Monday 30 September 2013

Jo Myhill Project #2 Image Transfer ....


"When we get a decent summer or autumn (no rain) I like to take photographs of flowers, really close up shots that fill the whole frame. I like distressing the actual photo when I print out on photographic paper, but really love image transfer as you never quite know what you are going to get. So this was a rose in my garden earlier this year, the red and orange where is was fading was just fabulous and intense, but also so decaying and shabby.  I printed the photo out on the printer and photocopied it". 



On some neutral linen cotton fabric I painted a thin layer of Grunge Paste to give me a really smooth layer to transfer the image onto.  You don’t need to do this you can transfer straight onto fabric or even paper (watercolour paper works quite well as it’s thick), but I quite like that it stiffens the fabric a bit and I was able to sand the image later to further distress.



I painted a medium layer of Satin Glaze on the dried Grunge Paste and on the image and then laid the image face down on the fabric. Carefully smooth it down making sure the image is in contact with the fabric. Leave it to dry.



Now for the canvas. I started off with a couple of layers of Vanilla all over the canvas to give a good base. Then I added a watered down layer of Haystack with a paintbrush not all over just in places. You want to really load the brush with watered down paint so it pools in place. Leave for 30 seconds and then dab off with a cloth. Do again but this time don’t blot but leave it to dry naturally.  You want to dry and create water stains. I stamped the text stamp from ESN05 with Brown Shed around the edges.

 One this was dry I mixed Pumpkin Soup and Smoked Paprika added some water and splodged that on to add another layer of colour. Being translucent and watered down they add subtle tone rather than intense colour blocks.  Finally a layer of watered down London Bus splodged on the edges, blotted off and also flicked on with the paint brush.



In the middle of the canvas add a layer of Grunge Paste reasonably thick as I wanted to stamp into it to give more texture. Using the time stamp from ESN05 I stamped all over the Grunge Paste, you aren’t looking to read the stamp you just want the indentations and raised bits the stamp gives. Leave to dry.



Once dry repeat the layers you added to the main canvas starting with Vanilla and adding different layers of watered down Haystack, SmokedPaprika etc. Finally add London Bus and let it pool in the dips of the stamping. Finally add blobs of LimeLight in places and move it around with a brush that has quite a bit of water on it, again you are looking to leave intense bits of colour in the dips of the stamping. The Limelight acts as a visual hotspot to draw the eye into the canvas.



Now to finish the image and remove the backing paper to reveal the transfer, always a scary moment to See if it’s worked! Spray the paper with water just enough to start to see the image appearing through. Then using your finger start rubbing the backing paper in small circular movements, don’t be too heavy as you’ll remove the transfer. Go gently and you’ll start to get rolled up pieces of paper as it comes away from the image.One you’ve gone all over the image (keep spraying if you need to) go over the image with a wet wipe really gently to get rid of the little bits of paper. 



Once dry add either Gloss or Satin Glaze over the image to seal it and intensify the colour.  I then used a sanding block to gently remove some if the transfer and reveal the white Grunge Paste underneath in places. Finally I stitched the image to a piece of felt and edged with Walnut Stain. The canvas was looking ok but it needed “more”. First I added some LimeLight stencilling in a couple of places to echo the bits of Limelight on the Grunge Paste centre. On some tissue paper (I have a small hoard of precious PaperArtsy Crackly Tissue Paper) I stamped the Carte Postal from ESN05 in Coffee Archival and the franking circle from this set as well.



Once dry I used a wet paint brush to paint around the stamped images which lets you tear the paper easily and give a ragged edge. I mixed a bit of Autumn Fire and Satin Glaze and stuck the tissue paper down in various places on the canvas.



On the edges of the canvas I put a little bit of GrungePaste on a palette knife and dragged it down the canvas, let that dry and then put some Brown Shed paint over that and then some brown embossing powder with a sprinkle of green as well to add another different texture.  Once dry I then took the bottle of Brown Shed and dragged it in places to give thicker lines and blobs of paint, as you are moving the bottle just vary the pressure as you gently squeeze so that you don’t get a thick even layer.



Now the card embellishments. I knew I wanted to layer the flower image on something else I didn’t want to just sit it on the canvas. I took some Smoothly Card and painted it with Vanilla and Irish Cream, thin layers to give tone I added some layers of watered down Autumn Fire and dried this.  Added quite a layer of water to the card (it’s so lovely and thick it doesn’t warp or buckle when you add lots of water) and then dropped blobs of Autumn Fire on top.  Let these react with the water they’ll sort of spread out and then go in with a paint brush to move it around a bit more. I sprinkled pinches of Paprika embossing powder over the card and heated it to emboss. It gave a really nice rust effect. Once cold I went over the card lightly with Walnut Stain. 




Using Brown Shed I stamped the postcards from ID01 and ID04, the receipt from Ephemera Plate 2 and the numbers form ID04. Cut them out, distressed the edges and added Walnut Stain to the edges to define them and give a bit of shadow for when they were stuck down.



So now to bring it all together. Starting at the top I positioned the two number stamps and added a row of flowers, inked with Walnut Stain. I wasn’t originally going to put anything up here but the embossing and paint I put there just didn’t look right (too messy) and I wanted to cover it up!  At the bottom I played around with the three pieces of card to get the right formation with the image transfer, the hessian and the linen strip that I folded and stitched on the sewing machine. Adding the two flowers underneath the image means that is still the dominant feature but ties in with the flowers at the top.  Around the outside of the fame I used some tissue tape and added Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain distress ink.



Phew, this took some time to complete because it has so many layers and techniques, but I think it works really well and I’m very pleased with the image transfer.  If you haven’t tried this technique do give it a go, you get some really fantastic effects depending on how well the image sticks to the Satin Glaze – so experiment!

Join me again on Wednesday evening with my final project of the week.

Leandra Says: Beautifulllll canvas Jo.Satin Glaze is such a multi purpose product. Great composition using the fabric elements.

Gillian Says: The image transfer worked out beautifully Jo using Satin Glaze ... I need to try this techniuque as it has been a while. Again adore your use of natural fabric elements alongside the warm colour tones.


 

Sunday 29 September 2013

Welcome Jo Myhill Project #1 Hanging Board Grunge ....


"When Gillian and Leandra asked if I would like to be a guest designer for the autumn semester, to say you could knock me down with an autumn leaf would have been an understatement!  I love using PaperArtsy products, the finish of the paint; the versatility of the stamps and oh don’t get me started on Grunge Paste! If I was asked to describe my style I’d struggle but what I do know is I love tones of colour, texture, layers and using fabric; sometimes altogether, sometimes individually".



So here is my first offering, I hope you like it ......


I really like the Paper Mache Hanging Boards from PaperArtsy, they are a good solid base to work with, but I’d just like them a bit bigger! So I made them bigger by removing the string and sticking one large hanging chunky board and two small hanging chunky boards together on the edges using Glue and Seal (any good strong glue will do). I then reinforced the sticking with tissue tape over the joins and then all over the boards front and back and the sides.


Over this I put quite a few layers of Gesso as I didn’t want the tape showing through, I just needed it to strengthen the boards. I then mixed Chocolate Pudding, Little Black Dress and a little bit of Old Gold Fresco Paints to make a darker brown. Using Cut N Dry foam I put the paint mixture on in downward strokes over the board. You don’t want it perfect as you want different tones so vary the pressure you put on the foam as you keep adding layers. It gave a really good worn wood look.



With a really manky stiff dried up brush (I have loads because I’m really bad at cleaning my brushes!) add some light strokes ofSnowflake over the base. Again I wanted to create that weathered old piece of wood that’s been lying around ageing in the elements!



Whilst this dried I started on the plaques. Using some Smoothy Heavy Weight White Stamping Card from PaperArtsy I painted it with VeryBerry and Sherbert using Cut N Dry to apply. Starting with the Very Berry I put the paint on in a circular motion as if I was polishing (doesn’t happen very often on the dining room table but you get the idea). I then added Sherbert and kept adding layers until I was happy with the depth of colour and the shading.  I then sprayed the card with water and with some watered down French Roast adding a wash over the top. First I went down with the brush with vertical strokes and then whilst it was still wet lightly did horizontal strokes across to try eradicate brush strokes but leave pools of colour. Dried this and did the same with a watered down layer of Claret.



Using the Ink & The Dog Background Plate 6 I stamped in Claret, it didn’t matter that I missed some of the stamp with paint as I didn’t want an all over coverage. I then cut out the plaque using some really old PaperArtsy dies. 





I sanded both of them to create spots where the sandpaper removes the top layer of paper. Using Black Archival Ink I stamped the flourish from HP1005.Once this was dry I went round the edges in Black Soot Distress Ink. Going back to the hanging boards, I mixed Chocolate Pudding and French Roast and stamped randomly over the boards with the text stamp from HP1217
HP1005
 
I also added the splodge stamp from HP1105 in Black Archival Ink around the edge of the boards. I also added some Sapphire Treasure Gold to the edges of the plaque and lightly over the hanging boards just to tie in all the colours and let your brain home in and focus on certain elements of the design, I think it also adds some more texture and distress. I always like to edge my art so it draws the eye in and anchors it, otherwise I find my eyes don’t know where to focus and everything seems to slide off the page like a Dali picture! So to edge the boards and add some texture, I mixed some pinches of Stampendous Frantage in Chunky Black Embossing Enamel, Aged copper Embossing Enamel and Aged Scarlet Embossing Enamel and using an embossing pad along the edge melted the mixture in various places. Being so chunky it doesn’t melt evenly and you can get nice pockmarks of metal.



 Using Cut N Dry foam I painted an #5 sized tag on with Mocha Mousse, I left some bits unpainted as I wanted a really rough layer. Over this I added Irish Cream more in the places where there wasn’t Mocha Mousse. Gave it a good sand with a sanding block to bring back some of the base layer and just sort of even it all out.  I stamped the button stamp from HP1211 in Chocolate Pudding, once dry I sanded again to knock back the colour and added washes of Vintage Lace and finally Claret. I distressed the edges and adding Walnut Stain Distress Ink. 




For the hearts I painted some Grunge Paper with SherbetFresco Paint. I cut out three hearts using this PaperArtsy Die and then smeared on a thin layer of Grunge Paste, not all over as I wanted it really rough like flaking plaster. 



Once this was dry I watered down some Vintage Lace and splodged it over each heart letting it pool in places. Left it to dry naturally. I watered down someMocha Mousse and washed it quite heavily over the hearts and immediately dabbed off with a dry baby wipe (I tend to keep my used baby wipes to use in this way). Keep going with adding and dabbing until you get something you are happy with in terms of shabby distressed. Once the hearts were dry I stamped the heart stamp from HP1217 in Coffee Archival Ink and then sprinkled on Pepper embossing powder. As I dried the powder the grunge paper curled, it was a happy accident but I liked how the hearts curved to give some dimension. I edged the hearts with some watered downClaret that I used to wash over the tag.



The layers were beginning to look good, but it still needed something else from a texture point of view.  So I stamped the tape measure stamp in Black Versafine all over a sheet of Krunchy Wax Kraft Paper, heated it to seal it and then crunched it up. First into a ball and then into a sausage. 



Carefully unfolded it and cut out the strips and added them in places on the hanging boards under the plaques using Matte Medium. I didn’t want them to be too flat so Matte Medium works really well as long as you leave it alone to dry! Two of the strips I pleated and using Matte Medium attached to the tag.



I used a hot glue gun to stick everything down as I wanted to add some height with the layers. Finally I nailed in the corners of each board some black tacks and attached the knotted string using nails through the sides of the boards.



Well I hope you like my first design piece and it’s given you some ideas you can borrow and interpret yourself, can’t wait to see if you are inspired!


Join me again tomorrow night when I will be back with my second project of the week.

Leandra Says: I love your eye for composition and use of textures Jo. This debut GD project depicts your unique style perfectly. Great way to use the Paper Substrates. Fabby.

Gillian Says: J'Adore the amazing textures you have achieved on this project along with those gorgeous colour tones. The layered strips of KWP are brill. I know we are in for a fantastic week ahead, can't wait to see more of your unique style.




Challenged by {Jo Myhill} ... and Winners

1. And the winners are...
So, the lovely and very experienced Liz Borer showed us
  
Random winner #1 from the First Challenge draw (every single entry linked, including multiple entries) is: Jules B

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice. 
 

Random winner #2  from the Second Challenge draw, (only one entry per name) is: Kirsten

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice.

2. The week ahead...
Coming up in the week ahead we welcome new team member Jo Myhill .We are really excited to have Jo onboard as a GD this semester. As many of you will know Jo has an amazing eye for composition and detail and loves exploring with fabrics in her projects. You can see some of Jo's recent makes below.



 
3. Challenged by....{Jo Myhill}
I do hope that you will find time to join in with Jo's techniques this week. You can link to your own blog, Pinterest or Flickr pages, or any webpage that shows us what you have made in response to her posts this week. 

On Sunday by noon you need to have your link entered, and you will go into one of 2 draws to win new stuff. 

The first draw is for every single entry, so if you have multiple entries, you get entered multiple times.

The second draw is only one entry per name, and the winner of Draw 1 is not included in this second draw.

Winners are announced here, this time next week.