Welcome GD: Liz Borer Project #1 Fairy Wall Hanging

Tonight we have a somewhat unusual situation. We have 2 past Guest Designers doing a job share for a position this semester, Liz Borer will feature for 2 of the 4 months, and Clare Lloyd will job-share with her for the other 2 months. We thought this was a perfect opportunity for them both to show you their ideas with their very recently recently released stamps. So tonight, it's welcome back to Liz!

"Hi there everyone, Liz here again. I’m delighted to be back as a Guest Designer this month. I’m so glad that the lovely folks at PaperArtsy have asked me to do this so that I can share with you some projects that I have made using my two new stamp sets. Although there is a wintery feel to the designs I have tried to show that they can be used in other ways and not just for winter".

So, today I have made a sparkly plaque to hang on the wall.

This started out as a wooden plaque that I found in my stash (but you could use a piece of heavy card as the base layer). I used a piece of fabric larger than the plaque to create the swag. The fabric doesn't have to be cut to size as it is trimmed after it has dried, however it does need to be large enough to create the folds that can be seen in the picture.

I painted plenty of Jo Sonja Sealer onto the fabric so that it could be moulded into pleats (you could also use PVA glue slightly thinned with water). The medium (or glue) when dry will make the fabric stiff and adhere it to the wood. Just pleat and shape the fabric into place until it looks pleasing and then allow it to dry. Once dry you can trim around the edges to neaten and shape the fabric.

                            

Next I used Grunge Paste through PS003 (Lin Brown) Stencil to create some texture on the flat side of the plaque. By moving the stencil around you can create a spray of leaves coming down from the top of the design. Once this was dry I stuck some flat backed pearls in position in the folds of the fabric. I’ve used coloured ones here so they show up but any colour will do as everything will be painted. Finally I stuck some lace around the edges of the fabric  and allowed it to dry .

                         

When everything was dry I painted over it all with Stone Fresco Finish Paint. I used two coats of paint to get really good coverage. This also makes the fabric much stiffer.

To add colour to the whole piece I mixed paint in a small spray bottle with some water. I started with Plum and sprayed the piece randomly allowing some of the paint to run down from the top. When I liked the effect I dried everything.

I added some more colour in the same way. Firstly Beach Hut and then Smoked Paprika. To get a deeper colour I mixed some Peacoat and Eggplant together and sprayed this near the top and bottom of the piece.

Finally I dry brushed some Chalk over any raised areas such as the folds of the fabric, the stencilled leaves and the pearls. I also dry brushed this over the lace to make it stand out.  Once the paint is dry I stamped over the raised leaves using a stamp with little lines on it from ESN10 this adds some texture to the background.

ESN10  

                       

Using the star flower from EDY09 

I used some glitter embossing powder to stamp some glittery flowers on the flat side of the plaque and I also added some of this to the pearls. This is quite subtle but adds some sparkle to the whole piece.

I choose these bottle cap frames (from Prima but unfortunately) and painted them with  Lin's new paint Plum. When dry I dabbed perfect medium randomly over the edges and used the same glitter embossing powder to add some sparkle to them. 

I then stamped the faces from both EEB01 and EEB02 stamp plates and coloured them with colours from the background palette before cutting them out to fit inside the frames.

You may have noticed a large flower in some of the pictures. This was made from a strip of the fabric painted with glue as before and wound and pleated into a flower shape (much the same a making a paper flower. If you don’t want to do this, use a pre-made fabric flower). When dry the flower was painted and sprayed in the same way as the plaque.

Here is the finished plaque and a close up photo to show some detail.

I do hope that you have enjoyed this project and I will be back tomorrow with something different .

~Liz~

A huge thanks from all of us at PaperArtsy HQ ... Welcome back Liz, your first debut project is stunning from the pleated fabric you have added, to the extra dimension through the GP leaves. The colour palette is exquisite and creates a real aged metal/patina effect. Beautiful finishing touches from the lace detail.

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Sept 1st 2014 and Sept  30th 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time)  Sept 30th 2014