Sue Carrington #3 Art In Bloom ....

Today I’m working with a Chunky Hanging Board, these are great substrates to use and work so well with Fresco Finish Paints. 

To create some texture I cut some diamond shapes from cardboard and pulled some of the top layer off.  I used my pokey tool to make this a little easier. 

I then glued the diamonds to the board, cutting some in half.

I started to paint the board white with Snowflake and then decided to add some more texture with Grunge Paste.  (I often do things in the wrong order)!

I dried the paste with my heat gun, and then finished painting the whole board with Snowflake. 

I then gave it a coat of Vanilla and once dry a coat of slightly watered down Guacamole. Guacamole is an opaque colour but by adding some water this allowed the Vanilla to show through. 

I used the Mini Garden Gate stencil with Tinned Peas, I use DIY masking tape to hold the stencil in place and also mask off areas I don’t want to use.

I then went over the top with Honey Dew, moving the stencil slightly to create a shadow.

The next layer is Hey Pesto and as it’s a translucent the layers below show through.

I put some Blood Orange in a mini mister, roughly 1/3 paint to 2/3 water. I didn’t want it to be too thick. I then sprayed it over the board, letting the colour get into the dips.  I’ve then used some Cut N Dry with Hyde Park around the edges.

I’ve used the ESN06  and ESN05 sets and stamped without an acrylic block over the board. I’ve used the text from the ESN05 set to stamp on top of the diamonds.

For the flowers I’ve used the ELB01 set with Vanilla, SmokedPaprika and Blood Orange and stamped onto black card. 

ELB01

The colours blend together beautifully when you stamp on to the card. 

I stamped several flowers and then cut away parts of the pattern leaving a spiky flower which I thought looked like corn flowers ! 

The leaves are from ELB01 and ELB02 sets and I’ve used Tinned Peas and Guacamole and again stamped onto black card and cut them out. 

ELB02

Before I started to assemble everything I brushed around the edges and over the raised surfaces with Onyxite Treasure Gold and then Florentine Treasure Gold. 

I felt it still needed something else so decided to add the text from the ELB01 set.  I’ve masked off the word ‘Bloom’ and stamped onto some metal using StazOn Ink. I find Stazon works much better, than Archival Ink, on shiny surfaces such as metal as your stamp doesn’t slip. 

I cut the words down and used a metal working wheel around the edge.

To distress the metal I’ve used Brown Shed first and sponged it around the edge with Cut N Dry. I’ve dabbed the excess paint off with some kitchen roll.

Then I went over the Brown Shed with Little Black Dress and dabbed this off too.

I’ve used Multi Matt Medium to stick everything down, including the metal.

Here’s a close up so you can see the texture and the flowers. 

That’s all of my projects for my first week, I’ll be back at the beginning of June !

Leandra Says: That flower always looks so different when it is trimmed that way! Fabulous background, the colours look so pretty, you've achieved great depth, and spraying paint into the dips too was a great idea. Thanks for a fantastic week to kick off this semester Sue!

Gillian Says: Another beautifully executed piece Sue, great idea using the diamond shape cardboard to add more texture/dimension. The colours all work so well together.


Have you been inspired by Sue's projects this week, if so you have until Sunday to upload/share your own creativity. Simply click HERE.