Michelle Webb #3 .... Have Some Me Time

Have some ME time! Yes please!

If there’s one thing that makes me happy it’s seeing lots of lovely bright colour in a journal page and the Fresco Paints are perfect for that. I love the striking colour contrast between Orange and Turquoise, so I started making a journal background using hot colours first.

Here I’ve used Smoked Paprika (orangy red), Zesty Zing (bright yellow), London Bus (bright red), and Butternut (creamy orange) to make the background. I used some Vintage Lace (light pink) to lighten and blend some areas too. I dried it all off with a heat gun before I added anymore layers. I wanted a soft touch with the birdcage stencil so I used an applicator tool with some Walnut Stain Distress Ink on, but I only applied it very gently.

I wanted a couple of dribbles too so I squirted a pool of orange mica spray on the left hand side and let it drip down. I stencilled a few little areas of a harlequin pattern here and there too.

HP1004EZ

HPXT04EZ

So now the fun started with which stamps to use. I love the flowers and the butterfly in the Hot Picks HP1004EZ so I was definitely going to use those. I stamped them with black Archival. I used the sentiment from the Hot Picks HPXT04EZ stamp set. There are loads of great sentiments on this stamp set, and I will probably use them all over the next 4 months!

I wanted to add more colour over the top of the stamping because I like to see lots of layers, it makes you think what was done first. So I used the circle stamp from HP1004EZ again to add painty circles using HydePark (green), Snowflake and Zesty Zing Fresco Paint on the page. Then I used a pen top to stamp my small circles of the gorgeously bright Beach Hut (Cobalt Teal). Love that contrast.

Of course I couldn't just stop there so I whipped out my Prismacolour pencils and added some teal and black lines around the sentiment and added some red and yellow lines to the flowers. I added a dot of Beach Hut paint to the centre of each of the flowers, and of course some splatters. 

The last thing I did was stamp the Tim Holtz text stamp randomly using Claret Fresco Paint, but clean it off straight away or it will dry on the stamp. I use a spray bottle of water to spritz straight onto the stamp after using it, it’s easier to wipe off the paint with a baby wipe then. The Claret paint has a nice shiny finish that I love.  I edged the page using a black Aquarellable pencil. These pencils are great if you want a smudgy grungy look because you can rub them with your fingers, a nice little tip from Kate Crane a few months ago, so thanks for that xx

  Gillian Says: The depth of colours are just perfect for this stamp set, love love love the contrasting splashes of blue. There is a real warmth about this journal page Michelle another great project.

Leandra Says: Love the idea of distress ink through the stencil, it works really well.  I think you're going to inspire a lot of people to get a journal for their Fresco play :)

We're encouraging you to share your Fresco exploits this week too. Link your blog post here and you could win rubber stamps of your choice too.