Showing posts with label Chris Dark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Dark. Show all posts

Thursday, 2 April 2020

2020 #6 Jungle Vibes:Tropical Blooming with ESC {by Chris Dark}

2020 Topic 6: Jungle Vibes


Chris is heading to South America for her inspiration. The riot of colours and beautiful butterflies make a tropical delight of a panel. Her question about whether you plan projects out or play is a good one. Why not change the way you create and do the opposite to see what creative effects you end up with!
~ Keren 

Hi everyone, it's Chris Dark with you today, and I'd like to share my 'Jungle Vibes' project.

Another great topic and as always so many ways you can go with it, but I've gone along the lines of tropical flowers and butterflies. Hibiscus flowers and the almost fluorescent large blue butterflies of tropical climates sprang to mind for me as when
 I was little my Dad was in the Merchant Navy and travelled a lot to South America. We have a lot of souvenirs from Rio de Janeiro, one of which is a wood inlaid tray with a display of tropical butterfly specimens under glass, so I found immediate inspiration for this panel. You won't see this type of souvenir now I'm sure, things do change for the better over time. Something else my Dad brought home from Rio was a green Amazon Parrot and again some of his vibrant feather colours are in this panel, he was part of our family for around twenty years. I found the perfect stamps in the gorgeous Scrapcosy Stamp Set 18 (ESC18) which has a pretty open flower which is great for painting and a lovely butterfly stamp too. 




I teamed the stamps up with a couple of lovely Scrapcosy stencils, PS107 and PS190. The flowers for layering under the stamping and the vertical stripes design reminded me of bamboo and worked so well with Grunge Paste for some dimension and texture. 
Pearl GlazeOrchidBlood OrangeYellow Submarine, Gumboots, Cerulean, Beanstalk, Willow and Spring Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are my chosen colours with some Pearlescent Glaze added for the flowers and Butterflies. Grunge Paste, gives dimension put through a stencil and lots of doodling with various gel and fine-liner pens makes it my own. 





I enjoy the therapeutic effects of crafting; there's nothing better for me than to spend time on a project like this that empties my head of everything else that's going on around. It's good for the mind and for the soul! I also love working through the layers, not quite knowing how something will turn out; it's the process for me as well. Do you feel the same or do you have a different approach to your projects? Play it by ear or plan it all out?


I've used a board panel as my substrate and I can use both sides so this can be a continuing project, that's the fun of just sitting down and playing. I can always make it into something else later whatever the substrate is even if I don't have an actual item in mind. This board will work as part of series of panels, or it could be a cover, I can also chop it down into two pieces or tags, I just thoroughly enjoyed making it.




Some process shots above, you'll see I stamped over my stencilling in black as a guide for painting, the end result is quite different from the actual stamped image but that's what I love about stamps; you can make that image your own.



I mixed pearlescent glaze with the paint for a lovely pearly finish, it's nice to have some areas of difference in a project.


Colours of the jungle are in the background, various greens and yellow brayered on give a nice random effect.






Pearl Glaze, Orchid, Blood Orange, Yellow Submarine, Gumboots, Cerulean, Beanstalk, Willow, Spring Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are used entirely with some Pearlescent Glaze added for the flowers and Butterflies. Grunge Paste, gives dimension put through a stencil and lots of doodling with various gel and fine-liner pens makes it my own.

I absolutely love making a stamped image look a bit different, it gives more options with a stamp set, more ways to use it etc. I was very pleased with how the main flowers came out, painted, pearly and changed up with pens. I'm thinking about how I'll continue this project, I still have lots of options with this stamp set and stencils and there are all the gorgeous new Fresco paint colours to try as well! 

I hope you'll join in with us on this topic, it's surprising how many stamp sets will work with the jungle vibes theme! 

Thanks for joining me and I hope you have some creative time today. 
Chris x

Instgram: @chrisd999

Saturday, 25 January 2020

2020 #2 A Hint of Spring: Spring Zing with JOFY {by Chris Dark}

2020 Topic 2: A Hint of Spring


If you've not heard of the Isolation technique, then Chris' gorgeous project will be a real revelation. Combining Jo's fab new stamps and lots of stencilling, she's created a wonderful ribbon bedecked mini album.

Hi everyone, it's Chris with you today sharing a mini album made using a beautiful new floral stamp set by Jo Firth-Young JOFY 91 and her lovely new stencil PS166.



Those black and white elements within the large stamps gave me the idea to make a master sheet using the isolation technique with black around the stamped images. I love how it turned out and it was perfect to make into a mini album cover with contrasting ribbon to tie in the signatures.


I hadn't decided how I was going to use the mastersheet at the start and considering the techniques, I would have been better off using heavier card. In the end it held up perfectly to the Infusions and paint layers plus the die cutting and scoring afterwards, that's Smoothy A4 Regular cardstock for you!


I started off by covering the card with Infusions in Lemoncello, Blackcurrant and Terracotta and spritzing with water.


I dried off with a paper towel and a heat tool.


I used a lot of colours of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints in a mix of opaques, semi opaques and translucents, the zing you get from the translucents brightens everything up.


I dried off in between the layers of stencilling  which were both vertical and horizontal.


I stamped using the largest stamp in the set all over the background.


Now I started isolating the flowers using a black paint pen which would have been quicker with a larger nibbed pen. I used the white pen for stripes, centres of the flowers and on the edges.


I stamped the smaller cluster flower stamp on the background and then I added some white paint pen splatters.


To add a bit of dimension I've added some charcoal around some of the flower petal layers blended out with a paper stump.


Loving this combo of colours against the black.


A fabulous stamp design by Jo, there are so many ways you can go with it.


The completed master board.


I used up some of my patterned paper stash to make the signatures.


I just happened to have the perfect ribbon to match.


I hope you'll join in with the topic and may be you'll have a try at this isolation technique. I find it very satisfying seeing the flowers pop out from the background just like they do at the start of spring to cheer us up. Colouring around them was very therapeutic too. I think the zingy colours give it that hint of spring, I look forward to bright crocuses, daffodils, tulips and irises and all these flower colours are in the masterboard. Daffodils are just starting to appear in the shops; they're a welcome sight at this time of year and my favourites too.

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you have a creative week.

Chris x


Saturday, 30 November 2019

2019 #19 Cute Critters: Party Cats with ZA {by Christine Dark}

2019 Topic 19: Cute Critters


These party cats are having fun celebrating Christmas! Love how Chris has got those infusions speckling the background wonderfully too! Adds such a great texture! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Chris Dark with you today, and I'd like to share my Party Cats card for the cute critters topic.


You couldn't get cuter or more fun than Elena's Zinski Art Christmas stamp set ZA50, the purrrrrrfect party animals! I love Elena's quirky characters, I always find a character for the person I'm sending to; a lovely friend who volunteers for the Cat Protection League will receive this card for Christmas.





My background is a mix of Infusions, they are Olive Tree and Frankly Scarlet.



I did my paint splatter with Iceberg and Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and I also used the Snowflake to stencil in the background through Sara's Christmas stencil 114 with a stencil brush.



Elena's stamp sets always include the best sentiments too!



Initial colouring is with Inktense watercolour pencils, I've used a dabbing action to achieve the mottled appearance of the fur. You can see the stenciled pine leaves here, they make a nice border around the card. 


I added a touch of coloured pencil over the watercolouring here and there but I didn't need much. These two Infusions colours are gorgeous in the background and perfect for Christmas colour schemes; I never tire of watching these react with water and drying into such beautiful patterns! Look at this tabby, got to love his hat too!


Not many presents in the stocking yet but he looks hopeful and this is a good shot of the stenciled 25, I did that as mentioned before and I outlined with black paint pen.


A fantastic Christmas pud, there's a bit of glitter glue on the icing of course and you can see the paint splatter a bit top left.


I can't choose between these gorgeous kitties, love them all!

I hope you'll join us in the topic if you have any cute critters in your collection, there are so many PaperArtsy collections to choose from you'll be spoilt for choice I'm sure. Christmas projects are my favourites and these little fellas were a dream to colour, I enjoy seeing how the character develops with the colouring, they're also quick to colour and easy to cut out which is ideal for this time of year. 

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you'll have some time to create. If I'm not back before the end of the year and you celebrate the winter season with loved ones and friends, I wish you a purrrfect and happy time. Here's to another most enjoyable year for me contributing on the PaperArtsy blog, it's always a joy.

Chris x

Instgram: @chrisd999