2017 #1 Pretty Planning {by Christine Dark}

2017 Topic 1: True Colours – Pink and Orange 

This evening Chris joins us with a walk through of this fab project, Chris has such amazing attention to detail and the joy she gets from creating is so very obvious in her finished projects. 

Hello PaperArtsy Blog followers, its Chris Dark here, sharing with you a post on Topic 1: Pink & Orange, inspired by Stampington's True Colours Publication. Colour is a starting point for most of my projects, after the stamps of course, but I hadn’t really thought about it much before writing this post. When I did, I realised it’s a big part of my creative process; I have the stamps in my hand and then I’m in the paint and ink drawers thinking about colour combinations. So this topic was an obvious choice for me. 

Usually I’m attracted to bright colour for my makes but I’m also quite a seasonal creator, the colours I see around me outside can inspire colour choices. Coming into spring and with a true colour palette of pink and orange I was immediately visualising brightly coloured Azaleas and Camellias which are a welcome burst of vibrancy after winter. Kay’s beautiful floral stamps from Eclectica Kay Carley set 1, (ECK01) are actually summer flowers and still work perfectly for me. I’ve created a varied palette of paints using Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints.

I recently bought an inexpensive supermarket planner and realised I’d find it more appealing to write in if I gave it a cover treatment. I’m pleased with the results and of course the Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints work perfectly on the plastic cover and are great for building up layers which is how my projects tend to develop. 

I knew straight away that I wanted to work with Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze. So I chose several shades of Fresco Finish paints and mixed them on the cover, not worrying too much about perfect blending, I just wanted a variance in shade so that what showed through the cracks later wasn’t a solid colour; I think it’s more pleasing for the eye.

The next layer is a thin application of Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze. If you haven’t used this before then I can highly recommend it as it’s the easiest way to achieve a lovely crackle finish. It's a 2 step process, with the top coat cracking over the bottom one. I love varying the size of the crackles by making the paint application thin or thick and I like leaving some areas with just a hint of paint for a distressed effect which is ultimately the finish I want.

I enjoy building up layers with paints and mediums and even though I’m going to cover up a lot of the crackle effect and rub some of it away it still adds texture and richness to the project.

I like to create more varied palettes I’ll add lights and darks together for variety but I particularly love to add the translucent colours to my mixes for extra zing. 

EKC01

What I’m looking for in this layer is a hint of something which will show through a bit in the subsequent layers so I’m stamping the flowers in black and block painting them very quickly not worrying about it at all. I also might have stamped with a couple of sneaky new stamps..shhh!

Next layer and what I want now is the look of plaster or paint over old fresco. A church local to me has some beautiful 1,000 year old Saxon fresco’s which have always inspired me and have the distressed partly revealed appearance that I want. Yes, it can be difficult to cover up what you’ve just painted but hardly any time was spent on the previous layer. 

Now I’m preparing painted and stamped tissue pieces and a panel of chipboard for the next two layers, using the brayer is a great way to apply paint quickly and if your brayer has build up like mine the bonus is a lot of added texture!

EKC02

With stamping around the cover in paint and ink with additional stamps from Eclectica Kay Carley Set 2 (EKC02) for more interest the layers are building up nicely and everything is ready to be glued down. The fussy cut flowers are applied with Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze and there’s a sponged application of paint to the centre of the panel as a ground for the die cut and painted letters. This is the time to play with layout and move things around before gluing down.

The above photo is taken in artificial light so you can hopefully see the gloss finish created by the glaze, the glaze also seals everything, gives the colour a bit more vibrancy and protects the cover in use.

Final finishing touches are an important for me and the part I find relaxing as they usually involve doodling of some kind. I’ve added a little bit of pencil in blue tones to tie in with the planner divider tabs, some doodling with black and white pens and some glitter glue.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed giving myself a planner cover that will hopefully encourage me to open and use it. Working with lots of painty layers is one of my favourite processes and hopefully will show how building up these layers over each other gives the end result lots of depth and interest. I found the flowers were very quick to cut out due to their shape and I would definitely repeat this collage with the flower heads, it would be great as a border for an art journal spread or canvas. 

Thanks for joining me tonight, I hope you’ll join us in Topic 1 True Colours and zing up your projects with some pink and orange!

Have a creative week,

Chris 

Blog

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Find my classes at The Craft Barn

I love this Chris, such a fun way to start our day writing lists in this bright,funky planner. We usually see Kay's stamps done with cooler,muted shades, but you have shown spectacularly how they work just as well with these stunning zingy colours. ~ Darcy

We hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. Our bloggers deeply appreciate your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired! Why not join our challenge by blogging your interpretation of the current topic and link it HERE.?

The current topic link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, February 5th, 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.