Step-by-step LOVE Canvas

Hello everyone,

For the current Colour Challenge #22 over at ScrapFriends,  I made an 8" x 8" canvas. It was my first time doing a canvas and a highly enjoyable process. Here is a reminder of the canvas...

Today I thought I'd show the steps I took to create it...

1. I really had no idea what I wanted to do at this stage but I glued down a spare die-cut piece from my Silhouette, then some cut lace and sticky netting.
2. I brushed white gesso all over.

3. Added some texture paste (stars through a stencil which didn't work so well).
4. I had left the canvas for a while and returned when I had a better idea of what I wanted to do. Using watered down brown acrylic paint, I brushed a wash over the entire canvas.

5. I added some shading around the edges with a mix of Distress Ink, Distress Stain, and acrylic paint, wiping with a baby wipe as I went and adding more again.
6. I love my splatters, so had to add some here - brown acrylic paint and white gesso.

7. Using left over bits of paper, I inked the edges with Distress Ink (Frayed Burlap) and added black lines around the edges of the paper, then arranged them as so, gluing them down.
8. I added some more left over bits of die-cut paper - I sprayed the white frame blue with Glimmer Mist (Sapphire) as well as the Wycinanka chipboard frame (love their chipboard).

9. Added some more layers of paper as well as painted a little bit of Twinkling H2O in 'True Blue'.
10. Some more layers again - I just love those large Prima bulbs - a canvas is perfect for them.
11. Lastly, I added my photo in a Kaisercraft chipboard frame, some flowers and finally added my title, as below:

This has now been given to my mother. She loves it (mum's are great, aren't they?).

Thank you for joining me today.

Gelli Printing 1

Last week I showed some examples of what I had done with my new Gelli Printer. I have now decided to do something with these 8 sheets of colour and patterns the first being with this one:

Last year I took a year long course called Life Book 2013 by Tamara LaPorte. Unfortunately, I just didn't have time to make use of it, and only ended up downloading about 8 classes and videos from the entire 50. Anyway, I have just recently been watching one of the videos and was inspired to do a page. The design concept of a girl in a boat with waves is Tamara's, however I used different mediums and have a totally different look. Mine is far more contrived than Tamara's free-flowing, luscious page, but this is my first attempt at something other than scrapbook related.
This is what I created:

 I added some Dylusion Inks and Distress Stains. The waves were cut with my Silhouette and misted. The little diamonds were left over from a Silhouette cut I had done. The partial sun was left over from an earlier layout. I drew and coloured the boat, flag and girl. Using Dylusions stamps I inked then cut around the shape before adding it to the side of the page. I didn't want to add too much to the background because I didn't want to cover the gelli printing I had done. However, in hindsight, I think it would have been better to have added more.

As a result of wanting to add more, I decided to also do a digital page:

I used additional brushes on the background and elements mainly from Tangie Baxter and Nancie Rowe Janitz. The 'life is today' is from Ali Edwards. I worked on PSE7.
It was super fun to do.
If anyone is new to Photoshop, or thinking about it, I would highly recommend classes from Jessica Sprague, I learnt so much from her.

Also, if anyone is interested, I have compiled a folder of the above digital print. In it, there are 2, 3"x4" versions of the picture - one with and one without the 'Life is Today - Live it' (great for Project Life) and 2, 8.5" x 11" versions. As well as an 8.5" x 11" of the original gelli printed paper that you can print on your printer and use as a starting point for your own work. Because I have made them at full resolution for printing, they are large files, so I have added a link here for you to be able to access them. The best way I found is to do it via Dropbox. You don't need to sign up to view and download the files.

Here is the link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z6ijxdu0pj7g8dp/jMhJIlGmd0#/

I have also added the link within the text above.

Once you get to the link, the page will show you 5 different images. You can click on each image to view in full and to have the option to download - great if you just want to download 1 file. The file name includes the size of the print which you will be able to see when clicking on the image (file name is bottom left of the page).
If you would like to download all the 5 prints, then you can click on the little square with 3 round circles at the top-right of the linked page and it will give you the option to download as a zip file.

Sorry for such a wordy post. Quite unlike me, but I wanted to try something different.

Any questions or comments about any aspect of this post, I'd be happy to receive and answer. Please let me know if there are any problems with the link.

Thank you for joining me today.

Scrap Friends Sketch Challenge #23 - DT

Can you believe it's already March? I truly believe that old adage that says 'time goes faster the older you get'.
Anyway, new sketches are released all around the scrapping blog-o-sphere today, including ScrapFriends.
Some of the DT and Guest Designers found it a little tricky, but you wouldn't know because they have all done stunning work. Please head HERE to check it out.

And here is the sketch, which I hope will challenge and inspire:

And my version:

All papers are from the old Basic Grey collection, Curio, as well as a little bit of Kaiser thrown in.

And some close-ups:

I loved making this one. My mojo left me last month in quite a big way, and I wasn't feeling inspired at all to do much, but I thoroughly enjoyed the making of this one, and feel excited again about creating. I guess that happens.

Sketch Challenge #23 ends March 31 at 11:55pm EST.

Thank you for coming by and any comments you care to leave.

Gelli Printing

Hello all!

Recently I purchased a Gelli Plate and a class to Carla Sonheim's Introduction to Gelli Printing Class (a birthday present to myself ). Gelli printing is great fun and very addictive. I would only suggest not to do it when the children are around, as invariably they will need you when you are in the middle of painting and then you may rush the process (which of course, happened to me).

Anyway, this is what came out of the class:
We had to do 8 sheets and we added 2 layers to each, so the examples show the first layer, and then the second next to it. These are my first attempts...

The last colour I added was white. On one or two it looks ok, but I really didn't like it on the bottom example. I loved the first layer, and the second layer was looking ok, but when I added the white it was just all wrong, so I tried to wash it off, but was a little heavy-handed. Think I need to stay clear of adding white next time...or just leave it and go over it with another layer.

Also, my orange paint was too liquid (see the first example), as such I found it didn't work as well. I think a heavier bodied paint is better when working through a stencil/mask.

Still, it was great fun to experiment. If you are thinking about gelli printing and wanting to take an introductory class, I found Carla Sonheim's class really clear and informative....in fact, she offers a few other classes I'd love to take!

Tutorial - Watercolour Background

Hello all,

I shared this tutorial over at ScrapFriends last month. It shows how I made the background for one of my recent layouts.

As much as I love white cardstock, I have heaps of beautiful scrapbook paper that I am wanting to use, so after some research and trial and error, I have come across a way that I am happy with that incorporates using watercolour on patterned paper and still retains the shape and colour of the original patterned paper. I hope you find the following useful...

1. Using Matte Medium I cover the front of the paper (I haven't yet tried it with clear gesso, but this would probably work just as well).

2. When dry, gesso the whole of the back of the paper. I have found by doing both these steps that the paper ends up laying pretty flat the whole time.

Step 1:
Once paper is dry from priming, I used my watercolour paints. With a wet brush, and dry paper, I swished on some paint. I used a pale and a deeper tone of two colours and started with the lighter colour of the paints.

Step 2 and 3:
Using Distress Inks, I stamped with Walnut Stain, then with a wet brush, I went over the stamped image, so that the stamped image was no longer really clear. Once dry, I scraped a little gesso on here and there. Sometimes I also used a sponge to dab the gesso on, and sometimes my fingers.

Step 4:
Once dry, I used a mask and some distress ink on a sponge and dabbed it on. Using a wet brush again, go over the distress ink markings to soften the design.

Step 5:
Another layer of gesso, as before.

Step 6:
Stamped with a different Distress Ink colour and using a wet brush, went over the image. Gesso and more stamping layers followed.

Step 7:
Then I added some patterned paper and gave a quick coat of Matte Medium before applying some more paint and gesso as before. The background stamping which was watered and gessoed is now very subtle and hard to show in photographs, but in reality, it gives more texture to the page.
Finally, I splattered some watered down acrylic ink onto my page. Then it was ready for stitching and finishing.

Thank you for joining me today.:-)