Dylusion Sprays on Canvas with and without Gesso Tutorial

Hi all, I'm back with the tutorial showing Dylusion Sprays on canvas with and without gesso.  The Finished pieces where posted yesterday - owl here and sea canvas here.  Right here we go :-)

Canvas Board - I tend to cut mine up for when I want something small to check out a technique.

I added gesso to one of the pieces of canvas board, then added book pages with mod podge.  Now I hadn't done this before and I have to admit it was a mistake, I should have added some form of resist i.e mod podge over the top to protect it.  But I didn't chuck it away, I just peeled it off, as I knew by end we wouldn't see it.

Now, what do you do with your box from a parcel when you receive all that gorgeous crafty stash?  As you can see I use it as a spray box.  Any A4 copy paper that has been used, i.e printed from home paper you don't want, or even crafty sheets that have come in the post, I used as scrap to collect all the unused ink.  Before I commit to using a colour, I like to spray the colours together to make sure they look ok together.  For the two canvases I used Dylusion sprays - campso teal, london blue, after midnight, dirty martini.

Now I have left this picture in to show that sometimes your canvas can actually can be pre treated which   the inks won't absorb or lay on top.  During these instances you need to use normal gesso first on top.  As you can see it was only the book papers that took the ink.  Now obviously I didn't want to use gesso as that was my other sample.  I hate throwing things away, so I wiped off the above and then used some canvas sheet and added it over the top.

First spray, as you can see the left canvas has absorbed all the ink where as the gesso after wiping off the extra ink is very muted, this is because the inks stay on top of the gesso and don't absorb, when you mop up the extra ink it becomes really pastel in colour.  Now if this is what you want, great, each time you spray, mop up the ink and it will still have the softer colour.

This has been sprayed 4 times and dried using a heat gun in between, as you can see, if you don't mop up the ink, but heat gun it dry or leave it to dry naturally then you can build up the colour.  Yes you can see the really dark bit where the paper was, but never throw it away at this stage if you don't like it as it does get better as we carry on :-)

The canvas without the gesso I only sprayed twice, so at this point it certainly looks the better of the two lol

Next step is to add water for texture.  Dylusions work a bit like distress ink, it reacts to water.  As the water hits the non gessoed canvas it absorbs, so when patting it dry not as much ink comes off.  A very soft look

This is the gessoed canvas, as you can see, the water doesn't absorb, so when mopping up you get a gorgeous striking effect which I absolutely love :-)

 Another Sample

On the left is the gesso canvas, as you can see the inks stays on top, which means that they tend to spread leaving some great blending effects. The dylusion sprays I used were bubblegum pink, lemon zest and squeezed orange

As you can see the canvas on the right all the ink has absorbed, but the one on the left has more unique  effects as the ink blended really well.  The more you spray, the more you heat set the canvas with gesso, the more you will get areas of really dark almost burnt on ink, this looks so effective.

The gessoed canvas flicked with water. I am so loving the colours with the striking white :-)

The canvas without gesso, lots of flicks of water.

Now this is the gessoed canvas.  I added multi medium on top, which you can do to protect it.  But the problem with the gesso canvas, the ink sits on top so the minute it becomes wet it all spreads in together.

The canvas not gessoed doesn't spread as much, so if you want to add a sealant on top it's best not to use gesso

This is the gesso canvas, I have added gesso through a stencil.  As you can see, the right side isn't as effected with the ink as it has had multi medium on top, the left side, the gesso is more coloured.  This is because the gesso is wet, which re wets the ink so the gesso is slightly more tinted.

On top of the non gesso canvas, the right side again is white gesso where we used the multi medium, the left side is still slightly tinted but not as much as a lot of the ink has been absorbed.

 Tag - just to show what the sprays are like on manilla tags, really beautiful, I used the same colours as above, but if you look at the side closest to you, you can see it's slightly lighter, this is because I used some paper towel to mop up one side to show the difference.  Yet again some water flicked on top.

Tag - same colours as canvas but this time the side furtherst away is the side that was mopped up

The non gesso canvas I have used multi medium to seal it

Mixing dylusion sprays - I used Paperartsy grunge paste, but you can use any texture paste, I just happen to use this one.  Pop some on your heat mat

Then spray and mix in.  You don't want the paste to be over runny so use only a couple of sprays.  Because your adding the colour to the white it does become lighter.  The spray I used was London Blue.

This is the gesso canvas and as you can see, even adding texture paste through a mask will still react the ink, which means the texture paste will obsorb more colour

closer picture

I am just showing a closer picture here, this was 24 hours later, when I did some stamping then used a Ranger Perfect Pearls mist to give it some sparkle, the minute the perfect pearl mist hit the gessoed canvas the inks started to blend together as it re wet the previous ink.  So basically it doesn't matter if you leave it a few hours or a few months, the ink will always react when it gets wet, so not so good for outside or wearing on your body :-)

This is the non gesso canvas and as you can see, not much ink was absorbed so stayed a truer colour

To add interest I wanted to add some white to the non gesso canvas, I used Fresco paint but any white paint will do.  I brayered it on so it looked really random

I slightly brayer over the top of the gesso one and then brayered onto paper, as you can see lots of ink.  Also the bits of white I did add on, you can't see as the ink absorbed it.  I wasn't putting much on this one, if I wanted more you would have been able to see it.  The best way to do this would have been to heat set it straight away so the ink wouldn't be absorbed

After adding the paint on I brayered straight onto the paper underneath.  As you can see not much ink is removed

I sprayed some mesh with perfect pearls and dylusion sprays.  Further on you will see some shells on the canvas I did, I also sprayed them.  I forgot to take a picture.  I found that the natural shells off the beach coloured well, the bought ones didn't.  Again I reckon it's because they are treated in some way

Cheese cloth being sprayed

Fabric being sprayed with water, it’s 100% cotton

I sprayed the fabric with the Dylusion sprays that I used on the canvas.  I also added dylusion spray vibrant turquoise

Next I added salt, I bet your wondering what I am doing lol.  It reacts with the spray and leaves really nice areas of dark swirls.  When dried you just wipe the salt off before ironing it (you don't need to iron it)

Close up of dried fabric

Close up of dried fabric

I remembered that I had some old photos of when I first used dylusion sprays on card with salt

I decided to do loads at the same time with different colours

When the card had dried I wiped the salt off, as you can see the salt really reacts well on card/paper

And this is the tag I made with it, using Paperartsy stamps, Dylusions sprays bubble gum pink, fresh lime and squeezed orange

Now I bet your wondering have I got completely mad, I'm showing my inky hands.  Dylusion sprays get everywhere and I really don't like using gloves but ................

Now their clean, the magic is Ranger Scrubbie, seriously it's amazing and most shops sells them.  Literally wash hands with soap, used the scrubbie and voila, clean hands :-)

Now, I am terrible, when I'm in my arty zone sometimes I completely forget to use my spray box, beware, it gets everywhere lol

I save the kitchen towels that have some fab colour on them, I shall be using them in the future so watch this space lol

I wanted to include this picture.  When I'm trying to decide on what I want where, I tend to stamp loads of images on scrap paper, that way I can roughly cut out and have a play before I use my best cardstock.  I then save the scrap images in the stamp set, so I can use them again for this or use as a mask

Guess what you can colour with dylusion sprays, you need water, paint brush, heat resistant mat or tile to mix the colours and water card stock

Now in the dylusion range there is a white spray which is called white linen.  But, it's not completely transparent, more opaque, which is great for lightening colours with, but also remember, being opaque makes the colour more opaque

It's quite amazing actually that you can colour with these, and if you are careful you can easily build up colours to give shadow.  Now initially I was going to be cutting her out so I didn't care if I went over the lines, but in the end I wanted a vintage feels so she was re stamped and I used vintage photo distress ink as I haven't got the dylusion spray chocolate colour, must pop that in my basket next time I shop lol

So all the wasted ink from the colouring, not wasted lol, spritz some water on water colour card and mop up

As you can see add some flicks of water and you have some coloured card to use.  Notice how it seems quite opaque

I wanted to show what happens when you use white linen.  If you spray bubble gum pink and squeezed orange with white linen you get a really soft light colours

Mop it up, add flicks of water and as you can see a very opaque piece, but so beautiful

I did the same with another piece of card but not adding the white linen :-)

This is another piece I did to make some ATC's, this time though I sprayed at least 6 times over the gesso to get this really unique burnt on effect, then I used water.  I also added water through masks

And this is what I did with the it

Now I was going to used the fabric for the owl, but decided against it.  I wanted to use it for the leaves so........

I covered it with multi medium.  Then when it was dry I re sprayed it with the greener colours.  I also mixed up some green cosmic shimmer mica powder in a mini spray bottle with some water to make my own mist, this adds the sparkle.  The fabric becomes quite sturdy with the mult medium so I stamped and embossed it with gold embossing powder

Ok your probably looking at this thinking errr this is a new one she has done.  Nope it's the non gesso canvas, but because I had added multi medium I was able to spray on top with greens which gave me the greener canvas I needed

As you can see, when I spray I like to really give it a good dumping lol

On the sea cavas you can see I stamped the sea saying on top of fantasy film, and the cardstock underneath I made using dylusion sprays and perfect pearls.  First try, nope the colour didn't go with the canvas so ........

I just re sprayed, and nope now it's too light so ......

I sprayed again, yep I liked that colour.  Never throw away after the first try, chances are you can change it, just keep spraying.  Also these sprays last ages, I am still using all my first bought ones and not needed to replace yet or in the near future.  And you can see how much I used them lol

Ok another random fact.  I painted the back with black acrylic paint.  Can you see my nice clean brushes?  I love this blue brush, I used it for water colour, acrylic paint, multi medium, mod podge, gesso, texture paste, you name it I use it with this brush.  But as you can see it looks really clean.  I urge you to always clean your brushes straight after.  I have a tub of water on my desk, then when I have finished I go to the sink, soap up my hands and then give the brush a good clean between them.  Now I'm not sure if you should do it this way or if it works for everything, but this is the way I have always done it and this brush is used every day for something and I have been using it for 5 years.

So time for the finished pieces.  The owl is by Creative Expressions Wild Friend.  I used Angel fibers and fantasy film.  The canvas didn't really need much doing to it, but I did stamp some script and cracks which are from the texture stamp set from Creative Expressions

And here the magic shows, when using fantasy film, one way it looks brown the other purple, fab

On this canvas I used stamp sets by Crafty Individuals C!-272 and CI-278.

The verse was stamped on fantasy film and the woman was

stamped with distress ink pad vintage photo and a wet paint brush to

spread the ink, then I flicked water over her to give an age look :-)

Right I'm off, I can't believe how long it's took me today to write the tutorial up here and on facebook lol.  Hope you enjoyed it and will give them a go.  Hugs Kezzy xxxxx