Dark and Moody Backgrounds Tutorial

Autumn of SewPaperPaint here with you today.  I don't know about you, but I have seen a rising trend in blogland that has thoroughly peeked my interest.  Dark and moody mixed media project seem to be all the rage!  I have experimented with numerous mediums to show you that you can try these techniques with whatever products you have on hand.

For this panel I used white texture paste through a dotty stencil, then splashed various Twinkling H2Os over it.  The white shows through these transparent watercolors.

 For this panel I adhered various die cuts then painted it all with black gesso.  Next I dry brushed white gesso to add highlights, then went over it all with Radiant Pearls.  Again, the white shows through different than the black, creating beautiful depth.

For this panel I sponged several colors of Lumiere metallic paints, then embossed a stamped image repeatedly in black.

For this panel I first embossed the blob stamp in copper.  Next I used Versafine ink with a grid stamp and text stamp.  I lightly brushed PearlEx powder over the wet ink.

For this panel I splashed white gesso onto my panel then splashed Radiant Pearls over that, and came back in with splashes of Color Bloom spray.

 For this panel I used white stencil paste and then splashed both Glimmer Mists and Color Bloom sprays over that.

For this panel I used a plastic card to scrape Lumiere paints onto my black panel, adding additional colors while the paint was wet for a beautiful blending.

My final panel was made by crinkling tissue paper onto a wet black gessoed panel.  I went back over the top of the tissue with more black gesso.  The highlights were created by lightly sponging Lumiere paint onto the raised areas of the tissue.

I created a pinnable image for you to pin this tutorial to your Pinterest boards.

I have turned each of these background panels into completed mixed media cards and will be sharing them on my personal blog for the next couple of weeks, so do pop by often.  But I won't leave you hanging and will share my basic design recipe as you see in this card.

First add something light and lacy to balance the dark, but still allow your beautiful background to show through.  Try lace or holey dies.  Next add some embellishments in a cluster.  You can use several flowers, or a combination of ribbon, sentiments, stamped images, etc.  Finally, add some more shimmer.  You can add  microbeads or chunky glitter, or sequins as I have.  Just experiment and remember to keep balance with your color and a strong focal area/image.  I'd love to hear your thoughts or tips on other ways to create dark backgrounds in the comments section below.  <3

Welcome to today's Guest Designer, Lula !

Today we are welcoming back Lula as our Guest Designer. Lula is not a stranger here at Stamps and Stencils and it's always a pleasure to share her fabulous work.

Hallo Everybody,I am thrilled to have been invited to guest design for Stamps and Stencils. Thanks bunches Ladies for this opportunity!

My name is Lucyna Marynowska, aka Lula. I come from the north of Poland. Fifty-seven, retired widow, mum of two grown up boys and a happy grandma. I started my crafting journey 4 years ago as a card maker and immediately became an addicted paper-lover. After my husband's death it was crafting what helped me to conquer the pain.  I enjoy creating anything from cards to altered art. I love to experiment with various types of mediums. I love challenges to spark my creativity and I making crafty friends all over the world makes me very happy. You can find my creative project on my blog: http://ululi.blogspot.com/

My take on the theme TIME TO TAKE FLIGHT is a butterfly sitting on altered  round, wooden box. I started with gluing some paper pieces which I have stamped before.  I have also inked all the edges.

 Then I prepared the gypsum head with hair from wool, all covered with brown powertex. I added some beads in the hair too.

Now it was time for wings. I fussy cut  a butterfly, than decided to use only a part of it.

 I stamped it, added some texture paste through the stencil and embellished it with some small chipboard butterflies.

  It was later sprayed with some mists and painted with metal paint.

 I arranged the butterfly on the top of my box, added some chipboards pieces, beads and the word,,dream''

 I'm sure you'll all agree that Lula's project is fabulous ! You still have time to join in with the current challenge, Time to take flight, and Lula's project has provided you with lots more inspiration.

Winners of Tic Tac Toe !

We're back again today to announce the winner and top 3 of the Tic Tac Toe challenge. As usual it's not an easy decision, so many wonderful entries ! So, without further ado, the winner is ...

Corinne ! 

We loved Corinne's 3D project and all the details that was included. Corinne please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for details of your Guest Designer spot and winners badge.

 Now on to the top 3:

 Kerstin

 Tenia

 Julia

Congratulations everyone ! Please email carringtons22@yahoo.co.uk for your top 3 badge. 

All of the winners will also be pinned on the Stamps and Stencils Pinterest Board! 

The current challenge is Time to Take Flight and you've still got plenty of time to share your projects with us.

Time to Take Flight !

Hello and welcome to our new challenge ! It's Sue here and I am your host for the month of August.

For this challenge I would like to see anything relating to flying, so this could be a bird or a butterfly or it could be an inspirational quote that includes words relating to flying ! As always, please remember we are a mixed media challenge and you must include either stamping or stenciling or both!

The DT have put together some fantastic projects to get your creative juices going !

Rachel

Branka

Cec

Autumn

Toni

 

Ruth

 Sue 

Now it's over to you ! Remember the winner will be invited to join us as Guest Designer and both the winner and top 3 will be added to our Pinterest page.

An InLinkz Link-up

going with the flow and brushos or infusions?

Hello there! How are you? Its Rachel here today with a little inspiration hopefully! I started my piece today by comparing brushos and infusions - I have both and wanted to see how they worked under the same conditions. Throughout I used yellow brusho and compared it with golden sands infusions. Here are my results:

In this one I sprinkled both onto water colour card and spritzed with water. I think this one clearly shows the coarser nature of the infusions - and also the more multifaceted the colours are. The brushos seem more homogeneous in colour and finer in size and brighter too.

In this next one I sprinkled them onto a craft mat, spritzed with water then used as a wash. Again the infusions differed because of the mixture of colour and grainsize included. 

In this next one I layed down a stencil and sprinkled the crystals on top - then I spritzed with water. Both showed the stencil well but the infusions - because of the coarse nature - flowed less and seemed to define the stencil more clearly.

Finally I swapped the stencils around, cleaned then up, sprinkled through again but this time rubbed grungepaste through the stencil on top of the brushos/infusions ... here the colour of the infusions came through more strongly but in both cases the colour was streaky.

Having done this I decided to make a canvas following the tic tac toe theme from this month - I started using the infusions with the grunge paste. I chose two different colours this time.

I made a cardinal error here mixing blue and yellow and of course achieving murk!!! Still all was not lost and I decided to go with the flow. I wanted to use the line lace, corrugated board and flowers ... so next I added the lace and card.

Next came the flowers ...

Then I added gesso - just a light covering ...

And then used a couple of spray inks.... brushed corduroy and salty ocean...

Finally I added a picture from Indigo Blu ..

I touched up the picture with blue to match ...

So there you have it - I think brushos and infusions are very similar but do have significant differences and produce different effects according to the techniques used with them. The infusions are coarser and tend to produce a more distressed and vintage effect. The brushos are finer and brighter.

I hope you have enjoyed my experiments!

Big Hugs

Rachel xx

A little bit more Tic Tac Toe !

Hello ! It's Sue here to share an Inspirational Post with you today and I decided to choose another line from the Tic Tac Toe grid for the current challenge. Just to refresh your memory this is what the grid looks like:

Having already used the middle horizontal line I decided go diagonally for this project and use an image, circles (lots of them!) and some lace.

 I made this journal some time ago and have not completed anything in it and as it's A3, when it's a double spread, I thought this would be a good size to go mad with circles ! After the initial base layer of Gesso I've used a Donna Downey stencil and stencilled all of the circles with Stone Fresco Finish paint.

 I then started to fill in some of the circles, my initial thought was to just do a select few, but ....

Once I got started I got carried away ! I've used Fresco Finish paints for all of the stencilled circles. 

 Blending the different shades in the colour families. For the small circles I've just stencilled with one colour but made sure they bump into neighbouring colours.

I then took a baby wipe and some Tikka Fresco Finish paint and wiped it over the whole spread. This gets rid of any white that's left and also blends all of the colours together.

I was tempted to leave it there as I loved the effect of all the circles, but I decided to knock some of them back using Gesso, spreading it over the pages with my finger. I did some stencilling on the opposite corners then took the gold Slick Stix and drew roughly around the opposite corners and a little down the centre then blended the colour out using a baby wipe.

 More stencilling, but keeping the centre area clear.

I wanted to bring some of the circles through from the background to the foreground so mixed some Whipped Spackle with Chocolate Pudding Fresco Finish paint, replaced the Donna Downey stencil and lined it up with the original stencilled circles. I then spread the Whipped Spackle mix over the stencil. Some stamping was done using a Tim Holtz stamp and second generation stamping, then using a Tim Holtz script stamp I did some white embossing.

 To frame the pages a little more I used a brown Slick Stix and again scribbled around the edges and a little in the centre and blended the colour using a baby wipe. 

The sentiment I've used is by Yvonne Blair and it fitted perfectly into this large circle ! The small buttlerflies are by Prima and I've painted them with Fresco Finish paints. 

 For my image, I started by covering a piece of mountboard with Tim Holtz tissue wrap, covering it with Glue 'n' Seal and while it was still wet sprinkling Infusions over the top. I spritzed lightly with water then dried it off.

The image itself is a Tim Holtz stamp, stamped with black Archival onto the Infusions piece then cut out. I also stamped the butterfly directly onto the page as the anttenae are impossible to cut out, I then glued the butterfly over the top. I've used a black Stabilo pencil to draw around the butterfly and with a damp paint brush blend it out to create a shadow and also a dribble down the page. I've also used the Stabilo pencil to draw around some of the larger circles them blended it out and to finish them added some white dots using a white Sharpie pen.

For the lace option I've used a small piece to mount the second little butterfly onto.  

If you've made it to the end you now deserve your cuppa ! This is the finished page and I really love it, I hope you do to !

You still have plenty of time to play Tic Tac Toe with us and I hope today's project has provided a little bit mor inspiration.