Friday, 6 June 2014

Bloom Where You're Planted.




Many apologies yet again for my lack of blogging and neglecting you all but life just seems to be getting in the way at the moment.

Anyway, I did however manage to make a little time for myself and do some creating. It took two days in fact but it was loads of fun to watch this piece develop!

20 x 8 inch mixed media canvas. Many apologies for the quality of the photo though as it was taken on my mobile phone.

I didn't really have a plan with this piece so i just "went with it" so to speak. I decided to dig into my scrapbook paper stash and use some of it. I have way too many packs and they are beginning to overtake my cupboard spaces!
So, I grabbed a couple of floral and patterned packs and tore up a few sheets with a similar colour scheme and proceeded to 'wallpaper' my canvas. I wasn't bothered about bubbles o ceases because I always feel it adds a bit of texture! Once it was dry i sanded the whole thing down to take some of the shine from the glue off as it was P.V.A I used. gave it a dusting off then a whitewash of watered down gesso. I mixed up some pale pink acrylic paint and some pale green  and then just randomly brushed that over in laces on the background. Again when dry, I sanded it down and then added the next layer. This was done by using modelling paste through a handmade stencil. Set the whole aside to dry and went for a cup of coffee!

Coffee break over - modelling paste dry - time for colour! I dry brushed over the swirls with some pale green acrylic paint and let dry. Once this was dry I set about with some background stamping using a random mixture stamps from my stash. some of the stamping is a little subtle and doesn't really show up in the photo but trust me, it IS there!

At this point I am still feeling it is looking a little 'flat' so decided to see if I could highlight some of the details in the background papers. The word 'flower' was barely visible so I drew round what I could see of it and painted it using Twinkling H20's. Thought I'd be smart and dry it with the heat gun to hurry it up a little and lo'n'behold it started to blister and bubble! Wow! I liked that so left it! I highlighted it with a white Sakura gel pen, along with the details on the swirls.

Now onto the flowers! Theses were made using an outline flower stamp. I stamped  some large petals onto the back of some of the patterned paper I used for the background, same thing for the small petals. Also did two styles of leaves and then spent time cutting them all out. I edged the petals and leaves with some distress inks to finish them off a little. Once they were all constructed I laid them out on my canvas to give me an idea of where I wanted them placed or where I felt they looked right, then proceeded to finish off the details with some more stamping, and also some sequin waste stencilling!
 Flowers are all glued down with a hot glue gun and the centres were added using some glitter glue, but there is a big space...hmmm...what to do... Ah a Butterfly! Stamped onto the back of some patterned paper and cut it out, stuck it down with a hot glue gun and some dressmakers pins for the antennae, but I might just see if I can a smaller layer to this as I am not really too keen on the way it looks, i may just add some white pen details to it instead.

Anyway, I added a quote to a pack of mini wooden plaques I bout for under a quid at a high street store, tied on some string and then glued them down with a hot glue gun.

Finished off the edges a little better to neaten the whole thing up and then stepped back. Yup! It's finished, no more fiddling!!

REALLY pleased with this piece seeing as it was a 'totally go for it' piece! Love when this happens as it is can be a nice surprise if it turn out the way you see it when putting it together!

Thank you for dropping by, take care and enjoy your day.

Jackie x


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