The grass is always greener…

IMG_5516_wAnother art journal page, completed as my homework for the art journaling sessions I run in The Studio on the first Monday evening of the month.

This month we learnt the technique of image transfer, and I set the homework of using image transfer in a layout. For this piece, I took a background image of the grass, printed it twice at full sheet A4 size on a laser printer and then used matte multi-medium to transfer each sheet to one side of a double spread previously covered in green/turquoise acrylic paint. The acrylic background is helpful in case (as here) the image transfer doesn’t take across the whole page, as well as not moving about with the multi-medium gel.

Once I’d done the transfer, I printed the text using matte white acrylic paint on rubber and foam stamps, and outlined them with a white Signo broad pen once they were dry. Finally, I went round some of the letters with a green coloured pencil to help darken the lighter grass colours to improve the contrast of the letters against the background. Oh, and the pink hue on some of the letters comes from previous inks used on the foam stamps staining the white paint!

 

A Tale of Two Crackles – Part One (for Creative Expressions)

Craquelure Heart

As followers of my blog will know, I’ve been playing with some crackle effect mediums over the past months. Well, Cosmic Shimmer have brought out their own to compliment their new paint range, and I’ve finally got hold of some to try. Alongside, I’ve also played with their new Chalk Paint, and some new MDF shapes and floral stamps I’ve been sent to play with this month for my Design Team projects.

This week: Cosmic Shimmer Craquelure. This is a two step crackle medium, both layers go on slightly milky and dry clear. The base coat goes over the colour you wish to be cracked (in this case Antique Linen Distress Paint). The top coat forms a clear crackle, and can then be rubbed over with the crack colour (in this case Mulled Wine Matt Chalk Paint and Vintage Plum Gilding Wax. Where I didn’t get the top coat thick enough, the wax caught more (see top right), but the rest was a really lovely, random crackle. Loved it!

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