Gillian Simson {Special 10th Birthday Post}

Hi everyone, tonight we have a treat from our own blog administrator, Gillian. She loves the Sara Naumann Journalling stamps, and so she has whipped up a great project combining all sorts of ideas to make this fantastic wall hanging thingy. What do you call it?? I don;t know, but it would look great on MY wall anytime!! Here she is...

A change of role for me tonight on the PaperArtsy blog. I was delighted (obviously) to be included in the 10th Birthday celebrations happening every night throughout the month of August. Anyone who knows me that my most fave substrate to create with is the Paper Mache Hanging Boards. Time to dig out the supplies and go make art!

I started out by covering the hanging board with Chocolate Pudding which I applied with a piece of Cut N Dry foam, I applied two layers to give a deeper coverage, as its a semi-opaque, 2 coats will give better coverage.

I then applied Crackle Glaze, again using Cut N Dry as I wanted the crackle to be finer, if applied with a brush you would achieve a bigger crackle effect.

For my top layer (the one which will crack instantly as the paint dries) I applied Stone Fresco Paint, again dabbing with a piece of Cut N Dry foam. {I forgot to take a pic at this stage ... can you tell I've been out of the crafting loop?}. 

You can see from this picture of the edge of the hanging board the crackle effect once the Stone paint has dried. Remember, when you apply the top coat with foam (vs a brush) you tend to get fine, round even cracks. It pays to have plenty of paint to hand, as you do need to be generous with the coat of paint you apply over the crackle glaze. The thicker the paint, the bigger the cracks. If you need a reminder of how to do this, watch Leandra's video.

Next I inked up a piece of white, card-coated chipboard with Distress Ink (Vintage Photo).

Before adding the stamping I spritzed some water to give a bleached effect to the background, then dried with a heat gun. {Distress ink is a non-stable ink, which means when you add water drops to it like this , the water instantly dilutes the ink, lifting it off the paper} You achieve a similar effect with any other ink by flicking bleach onto the ink.

I then stamped images from ESN02 and ESN06 using Archival Ink Jet Black, I also used Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) to stamp Mini 56 onto the background, the edges were then inked with the same colour.

ESN02

ESN06

MN56

Using a manilla tag which was coloured using Distress Ink (Vintage Photo), I then stamped the script image from ESN02 ....

.... which was then torn and the edges inked with Walnut Stain. Next I stamped the saying from ESN07  and cut into seperate words.

I also stamped the saying from ESN02 "The Story Of Me"  using the above inks. And in honour of the PA birthday boy of course I had to use "the" dapper gentleman from the Vintage Collection ID01

Now it's time to start piecing it altogether .... 

{The edges of the hanging boards have been inked with Walnut Stain.}

{I then added some Ideaology Screw Eyes and Jump Rings to attach the two hanging boards.}

{Happy 10th Birthday Mr Pa!}

{One of my favourite sayings from the Eclectica Collection By Sara Naumann}

I hope you have enjoyed tonight's project, it's been a pleasure being on this side of the blog. Happy 10th birthday Mr and Mrs PA x

Leandra Says: Awww fanks Gillian! So lovely to have you do a piece of art for us for a change! And you've done a fantastic job too! The top hatted dudes are pretty cool fellas! Thank you for the birthday wishes! You are the bomb! X