2015 #19 Butterfly with a face {by Julie Ann Lee}

 2015 Topic 19: Faces

Hi everyone, Julie Ann here from Magpieheaven, joining you this evening with a post about Faces. 

I've always loved drawing faces ever since I started doodling them over my rough book in the sixth form! Just lately I've started to sketch faces regularly, scanning them into my computer and printing them out for a variety of projects. I love the opportunity to combine my own art work with the wonderful variety of PaperArtsy stamps and paints. For tonight's project, I created a butterfly girl wall-hanging on an MDF shape to remind me to float above life's problems.

Step One: I began by gessoing an MDF butterfly of roughly 7" x 3" so that I would have a smooth surface to work on. I selected a sketch I had done using Portfolio Pastels diluted with water over vintage book text and scanned this into the computer, printing it out on good quality presentation paper. Below you can see the original sketch and the printed out copy.

Step Two: I decided that to create a real illusion of floating, I would add some hands, so I cut out both the face and hands and played around with the positioning of them until I was happy with the effect. I added more colour to the face with the Portfolios and highlighted the eyes and lips, adding glimmer and gloss with Fresco Snowflake. I added a couple of coats of Satin Glaze to really bring the colour to life and to protect and finish the face and hands.

Step Three: Now it was time to set aside the drawings and concentrate on creating an effective background. I used Little Black Dress, a thin layer of Crackle Glaze and then a blend of the new PaperArtsy Limited Edition Teresa Green and Captain Peacock to create the background. It looked a bit of a mess at this stage... 

...but I trusted the stamping with HP1506 would work its magic on my Butterfly Girl!

Step Four: I love stamping over Crackle! For best effects, I re-ink my pad with jet black Archival so that the stamping is really strong and defined over the crackle.

Step Five: All that was needed now was a message for Butterfly Girl to hold. I painted some Smoothy Card with Professor Plum Fresco...

.... who can be found in a gorgeous new Limited Edition Paint Set... 

.... and then stamped the sentiment from HP1506 in Chalk and clear embossed. The frame around the edge is simply a cocktail stick dipped into Snowflake Fresco paint to create tiny dots around the message.

Step Six: I used a sand-paper file to neaten off the edges at the top, highlighted the edges with classic Treasure Gold and - just for fun - gave my Butterfly Girl antennae from flower making centres!

It really is fun using your own hand-drawn faces along with PaperArtsy stamps on substrates like wood or MDF. Why not create a wall hanging on another shape: a heart, for example, with your own hand-drawn face? You could make a background stamped over crackle; create a stamped border or decorate the face with stamped designs. I would love to see what you come up with. 

Every good wish for a wonderful creative week from Julie Ann at Magpieheaven (@woletz1 at Twitter).

Thanks Julie Ann for such a gorgeous project. It is so cool how a face can add such personality to all kinds of objects. I can imagine this around the neck of a bottle for instance! As usual, I love the text on the face, it just adds another interesting facet to the face. ...beautiful Julie Ann! ~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #19: Faces. 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 Faces link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 25th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.