THE FLOWER REMEMBERS

This project went from okay to a NIGHTMARE. It was almost at that point where the shredder was looking like an option.
However without knowing l have created this project for you. I did not know till the time it was for the text what direction it was going to take. Its a case of the Blind leading the Blind on this one.
I have presented two options for you as the paint in the centre of the flowers was not quite dry and ran which to me fit in just right. So l want to show you even an simple mistake can make the project just that bit better.
This project is built up using a lot of things. Its a case of everything PLUS the kitchen sink trying to fix it when a simple solution was finally reached.
As 97% of my projects all the materials used are available at that wonderful crafty grotto called THATS CRAFTY ON LINE. Go and have a look.. make your wish list and then let your crafty friends to go along and take a look so they know what to get you for those special times in our lives.
Also for the very first time l have used a foam board. Its okay for dryer works but when your going to saturate it it will bend a bit.

HERE IS THE SHOPPING LIST:
A3 Foam Board
Collage Glue ~ Scissors ~ Wide Rimmed Brush ~ Pages from an OLD Book Text + Images.
White Gesso ~ Clear Gesso.
Collection of Martha Stewart Paints [they have great coverage] ~ Water Spray Mister ~ Scrapper.
Maimeri Gel ~ PaperArtsy Dusty Rose Acrylic Paint ~ Spatula
JOFY Flower Stamps ~ Chipped Sapphire + Broken China + Peacock Feathers + Fired Brick + Dusty Concord Distress Ink Pad ~ Sheet of Scrap paper
Stamps from the Inkadinkado Stamping Gear Set ~ Small Stamping Cog.
Memento Ink Pad - Lady Bug ~ Adirondack - Stonewashed Ink Pad
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Acrylic Paint - Classic Teal ~ Baby wipes
Deep Red Steampunk Lady Captain - Adirondack Cranberry Ink Pad.
Graphic 45 Olde Curiosity Shoppe 2 Stamp set.
Tombow Glue Stick.
Collection of Alcohol Inks ~ Blending Tool ~ Felt Applicator pads ~ Blending Solution.
Selection of Tim Holtz Distress Paints.
Fired Brick Distress Marker Pen ~ Water Brush.
Selection of Acrylic paints ~ Foam Tipped Marker Pen ~ Fruit Netting.
Regular Gel Medium
12 inch Stencil from your collection.
Art Parts Clearly for Art Whiteout Sheet ~ Flower Die Spellbinders ~ Die Cutting Machine.
Archival Black Ink ~ Large Background Stamp [Have used Sam Pool Alpha Writing]
Violet Indian Ink ~ Pipette ~ Pen + Nib.
2 Sets of different Font Styles ~ Ruler.

LETS MAKE A CANVAS!

 This is the first time l have used something like this so it was going to be an adventure. In hindsight l should have gone with my journal. Maybe this was telling me something as l was about to go on a epic crafting journal [okay that's a bit Dramatic but at times it did feel like that lol] So lets start the journey... All buckled in? Drinks at the ready?
LETS GO!

First thing we need to do for this project is to lay the foundations. As per normal the easiest way to do this is by using pages from an OLD BOOK. Not one you have borrowed from the libary or from next door but 2. IT HAS TO BE AN OLD ONE. Next time your out bring home an old book from the charity shop, give it a whole new life.
The one's with  no coloured imagery, mostly text with maybe some old photos or drawn imagery are the best l have found.

The finished layer ready for the next layer..

Oh you have read to many you know what we are going to do next do you?

WHITE GESSO!

 Now then l have to say that l am a convert. Tim Holtz and now Martha Stewart's acrylic paints are FAB!
As your awaire l have almost all Martha Stewart's paints just 2 or 3 of the Metallics are missing. However l do have all of the Tim Holtz paints.   Might be a little costly the T.H ones but they are worth it. M.S well there must have been a typo when they were uploaded to the web site. BUY THEM..... You will use them.

A few blobs [crafting technical phrase that.. Blobs]  of the selected paints were placed onto the foam board and with the help of some water from a mister l was ready to make the next layer of this project.

 I have in my collection of crafting goodies this plastic scraper. I don't know where it came from or what it was originally meant to do, however saying that it makes the perfect paint mover about'er.

Then with a few more small sprays of water and banging the foam board on the working surface we had this end result.

To protect this layer from contamination or being mixed in with other layers it meeds to be protected. For this l used clear gesso. You can use a collage glue the one we used when securing the papers to our base layer.

Now this is where it started to go all WRONG. I decided that l would make a  Glaze. By mixing together some acrylic paint with a gel medium in equal parts. By doing this l would make the colour be a 'Tint' of the true colour and it would just look as if a thin layer had been put down. I wanted to have a tint and not a full coloured image. So l picked out a stencil from my collection and started to scrape the glaze over the stencil.

 Here is the glaze being mixed together l did use a little to much gel medium and should of in hindsight put some back.
Well when l took the stencil off IT WAS A MESS! the glaze had seeped under the stencil and had bleed all over the place. I should have taken a photo to show you what it was like. If it happens again l will just to show you the fix l had to do.

Well for this fix all l could do was to get hold of my trusty scraper and start to move the glaze around the canvas.

 Thrust me this is the same project only the other one was taken at night this one in the morning.
So to try and resurrect the project l wanted to try some paper image transfer l had just watched on a wonderful video l bought from a Art store. I will give out more info later. I selected some text and imagery and placed where it was going to go on the 'canvas'.

 The trick is to glue it down using a gel medium and then after a short period of time gently rub the paper and by magic the reverse side of the paper is left behind. Okay its not magic, but its a wonderful thing to show to a group of people. Its also quite contagious as you want to do it.

 More......

 And More.....

The final 4th layer is it now? I have lost track as by now panic was going to set in as the next two stages did start that sequence of time...

I LOVE JOFY stamp imagery. Its very easy to use and it is also timeless. I would love to have more in my collection so if Mr Santa thinks l have been a good boy this year [don't think he would say yes but fingers crossed]

I didn't want a 'Bright' impression on the canvas so l did what l think is referred to as a Kiss Stamp. The first impression is made on some scrap paper and then the following impressions are made on the surface. By doing this the image will blend into the layer below and not stand out.

The stamps also include nice litte boarders of stamps that can be made into a boarder with a little thought and planning.

To protect the stamping l have used the collage glue. When your doing this you have to 'DAB' the glue onto the surface as it can make your stamped image bleed. So use a little glue and gently bad the glue onto the surface.
Allow to dry

 I have the Inkadinkado stamping set up. Yep l got it when it was that Pick of the Week. No doubt l was not the only one to do this as l have seen some wonderful creations done using this stamping tool and stamps. So l thought [see told you l was going downhill fast with no brakes!] l would bring these into the mix and see what l can/could do.

 The stamps alone are very very good. If l spent more time exploring what results can be done with them l think the results would be mind blowing. They are also a wonderful tool for those crafters who are not as comfortable stamping as a lot of crafters. The paddle does help with the stamping and the cog's can make sure if used as it should be that your able to stamp right where you want and build up a nice image.

Unfortunately mine was not such. I have left these in to let you all know things go wrong. We all make mistake's. Me over the past few weeks l have made more than l should do. However as l'm soon going to be relocating l think l can blame things on that just for now.
It was like a dogs dinner after the dog had finished eating. Not one of my best idea's.

 So out came the gel and an acrylic paint as l was going to try and cover the stamping mess up.

 Is this equal parts?

The idea was not to cover the stamping imagery over and blank them out but as the red was a stronger colour than the stonewashed impressions this glaze should help mask it.

The baby wipe helps soften the edges.

As you all jknow crafters never throw anything away, so the glaze that was left is placed in a little tub for another project.. Little did l know what was going to happen......

 One of the best things about a glaze is that it gives you time to make impressions into the glaze. Here l have used a foam tipped brush just to make some circles. Its all about distracting the viewer away from the error l had made under the glaze.

Out came a stamp that did not deserve to be used on this project. Its a wonderful stamp that can and should be used as a focal point. Not something that Sounded a good idea at the time.

 The idea was to make it look as if it was a Gene in a bottle. [Im thinking way to deeply and not letting the project have its own life.]

 This pen was the nearest pen in colour that l thought l could use to make the smoke around the Gene.

 Until l realised that l could use the stamp pad and a water brush to add the smoke. [See its all gone south now..]

 The mess that was 'The Gene in a Bottle'

Out came the white gesso. Something had started to click inside this small brain of mine and l could see a way out of things.

 These are wonderful deep rich colours. They hold their hue even when they are watered down.

To give the canvas that aged look l took some orange netting and just started to make scratches into the paint.

 Using two complementary acrylic paints l was going to do what is slowly becoming a trade mark. You will be able to tell what's mine by this!

Watering down the paints and then using a spatula placing some at the top. Then by banging the canvas on the worktop the paints started to drip down. Using a foam tipped brush l was able to make impressions and this gave the canvas a new lease of life and started to pull things together. All the work that was below could still be seen in parts where the gesso had not covered it.

To protect this new layer l once again used a clear gesso.

I wanted to see if l could do a full page in the paper transfer. This time l was going to try using a soft gel that l had seen being used in a video l had bought.

The gluing time was a lot shorter for me but the paper did stick to the surface below it a lot easier. Even in the groves l had made the paper became secure.

Then the rolling started. All went well and l was pleased l had done it then disaster struck again. L had not let the surface below the paper and glue dry enough. So as l was rubbing some of that paint also came away and l could see some of the 'Gene in The Bottle'

 This si where the glaze l had made yesterday came in to play. I could use this as a distraction. Starting at the base and then building up to the top is certain parts. I could pick out where the glaze was going to go and this would then help blend in the paper rolling errors.

 The foam tipped brush is a new fav tool. I'm sure it has lots of ways it can be used.

I was pleased with the way it had turned out. The canvas was starting to come together and a unit and not just several ideas being tried out.

 I have always wanted to use this Art Whiteout paper now for over 12 months. It was something l bought with a project in mind but it was put away and forgotten. That was till this project raised up. I was starting to get ideas about the poppies that have been a very focal point in our lives over the years. However l didn't want to do a red poppy it had to fit in with the colour scheme l was using.

After some research the main colouring materials are Alcohol Inks. Fortunately l had in my collection some colours that would fit the scheme well. These are something that's not used on a daily basis. In fact l cant remember the last time l got all inked up.

The recommended ink to use is the Archival Inks. They do say Black mostly but it would be interesting to see if you can ink up stamps using a wide range of colours and use that as the colouring and not the Alcohol inks.
Here l have used a nice interesting background stamp that's not going to overpower the colours below that have been used

After l had secured the flower heads onto the canvas using a good strong clear glue Violet Indian ink was used to make stems. On these inked stems l secured a single leaf .

The wording had to be BIG in my mind's eye. I also wanted the capital letter of each word to be a different font face.. Also l wanted it to be larger.
After selecting two typeface stamp sets and some papers from my old book l started to stamp out my wording.

This time instead of cutting or ripping l used the old ruler straight line ripping technique that we used to use in our educational years.

 Once again diving in to the Tim Holtz stable of crafting goodies l was luck enough to have 3 colours that would go with the scheme. I didn't want the paper to be as it was. That way it would just look odd.

To secure the paper to the canvas the good old Tombow glue stick came out. Now this glue isn't cheap. Far from it. However as a crafting glue there are not many that can equal it when you want a quick strong fix. Its something l'm never without when l'm crafting on the go.

 The final act on the canvas was to use the same ink l had used for the stems to ink boxes around the wording. That way it would tie in and the wording will match the flowers.. Once again l placed extra dots of ink in the corner of the boxes stood it up on the base and gave a few up and down bangs. This will cause the ink to flow downwards in a mush faster motion than if it was left alone. There is nothing wrong with giving your work if its sturdy a GOOD OLD BANG ON THE BASE!

The last thing l did was to add a centre to the flowers. This was done by using the same Old Rose paints that were used in the rather badly stencil glazing layer. So it would fit in again with that slight hue that's across most of the canvas.

Then in a moment of madness l added a spot of bright pink into the centre of the Old Rose paint and did a small swirl. Not me but the paint.









There you have it a crafting journey that had more roundabouts than Milton Keynes. Trust me l live not far from there and there are a lot... But in the end l hope its something that is pleasing to the eye and its something that in time will stand up in its own right as a piece of 'Art' and l use that word ART loosely, but l do feel that anything that we make be it in a journal, canvas or on a piece of paper/card. It can and should be called ART.
Any questions please send me a message and l will get back to you a.s.a.p. I'm now off till the 4th December as l'm relocating. Fingers crossed nothing gets lost or broken.

Have another project for you all next month.

HAPPY CRAFTING

ALAN