Monday 9 January 2012

Today was play day

Today was the very first day that I got to spend a whole day just messing around in my studio since I closed the shop. I have lots of projects on my "to do" list but one of the things high up on my list was to play around with the new colours of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints, Portfolio Pastels and Lynne Perrella stamps. If you don't know about Fresco Finish paint, you are seriously missing out on a fantastic product. The first release of colours were all opaque as they have a chalk base and a matt finish, very different from any other acrylic paint that I have used in the past and I just love them. The guys at PaperArtsy released a second set of colours towards the end of last year and most of these tend to be more translucent. The colour range is a lot brighter but because you can see through them, they are very versatile. If you would like them to be opaque like the first release it's simple, just paint them over one of the pale opaque ones.....just fabulous.



I tested out quite a few techniques today and made about thirty background tags!!!! I'll maybe go back to some of those later in the week but for now I'm going to share how I made three complete tags, step by step.

To prepare my tags, I tore up some masking tape and stuck it to my tags. I tried to avoid having the straight edges on the tape, so I tore up quite a lot of tape!!!!
Next step was to paint over the tape with Fresco Finish Snowflake, this acts like a gesso and gave me a blank white canvas to work on instead of the yellow colour of the tags and cream colour of the tape.


For my first tag, I chose Pumpkin Soup, Butternut, Cinnamon and Irish Cream and squirted a puddle of each colour on my craft sheet.


I then spritzed them with water and used a small paintbrush to mix the water into the paint but i tried to keep the colours separate rather than mixing them all together.

Then I dipped my tag into the paint a couple of times.

This was my first attempt at this technique and I felt that I had way too much paint!!!


So I took a baby wipe and simply dabbed away some of the excess paint. (my following attempts didn't need the baby wipe)


Next I decided I would try out my Portfolio Pastels.
These are a water soluble oil pastel which will blend together beautifully with water or by simply rubbing them with your finger. I chose to add a little of the pastels around the edges of my tag and over the areas of the masking tape to highlight the texture of the tape and I blended this with my trusty finger tool.



I stamped a few images from my Lynne Perrella stamps. The main image for this tag was from LP004. I stamped it with Jet Black Archival ink by Ranger. Heat set it with my heat gun and coloured it with the oil pastels.
I chose the small shell stamp from LP001 to match the shell theme on my main image and also coloured this with the Portfolio Pastels.

I added a few baubles from Tim Holtz Ideaology range and a few bits of ribbon for the finishing touches. Hopefully you will be able to see the texture created in the close up shot below.







The next sample was made the same way using Beach Hut, Hey Pesto and Mermaid Fresco Finish. Stamps are from LP003.


I even coloured the Tim Holtz Game Piece by painting it first with Nougat Fresco Finish and when dry colured the raised up parts of the piece with the Portfolio Pastels.



The final tag uses Guacamole, Mermaid and Eggplant paint and the stamps are from LP001 & LP004



   
Now for the good news!!! If you fancy a little dabble at making these tags, the guys at PaperArtsy have a sale on at the moment so you could snap up a bargain on the above products!!!! Simply click here for all the details.

Well I've had a fun day, I hope you have too.
Lin

16 comments:

Gabrielle said...

Ah! Am so happy you had such a fabulous day! Love the tags and how you created such wonderfully different ones using similar techniques. Inspiration indeed x

Netty said...

The tags look fabulous. How did you seal the oil pastels please? x

Helen said...

Oh, it's just like being back at demo's - had to make notes of this to ensure I remember where I saw it - must make some time to play myself. Thank you for having such a fun day today...

Trish said...

Fantastic tags! I love those orangey colours...
I also love the Fresco finish paints after being introduced to them at ArtsyCrafts last year.

Craft Addicts - Tracy Evans said...

Gorgeous tags, I love the texture and blending of colours, lovely. Tracy x

Anonymous said...

Wow -- it's sooooo good to see your projects on the blog -- very reassuring and so beautiful! I'm going to have to get in touch with Mr. & Mrs. P.A. about the new colours the Portfolios! Don't think I can go much longer without them -- then will do my best to try out your "today techniques" -- but first have to finish my Christmas cards!!! Oh me, oh my - things never change, do they?
Love and thoughts - Sally xoxo

Aquarius said...

Wow I love the results from your fun day - thanks for sharing the methods too. Must try some of those paints

PaperArtsy said...

Ohhh those look great...must dig out my samples with the portfolios from the NEC. Love the idea of the pastels on top of the paint. Leandra

yoursartfully said...

In answer to Netty's excellent question about sealing the pastels...
I didn't seal them at all as they are oil based, not chalk based and so will not rub off. The best way to describe them is waxy. They feel a little waxy to the touch if you just blend with your finger but this feeling will disappear if blended with water. If you heat them, they will melt but I found this left them with a shiny finish.

Lin

snazzyoriginal said...

Beautiful tags, loving these Lynne Perella stamps!

Anonymous said...

It looks like retirement is definitely agreeing with you Lin ! You're tags are just stunning and the inspiration is just amazing ! Sue C x

Crafty Loops said...

These are fantastic. I have had pastels for ages just looking at me but Ive had no idea what to do with them! Thank you so much for showing us this, I can finally crack open the pastels! Lee x

Alison said...

Yummy technique & tags Lin! Glad you had a nice play day! Thanks for sharing! x

Kirsten Alicia said...

Wow, three gorgeous tags, I love the backgrounds; the texture from the tape looks fab.

Pauline said...

Fab tags Lin. Great to see you having fun. So far I've managed to resist buying the Fresco paints etc. but I may have to cave in. The colours look so yummy! Thanks so much for sharing, hugs, Pauline x

salamanda said...

This is a really interesting technique and I need to try soon, thankyou for the step by step guide