Hi there lovely friends, I'm back in with this weeks guest art for
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog - Tis another fabby challenge again this week, one I had an immense amount of fun with, I got elbow deep with my Tim Holtz 'Distress' stash eeeeeep! So the challenge this week is simply 'wish'...
Firstly I got out the new
Dina Wakley Media Board, (this media board is sooooo kool cos I use this kinda board by the ton and I find this one soooooo easy to cut down to a size with my guillotine to suit my whim)
Next I added a thin layer of texture with the amazingly 'marshmallowy' Ranger Texture Paste through Tim Holt's Layering Stencil 'Speckles' and through 2 of his new Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - one from Set 5 & one from Set 4 - these mini stencils give us sooooooo much love, it's the tiny detail, tis deffo love.....
Dry the texture paste with your heat gun - it won't take long if you've popped a thin layer on cos another thing that is ace about Ranger's texture paste is that it's drying time is like next door to 'now' hahaha! (And spreads like butter too! Makes life sooooo much easier)
Once dry dip your into the
Tim Holtz Distress 'Crazing' Collage Medium and swipe a fairly large dollop across your whole surface, where there is texture the crazing media will sit in lovely thick clumps which is exactly what we want as....(the thicker the layer of Crazing Medium the bigger 'n' more pronounced the crackles will be - the thinner the layer will leave more crackle but ohhhh soooo diddy - either way or a bit of both is sooooooo uber kool - and the best bit is that it dries Matt too - but deffo let this dry NATURALLY - if I do the thick layer which is most times - I leave over night to dry - tis sooooo worth the wait)
Whilst the Crazing Medium dries the 'cupcake' background can be prepped, tis a simple and easy background cos the 'stamped image' has soooo much beautiful detail - less is more....
...and
'Festive Berries & Picked Raspberry' Distress Paints
...stamp out the 'upper' part of the cupcake!
When dry I die cut out my cupcake images - 2 x bottom cupcake - 1 x top cupcake - 1 x candle - plus I cut out I whole backing cupcake in black card stock.
Before I start my coloring I place (without adhering) everything I feel I will need/use in place, just to see if everything is looking like it is going to work/balance. I do this continually throughout my process.
I usually start adding the Crayons with my 'yellow' first, then, the oranges etc. the warm tones...
Here you can see I went with the 'yellow & pink' tones plus a little of the Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint and as I said before I keep popping the 'cupcake back in situ' to see if my color layers are building nicely.
Leave whites space so there is room for more colors...
Simply rub the crayons in with your fingertips, they should blend out like a treat as you have some ace mediums that we applied earlier for them to glide over...
Then for an extra intense color hit simply layer more of the crayons over the top of what you have just blended but this time don't blend!
In the white space add the 'cooler' tones, I always add less of these especially the darker tones as they tend to dominate the 'lighter' colors.
As you can see here I just keep adding layers of crayons, once the first layer of color is down and blended, it's really just a case of topping up the blended layers with a very VERY light scribble of the crayons either directly on top or next to the same or contrasting crayon - and can you see I like to leave white space in there too!
The Red and black crayon I usually use last as they are both strong dominant colors, they do make your art 'sing' beautifully though'. And very lastly I loooove to add more, more, more yellow!
Any mistakes you simply wipe away with a wet wipe, because the surface we are working on is prepped with mediums (not bare board/paper) most If not all of the crayon wipes away as it is water based. likewise if you are needing to blend your crayons more simply dampen your fingertip ever so slightly...
And in the mid section of my piece above/below/around where the 'birthday' word is I spritzed with a couple of shots of water, then ever so lightly tapped dots of the crayons into the 'bare' surrounding space and quickly spritzed the dots with water letting the crayon color bleed into the background!
My Crazy Birds from Tim Holtz Mini Bird Crazy& Things Stamp Set were stamped onto a color-coordinating background I had already sat waiting - these backgrounds are simply created via me using a sheet of card as a palette for my distress paints over and over again, then when the 'palette' is nearly full I add a few Distress Inks and doodles with my Distress Crayons - simple but oh sooooo effective as you can see how cheeky and colorful my birdies look...
I just stamped up the eyes again and added a touch of color to them. The balloons,party hats and Candle for the cupcake came from the 'palette' too!
Next I decide to add a couple or 3 thin layers of white gesso over to the left-hand mid-bottom corner, yes I felt the piece start to come together.
My final touches are my usual splats and scribbles, also I swiped a little extra Cracked Pistachio here and there.
Heeheehee I've had a journey with this postcard, a fun, fun, fun journey and I've had a craving for cupcakes throughout (still have to be honest nom nom nom but I've not given in to temptation!)
I can't wait to see what you all get up to this week - this challenge theme is sooooo wide open I bet there will be oodles of amazing and ohhh sooo different art out there...
...and as always Simon Says Stamp will be giving away $50 to spend in their web shop eeeeep!
