2020 #4 Mighty Mica: Beautiful moments with EGL {by Corrie Herriman}

2020 Topic 4: Mighty Mica

Introduction:
The composition of this canvas has so many delicate details to be appreciated - tone on tone stamping, using white or light paints to knock back a darker paint colour, using a stamping platform to great effect, coloured pencils, and of course, mica! Corrie shares each step so well, I'm sure by the end you will see how all those steps make a difference!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Corrie with you today, and I'd like to share with you a 20 x 20 cm canvas that I made with the beautiful new stamps by Gwen Lafleur. 

I was so excited when I received this gorgeous stamp set {EGL05} which is one of my favourites from the new release. I had never worked with mica, apart from with mica powder, so I went in search of some sheets it as I really wanted to try it. Unfortunately I could only find one pack and it was dark brown; not what I wanted so it was back to the drawing board to come up with another idea. When I found some mica flakes in the back of the cupboard that I had never used, I decided to use those instead.

This is what I came up with. It is a 20 x 20 cm (about 8" x 8") canvas. It was fun to make and putting the pieces of mica on the flowers was a labour of love. Here's how it came together:

I really enjoy colouring with Copic Markers but for this project I thought I would do something different. I stamped the whole set onto some {Smoothy Card} and left all the stamps in the stamping tool so I could re-stamp them later in the exact same spots. 

I used PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics to paint all the stamped images. Looks a mess like that but wait and see ! I used these colours : {Snowflake}, {Nougat}, {Gold Rush}, {Tinned Peas} and {Blue Bayou}. I used these same colours throughout the project. 

Remember I left all the stamps in the stamping tool. Here's why: all the stamp lines were gone because I painted over them, I just had to put it back into the stamping tool and re-stamp. I used Archival Ink in {Jet Black} to stamp before and after painting.

I then added a little bit of shading on all the images using coloured pencils. This worked a treat ! I then cut all the images out and went around the cut lines with a black marker to make it look like I cute them out perfectly!

Next I sat down with a cup of tea and added mica flakes, one by one to the flowers and the buds, so all the blue paint is covered in mica. It is such a shame that you can't really capture the shimmer/glitter in a photograph very well. Believe me though, it is very pretty and sparkly ! Next I turned my attention to the canvas.

I decided to keep the background really simple because I wanted those beautiful images to be the stars of the show. I painted the canvas with some Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in the colour {Nougat} and then added some stencilling with mask {PM008} By Emma Godfrey using the {Blue Bayou} Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic. 

Because I wanted the images to shine I knocked the stencilling back with more Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic, using the {Nougat} again and also the {Gold Rush}. I mainly used my fingers to do this. I also decided to add some dictionary words because I thought it would go well with my canvas. They are the words: Flora, Natural and Fauna.  After this I added the images together with a part of a word chip by Tim Holtz which I coloured with a Copic Marker to get it rid of the stark white.

When the images were adhered, I used some dimensional tape as well here and there, I thought it needed something else so I added a tiny bit of stamping. I used some Ink & the dog minis for this. They were {MN56} and {MN75}. 

As I said I really love this stamp set by Gwen Lafleur and I really enjoyed using it. I can see lots of other uses for it, including birthday cards, art journal pages (my next project) and even tags and ATC's. I really like how my canvas turned out and wonder how it would have looked in different colours and with maybe just a background made with mica powders or mica sprays. I hope I gave you some ideas to have a go yourself. 

Thank you very much for being here today and I hope you'll visit me at my other locations too : 

blog: www.MadeByCHook.blogspot.nl

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2020 #3 On This Tag: Dance with the Fairies with EKC {by Carol Fox}

2020 Topic 3: On This Tag

Intro:
Carol is so good at sharing all the detail of the choices she makes and why. I love how she started with quite a bold background, but knocked that back with a bold stencil in a very gentle wash of 'Snowflake'. For those paint geeks, snowflake is not quite as opaque as 'Chalk' or 'Cloud 9', so it can be helpful at time to have a white that is less 'bold', although yu can achieve the same effect by adding a glaze to any opaque if you wish. It's an interesting background on top of which Kay's new stamp-stencil combo really sit well.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Carol with you today, and I'd like to share with you a tag.

I have built a scene on my tag using stamped elements and dry brushing for my background. I also used my Stamping platform for the first time, it was a gift and I had just stuck it away, but Kay's instructions on the Coordinating stamp stencil said use a stamping platform so I did and it worked together like a dream.

The finished Tag

I went 2 colour contrast, but colours of similar depth and intensity for my background using the new paints Gold Rush and Khaki along with Mini stencil PM008.

I added more interest to my background by using Snowflake Paint through stencil PS136, I do love a nice big stencil on a background.

I stamped the house image using EKC35. 

I used the coordinating stencil PS181 to help colour it along with the latest paints Blue Bayou, Marbles and Globe Thistle and Mauve.

I had never used any of the coordinating stencils before, but there are  instructions in the Stencil Pack and I just followed these, it was very easy. Along with my shades of blues and Purples I used Gold Rush and Snowflake to add the final stencil details.

I re-stamped my image over the top and it brought the whole thing to life.

I stamped and coloured the flowers fom EKC35 using Marbles and Blue Bayou with Highlights of Snowflake and Gold Rush on the flower heads .I used Magic Moss and Granny Smith on the stems, just painting them freehand with a brush.

Here they are re-stamped over the painted images.

I added the pebbles from EKC35 and used Stencil PS179 with Little Black Dress Paint to add the little mushrooms.

The quote from EKC35 is stamped onto a bit of acetate packaging that just happened to be a nice shape and hung from the side with a little clip.

I do love a bit of height on a tag and here I have stamped and coloured flowers from EKC15. Layering them up to add that little pop of height.

As I previously mentioned I had never used any of the coordinating stencils for the stamps before and I was a bit worried when I saw the painted image before I added the stamping back over it, but I was amazed how it all worked and the extra depth it seemed to add to my painted image. Definitely something to add to my stash in future, 

I hope you enjoyed my post and I can be found at the following places.

Carol xx

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