Love Canvas Using the Peeled Paint Technique

The November Project Add-On from Swirlydoos is all about a peeled paint technique: basically, using petroleum jelly as a resist while painting in layers. The kit itself contains a 12 x 12 canvas, a set of 3D paper letters from DoCraft, 4 bottles of acrylic craft paint and some matte gel medium, as well as a 9 x 12 wood palette and a 2-inch bristle brush for a second project.

I played with a few ideas in my head and in the end, decided to use the B side of Kaisercraft's Barber Shoppe's Comb pattern paper from the Market Street kit as inspiration.

To begin, I gave all of the letters a base coat of matte gel, which I allowed to dry. Next came a good coat of Plaid Satin Acrylic in Real Brown.

Here's where the inspiration came in:  Using a toothpick, I applied the petroleum jelly in up and down streaks to mimic the wood grain pattern of my paper. I let that set for a few hours and went over it all with a very light coat of DecoArt Acrylic in Calypso Blue and left it to dry overnight.

With a dry paper towel, I rubbed all of the surfaces that contained the jelly to expose the brown undercoat, then with a baby wipe to make sure the letters were free of grease.

And now for the finishing coat: I diluted the Plaid Matte Acrylic in Titanium White with water to make a very thin paint and very lightly went over my letters with a fan brush, rubbing most of the paint off here and there in small spots.

Although the canvas is pretreated, I wanted to give it a base coat to show through the strips of paper as well as around the sides. I used the Real Brown acrylic paint, pouring on small amounts here and there, misting it with water as I spread it around as only a thin layer of paint was necessary.

The pattern paper was cut into strips along the lines of the design and distressed and inked, then adhered to the canvas.

For my final steps, I glued on the letters, then a strip of cheesecloth and a pretty 49 and Market vine from the November Flower Add-On and a few butterflies that I created from scraps with a Martha Stewart punch.

This was the first of two projects from this kit; with the holidays here, I've put my palette and brush on the top of my "to do" pile...

Swirly DT Coordinator Kim Heard has come up with a two part video demonstrating the peeled paint technique. Here's a link to the Swirlydoos blog post that gives you all the info http://swirlydoos.blogspot.com/2016/12/love-canvas-tutorial-with-kim.html

Maremi's Art Journal Challenge #1

Marta Lapkowska (aka Maremi) is hosting a great challenge on her You Tube channel, all about art journaling - just the thing to inspire me to grab one of my long neglected journals, roll up my sleeves and start creating.

The title of the first challenge is 10 Minute Art and that's just what it is - create an art journal page in just 10 minutes.

I'm going to admit to a bit of cheating. I'm using a sketch book that I picked out of the bargain bin some time back. The pages are just too thin for mixed media, so yesterday, I adhered adjoining pages together using matte gel and now they can take anything that I want to throw on them!

We are allowed to gather all of the things that we'll be using, so I selected a sheet of Kaisercraft pattern paper, a bunch of tags, journaling strips, a jar of trims, clear gesso, heavy gesso, seed beads, mica powders (Prima Art Basics in Teal and Pale Silver), a Blue Fern Studios chippie, a black ink pad, a stamp, and a stencil. Oh, and my focal item - a wood icon in the shape of a clock in honor of the 10 Minute Challenge.

Time to start, and I cannot believe how quickly I worked!

First, I gave the pages a very rough coating of clear gesso with my palette knife. I wasn't careful to coat the entire surface and I left a lot of small hills and ridges here and there. A quick blast with my heat tool and I was ready for the next step - applying heavy gesso through my stencil here and there around the pages. Another quick blast of heat to (mostly) dry the surface and on to the next thing - I ripped the paper into pieces and layered them with the tags, stapling them together when I was satisfied with the shape. (I learned this stapling trick from Cindy Brown and I use it a lot when I'm layering papers.) I used heavy gesso to glue on these layers and a bit more to adhere my chippie pieces, the trims and my clock.

And now came the fun - I dusted the mica powders around the page with an old brush, spritzing with water and tilting the book to spread the colors, then slightly drying. I did this several times to create layers of color.

Next, I spread a bit more of the heavy gesso around and left some of it bare and covered some of it with seed beads.

One peek at the clock and gahhhhhh! I'm almost out of time!!! Quick - a few dabs here and there with my stamp and - yes, I can do it! - a couple of journal strips and I made it!!!

I'm usually such a slow scrapper that I was really surprised that I could meet this challenge and end up with something that I'm pleased with.

Thank you so much, Marta, for coming up with this!!!! 
Interested? Here's a link to the challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_vQiIAjZI8&t=0s

Special Moments

The end of November means grounds covered with fallen leaves and what could be more fun than rolling around in the fragrant piles and then tossing handful after handful up in the air?

I decided to use these photos for this month's Swirlydoos All That Flutters challenge. We usually create pages of pinks and lavenders, full of flowers and butterflies, but I decided to change things around with a page with a more masculine feel.

To start, I coated my base paper (The Patch from 49 and Market's Rustic collection) on both sides with clear gesso to minimize the warping that would come when I did my stenciling.

While that was drying, I cut three strips from the Bo Bunny Smile paper from the Felicity collection and adhered them in an overlapping pattern.

Next came the stenciling, using one of my favorites - Dylusions Diamond Border from Crafter's Workshop - and Prima Art Extravagance Platinum crackle paste.

To create my embellishments, I cut a lot of leaves with a Prima die. These, along with a pair of Creative Embellishments chipboard words and some wood dragonflies from my stash, were covered with Walnut Stain distress ink and misted with Color Blooms in Antique Gold.

A simple matting with burlap and a scattering of leaves and dragonflies and there you have it - my take on a perfect Autumn day!!!!

Making Friends

My son caught his daughter making friends with a very shy kitten last summer and sent the image on to me. The November Market Street kit from Swirlydoos gave me the perfect opportunity to scrap this adorable photo.

For my base, I selected the Faded Bloom sheet from the 49 and Market Heirloom Botanicals collection. I love the peach shades and the pattern that is so reminiscent of the vintage wallpaper that would be found in a girl's bedroom.

A few weeks ago, DT Coordinator Kim Heard posted links to some older tutorials showing various ways to alter chipboard http://swirlydoos.blogspot.com/2016/12/saturday-altering-chipboard-tutorial.html. I chose the first technique - Rae Moses' distressed faux filigree chipboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3WVGd0Wu4, using Ranger Liquid Pearls in Rose Gold and Prima Color Bloom in Storm Cloud to alter the Dusty Attic Decorative Frame #2 that came in the kit. As a finishing touch, I adhered some Darice self-adhesive pearls around the circle.

Before adhering my completed frame, I did a bit of stamping below with a script stamp and Versa Magic chalk ink in Eggplant.

My embellishments are mostly from the Main Kit and the Flower Add-On, using 49 and Market blooms and some resin flowers from Craft Consortium's Always and Forever Collection, with one of the Prima Fairy Rhymes trinkets dangling on the bottom. The lace and large flower are from my stash. I completed my cluster with Prima Art Ingredients Glass Beads in Licorice.

Me and Mini Me

When I unpacked the November Market Street kit from Swirlydoos, I instantly knew that I'd be scrapping this mother/daughter photo of my beautiful DIL and my look-alike granddaughter, complete with matching outfits, that I took several weeks ago. Not only were the colors and patterns absolutely perfect, but the included (and incredible!) sketch by Swirly DT Coordinator Kim Heard is just the road map that I needed!

The kit itself is packed full of gorgeous papers and embellishments from 49 and Market's Heirloom Botanicals collects, along with coordinating papers from Kaisercraft and Bo Bunny, trinkets from Prima and a huge roll of Darice bling.

This sheet - The Patch - with its subtle background colors and pops of pretty blooms around the borders makes a perfect background. I started by stamping around the area that I planned to place my image, using several of my old Prima stamps (including one of my first scrappy purchases from years ago - that wonderful heart). I attached the photo to a Prima resin frame and then on to my embellishments...

First, I die cut a couple of strips of Concord cardstock from the March kit with the Kaisercraft Lacy Borders die. After measuring them to size, I glued on single strips that I cut from the Darice bling roll.

I've used flowers from the Main Kit as well as the Flower Add-On along with some blooms and berries from my stash. Here and there, I've tucked in some more of the bling, one of the pretty Prima trinkets and some metal pieces - a heart and several butterflies.

The borders strip on top is actually a bit of the title strip from the bottom of the paper, given a pattern to match the die cut with yet another Prima stamp.

Thanks so much for looking: I truly appreciate your visits... And thanks, Kim, for your wonderful inspiration!!!!!!