Monday 1 September 2014

Welcome Semester 3 GD: Lelainia Lloyd Project #1 Mixed Media Bunting

"Hello from the west coast of Canada! I’m Lelainia Lloyd (that’s pronounced “le LANE ya” in case you were wondering) and I live just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia. I have been very happily married for 24 years this October and we have a 23 year old son who has left the nest. I am also mum to a beautiful 6 ½ year old black Lab named Indiana Jones. When I am not making art, I am busy doing advocacy work, volunteering, writing and mentoring.

I discovered mixed media art in 2001, after a serious knee injury forced me to spend a lot of time sitting with my leg propped up to recover. I started poking around on the internet and eventually joined a mixed media/altered art swap group. By chance, one of my swap partners happened to be Leandra who it turned out, liked what I was doing. She surprised me with an invitation to join PaperArtsys design team when the company was first launching back in 2004. I accepted and the rest, as they say, is history. Last fall when she invited me to do some design work for Paper Artsy again, how could I say no? I enjoy working with her products and she has always been so good to me. I am very happy to be back"!


Hello September! I always look forward to Autumn. When I was thinking about what project I would lead off with, I was inspired by the idea of the first day of school where you’d walk into your new classroom for the first time and it would be all fresh and clean and decorated by the teacher. Seeing that always made me excited about the possibilities of everything I would be learning. I thought it might be nice to freshen up our art spaces with a pretty mixed media bunting, in the spirit of September’s new beginnings.


I began by cutting a triangle template from a piece of laminated cardstock that measured 4 x 6 inches. You could use cardboard scrap to do this. I traced 7 triangles on Smoothy White Stamping Card and cut them out.


Next, I used my brayer to apply Tango paint to half the triangles and Beach Hut to the other half, leaving some white space for a second colour. Once the paint dried, I added Yellow Submarine to the ones I’d painted with Tango and Limelight to the ones painted with Beach Hut. I worked the paint to minimize any obvious brayer lines. The idea was to have it look almost tie dyed.



To build up the layers, I added the Mini Well Rounded Stencil 6x6 Crafters Workshop Stencil. I used Cherry Red on the yellow/orange triangles and Orchid on the blue/green ones. I used a small stiff stencil brush which worked really well. I found that it’s better to use a minimal amount of paint on the brush as you work to get a cleaner result.

I added additional layers with stamps from Ellen Vargo EEV06 and the circles from Sara Naumann ESN10 with Black StazOn Ink. 

Sometimes I blotted a bit of the ink of the stamp so the imprint was less intense. I wanted the stamping to look more organic and less “perfect”-I think it’s more interesting that way. I also want to mention this was my first time working with the Smoothy card and I LOVED how it took the paint and inks-everything stayed crisp and bright. I’m sold!


Once all the layers were done, I used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch around each triangle to essentially outline it. I love sewing paper-it’s fun and kind of meditative.



In order to string the bunting together, I needed to have some sort of “string”. I could have used some pretty fibers, but I decided it would be more festive to use torn fabric. I had some lime coloured fabric that I thought was fun. I tore a strip about 1 inch wide x the width of the fabric and stamped it again with Black StazOn Ink.


I lay the fabric strip out on my desk and laid out the triangles, alternating the two colours. I left a bit of space at each end of the bunting for hanging. When I felt I had them spaced evenly, I folded the fabric in half lengthwise and sandwiched the tops of the triangles in between, pinning them with straight pins. I sewed down the length of the bunting, using a zig zag stitch and backtacking at the start and end, to secure everything. I snipped each end of the fabric and tore it a little ways up just to finish the ends off nicely.



At this point, I was happy with how it looked, but I want to point out that you could easily add letters-either stamped ones, stickers or rub-ons to spell out a word, a name or a message if you wanted to. There are also so many delicious Fresco Finish paint colours, your options for colourways are endless. 

If you wanted to make a longer bunting, you could always tear several strips of fabric and then sew or tie them together. I also think it would be fun to get together with a group of friends and create a bunch of triangles together in different colours and then swap so everyone had a nice variety to string together. 

If you have other ideas about how you would adapt this project, I’d love to hear them! Better yet-show me! 

~Lelainia~

A huge thanks to Lelainia from all at PaperArtsy HQ ... It is a real pleasure to have you back in the PA family and we are all looking forward (old and new followers alike) to being inspired by your art once again. The bright zesty colour palette looks so fresh and uplifting, Smoothy is the ideal medium to keep colours true. The addition of the trim and stitching adds that extra dimension to this project.

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

25 comments:

Darcy Marshall said...

Fantastic first project Lelainia, love that bunting.

Unknown said...

Thats fab! Definitely calling to me as a teaching assistant! :)

Lyn said...

love this, the colours are so vibrant :)

PaperArtsy said...

Ohhh very nice, I do love a bit of bunting!! And the colours look amazing! Welcome Lelainia xxx

Hazel Agnew said...

Bright and cheery and sewing is so neat! Xx

Helen said...

ooh, so pretty - bright and bold and beautiful! Welcome back Lelainia!

craftimamma said...

Welcome Lelainia. Your bunting is such fun and how could anyone fail to be cheered by it.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Craftyfield said...

Lovely and bright bunting, very welcoming.

Art By Wanda said...

A beautiful project!!!

Lin said...

Welcome Lelainia!! your bunting is beautiful!! lovely bright and cheery colours xxx

Anonymous said...

Hello & welcome Lelainia! Your bunting is gorgeous, I love the vibrant colours.

Julie S said...

Wow! I want to make one of these!

sally said...

Gorgeous & bright - just the job for cheering up a dismal autumn day!

Sally

Ruth said...

Fabulous bright zingy colours, lovely project! Ruth x

Lelainia N. Lloyd said...

Hi Everyone! Thank you so much for the warm welcome & kind words. It's such a pleasure to be working with PA again and meeting all you lovely people. I can't wait to see your spin on this semester's projects! *waving from the west coast of Canada*

Lucy Edmondson said...

So bright and zingy!

Lucy x

jojo79 said...

Love it. Might make some for my new craft room!

Trish said...

Welcome Lelainia. Fab bright colours - fun bunting to start the week!

ellen vargo designs said...

Beautiful mixed media bunting! Always excited to see how someone uses my stamps - beautiful result!

Lelainia N. Lloyd said...

Ellen, they are great fun! Love how they create such easy layers in no time at all. :)

massofhair said...

Welcome back Lelainia, loving the bunting, you have inspired me to ask some crafty friends to do a bunting swap! Looking forward to your time here at PA:-) xxx

Jacqui Chimes said...

Really lovely

craftytrog said...

Beautiful Autumn art Lelainia, I love your colourful bunting!
Alison xxx

Seth said...

Digging the bright colors here. They really sing!

Kezzy said...

Wow wow wow absolutely gorgeous awesome bunting, so bright and funky, love it. Happy Creating ☺ Kezzy xxx