Inspiration at Paperartsy

Hi all, how exciting 2013 is so far, a lot of challenges are doing new things and the biggest excitement is over at Paperartsy where each week they will be having a new designers showing how they use Paperartsy products and then to top it all off each week there is a chance to win some goodies by entering there inspiration challenge each week WOW we are all so lucky :-)
This weeks designer is Michelle (click link to be whizzed of to her blog, which is brilliant), I have to admit I really love her style to look at, but never thought I could have a go, but have a go I did lol.  After all this I am really excited as I think I'm finally ready to have a go in my art journal that I bought LAST January!!! lol

I'm afraid I have took lots and lots of photos of the finished creation and also bits in between. Then after going through some of the steps I couldn't just stopped there I decided to put Fresco paint through it's paces (wow it really lived up to the job, it's amazing), so I have took pictures of each one (brayering, resist, crackle, spray, swooshing).  I am also going to link my products back to the Paperartsy site so you can be tempted lol, and the colour writing is the step by step (saves you reading all my waffling!!!)

Here Goes

This is the box I have altered to make a tag box, Michelle made

a tag wooden bag and I so loved the idea as I

am always having random goes at techniques lol

I removed the lid, sanded inside and out then did 3 coats of gesso,

you can use snowflake, but I use snowflake fresco paint

for everything and am already on my 2nd bottle so I used gesso lol

I used some old torn book pages with modpodge, you can use Paperartsy Satin Glaze

as this is just as good.  Then I used Snowflake Fresco Paint watered

down to give a wash over the torn book pages.

Next I used  Fresco Mermaid and Fresco Beach Hut to

roughly paint lightly over the box (please note that

all I do on the outside is repeated on the inside as it

was I sort of tested everything on the inside before doing the outside!!!)

I used the Beach Hut over the areas with the book paper as 

this paint is translucent so you can still see bits.

I stamped with Snowflake the Ink the Dog Mini 22 Stamp, a fantastic

trick by Leandra is to use scrap paper while stamping so you

get the look of random, click here to read and watch the YouTube video

showing you how.  Next I used scrap sequin waste as a mask and

sponged Autumn Fire Fresco Paint through it on the inside of the box

and used a Tim Holtz mini mask on the outside. 

Next I mixed Claret Fresco Paint with some texture paste, then

spread through a polka dot mask by Creative Expressions. 

I then used a pencil with a rubber at the end, dipped the rubber into

the Claret Fresco paint and dabbed onto the box.

I decided what stamps I wanted to use which was - the Secret from

Hot Pick 1005, the Swirl from Ink the Dog Clocks 6, the Clock with wings from 

Ink the Dog Eclectic 4, the Reality Check from Hot Picks HP1008, the Tag It was from

alphabet Ink the Dog Words 2 and the Me from Ink the Dog words 4 and the Time saying

from Ink the Dog Clocks 6. These were all stamped on the wonderful

Crackly tissue paper.  I used Archival jet black inkpad and as you can

see from the picture below the bottom half was the first ones

I stamped, but when I came to use them they had spread, this

is because I hadn't dried it with a heat gun so it had spread,

you can really see the difference in the clocks as when dried you can see the numbers :-)

 Next I used modpodge to add the tissue onto the box.  When dried

I used a top off a Ranger dabber and a small water bottle spray 

and with Claret Fresco paint I splodged the tops into the paint

so it was really thick and stamped it onto the box, the

thickness gives great texture as well, to make it thicker you can use

a heat gun until it bubbles.  I learned all this from Trish Latimer's DVD.

Then I watered down some Beach hut, and went on a flicking spree, the

idea came from Michelle's 3rd art piece, it really gives some depth.

I used a itunes money card thingy (you can use old credit card) to make

stripes, the paints I used was Claret, Beach hut and Snowflake Fresco paints.

I also used the snowflake with the nip of a pencil to make the dots and I also

used Little Black Dress Fresco paint to make dots as well.

To finish I used Little black dress with my finger to smudge

all the edges.

The following is a few pictures of the finished Tag box

I decided that I need to fill my tag box, I already has some

that I had used the salt technique on but I wanted to try

out some Fresco paint techniques.  Here is a brief 

description of what I did (p.s I couldn't get the salt

technique to work with it as it kept sticking to the paint!!! I did

say I tried everything lol lol)

Now Crackle Fresco Glaze is the most amazing and quick product. 

I know you can use the watered down glue way but I never get

it right but this way it takes about two minutes or less!!! Really lol

You paint on the colour you want at the bottom, dry with

heat gun, next spread on some crackle glaze, dry with heat gun

or leave to dry, then paint on top layer wow it

starts crackling immediately, and when you use

the heat gun it rapidly crackles.

I am showing a ATC I did a while back as I already

used the blue tag in this post:-)

Now this effect I loved, I used fresco paint through sequin waste,

stensils and stamped with it, then used Distress stain over the whole

of the tag, which tinted the paint a little bit, but wow what

an effect, I also splashed water on it to give it extra effect.

The stamped version was done with snowflake but

I stamped the sentiment fine but wasn't hard enough with the

flower as you can hardly see it.

I definitely want to revisit this as I didn't have much

time left.  I used a brayer, the blue tag if you enlarge

the picture you can see some squares on it as I brayered over a

embossing folder first.  The orange tag was done with a brayer that

had an elastic band wrapped around, then to give it

a lighter effect I used a lighter colour over it.  

Now this effect was amazing and each tag was done on different

levels show below.

This was Mocha mousse and snowflake dripped

onto a craft sheet and water added, then I swished and swoshed.

Each time I left it dry and then did it all again around 5 times and wow

doesn't some areas look like melted chocolate, the texture is amazing.

This was Lilac and Vintage lace, with the above technique but

before the water added, I used a cocktail stick to make swirls,

and if you look closely you can see the marbling effect, this was only swished

3 times. 

Same again but using Very Berry (gorgeous) and Snowflake

but only swished lightly 2 times to give an almost completely flat to

stamp on.

Spraying, I mixed the paints into a mini mister with some water,

the green and blue tag had a thicker mix and was only

sprayer a couple of times where as the other tag

was more watery and was layered and dried in between around

7 times, the white is the snowflake, amazing look.

And now I proudly own a tag box, and I loved every second

of making it, panic set in at some points and I nearly gave

up but the final piece I'm really proud of.

And for some fun, my desk, yes even though I was flicking in a box

it really didn't seem to be flicking much, until I realised that yes the flicking

worked but not where I wanted it to be, all over my work desk and ........

all over the other side of the room, I know, you should see the floor, yep I think 

blue flecked is in nowadays and I'm sure that others would pay a fortune

for a painty carpet!!!!!!! lol lol

 Wow if you have managed to get to the end of this post then Thank you, I now I went on for a bit, but I really hope you will have a go with these amazing products.  Everyone of Paperartsy products are such great quality hence why I have been collecting for a few years, and even though I used some old favourites today you should check out the amazing new stamp sets, they are gorgeous.  And Fresco, well it's amazing, I have been using the snowflake and little black dress for over a year and a half now and I love them, snowflake is always mixed with sprays etc.  Then later last year I started collecting some of the other colours and mediums and I haven't been disappointed, it does so much plus a lot lot more and the finish on the is such a gorgeous look and feel of chalk and stamps beautifully.
Right I better go or you really will be complaining lol.  Thank you all so much for visiting me.
Happy Crafting :-)
Kerry
xxx