Hi everyone
Mags here with you today.
I've been enjoying all the autumnal changes here in the UK. The lovely warm colours of the leaves, bright berries, and fascinating toadstools and mushrooms that are appearing.
When I first heard the topic and theme for this section of the blog, I was immediately excited. I love all of Alison's stamps, but especially those that tie in with the current theme of nature.
I have quite a collection of natural found objects, including lichen covered twigs and worn and weathered wood, these were the obvious starting point for the base of my project. I'm looking forward to sharing how I created more nature themed items to add to my project and combine with the gorgeous stamps, tissue and paints.
This project was so fun to create, with lots of techniques that I tried for the first time, but also some old favourites.
I had been wanting to create something with air dry clay for quite a while, but never seemed to get the time, this was my chance to play ! Once I started I was hooked and ended up with quite a collection of toadstools. I can't wait to share how I added the lovely natural colour to them.
I chose the printed tissue with Alison's designs on it (PT08) along with her Fodder School stamp set (EABF) and the Berrylicious Brights set of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics (EAB-FF-BERRY). You'll see as I explain my process, I also added in some Just walnut Infusions (CS25) and Chalk Fresco Finish Acrylic (FF83) for a more vintage look.
I started my project by choosing a canvas as my base, but using it the wrong way around. So using the recess on the reverse as my substrate. I like to add extra layers to my work, these may not always be seen, but they add extra depth and interest when they peek through. This time it was book pages torn and added to the canvas with matt medium. When this layer was dry I added a thin coat of the Chalk coloured Fresco Finish Acrylic to knock back the text a little.
The next layer in transforming my reverse canvas was Alison's gorgeous printed tissue. I applied this with Matt Glaze (FF52), making sure to cover all the edges and book pages.
When the tissue was completely dry I used some Just Walnut Infusions mixed with water to spray on the canvas. This gave a more natural and distressed look.
I wanted the space inside the canvas to coordinate with the frame, so sprayed a panel of Smoothy card (SCA4) with the infusions spray, dabbing in-between spritzes to build up the colour until I was happy.
Stamping the botanicals from the set using Ranger Vintage Photo Archival ink onto the panel gave it more interest. I filled any large blank spaces with random partial stamping of the text stamps, just enough to add texture. I also added some depth to the stamped images by colouring with diluted Just Walnut Infusions. I was now ready to start working with some colour.
When I first start working with a stamp set I like to get a feel for how they will work in a project, the size, which colour to use for stamping etc. This time was no different. I stamped the images onto Smoothy card and started playing with the Berrylicious Brights, swatching as I went along. I soon decided that I wanted a more muted colour palette, but also a more translucent look. Adding quite a lot of water to the individual paints gave me the look of watercolours that I wanted, but I wanted to knock the colours back a little more. This was my first "what if" moment. I added a tiny amount of Just Walnut Infusions and mixed well. It worked and I loved the results. I continued to mix and swatch, sometimes mixing paint colours too.
My project had a great start and firm basis for what I wanted to create. I knew I had quite a lot more I wanted to achieve though, not least the toadstools and berries. It was time to start playing with the air dry clay.
I haven't worked with air dry clay very much, and when I did it was years ago. I couldn't remember how long it took to completely dry, how strong it was or how heavy. This was going to be a big learning curve for me, but I was excited to begin. The clay I had was stone colour, if I had purchased it especially I probably would go for white, but I was using what I already had. I soon discovered it was easier if I wore thin latex gloves and placed my toadstools on an old baking tray lined with non stick paper. I created the stalks separately from the caps and reinforced some of the stems with a cocktail stick in the centre, just in case. It was easy to add the gills to the underside of the cap, by scoring lines with a cocktail stick.
You will see in this photo that I painted the toadstools with Chalk Fresco Acrylic. I think even if I had used white clay instead of stone colour, I would still give them a coat of paint to seal them.
It was now time to add colour to my fungi. I used my favourite Just Walnut Infusions spray yet again. I started by spraying the under sides of the caps, then moved onto the tops and stems. It pooled in some areas and highlighted the texture of the gills. I loved the look of these when they dried.
I moved on to creating the berries I needed for my nature scene. I gathered lots of beads, some from an old necklace and some from my stash. These were easy to paint using a craft pick or cocktail stick to hold them whilst applying Chalk Fresco Acrylic. I needed some bramble berries so some of the round berries had a coat of gel medium and then art stones sprinkled onto them, once dry they also got a coat of paint.
One of the problems I faced with the larger beads, was that they had quite large holes. I thought about filling them in with clay, but then I had a brainwave. Why not make the most of the hole and create a tuft of twine to resemble the area where the flower was attached to the berry. So as you can see, I added twine to the top of the wire onto which I threaded the beads. I used green for the round berries and natural for the longer ones.
As you can see I had to use a variety of containers to hold the berries on their stems whilst they dried. I had coloured them using the paint and infusion mixtures I had experimented with previously, but with less water added. At this point I wasn't convinced I would use the brambles I had created, they looked too big and the stones sucked up the paint and remained very pale.
Stamping and colouring the botanicals was my next step. Smoothy card is fabulous for this, I got clean crisp images and the colour blended beautifully on the surface. My colour mixes were as follows, but feel free to create your own custom mixes.
Hawthorns - Toffee Apple and Brown Shed with water and Just Walnut Infusions
Brambles - Bougainvillea and Lavender with water and Just Walnut infusions
Porcelain Berries - Bougainvillea with water and Just Walnut Infusions.
Leaves - Magic Moss and Limelight with water and Just Walnut infusions (either separately or both greens mixed)
I had stamped and coloured extra leaves and berries in case I needed them. It was time to fussy cut the botanicals, a laborious task but essential. Leaving a small white border I felt would allow the berries to stand out from the backgrounds.
As soon as I had all my elements ready and there was one thing that was bugging me, the canvas frame and stamped panel didn't seem to blend with the rest of the elements. A small amount of sponged on Ranger Archival English Ivy ink did the trick.
It was time to bring it all together. Little did I know how many changes I would make before the project was complete !
The Hawthorne berries added interest to the top of the frame and were attached with PVA glue.
As you can see here, the tufts of twine were cut close to the top of the berry, this was very effective at covering up those holes. Whilst assembling the finished scene I added a light wash of Just Walnut to these stamped berries to knock back the colour a little more. I also cut up the sprigs of berries and added individual leaves where appropriate.
Now in this picture you can see that I did indeed use the brambles. I gave them several coats of the paint mixture, followed by sponging on black ink. They still didn't seem quite right, so a sprayed them with a diluted mix of Blackcurrant Infusions. That did the trick and I was finally happy to add them to the scene.
Here you can see the toadstools standing strong and straight amongst the wood and lichen covered branches I chose to include. You might also notice I have grounded the canvas on a large chunk of worn and weathered wood from my stash. As soon as I started to assemble everything I realised I needed a strong base onto which I could glue everything, so this did the trick. I used a hot glue gun to attach all the heavier elements such as the wood, branches, toadstools etc, and gel medium for all the rest.
I have loved every minute of creating this nature inspired scene and have lots of leftovers to play with in future projects. Whilst working with the stamps and experimenting with adding colours I also decided on my Christmas card design for this year, so that was an added bonus.
I can imagine several other ways of adapting these techniques to other projects, possibly a centre piece for a holiday table or an autumnal wreath for an inside door.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how I created this project and try some of the techniques I shared with you today.
Happy crafting
Mags x
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