2015 #3 Fun Girl {by Jo Firth Young PA Signature Designer)

2015 Theme 3: Paint

Hi everyone Jo Firth-Young here, joining you this evening with a post about decorating a box canvas using a mash-up of JOFY and Eclectica Clare Lloyd stamps.  As soon as I saw Clare's lovely girls I knew I wanted to create projects combining them with my flowers. This box canvas is the first of many projects to come I think.

On the project I used the Fresco Finish paints to:

• block paint background colour
• create a colour wash
• paint detail (as watercolours)
• stencil a pattern
• paint on canvas, paper and wood
• stamp a pattern  

The project is created on a 4x6 box canvas - I really like working on small box canvasses because the depth allows them to stand on the surface and give extra space for decoration.

I used the girl from ECL04 - a new set of Clare's stamps. 

I stamped the long haired girl (in Archival black) onto a page of book text that I had given a wash of Chalk paint.  I painted her skin in Buff.

I painted her hair in French Roast, and mixed it with Prawn to warm up the colour on some of the strands of hair.  I used Prawn for her lips and cheeks too.  Her dress is a mix of Bougainvillea and Prawn. (In this photo her skin seems a slightly strange colour but in real life she looks a much healthier!).  I tore the panel (using a ruler) to fit the box canvas, giving it a measurement of 6x12cm.

On the canvas I wanted her image to be in a frame - but I didn't have a suitable one and so I cut one in half, painted in several layers of Old Gold and rubbed White Fire Treasure Gold onto the surface for an extra bit of bling.

I rough painted the canvas in Caribbean Sea - a fabulous new colour in the latest Lin Brown Limited Edition set.

Then I dry brushed the edges with Snowflake instead of my usual choice of Chalk as I wanted the canvas to have a fresh rather than vintage tone.

 

Next I created a simple stencil.  I stamped the 'three circles' image onto scrap paper & cut out the centres of each - this created a bespoke stencil.

I stenciled Jade coloured spots randomly over the canvas - using copy paper allowed me to bend the stencil around the canvas.

I then stamped corresponding circles over the top and Snowflake zigzags randomly over the canvas - on the front and all sides. 

  

I used Matte Medium to attach the girl panel to the canvas, and used Cosmic Shimmer to attach the frame (I find that Cosmic Shimmer 'grips' the items together faster).

I stamped flowers from JOFY22 & 23 onto Smoothy card and painted in tones to contrast with the canvas (Bougainvillea, Prawn, Tangerine Twist), to make them pop.  I repeated with leaves from new mini JM46 (painted in Hey Pesto and Tinned Peas).  I cut them out and arranged on the canvas, sticking in place with Matte Medium.

I painted the space in the offset circle images in Pearl Glaze for a touch of subtle shimmer. 
I thought the girl needed some sparkle so I gave her a gem necklace, and added gems, buttons and pearls to the flowers too.
I looked at the canvas a couple of days after it was finished and decided the background needed a pop of colour so stamped lines of dots (JM46) and painted them with Prawn.

I like to put some kind of writing or phrase on canvasses and on the one I combined 2 of the phrases on ELC04  to create 'I just want to have fun' rather than 'girls just want to have fun' - I like how it makes this girly sound a little bit rebellious! I glued it to the top of the canvas so it isn't obvious when the canvas is viewed face on.

This was a fun project to create - I love how bright, fun and 'flirty' it is.  I encourage you to try box canvasses - they're not much bigger than a card and are really versatile.

Jo
You can find my blog at www.jofirthyoung.blogspot.co.uk, and twitter @jofyjo and I have a Facebook page www.facebook.com/JoFY.JoFirthYoung

Fantastic Jo, we love how bright and cheery the canvas is, a perfect mash up and so many awesome ideas you have introduced here too!!

We would love you to join in with Challenge #3:Paint. If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over these 2 weeks, then please join in and show us your painterly exploits HERE.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Paint link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday Feb 21st, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

....had you noticed this happened today....

Those of you who follow Jo and PaperArtsy on twitter will have seen there is another sneaky surprise Jo kept up her sleeve until today too!! She has some gorgeous new stamps to share that were released at the CHSI Trade show today in Birmingham. (This is a show for retailers only, not a consumer show)

Here they are...coming soon to your favourite PaperArtsy stockist!

JoFY 31

JoFY 32

JoFY 33

JoFY 34

Well done Jo, another series of fabulous stamps!