2019 #13 Mushrooms: Hidden by the Shadows with Zinski Art {by Helen Chilton}

2019 Topic 13: Mushrooms

Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes, and Helen has repurposed Zinski Christmas trees into mushrooms wonderfully, and of course there is some infusion madness going on too!! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today, and I'd like to share with you some mushroom art.

I haven't actually used images of mushrooms per se for this, but taken some Christmas tree designs from a Zinski set that work really well.
The whole idea of mushrooms makes me think of grungy colours and mottled fleshy tones for the mushroom cap, so what better to use than Infusions. I've combined mine with bleach on glossy cardstock and you get fantastic bleached areas that retain some of their colour - this is partly due to the walnut crystals in the Infusions but also to the glossy coating on the cardstock. It's unpredictable, which I like, and no two mushrooms look the same which is true to nature.

Zinski 18

You can sprinkle the Infusions on quite liberally and then leave to soak for a while. If you blot too soon most of the colour will come off. I also wanted the walnut crystals to activate.

It looks quite dark here but don't despair!

Get out the bleach and start painting with it.

I've tried various different colourways  and stamped groupings here.

I cut out a couple that had got a little too dark; problem solved.

I had a lot of fun playing around with a background. In the end I chose a very lightly spritzed green/blue Infusions panel.

I couldn't stop there though! The card on the left is cut out and layered up like the main project, but the one on the right just uses the bleached panel as it is; really quick.

I varied the background on this one - some heavy covering of Infusions and some light, splattery coverage. For this one I also used a Ink & The Dog Mini stamp to add some script. Mini 74 is a really useful little stamp as it's got several different fonts going.

This uses the same script stamp but I've put my mushrooms directly onto Kraft card.

Finally I had enough left for a couple of tags.

This just goes to show that you don't have to take your stamp designs literally - you can have a lot of fun seeing what else they can be. There's some JOFY flowers that would make great mushrooms, Darcy flowers and trees, upside down Lin Brown tulips, flip over some of the heart designs or cut circles in half and so on.

As for Infusions, well they're endlessly versatile, not only in how much you sprinkle on but how you spray them, whether you blot or leave to dry, type of card, colour of card, colour combination etc.etc. I love the fact that you never know quite what you're going to get which just adds to the magic and the fun.

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour