Jo Myhill Project #3 Treasure Gold ....

"I really wanted to show how you can use Treasure Gold rather like a paint rather than just a highlight. Leandra has made some great videos showcasing this gorgeous product if you aren’t too sure what it is or how to use. Click HERE to view video. You need to really read all of this post before giving it a go if you want to because I have a confession halfway through"!

First of all I started off with a piece of 8” square Grey Board and gave it quite a few layers of Eggplant, I wanted a really deep coverage and an intense level of colour. 

Whilst that dried I made a 2” square stamp from fun foam. Just cut three 2” squares and stick them together and stick to an old piece of plastic packaging.

Now mix some Eggplant with Grunge Paste to colour it and spread over a stencil in the top right and bottom left corners. I wanted to add text, an as I was going for a regal kind of look with the colours chose the Mini Roman Letters Stencil. Don’t waste any coloured Grunge Paste just spread it on some spare tags for another day!

Once dry, lightly sand the letters with a sanding block and add another layer of Eggplant. I wanted the letters to fade into the background as texture, you might need to soak the Cut N Dry with paint and really dab the letters to get the paint to sink into all the nooks and crannies. Once that was dry I added some Squid Ink in the top left and bottom right corners. There is very little contrast but you want to add a tonal layer of paint that’s just slightly different to the Eggplant.  

Next some translucent paints really watered down. I used Peacoat {which has recently just been revamped, more deeper Navy hues now) and Blood Orange. I splodged quite a heavy layer of paint on with a brush, let it pool a bit,dried with a heat gun a little bit then mopped up the excess that hadn’t dried with kitchen roll. Finally gently dab over the letters with Eggplant again to hide them into the background.

Treasure Gold time. Keeping with the regal look I went for Spanish Topaz, Onyxite, Ruby andIndigo. I used a really fat stencilling brush to apply the Treasure Gold in rough circular movements. I started with the Indigo over most of the background, then Spanish Topaz and Ruby in different places on the Grey Board.On the letters I used Onyxite and Indigo using my finger to gently apply colour. Leave it to dry for a bit then rub / buff with kitchen roll.  I then lightly sanded all over (not the letters), this sort of takes off some off the Treasure Gold and reveals the paint underneath and also it seems to sink into the paint (try it and see).

Back to the 2” foam stamp.  I’d seen an interior design photo that had gilded squares on the wall, they weren’t even and you could see some of the paint underneath. It was a really distressed shabby metallic style that I was keen to see if I could create with shiny foil. I marked 1” all the way round the greyboard to make a central 6” space, I just used my pencil to lightly score into the greyboard. Using the homemade 2” foam stamp I inked it with embossing ink, stamped the first square against the 6” square, and sprinkled sticky embossing or bonding powder on top and tapped of the excess, just as if you were embossing. This is white in the pot but turns clear and sticky when you heat. When it’s melted lay your foil on top (coloured side up) and gently rub to adhere the foil to the sticky powder and peel away to reveal where it has stuck.

I got quite addicted to stamping, sprinkling, heating and rubbing to add the foils. I started with the bronze and then added the copper when I ran out of bronze! 

I wanted to add some scroll stamping in the areas that hadn’t got grunge paste letters, so using the long scroll from Wrought Iron USW1 stamped using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and then sprinkled Stampendous Frantage Aged Black Embossing Enamel before heating. 

 USW1

This is where it all started to go a bit wrong.The enamel didn’t heat right and went grey and possibly burnt in place.Then I wasn’t quite happy with all the colours so added some Baltic Blue over the letters, no still wasn’t happy but carried on. I then stamped one of the tiles from the Squiggly Ink Collection Crowns& Castles 6  in Pomegranate embossing powder. No I’d made it all worse.

Crowns & Castles 6

So I painted over the whole lot with Squid Ink.

And it looked ok, the embossing all faded into background and created texture and a good base to start applying Treasure Gold again. This time I used Indigo, Ruby, Sapphire and Renaissance over the painted Grey Board and Onxyite on the letters. Now it was beginning to look more like how I wanted it. I added a very light layer of watered down Claret over the Grey Board on top of the Treasure Gold. 

On some Smoothly White Stamping Card I painted on layers of Squid Ink, Claret and finally some Ruby Treasure Gold. I then stamped the arch from the Squiggly Ink Collection Love and Kisses 1 in Onyx Black Versafine. Dried this and then I had a happy accident. I was going round the edges of the arch with Renaissance Treasure Gold and I got some on the front of the arch covering the black stamping. When I gently started to wipe it away with a wet wipe the Treasure Gold stuck to the stamping and looked rather good. So taking a deep breath I gently went over the stamping with Treasure Gold and my goodness it worked!  The chipboard embellishment was painted in Peacoat and Treasure Gold to tie it all together.

Love & Kisses 1 

I could have just glued the arch to the Grey Board, but I felt it needed something else to sit on, another layer, texture, So I mixed French Roast with Old Gold and stamped the Mini26 to make a background for the arch to sit on.

 Mini26

It’s really subtle and you can hardly see it, but it’s there!  Then I added the swirl in Eggplant from HP1005 and glued the arch and chipboard shape down.

HP1005 

So the lesson from this Guest Designer piece? Don’t be afraid to cover it all up and start again! I really like the squares of foil and will return to that to try again, but it just wasn’t quite working here and I’d used too many colours of paint to make it work as well.

I love using Treasure Gold in this way all over card, Grey Board or wood, it’s a bit like alchemy seeing it going on to make fantastic metallic effect backgrounds.

I do hope you have been inspired in some way this week by the techniques shown to join in with the challenge. I will be back next month sharing some more projects.

Leandra Says: Oh I love how all the transformations look so different. The process is not only a learning curve, but a lesson in keep going until you get it how you want it to be!

Gillian Says: I do love that Treasure Gold, and the textures look amazing! A fantastic way to end a brilliant first week! Thanks Jo.