Returning to the crafty program ...

Laundry miraculously is done. . . Just cleaned my stamps and they're drying. . . Still working on my Art Class . . . Temporarily have a desk to put the laptop on. . . my boy?  He's feeling a bit better so I have some time to spend here. 

Presenting my first completed page. . .

I've always wanted to use this quote from a Tim Holtz stamp. So I did.  Someday I might even buy the stamp.  Which brings up stamps and that is another thing altogether.  Forget I said anything about stamps. K?

This is actually the second attempt.  This first attempt didn't work so well.  Let me see, the washes started to soak in before I could get them to bleed together so I applied more water.  That then started dissolving the the cardstock into little balls and leaving the areas where it had soaked in much darker than intended.  Not quite epic but definitely a fail.  I may have mentioned, once or twice, that watercolour is not my medium.  lol

I debated for a while whether to try watercolour paper or gesso on cardstock next.  Ultimately, I went with gesso since I wanted the washes to cover a whole 12x12 surface and I don't have any watercolour paper large enough.  I used an old rewards card to spread it and to make a few horizontal texture lines.  Those were to keep my handwriting straight(ish).  Once the gesso was dry I hand wrote the quote with masking fluid and a brush.  I'm in awe at the moment of people who do brush calligraphy.  Still, it didn't come out too badly for a second attempt.

Then I started over with the washes.  The prepped surface worked much better.  The paint flowed when I tilted it and I managed to not turn the colours to muddy brown.  Well, there was one drip that got away from me.

Once I had it all painted I remembered a map stamp that would be perfect.  I didn't want to have to do the dripping over again if I messed up the stamping.  So, I stamped on some tissue paper with Stazon and moved it around until I was happy.  The matte medium I used to glue it down made the tissue paper become almost invisible so the stamping appearred to be on the paint .  Definitely this worked!!!  (not my idea, Dina Wakley shared it in her Jumpstart ,which is, unfortunately, over for this year.)

I used Twinkling H20s as my paint.  Try searching on youtube if you are unfamiliar with these.  Still pictures don't do them justice. They have an almost metallic shimmer.  So, even though the masking worked perfectly, the quote was disappearing in the glare.  I highlighted some areas with pencil crayon to make the it more legible. Only a couple of words don't show too well and even those look better in person.  The other thing I did which you won't be able to see, but stuck out like a sore thumb IRL was added shimmer to the stamped tissue paper which had a matte finish.  Shocker I used a matte medium.  Note to self: do not use shimmery paint to try to post on the web.

While I had the paint out I tinted some Prima butterflies.  I love how the edges went darker. Completely accidental but worth remembering.

All in all I'm happy with the result and really want to thank Wilna for the great class.

Sorry there aren't more pictures.  The second attempt thing ate into my daylight.  Maybe I should do a 10 second video to show you the shimmer.  As long as I don't try to talk I should be able to do it.  Thoughts?

Have a great day
~Carolyn