my Favourite ones lead to a Tropical Beach




gr Miranda Burhenne

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WOW ...what a gorgeous creation!! Thank you so much Miranda for inspiring us with your wonderful art! It's been an honour to have you here with us today!

I hope you all are just as inspired as I am, and will join in with us for Niki's challenge

You have until the 4th of July to play - and you'll find all the challenge details as well as lots of inspiration from the brilliant Anything But Cute design team by clicking on the challenge link.

Happy Crafting
Pamellia :)

Sunday, June 12, 2016

WINNERS - Challenge #13 - Celebrate Your Style

Hello everyone! 

Pamellia and the entire design team here and we are back to announce the Winners and Runner-Ups from our first anniversary challenge "Celebrate Your Style". We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered our birthday challenge last month and supported us for our one year mark! It was so amazing to see all those gorgeous projects that were posted! You all put a lot of love into your fabulous creations and we are completely blown away by the variety of projects and creative ideas! 

As we tallied up the votes, it turned out that we had a three way tie for the winning spot and a two way tie for the runner-up. So without further ado (in no particular order)

WINNERS

Coco #18



Congratulations to Coco, Mari and Suzz, you really impressed us with your projects!  Please contact Pamellia (pamellia1162@gmail.com) with your full name and mailing address to receive your Gift Vouchers. Deadline is June 25.

We would like to send out a special thank you to the sponsors who donated these wonderful Gift Vouchers and helped to make our Anniversary challenge one to remember:

THE FUNKIE JUNKIE BOUTIQUE:

EMERALD CREEK:
Facebook - Emerald Creek Craft

ALLEYSTAMP:
Store - Alleystamp
Etsy Store - Alleystamp

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And now on to our Runner Ups!





Congratulation Ladies! Your work is amazing!

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Random Prize Winners

27. Becca Cruger
54. Melissa SunshineHoneyBee
73. Paper Talk With Samra

We would like to thank Linda at the Funkie Junkie Boutique for donating a box of products for our random draw. I have divided it up into three packages, please contact me (pamellia1162@gmail.com) with your full name and mailing address to receive your prize. Deadline is June 25.

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Now let's have a look at our DT favourites:




Anne's FavouriteRuth - No. 119
Ruth created the most beautiful textured background and the flowers are cleverly made with more beautiful mixed media backgrounds.  A stunning creation.

Autumn's Favourite - #116 Miranda
Miranda's genius mix of drawing and mixed media stole my heart!  This fabulous stylized owl is unbelievably cool and inspiring.  I am totally blown away with Miranda's drawing skills and use of color!

Branka's Favourite#119 Ruth
I am really impressed by this fabulous canvas with amazing rich textures and breathtaķingly beautiful handmade flowers! It's a fantastic vintage looking make!

Lisa's Favourite - #67 Nikki
I am mesmerized by the gorgeous colors in Nikki's canvas!! I love how they go from bold stripes to a subtle, muted blend!! The butterfly is a perfect touch!! It's absolutely stunning!!

Niki's Favourite - #32-Lys
I was drawn to this gorgeous design by Lys because of the dark and gorgeous background and the texture! Bling, bling! I just wanted to reach out and touch this! Can you believe that the texture was created from potpourri!?! Talk about an upcycle and genius was to use a household item. Wowzers Lys!

Pamellia's Favourites -

93. Jane's Journal
Jane's tag hypnotized me with the amazing colours, and the black and white accents create such a whirlwind of contrast and interest, I LOVE the entire look! So dreamy!

128. boozybear
This layout is just incredible. One of those projects I wish I could reach into my computer screen and touch! So many wonderful products and they all work together in harmony!

20. Electra
I've never seen so many wonderful colours used together before! I would expect a jumbled mess, but instead, this gorgeous piece of art just shines! Well done!

Sara Emily's Favourite -#119-Ruth

The background on this canvas is mesmerizing--I wish I could reach out and touch the texture! To top it off, Ruth finished it in the most beautiful colors and topped it with handmade flowers cut from handmade mixed media papers. This is a must see up close, so be sure to pop by Ruth's blog!

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Honourable Mentions


2. MARYVONNE         16. Isle of Crafty         24. IRIT SHALOM         25. Cara
      

39. Asmah Zainal          48. Ann Chuang         52. Jane's Journal         59. Joi@RR
      

65. Mixed media lerret             81. Karen P              92. Elina              104. Ikemo
      

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A huge congratulation everyone! Thank you so much to everyone who played along with us last month and any month last year! We thank you for your continued support and look forward to many more Birthdays!! Don't forget to grab your badges! You earned them!!

There is still plenty of time to enter Niki's current challenge THE BIRDS AND THE BEES! We can't wait to see what you come up with this time!

Hugs to all, from the 'Anything But Cute' Design Team