Monday 14 January 2013

Helen Chilton #1.... Warped Windows

Here is the amazing Helen Chilton to inspire you with Lynne Perrella stamps, and Portfolio Oil Pastels water soluble Crayons. There is a lot of ideas to get your teeth into this week, so get your crayon stash out and play along when you find a spare minute or 30! 
So, without further ado, here's Helen ...

I'm so excited to be a Guest Designer for PaperArtsy - hope you enjoy what I do this week - it's full of bright colours, so get your sunglasses out!
I've gone for the Portfolio Oil Pastels, Fresco Paints and Lynne Perrella Stamps in this first week and have been looking at how to build up backgrounds on large, Size 8 Manila Tags which you can then use for stamping projects.

First of all I took two tags and painted them white with the Snowflake Fresco Paint - I gave them 3 or 4 thin coats to get a really good base.
Next I've worked out the colours I want to use: you can see I've scribbled them onto scrap paper to see what will work.  All these colours blend well together so you don't have to think particularly about where you're putting them on the tag.

I like to get my colours sorted out in my head at the start of a project, then I can coordinate all the inks if necessary.
 
Then just go for it. I've taken the paper off the crayons and laid down a thick layer of colour.
These pastels are very soft and blend beautifully with your fingers: Pull them into each other for added interest.
Next I've taken my Mini Harlequin Stencil, placed it partly over the tag (I don't want to cover the whole thing) and painted through with the Snowflake .
Then quickly flip over the stencil and press down onto the other tag to get the reverse image - for me this links the two tags up.

You need to be fast as this is a quick drying paint. The first time I got distracted (doesn't take much!) and was a bit slow and the pattern didn't transfer as well as I'd have liked. I just quickly coloured another tag. 
Next sharpen your yellow pastel with a craft knife (and keep the shavings for later), lay the stencil back down over the white painted diamonds and draw round left hand edge with crayon.
Take a baby wipe and gently pull the yellow colour across some of the diamonds (this works because the pastels are water-soluble).
Place stencil on other tag and draw round the unpainted diamonds applying pastel quite thickly to get some texture. 
Finally use the stencil bumping technique from Lynne Perrella (Leandra's got a great video on the PaperArtsy YouTube channel) to add some red outlines.
Stamp faces (LP013) in StazOn black onto acetate, turn over and sponge white paint over back of face so that it shows up against the background.
LPC013
LPC011
Turn over and trim to fit. Note I've left bits of acetate sticking out. I used a stapler to secure the acetate. I've decided I love staples - sort of industrial looking and efficient, yet you can also decorate them.
Next I was going to use the leftover sharpenings from the yellow crayon to make a seal. I pre-inked my stamp, put the shavings on the tag and heated it thinking it would react like wax crayon. Of course it didn't! It just ran off everywhere and I didn't like the black - Help! Disaster! 

What it did do though, by happy accident,  was to bend and curl the acetate which I'd forgotten wasn't heat proof. I liked that, so I heated it a bit more to create dimension.
To solve my mini disaster, I stamped the postmark in white Fresco Paint instead - this worked much better and hid my mistake!
 I will be back on Wednesday to show you how this project came together, please leave a comment, and I'll see you again tomorrow night!

If you want to join in this week's challenge and be in with a chance to win some rubber stamps of your choice, go here to Helen's Intro page from Sunday night and use the inlinkz tool to link to something you have made this week inspired by Helen.

Leandra Says: Ever since reading Teesha Moore's Pink and Orange colour choice in the Stampington True Colours Publication, I was hooked on this particular combo, and it's such a good idea to start with a white tag so they really pop, the virgin cream manilla can really suck the colour out. And that's a great tip to use the white paint on the back of the acetate. I can take my sunglasses off now....LOL

Gillian Says: I'm a long time admirer of your work in Craft Stamper Helen, this has been a wonderful explorative post into how you create such wonderful backgrounds. The colour combo is striking!


23 comments:

Helen said...

What fabulous tags, Helen, I love them. The colours are certainly bright - just the thing on this snowy day (though it's gone here for now!) What a great technique the bumping is - I never knew you could do it with the pastels.

Gillian .... said...

Fab 1st post Helen, this postis calling me to dig out my unloved pastels, hope to try and play along.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, I love these, the colours are gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Love the portfolio pastel background with the snowflake paint stencilling on top.
Margriet

PaperArtsy said...

😍😍wow. Love this soooo much. Cannot wait to have a go too! Thanks Helen .... You need to join twitter BTW!! We are talking about you... Are your ears burning!! Lol

Paper Profusion said...

Wonderful work Helen - thank-you for tutorial. These colours are stunning together and the stamps are fantastic.

Hope you don't mind my explaining that I tried posting comment on your personal blog Helen, but I had to abandon as I couldn't decipher the first 5 word verifications. Nicola x

yoursartfully said...

Fantastic tutorial Helen. The depth of colour achieved is amazing. No wonder Leandra loves it too.....pink and orange....her favourite colour combo!

Lin

Michelle Webb said...

Awesome tags Helen, what a great start to your week, loving those crayons too. I have some similar one's but they are not water soluble. I might have to get some of those. Love the stamps they're great! Michelle

Anonymous said...

Oh Helen, I love your Tags...... I love these crayons and I'm now itching to play! S x

Sue said...

Love your tags Helen and I've learned loads already just reading your post. Thanks for the tip about painting the faces on the reverse. Now where did I put my pastels....:-) x

Elaine said...

Always like your projects as they are always so colourful. Great techniques too!

Alison said...

Absolutely brilliant projects Helen, that colour combination works so well, & is a favourite of mine! Great tutorial, I can't wait to have a go myself!
Alison xx

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous tags Helen ! These are colours that I would never have put together, but I will now ! Can't wait to see the next step ! Sue C x

Words and Pictures said...

Wow! I hadn't seen any work with the Pastels before this, and they look amazing - such vivid, textural colour... and I love all the stencilling, outlining and bumping. Fantastic tip with the white on the back of the acetate - can't wait to see where this is headed!
Alison x

Helen said...

Thank you so much everybody for all the lovely comments - now go and get your Portfolios out and start making (they're very addictive!).
Helen
PS Nicola, I've removed the word verification thingy - didn't mean to put it on in the first place!

Jo said...

Now where are my pastels ... Jo xx

Kezzy said...

Oh wow Helen these tags are amazing, the really pop. I was ultra excited that you was this weeks designer and then even more that your using the pastels, I bought these last year and have not got into them yet, each time I get them out they haven't done what I wanted them to do, so this is perfect tutorial thanks :-) Kerry xxx

Linda M. Cain said...

LOVE this, and happy accidents are wonderful, aren't they???

~Linda

Liesbeth Fidder said...

Amazing tags and a GREAT technique Helen !! Thanks for this wonderful tut !! :-)

Trish said...

Amazing tags! I need to get my crayons out to play! Thanks for the great techniques.

SamsHomeCookedDesigns.com said...

I just love this type of work, love how you have put it all together and those stamps are great.

Scrapmate said...

So many fab techniques to use in these 2 tags.

Gio said...

Wonderful project! I'm eager to dig out my old oil pastel and my new rubber PA stamps!