Welcome Back Alison Bomber Project #1 A Study In Scarlet ....

"Hello everyone, Alison here again. I’m so delighted to be back, but I will admit to a slight frustration with this month’s projects. My main idea of what I wanted to create simply wouldn’t come together. I’ve saved it up in my head to try again at some point in the future when there’s less house-moving pressure in the mix. So, I’m a bit down on these makes, only because they’re not what I intended - maybe you’ll be able to judge them with less prejudice !"

I’m working with the Ink & the Dog stamps this month - absolutely in love with the quirky, crazy, fascinating images. My first offering is a sort of journal page, made in an old book.  I’ve seen this idea in a few places, one of the most recent being at Magda Polakow’s great blog (http://littleeverland.blogspot.co.uk/).

So I started with giving the pages a rough layer of Snowflake Fresco Paint. 

I spritzed some water on, and brushed some of the paint away, so that the text would still have a presence.

Next I took some of the new teeny tiny tags, in sizes #1, #2 and #3, as well as some offcuts from larger tags, and layered them up with some wide mesh from my stash.

Once happy with the arrangement, I glued them into place, and added textured areas of Grunge Paste.

I applied it with a plastic palette knife, and then just patted the flat side of the knife up and down on the paste to get the miniature mountain peaks.

Next step was to give all of that a wash of Snowflake to blend it all together.

Lots of my favourite blogs are Polish, including the wonderful Anna Dabrowska a.k.a. Finnabair (with whom I was lucky enough to do a workshop last month), and they do lots of spritzing and spraying, so I decided to borrow that idea; and I also took a leaf out of our own Gillian’s book, by doing my spritzing and spraying using Fresco Paints.

So I gathered a mix of colours and created a spray. If you put the water into the spray bottle first, the paint won’t stick to the sides so much. I used about 75% water to 25% paint I would guess and, as you can see, I used all translucent colours. Obviously, mixed with water, even your opaques would become less opaque... but these were the shades I wanted.

I wanted some really intense colour in places, as well as the lovely delicate diffusion of colour which the spray gives. So, before spraying, I used a wooden coffee stirrer to add globs of Blood Orange to various points of intersection, corners and edges where tags or mesh overlapped.

Then I spritzed over those globs (at this point about equal amounts of the three colours in the spray), hoping that the spray would disperse the paint a little. It did, but only a very little.

So I used a paintbrush to “help” the paint to spread out. I guided it along the texture available - into cracks, along edges and so on, trying to make it look as though the paint had travelled there “naturally”.

Here you can see the whole page spread at this point, with one glob already spread out (top right-ish), and the others still awaiting action. I couldn’t hang around too long, since I didn’t want my globs drying as globs, but the moisture of the spray does give you some play time.

It was all a little bit too pink at this point, so I added a bit more of the Smoked Paprika to what was left in the spray bottle, and did another spritzing with the slightly more orangey colour. I love how this warmed up the pages, adding another layer of colour - I forgot to take a photo, but you will see it as we go on.

ID Dolls 1 

 ID Eclectic 4

Time to get some stamping into the mix.  I knew I wanted to use my favourite of the Ink & the Dogs Dolls (you’ll be seeing lots more of them later in the week), but there was no way I could stamp onto all that texture, so she needed a background, and the quote, from the Ink & the Dog Eclectic plate 4 has always spoken to me, so that had to play a part too.

I whitewashed a couple of bits of manila tag with watered down Snowflake, and then put a spritz of my now quite orangey spray onto the craft mat.

I smooshed the white-painted tag into the spray, dried, and re-smooshed until I liked the look of it.

I positioned my Doll and the quote, and added some stamping around the pages using Plum Archival.  You can also see the delicious orangey tints from the additional spraying here. 

The postmark is from Dolls 1, and the lovely script is on the Dolls2 plate.

ID Dolls 2

And then came one of my favourite parts of the process.  Having got it all glued down, sprayed and stamped, I started peeling up the edges of anything I could get my fingers on!

I love how this suddenly brings the pages to life.

Of course it adds dimension and texture, but where the tag edges are peeled back, you also reveal unsprayed areas, giving you white highlights and even, in places, some more book print too.

I also used a Sanding Block to attack the textured Grunge Paste, creating additional white highlights amidst the now pretty intense colour.  

Regulars at Words and Pictures will know that I tend to work in adjacent shades on the colour spectrum, rather than leaping across to huge contrasts - hence the post title - borrowed from Sherlock Holmes, of course.

I also had a lightbulb moment and decided to experiment with peeling away part of the mesh in places.

So happy with how this revealed extra white highlighting, as well as giving some really funky texture variation

It also gave me some leftover bits of mesh covered in yummy coloured Grunge Paste...

... so I used them to adorn the stamped panels of the Doll...

 

... and the quote.

Overall, I’ve ended up very happy with all the texture and detail.

And I’m looking forward to having a play in the rest of this book.  I’ve already decided that it’s going to be dedicated to the other Dolls, so keep an eye out at Words and Pictures to see how the others turn out!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I’ll be back tomorrow with another Ink & the Dog creation - hope to see you then.

Leandra Says: It's been on my to do list to make a video about spraying the paints for some time now. You can really use Opaques and Translucent shades in different ways to obliterate of build depth nicely, and you can vary the opacity and viscosity depending on your ratios of paint to water. Frescos are a fantastically versatile paint, and you have highlighted this perfectly! I love the texture on your pages, and peeling up bits is a fantastic idea. The re-positioned mesh looks superb too!!

Gillian Says: Spraying with Fresco's are just so much fun .... I love all the different elements you used to create your textured layers. The colours and images look fab.

Challenged By Alison Bomber & Winners ....

1. And the winners are...
The lovely and very experienced Jo Myhill showed us some fabulous ideas last week, image transfer onto Grunge Paste, Treasure Gold gilding, and wonderful ways with Fresco Paints! Thanks for joing in on the fun and linking what you made alongside Jo. This weeks winners are ....
  
Random winner #1 from the First Challenge draw (every single entry linked, including multiple entries) is: Helen

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice. 
 

Random winner #2  from the Second Challenge draw, (only one entry per name) is: Lin

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice.

3. Challenged by....{Alison Bomber}
I do hope that you will find time to join in with Alison's techniques this week. You can link to your own blog, Pinterest or Flickr pages, or any webpage that shows us what you have made in response to her posts this week. 

On Sunday by noon you need to have your link entered, and you will go into one of 2 draws to win new stuff. 

The first draw is for every single entry, so if you have multiple entries, you get entered multiple times.

Jo Myhill Project #3 Treasure Gold ....

"I really wanted to show how you can use Treasure Gold rather like a paint rather than just a highlight. Leandra has made some great videos showcasing this gorgeous product if you aren’t too sure what it is or how to use. Click HERE to view video. You need to really read all of this post before giving it a go if you want to because I have a confession halfway through"!

First of all I started off with a piece of 8” square Grey Board and gave it quite a few layers of Eggplant, I wanted a really deep coverage and an intense level of colour. 

Whilst that dried I made a 2” square stamp from fun foam. Just cut three 2” squares and stick them together and stick to an old piece of plastic packaging.

Now mix some Eggplant with Grunge Paste to colour it and spread over a stencil in the top right and bottom left corners. I wanted to add text, an as I was going for a regal kind of look with the colours chose the Mini Roman Letters Stencil. Don’t waste any coloured Grunge Paste just spread it on some spare tags for another day!

Once dry, lightly sand the letters with a sanding block and add another layer of Eggplant. I wanted the letters to fade into the background as texture, you might need to soak the Cut N Dry with paint and really dab the letters to get the paint to sink into all the nooks and crannies. Once that was dry I added some Squid Ink in the top left and bottom right corners. There is very little contrast but you want to add a tonal layer of paint that’s just slightly different to the Eggplant.  

Next some translucent paints really watered down. I used Peacoat {which has recently just been revamped, more deeper Navy hues now) and Blood Orange. I splodged quite a heavy layer of paint on with a brush, let it pool a bit,dried with a heat gun a little bit then mopped up the excess that hadn’t dried with kitchen roll. Finally gently dab over the letters with Eggplant again to hide them into the background.

Treasure Gold time. Keeping with the regal look I went for Spanish Topaz, Onyxite, Ruby andIndigo. I used a really fat stencilling brush to apply the Treasure Gold in rough circular movements. I started with the Indigo over most of the background, then Spanish Topaz and Ruby in different places on the Grey Board.On the letters I used Onyxite and Indigo using my finger to gently apply colour. Leave it to dry for a bit then rub / buff with kitchen roll.  I then lightly sanded all over (not the letters), this sort of takes off some off the Treasure Gold and reveals the paint underneath and also it seems to sink into the paint (try it and see).

Back to the 2” foam stamp.  I’d seen an interior design photo that had gilded squares on the wall, they weren’t even and you could see some of the paint underneath. It was a really distressed shabby metallic style that I was keen to see if I could create with shiny foil. I marked 1” all the way round the greyboard to make a central 6” space, I just used my pencil to lightly score into the greyboard. Using the homemade 2” foam stamp I inked it with embossing ink, stamped the first square against the 6” square, and sprinkled sticky embossing or bonding powder on top and tapped of the excess, just as if you were embossing. This is white in the pot but turns clear and sticky when you heat. When it’s melted lay your foil on top (coloured side up) and gently rub to adhere the foil to the sticky powder and peel away to reveal where it has stuck.

I got quite addicted to stamping, sprinkling, heating and rubbing to add the foils. I started with the bronze and then added the copper when I ran out of bronze! 

I wanted to add some scroll stamping in the areas that hadn’t got grunge paste letters, so using the long scroll from Wrought Iron USW1 stamped using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and then sprinkled Stampendous Frantage Aged Black Embossing Enamel before heating. 

 USW1

This is where it all started to go a bit wrong.The enamel didn’t heat right and went grey and possibly burnt in place.Then I wasn’t quite happy with all the colours so added some Baltic Blue over the letters, no still wasn’t happy but carried on. I then stamped one of the tiles from the Squiggly Ink Collection Crowns& Castles 6  in Pomegranate embossing powder. No I’d made it all worse.

Crowns & Castles 6

So I painted over the whole lot with Squid Ink.

And it looked ok, the embossing all faded into background and created texture and a good base to start applying Treasure Gold again. This time I used Indigo, Ruby, Sapphire and Renaissance over the painted Grey Board and Onxyite on the letters. Now it was beginning to look more like how I wanted it. I added a very light layer of watered down Claret over the Grey Board on top of the Treasure Gold. 

On some Smoothly White Stamping Card I painted on layers of Squid Ink, Claret and finally some Ruby Treasure Gold. I then stamped the arch from the Squiggly Ink Collection Love and Kisses 1 in Onyx Black Versafine. Dried this and then I had a happy accident. I was going round the edges of the arch with Renaissance Treasure Gold and I got some on the front of the arch covering the black stamping. When I gently started to wipe it away with a wet wipe the Treasure Gold stuck to the stamping and looked rather good. So taking a deep breath I gently went over the stamping with Treasure Gold and my goodness it worked!  The chipboard embellishment was painted in Peacoat and Treasure Gold to tie it all together.

Love & Kisses 1 

I could have just glued the arch to the Grey Board, but I felt it needed something else to sit on, another layer, texture, So I mixed French Roast with Old Gold and stamped the Mini26 to make a background for the arch to sit on.

 Mini26

It’s really subtle and you can hardly see it, but it’s there!  Then I added the swirl in Eggplant from HP1005 and glued the arch and chipboard shape down.

HP1005 

So the lesson from this Guest Designer piece? Don’t be afraid to cover it all up and start again! I really like the squares of foil and will return to that to try again, but it just wasn’t quite working here and I’d used too many colours of paint to make it work as well.

I love using Treasure Gold in this way all over card, Grey Board or wood, it’s a bit like alchemy seeing it going on to make fantastic metallic effect backgrounds.

I do hope you have been inspired in some way this week by the techniques shown to join in with the challenge. I will be back next month sharing some more projects.

Leandra Says: Oh I love how all the transformations look so different. The process is not only a learning curve, but a lesson in keep going until you get it how you want it to be!

Gillian Says: I do love that Treasure Gold, and the textures look amazing! A fantastic way to end a brilliant first week! Thanks Jo.