Fresco Paint Holder {with Eclectica³ Darcy Stamps by Corinne Rollett}

Hi everyone, my name is Corinne (some of you may know me better as Coco), I’m a French lady who loves putting a touch of humour in my creations sometimes. Today I’m delighted to post on the PaperArtsy blog a whimsical creation! This project with many details and colours reflects well my style for a large part.

I have been having great fun altering a large Tando chipboard piece - a paintholder. This 3D piece,ready to alter had just the perfect dimensions to play fantastically with Darcy’s fabulous new Eclectica³ stamps, and I thought I would share this as I really love it…

Here’s the front of the paintholder. This is not the most remarkable side of my project (although certainly the most useful!), you will see next how I have decorated the other sides, taking up all available space to build different little stories that really made me smile. Of course, once finished I immediately used my paint holder to store my Fresco Finish Chalk paints! 

I started out by gessoing everything using a paint roller, and then I coated all parts using Toad Hall paint. Once dry I assembled and glued all of the  pieces except the back panel which I wanted to decorate on a flat surface. I scraped a thin layer of crackle glaze over some areas (just wanted a light but not uniform crackled texture), and once it was all dry I gave a coat of Guacamole and Limelight paints. Put all this aside to dry thoroughly.

Time to play with my Darcy’s stamps… I took a few leftovers of Smoothy White Stamping Card and started to put some rough brush strokes of paints here and there. One scrap paper was painted in Cheesecake, Zesty Zing and Blood Orange and another one in Yellow Submarine, Tango, Limelight and Zesty Zing. I really love all these shiny translucent colours! I then chose two stamp sets and a lot of minis… I’m very fond of the minis, they are not too expensive and they are often a perfect complement , especially the ones by Darcy!!

I covered my papers with many stamped images. I have no photos of this step sorry, but you can get a sneak peek of the whole process below, and by the way you will also discover the small uphill,zig zag path that I had great fun making! I drew it with a fine brown marker and a small brush dipped into brown paint, to join with the versatile – just wonderful - Mini06. You will see which brave animal is climbing courageously the uphill path a bit later… 

EDY Mini06

EDY Mini03

EDY Mini05

I also stamped with EDY mini 03 and EDY Mini 05. All my images were stamped either using Potting Spoil or Library Green Archival inkpads, and fussy cut. I also dipped a foam piece in the rest of paints, gently tapped of excess, and applied to the edges of as many images as possible (depending on the colour), both because I never waste some good paint and also because I don’t appreciate much seeing blank lines around my images… I put aside all this first set of prepared elements.

Time to play with my paintholder again! I started to enhance the base, painting all side in matching colours, playing with a distorted harlequin mask on the narrow edges and adding layers of yummy paints.

Working on the back panel first, with blending foam I added (top to bottom) Zesty Zing, Yellow submarine, Limelight and Hey Pesto, blending all the colours at the border lines for a smooth texture.

I’m very fond of Darcy’s stunning works… Especially love her Art Journal. Some time ago, I was very inspired by two of her pages... So here I decided to follow her technique to create a faux frame. Using cut’n dry foam, I tore a strip of old scrap paper and used it as a mask to create a rough edged border. I used Snowflake paint first then added Tikka (from the Limited Edition Set Paints {Lin Brown}), Claret, Blood Orange and London night. You can see all the paints I used and how I set about the painting on the two right side photos below.

Looking at the two border images available on my stamps sets I chose the gorgeous one from EDY05 and stamped it in Snowflake along the top.

EDY05

I played with a fine brush and Tikka paint next, covering only a part of the white border for more interest, adding also little touches of white sometimes to join or extend the lines when needed.

Going deeper in the process, I felt not totally satisfied with the texture and the crackles (I put not enough glaze on my main elements, and in too thin layer sometimes to remain very visible after extra layers of paints!!), so I took a Crackle stamp and applied it using Chutney paint around the edges, I repeated the process all over the front of the paintholder.

Finally I very much liked my border after that, so I extended the whole design on the edges and the top front side too.

I had an absolute blast creating the backgrounds next... I used the vegetation stamps from EDY05 and EDY07 and Holly, Toad Hall, Chutney and Seaweed paints to start to bring in some grass pattern on my large background.

EDY07

Over that I stamped,directly in place. some stamps like the long funny cactus (from EDY05) using my Potting Soil inkpad. White pen and translucent Frescos were further dabbed over the base coat and stamping to lighten it. I did the same for the narrow edges, building gradually the decor, playing on one edge with the little bird from EDY Mini02 swinging on the inverted tripod support from EDY07 that carries also its cage… I had lots of fun doing this!

Being pleased with the base at every edge, I then prepared a second set of elements. I stamped on separate cardstock the main images - like the fabulous Flamingo! -, and heat embossed them in clear as I wanted to make them pop even more. I painted all these images carefully, cut out and edged them all with a fine brown marker and paints.

Then I gathered some Sizzix vegetation die-cuts and several chipboards and flexistrips from Tando, and took time to paint every element until I was totally pleased with the result. For the fence I dabbed over Snowflake then applied Chutney and Chocolate Pudding roughly to let the white show through like an old wooden fence. To finish I inked/painted all the edges.

I gathered them with the first set, and started to play… I put the elements at different places to add to the design of each side. I love doing this, this step always helps to make up stories, that’s the most easy and funny part of the creation!!

Finally all the stamped images were glued in the right place and sometimes layered using small pieces of cardboard between for extra dimension. At the bottom, I added the die cut grass and the fence, offsetting them to create a stepped edge. I then glued the back panel also, and positioned to the front a butterfly and a flower pot (EM08) that were lying unused on my craft mat. You will have a good idea of the finishing touch on the photo below…

I love the detail of the small Karen’s Tando frame with its focus on the curious (and a bit intrusive lol) ‘eye’ from EDY Mini06 in the middle! It was painted in Tango, Brown Shed and Yellow submarine on the edges, and Chartreuse with a blob of Yellow submarine inside. I also applied my Crackle stamp in Chutney over it and rubbed over Olive Bronze Treasure Gold.

The last step was to apply more Treasure Gold in Olive Bronze (I used also a bit of the gorgeous Limited Edition!) on all edges and to buff over all sides. I also covered the whole box with Satin Glaze which makes the light shine differently on it, and provides a subtle contrast. Et voila!

Here is the big snail (yes, this is the brave animal I was speaking about lol) climbing up one side of the storage. 

EDY Mini04

Thanks for taking the time to look at my project. I hope you have enjoyed the details... For more photos, check out my blog. I would love if you felt inspired to make a similar storage for your paints, or anything else a bit funny! 
Coco x

A huge thank you to Coco from all at PaperArtsy. We are blown away with this project, so many details, so much vibrancy in the colours but above all, SO MUCH FUN! We love this storage, it is perfect and fitting that our fabulous paints should have equally fabulous storage. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 22nd June 2014