2015 #12 Coral Dreams {by Diana Taylor}

2015 Theme 12: Stencils

Hi everyone, Diana here from Velvet Moth Studio, and I'm joining you tonight with a post about stencils.  I use them a lot in my work and I was thrilled to be asked to do a project with them.

This is what I came up with, a small boat filled with coral, sea shells and pearls.

My base board was an old book cover and I painted it with a wash of Snowflake and Stone Fresco paints, mixed to give just the shade I wanted.  I then added the tiniest dash of Brown Shed Fresco paint to the mix and lightly stencilled some coral onto the board.  The little boat was cut in half and attached with hot glue, and I then stamped along the bottom of the board with a stamp from the HotPicks 1201 stamp set.  I added a Tim Holtz vial to the boat rope.

HP1201

Using some old coral stencils and puff paint I made my own textured coral.  I brushed a thin layer of Xpandaprint puff paint (from Art Van Go) through the stencils and onto Lutradur, which is a meltable material that shrivels and distorts.  When I then heated the stencilled image with a heat gun the puff paint puffed up and expanded to create a textured surface and the Lutradur melted and disappeared, leaving only the coral shape.  I was then able to tear and snip the coral into the size I required.  A similar effect can also be achieved stencilling puff paint onto tissue paper, and I know other brands of puff paint work well on this. You do have to be careful not to burn the tissue paper though, as it's so delicate!    

I lightly stamped PA Mini 62 text stamp several times over the base board in brown ink and then started adding the textured coral pieces.  I also added some sea fan twigs that I had painted with Brown Shed Fresco paint.

Mini 62

I filled the boat with clay and let it dry for a few days.  I made some small clay shells, using a silicone mould and gently highlighted them with Treasure Silver around the edges.  With a hot glue gun I attached the shells in and around the boat and added some pleated silk, some old clay pipe stems, more Lutradur coral pieces and some pearl and glass beads.  A small piece of torn paper distressed with Walnut distress ink and stamped with PA Mini 62, was rolled up and put in the bottle.

I have really enjoyed doing this project and I love the technique of stencilling with puff paint onto Lutradur, it creates some really great textures.

Have fun,

Diana

Blog:  velvetmothstudio.blogspot.co.uk

This is stunning Diana,the use of puff paint is such a cool way to achieve this texture, and wow so effective. We all love to repurpose old book pages, but often the covers are forgotten: this is a beautiful way to use the cover, i especially love the loose threads still in place on the side. 

We would love you to join in with challenge #12: Stencils If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Stencils link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, July 12th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.