November 25, 2008 at 1:50 pm (GPP Street Team Crusade)
Tags: GPP, Green Pepper Press, Backgrounds, Crusade 25, Gesso, Acrylic Paints
I’m back for this month’s GPP Street Team Crusade! This month is all about Gesso and it’s fabulous properties for creating resistance paint backgrounds. I’ve used Gesso a little before and had discovered some of its properties by accident. This is a great chance to delve a further into the sticky white “paint” with deliberation, rather than through sheer fluke!
Firstly I found a nice clean spread that already had some Gesso on one page, where I’d wiped off the brush from another project (I just HATE wasting that last bit of paint on brushes). I have a paint brush dedicated to Gesso, so I added some more with a criss-cross pattern [right hand side]. On the other page I stamped some swirls (from Buzz and Bloom) with Gesso brushed on. This was left to dry completely.
First Layer with Gesso
Next some purple and red acrylic paints were applied randomly across the two pages. I was a bit impatient here (and painting on the floor as my art table is such a mess!) so the colours are a bit too blotchy. I then squirted the pages with some water and used paper towel to swish some off. This worked better when I left the water to sit for a while – it created the whitish spaces on the RHS. I also found that the paints blended better over the Gesso background.
After paint and water spray was applied
The left-hand side didn’t work as well – that didn’t have any undercoat, so the paint tended to adhere to the page and the stamped swirls, rather that create a true resist. Next time I’ll paint with acrylics first, then add the Gesso images. The RHS came up really well. Here is a close up:
Close-up pic of resisted area
You can still see the criss-crossed Gesso underneath. I have found that the underlying brush strokes in the Gesso often show through, so you need to keep that in mind.
Yet again Michelle Ward has created another fantastic artistic challenge – looking forward to many more into the New Year.
Hope all of your Christmas crafting projects are progressing well (that’s where I’m off to next!)
Michelle
10 Comments
November 12, 2008 at 11:37 am (Mixed Media Monday)
Tags: collections, Faces, Judikins, Non-sequitar, Sunday International
This week’s theme for Mixed Media Monday is Body parts, in the artistic sense, of course! I don’t have many body parts as I haven’t done a lot with paper dolls but I do have LOTS of faces – it was time to get them out!
MMM_faces
I wanted some layering, so I used vellum to give to some depth. Started with Brilliance cosmic copper ink and Autumn Leaves swirls, then layered faces in Staz-on Midnight blue, then the word “Faces” with Making Memories rub-ons.
Face stamps are:
Big, rectangular face – Non-sequitar “Time and Space” plate
Medium face – Judi-Kins “Treasure” Cube
Small face – Collections
Face in square – Hampton Art Stamps
Eyes looking up and eyes looking down – Sunday International FS31
With the extra ink on the stamps, I also did this collage card, which I think I like better than the main piece!
MMM_face02
Hope your day is going stampingly!
Michelle
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November 7, 2008 at 4:55 pm (Gothic Arches)
Tags: Collage Images, Flickr, Gothic Arches, Karen Whimsys, Pazzles, Viintage Children
This week I have joined a new challenge site – Gothic Arches. Their challenge is theme Vintage Children for this week.
Gothic Arches - Vintage Children
I created my own arch and cut it out with my new Pazzles cutter, which I also used to make the “ballet” lettering and the ballerina. The ballerina image came from Karen Whimsy’s fantastic image site. The vintage girl image is from the Collage Images group on Flickr – certainly worth joining if you are always after images.
Swirls stamps are part of the Nightingale set, from See-D’s (stamped in Brilliance Black and Galaxy Gold inks) and the music stamp is from Stamp-It (stamped in Brilliance Pearlescent Ivy). The white images are from a Collections plate.
Happy Creating,
Michelle
10 Comments
November 3, 2008 at 10:29 am (Mixed Media Monday)
Tags: Autumn, Autumn Leaves, Mixed Media Monday
It’s been a long time since I’ve participated in any Mixed Media Monday challenges, but I’m back into them! This week’s theme is Autumn Colours.
Autumn
These are two pages for a Fat Book swap on Seasons earlier in the year. I was trying to represent the change in colours and the wind swirling the leaves around. I’ve added the words of a childhood song:
Did you hear the wind today,
Blow the autumn leaves away?
From the trees they tumble down,
Some are red and some are brown.
Dancing up and down the street,
Dancing ’round my little feet.
Did you hear the wind today,
Blow the leaves away?
I always thought this was a strange song, as here in Melbourne, our autumns are usually the least windy of the seasons.
The backgrounds are painted with acrylic paint. Stamp swirls by Autumn Leaves (how appropriate!) in Staz-on Black and Saddle Brown. Pressed leaves added. Sealed with varnish.
It’s good to be back on the blog challenge trail!
Michelle
19 Comments
No time this week…
November 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm (General Comment)
Tags: Christmas, No Time
Last week I had joined into both the Mixed Media Monday and the new Gothic Arches challenges. This week I haven’t had the time. so rather than continue to worry and fuss about it, I’ve decided that there won’t be any challenges for this week, or next week. After that my school work will be complete and I’ll only have Christmas to worry about.
Usually for Christmas I make my own cards. This year I thought I’d have some more time on my hands and make presents for the boys’ teachers and for family members. With my youngest at both Kinder and Daycare this year, he needs 5 presents on his own – at least son #1 has only one teacher!
Just to make my time-challenged life a little more challenged, I’ve been offered a part-time job. It is exactly what I’m after; part-time, close to home, an “ethical” industry and using my Engineering/Quality skills … it’s just going to take up more of my time.
Something will have to give – probably the housework!
Hope your creating is going well!
Michelle
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