2017 #15 Pearlescent: Altered Bottle with Ink and the Dog stamps {by Jennie Atkinson}

2017 Topic 15: Pearlescent

Clearly Jennie is a fully committed crafter when she 'has' to buy wine to use the bottle for a project! It does, of course, turn out to be a lot of beautiful layers that require a lot of water, and the result is a stunning composition (she's so good at arranging those dimensional elements!!)

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live The Dream) with you today, and I'd like to share with you an altered bottle which I had great fun decorating (and needless to say drinking the contents!).

For this pearlescent challenge I wanted to use some "pearly bits" and pieces which for those of you who know me will know that these are pieces quite close to my heart. When altering a bottle it is not necessarily easy to use stamps, but I found a wonderful plate in the Ancestors section of Ink and the Dog which fitted what I wanted to achieve perfectly.

Ink & The Dog Collection: Ancestors Plate 1

I would say that this altered bottle did not go initially to plan (or rather the design that was in my head) but as you will see a stroke of luck with the water bottle sorted things out and now I am very pleased with it!

I started with a small Prosecco bottle .... it really is worth looking in the small wine bottles section of your local supermarket as there are some wonderful shapes of bottles, but which are not too large to alter. For the sake of my art, I did drink the contents of two bottles so I had a spare .......... 

The bottle got a couple of coats of Golden Gesso, then a coat of Golden Crackle Paste which I applied with a paintbrush. I didn't want anything too thick. I loved all the little marks on the bottle and had intended to do some layering with texture paste, but in the end let the original textures on the bottle provide the interest.

Now this is where it all started going a bit wrong! or rather not to plan! I wanted a light coat of Violet Storms Infusions to blend into the crackle on the bottle and had thought that rolling it in the colour would work but ....... the shape of the bottle precluded that. I tried painting the colour on and it was too dark (I am using Violet Storms which are not light at the best of times!) Finally I stood the bottle on some kitchen towel and gave everything a spritz of water  (as I thought I would start all over again) and hey presto the water and Infusions dripped beautifully. I wanted to keep this wonderful colour so zapped it with the heat gun, hoping that the bottle wouldn't crack!  I then had the great idea that I would spritz the bottle with a Pearlescent spray ..... I nearly lost all the wonderful colour, but it did work and the bottle has a lovely sheen to it, although the photographs don't really show that.

Now I am sure we all have loads of these - I have an enormous amount bought for a workshop which was then cancelled. I am always looking for ways of using them up and I love painting them with Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint (Chalk).

I find the easiest thing is to paint them while they are still on the plastic sheeting. They first got a coat of Chalk and then a little Satin Glaze. 

You wouldn't recognise them as the same embellishment.

I then started decorating the bottle and this went fairly fast as I chose various different elements. First I stamped the lovely sisters plate onto tissue and added this over the crackled/infused bottle. I love the way some of the Violet Infusions shows through. 

I hunted for some small flowers to complement the size of the bottle (it is quite small and very easy to overpower).  

I felt I needed a sentiment and the words on the Ancestors plate were a little large. I took a few words from one of Alison Bombers sentiments on Eclectica EAB01 and stamped on some old text paper to keep the vintage feel.

And then the to the top of the bottle. I love using just one colour of Infusions and so I dyed some American seam binding ribbon with the Violet Storms Infusions. If you want a lighter colour you need to add loads of water, but you can make it still lighter by wrapping it in a piece of kitchen towel and squeezing the water out before drying. I love this dusky violet!

When I first saw the cameo stamp I knew I had to find my shrink plastic! I have always used the Translucent Shrink Plastic as it seems less brittle. A little gold around the edges just finished it off.

Then I found the cap of the bottle which I had completely forgotten about! It looked a bit bland with just the Fresco Chalk paint so I gave it another coat of the Chalk mixed with Satin Glaze and it really has a lovely pearly finish. A pearl from an old necklace made a lovely top. 

There is also a piece of pearl necklace (from an old necklace I found in my mother in law's jewellery box) around the top of the bottle underneath the ribbon. 

So here is my "pearly" altered bottle .... pearls and pearlescent sprays and of course the odd pearl button.

I really did enjoy the development of this altered piece once I had the Infusions in place and can't wait to make another one to match. There are so many fabulous Ink and the Dog stamps which can be used in so many different ways we are very much spoilt for choice. I am always looking for areas of a stamp I can isolate and use, not necessarily the whole stamp. I hope I have given you some ideas and look forward to seeing your own takes on this one.

As always thank you for joining me and happy crafting!

Jennie x 

Blog: Live The Dream

It's the simple things, like a layer of satin glaze on top of chalk paint, that adds that subtle lustre and sheen! Lovely idea! Yes I can imagine very hard to photograph, but Jennie has a knack for creating such details that add to an overall effect of vintage charm. Gorgeous! ~ Leandra

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