2015 #1 Box Canvas {by Leandra}

2015 Topic 1: Fragile Papers

Hi everyone Leandra here, 

Tonight I've got videos and lots of pictures for you! I'm brayering left right and centre to show you Part 3 of the brayering series (lots of colours and lots of stamps this time), and then using the results and my Fragile Papers to make a gorgeous feature flower with the adorable Ellen Vargo Eclectica stamps.

If you want to see more ideas using the brayer, and Ellen's stamps, then please go and check out Ellen's blog, she really is the brayering guru! She uses bold bright colours with her wonderful stamps to great effect! Stunning backgrounds which end up quite different to my more soft pastel versions, yet using similar techniques.

Step One: 
As you probably realise already, if you've followed my brayering video series (video 1 here, video 2 here), brayering colour is such a quick, un-messy way to alter card, paper, even fabric. I'm not much of a purple girl, but I do love an ochre/ eggplant combination, and that is the gist of what I had in mind to do.

So first up we need to brayer shades of ochre colour onto our book page. I try to create depths of the same or similar tones with Toffee, Vanilla, Haystack, Caramel and Pumpkin Soup. Then stuck it onto a 4x6" Box Canvas with Ranger Multi Medium (Matte). 

NB. A video showing how to make this ochre BG, is at the foot of this post.

Step Two: 
Well, its not like me to plan things to this extent, but the ideas were whizzing in my head too fast, and I just needed to commit to one of them. I grabbed some Prima Bellies, EEV10 flower stamp, and some charms. Then feeling a bit scatterbrained, I had the good sense to take a photo and thus committed to a plan.

....and then quickly, before I could change my mind, slapped Pansy (fantastic high coverage opaque) onto the bellies.

.... and then added the obligitory Bora Bora by dry-brushing to add interest and depth. Not one to drybrush once, I also dry-brushed Eggplant, Squid Ink, Mermaid and Snowflake. 

It is certainly true that the more layers you add, the happier you will be. More is more when it comes to dry-brushing! Of course, it won't end here, the finishing touch will eventually be Treasure Gold...but which one?? You'll find that out later...

...and then a quick check that the purple tones are looking good next to the ochre tones...

Step Three: 
Onto Ellen's lovely flower stamp set.

EEV10

First up I grabbed the background I made in Video 2...see there was a masterplan all coming together in this blog post!

...and then stamped it in Archival Coffee Ink, a bit softer than Jet Black, nice with the Ochre too. Cut it out; this forms a nice base for what is to follow. I added some depth of green to the stalk with Hey Pesto and a tad of South Pacific.

...and slotted the flower into place on the canvas.

Step Four: 
As I said at the start, brayered and layers of the stamped Waxed Tissue Paper is the focal point of the flower head. 

Check out the video below to see how the paint was layered on the tissue with the brayer, and then I used a variety of stamps: EEV02 (scratchy), EEV06 (Spots), ELB04 (bold solid flowers), HP1304EZ (large script), in numerous Fresco Chalk Acrylic Colours to build up a striking and very easy to achieve, fragile paper.

Step Five: 
Now the background is made, I'm going to stamp it 6 times to make a layered flower head for the canvas, with Coffee Archival Ink. Heat set quickly, sometimes ink bleeds on tissue if you leave it for a bit. 

... like this..

...and then cut them something like this so the layers expose those sitting behind.

Step Six: 
Now it's just a matter of layering the tissue carefully with a touch of glossy accents as a fast glue, and tiny foam pads to add dimension. And always finish things off with a tickle to the embellishments of Brass Treasure Gold.

Here's a video showing the ochre background being made (back in Step One), and the tissue layers, plus a few finishing touches to the project with Fancolour Water Soluble Pens (the student version of Fibralo Pens)

And finally ... here it all comes together.

I hope you have been enjoying the fragile papers, and the new look to the blog? More fragile Papers projects keep on coming this week, I hope you can find some time to have a play yourself, and show us what you can do with Fragile Papers.

Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #1: Fragile Papers. If you are inspired by any of our guests who have blogged on this topic over this fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Jan 18th 2015, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

Leandra {downunder} update

Helloooooo , Leandra here from downunder.

Just got a few minutes on day 5 of our trip to Aussie and New Zealand to update you on our adventure so far.....

Tues late evening we left Heathrow bound for Hong Kong and Melbourne, many hours later we were met in Melbourne 6.30 ish by Angus and Jennifer, our hosts for Thursday and Friday at their shop Crafters Cupboard.

Thursday the main goal was to chill by catching up with Malcolm and Helen Calder for lunch. They were friends from Tauranga, New Zealand and had moved to Melbourne a year after we left NZ. It was lovely to catch up with all their news, albeit briefly.

Friday I had a class 10-2.30 where we did various Ellen Vargo, JOFY techniques, and generally chatted about all kinds of stuff- I'd forgotten how Aussies can talk non stop, and so it was nice to just sit and listen to them rabbit on!

Friday at 3 and 6pm we had 2 groups of ladies come to watch demos, more chat and laughter. They made striped backgrounds and over stamped with more paint and archival inks. As pictured above. Typically I only took a couple of class pictures (apologies) They went onto make more random abstract backgrounds (I will do a video on both methods).

I then went on to demo various techniques throughout the afternoon.

At midnight we were back at the airport for a 3.5 hr flight to Christchurch that arrived at 5am. Kind of crazy, but we had decided to power on through Saturday by keeping busy. My dad, always a great tour guide had planned out a day trip driving around the city, but first breakfast, with bubbles. Probably not a great way to go, fighting jetlag with alcohol, but when in Rome and all that!

So first up we went to Sumner, a coastal town, tucked under the blobby bit that sticks out into the sea on the eastern side of the South Island, Christchurch. Here is dad and Mark, banks peninsular in the background. Scummy days out for me as a child were often spent in this area on the beach, it used to be known as the place where hippies would live, wanting the coastal lifestyle yet close proximity to the city.

Sumner with its hilly land was particularly badly hit in the earthquakes, houses up the hills fell onto houses lower down, many million dollar properties are sitting empty and are uninhabited, just left as they were. There's a massive safety issue, with entire slips gouging out the hilly vista, and many containers are lined along the road at the foot of the coastal road to prevent further rock/ land slides encroaching onto the road below. Very sad, and astonishing that a few years later, these temporary measures are still there. As you can see below, they have covered the 2 layers of containers with art work to mask the ugly containers, but in other places they are not decorated this way.

You cannot get you head around the vast number of lives affected, and getting people re-homed, and houses repaired is still the primary focus here.

So we took a stroll, and right on the beach we found this...

Who are we to object to a glass of wine in the sun on a winters day in NZ! We sat at that table outside in the picture with a Chardonnay. Nice.

I even saw some yarn bombing...small scale!

And then when we came out, this! A London bus....things you don't expect to see in Christchurch! They do tours around in this apparently.

Next we drove further noth up the coast to New Brighton, in this area some of the land is very low lying, and we saw entire neighbourhoods, street after street of uninhabited broken homes, and cleared sections, it's very weird that some have been cleared and others haven't. The roads surfaces are all broken, and you will drive past bus stops and corner shops showing that a once vibrant neighbourhood is now gone and deserted. Like a ghost town, then 2 streets later there will be 3 houses unaffected, and further along more destruction. The randomness of the destruction is weird to observe. I was too sad and shocked to take pictures.

The pier from the beach survived, a newer construction. And from here the Canterbury Coast extends north looking like this most of the way. Played here for hours as a child too.

As we headed back into Christchurch it was so apparent how many businesses moved out of the CBD to continue to trade in the suburbs. Ferry road is one of those light industrial areas, here a craft village has popped up with artisan shops a brewery, right next to light industrial manufacturers or car repair garages. No prizes for guessing why we stopped here....brews!

The decor in the mall section was stunning, and we stopped for a craft beer, brewed on site and stone fired pizza for a late lunch.

Here was a florist that smelled divine in the mall section.

A surf shop on the outside section.

Nice detail in this 'wall' alongside the brewery.

A gorgeous fabric shop (marimekko designs), and ceramics.

It's nice to see rising from the ashes much in the way of new development, but it's shocking to drive anywhere and every street has blank sections that have has destroyed buildings removed, but in equal number are empty houses, apartment blocks, commercial buildings that have not yet been dealt with.

So today (Saturday ) I have consumed the obligatory champagne with my breakfast (Dad does crack me up), and we are off into central city for the first time. We are meeting up with Melissa and Hilary, 2 school friends for lunch. We also intend to take a walk around the city, but there is rain and gales coming this afternoon, so we shall see how far we make it.

Tomorrow we fly to Rotorua and next week we start the Rotorua/Tauranga/ Whakatane/ Mt Maunganui section of our trip (home)

Take care and enjoy your weekend!

Leandra xx

 

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