FYI...Halloween Has Been Rescheduled...

I know...I know...weird, right?  Who moved Halloween?  Ok, maybe it wasn't moved - maybe it's just me & I decided to buy a bunch of weird things all at one time.  What can I say - they were on sale & I thought they were cool so I got 'em to use for something.  Don't exactly have a plan...but it'll come to me...just give me a little time...          
So, look at all the crazy stuff!


All this came from Retro Art Cafe.  I was looking for the perfect skull stencil, got sucked into their site &, well, this is what happened.  I found the stencil I was looking for & a whole lot more that I didn't know I wanted, but once I saw it decided that I couldn't live without it.  All the skulls!  All the skeletons!  All the dragons!  I mean, honestly, who buys just one of these?  That's just crazy!


I sat down & tried the stencils out immediately - big fan of instant gratification.  Check out the skull stencil - love it!

Bigger than I thought it would be, but looks exactly like I wanted.  The skull, rib cage & moth stencils are all made from oil board.  This is the first time I've bought oil board stencils - all my others are plastic or mylar.  I'm not too sure about how long these are going to last or hold up since I also use them with soft gel gloss to texturize.

 Here's the moth made with soft gel gloss & some Art Alchemy Micro Beads sprinkled on top just to see what it'd look like & what would happen with the stencil.

The gel wiped right off so I guess I'm ok there.  I'm still considering spraying them with a protective coating just to be on the safe side.

All the chipboard pieces that I ordered - the dragons, scroll work, antlers - came still attached to the chipboard it had been cut from which was great because, once I punched out the pieces I wanted, I had a new stencil!  These definitely need a protective coating or they aren't going to last too terribly long.  I love that fact that I got a 2 for 1 deal here.  Now I've got more dragons to play with & who wouldn't like that?!

My favorite thing that I got was the crow skull cameo.  It was just perfect for a little goth/steampunk crossover cuff bracelet - my new favorite piece of jewelry.  Whatcha think?

It's Christmas...In May!!!

Ok, not really, but it felt like it when I got home yesterday & my package had arrived from Scrapbooking Warehouse with the 4 jars of Art Alchemy Metallique acrylic paint, 1 jar of their Opal Magic acrylic paint, 2 jars of Micro Beads & 2 clock face trinkets I had ordered.  Nothing makes me happier than new art supplies...well, maybe a few things..but new art supplies are right up there. See all the pretty?  Aren't they gorgeous?

I already had a few jars of the Art Alchemy paint & absolutely love them.  They have a nice metallic sheen to them that reflects the light nicely, they truly are opaque & they spread easily - the weight & thickness are perfect.  The colors are awesome too.




Here's a chart of the colors I got this time. Ignore the one with the XX through it.  I still had blue paint on my finger so that didn't work.

I can't really decide what color the Blackberry is - a dark chocolately brown or a purple with a brown undertone.  Hard to decide. The Emerald Green looked more teal to me online & its another one that's hard to pin down.  It looks green, but as you can see, it pulls out blue.  I love it though & it's exactly what I wanted.  If I were into mermaids, this is the color I'd be using for sure.  The Brass Hardware is nice & bright & true.  Deep Waters is also true with no undertones that I can detect - very pretty.  The Violet Green Opal Magic paint, I'm on the fence about - on light paper, it barely shows green, but on the dark paper, I love the shimmery purple that shows up.


I tried out the Art Ingredients Micro Beads by running some soft gloss gel through a stencil, then pouring the beads onto it.  The beads are about the size of a poppy seed & very hard to corral.  I was able to get most of the excess back into the jar, but I think next time I'll mix them in with the gel before I use them - I think it'll be a lot easier, a lot less time consuming & less wasteful.

So, what did I do with all this awesomeness?  Take a look.


Keep in mind though that metallic paint is hard to photograph so you aren't getting a true picture of just how amazing these colors are.  I used the black Micro Beads for this, but decided that the painting was looking too dark, so spread some Brass Hardware on them.  The substrate is cardboard with black gesso.

If this has convinced you that you just can't go another minute without having the Art Alchemy paints & Micro Beads, I highly recommend ordering them from Scrapbooking Warehouse - I'm not shilling for them or being paid by them, but they've got great prices.  The paint was $3.88 a jar & Amazon wants $10.79 for most of the colors.  WTH???  If you do get some or, if you've been using them, let me know how you like them.

 And if you can tell me how to get metallic paint to show well in photos, you will be my hero & my new BFF.  :-)