Faux Encaustic - Inclusions

It's faux encaustic time again. I was really trying to add different types of inclusions into these layers - paper, natural elements, hand written and card.

Seal greyboard media board with white gesso and blend titan buff, titanium white, medium grey and burnt sienna media fluid acrylics with a sponge. Adhere some tissue wrap sealing it with decoupage sealer.

Layer on a thickish coat of the decoart clear modeling paste and lay in some inclusions. I went and grabbed some dry grass from the garden and some seeds which were too big so I used some dry tea leaves from a used teabag instead. I added a little more of the modeling paste and left it to dry.

I timed the drying process and this particular board took 7 hours plus to fully dry but the modeling paste was quite thick around the seeds of the grass.

For the next layer I etched a dandelion seed head with a pencil and pokey tool and covered it with ground espresso marker. When I rubbed the ink away some remained in the channels creating the drawing. I also used a sharpie pen to write in some words and a little asemic writing.

Then came the next layer of clear modeling paste applied with a palette knife.

To finish add remnant rubs, some small splatters of  titanium white paint, a significant word - mine was computer generated and the third and final layer of modeling paste.

Look how those lovely layers have built up with the modeling paste giving it a beautiful encaustic look and feel to it.

The dried grasses were very prominent at first but have now been encapsulated into the whole piece and even though the ephemera were the first pieces to be stuck down including the card flower it's leaves look as if they are much higher than the type keys - but they're not.

I hope you're enjoying the faux encaustic work as much as I am loving making it.

Enjoy making and creating your own special art.

Faux encaustic tile - shabby vintage

I told you you'd be seeing more of this faux encaustic technique from me, I am still bitten by the bug.

Seal the substrate with white gesso and adhere some random pieces of text paper. Seal them with decoupage otherwise they will soak up the paint which will be added later.

Scrape white gesso over creating both high and low texture. Heat dry.

 Add some acrylic colours using a wet wipe to create a third, two thirds areas. I decided I wanted a defined line so I laid over a piece of paper to mask off the bottom area. I used pyrrole red, titan buff and titanium white

Use cobalt teal hue, diarylide yellow, pyrrole red, titan buff and titanium white for the lower section.

It was here I decided the pink line was too obtrusive so I blended some titan buff and titanium white across it and slightly into the top and lower sections to remove it.

I also decided this is where I would introduce some 'vinategeness' (is that a word?) to it.

To do this and spritz it with water and with a fine paintbrush drop in some raw umber and burnt sienna acrylic paint. (I repeated this several times to get the effect I wanted drying with my heat tool between each layer).

Now it's time to layer the first coat of decoart clear modeling paste with a palette knife and drop in some dry used tea leaves. Leave it to dry.

Next I wanted to try to 'carve' into the dry modeling paste. I drew three stars with a pencil, etched the shapes with a pokey tool and then blended a dark brown distress pen over them and rubbed away the excess to leave the stars outlined with the ink.

My first try at these - they look too dark so I got a fine brush and titanium white paint and coloured them in. I'm not too unhappy with them - I'm having to embrace the learning processes and outcomes that can be experimented with another time. In fact after I had taken this photo I decided to play with watery blues and white.

I blended in some more of the colours and then did asemic writing using a white uni-ball pen which turned out not to be permanent.

Now layer the second coat of decoart clear modeling paste and here I added the pink butterfly, laying it into the surface of the wet texture and slightly covering it. I left it to dry overnight.

I really liked how this was progressing and didn't want to add too much more to it, so I did some more white asemic writing, white splatters of titanium white and a little more brown edging and I also glued the coloured chipboard dots on ....

..... before scraping over the last layer of clear modeling paste and fixing the other embellishments into it.

I love the little heart frame with just a touch of random colour on it and the stars have a fabulous aura round them from the distress ink bleeding when the modeling paste was added.

The background looks as though it has depth even where there is no pattern underneath it.

 And the flowers just fitted perfectly.

I decided to make this into an easel card to put in my shop space. First paint a canvas board and add some white gesso, paint over a slightly dirty wash.

Add some white remnant rubs.

 Adhere an easel to the back. (I used the Tim Holtz die and mount board).

Now it's being packaged up for selling.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sentiment card for AVJ

I'm back with a vengeance at the Pack House filling it with cards and smaller things to sell rather than my bigger projects, so I have taken the opportunity today with the lovely Nikki's theme to make a card to put in.

I'm going journalling style today to make a background on which to add the sentiment.

Adhere old book papers and tissue tape to substrate.

Stencil with black media acrylic paint.

Add some stamping in black.

Scrape pale blue and white paint over the top.

Stamp with bottle tops.

Stencil with white modeling paste mixed with white gesso.

Raid the 'bits box' for scraps to tear down to size.

Assemble and add a sentiment.

This could be for a journal page or a card.

I used Small Talk stickers for my words.

We hope that you like the theme this month and can hopefully join us this over at A Vintage Journey getting all sentimental!

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a wonderful July.

Butterfly Tile - one layer faux encaustic

I have been really enjoying my faux encaustic technique and using it on different projects and in slightly different ways. If you didn't see my post a week ago Friday with a sea/fish themed media board, you can find it here.
The main constituent and product for creating this milky, textured finish is the DecoArt clear modeling paste. The steps on this tile gives a really simple, easy way to use it plus I had a fab playtime experimenting with different types of 'tissue' paper.

Greyboard sealed with a layer of gesso applied with a palette knife kept flat to the surface.

When dry second generation crackle stamp using watering can.

Spritz substrate blend in colours , spritz again, drip and let them move around and dry. Repeat until you are happy with the colour layers.

I went on to play with substrates for stamping on. Each image was stamped in black archival ink and I painted the colours on the reverse using DecoArt fluid media acrylics - See the topside below in #1.

1. American deli  paper - a good strong substrate for stamping in archival ink with no bleed through and great for painting on too, it took the watery paint well and remained a tough substrate.

2. Tim Holtz collage paper - this is more like the ordinary tissue paper. The black archival ink bled right the way through it leaving an imprinted image on my craft mat. It buckled when I painted it but I thought that added to the distress look.

3. Colourcraft abaca tissue paper is apparently like teabag paper and it does have that fabric feel to it. The ink didn't bleed but it didn't give such a crisp dark image either and watery paint was absorbed by the fabric like material very quickly and bled through onto the craft mat. It also bled over the image making it harder to see the design, however it performed differently using neat paint where it just sat in the space painted and left the image outline untouched on the other side.

I came back to the tile and created a few steps to get a composition and design I was happy with. 

Stamp with a small text image using black archival ink. 

Cut out the butterfly printed and painted on the deli paper and adhere it slightly to one side of the substrate. 

Find some words stamped, bought or computer generated (my preference), ink the edges and also glue down. Give them a light coat of decoupage glue to seal them.

Sand and distress the edges of the board blending in brown distress ink on the edges and on the sides of the tile. Spritz the edges with water to further distress the ink and heat dry.

Splatter a little watered down brown distress ink.

Now cover the board completely with the clear modeling paste and leave it overnight to dry. (See my original DecoArt post for this technique here and an under the sea media board here).

This photo shows the difference between the tile without the modeling paste and with. You will see that the distress ink moved because it reacts with water so the distressed edges changed and the splatters disappeared but I still love the effects it created. I'll just remember to splatter with paint next time lol.

You'll be seeing a few more of these tiles and similar technique layers over the next few weeks/months. Some of them, including this one, are being made into handbound sketch books / journals / notebooks

Hope you like this technique and please let me know if you try it and tell me where I can go see it.

See you again soon.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tag Friday for AVJ

It's Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey where we have a fifth Friday in the month and fill it with tags of our choosing. No themes, no constraints just free time to play and experiment with whatever we choose.

At the last Ministry of Mixology I did a 'Make and Take' using a media board that Di at Tando Creative cut for me and this tag started it's life there. I didn't get any further than the first few layers of the background and so I have cut it down into a tag to use as a base for today's Tag Friday sample. You can see the M&T design on my blog post here.

Having stamped with Andy's Tech Traumer set onto greaseproof paper, I adhered it to the greyboard, added some tissue tape and then a random watery wash of cerulean blue and prussian blue.

Texture white gesso using the flat of a palette knife.

Add some black gesso stencilling.

Spray Amsterdam acrylics - burnt umber and greyish blue.

Collect collage elements together.

Distress numbers (they come in the kit), distress central label (see below), paint chipboard pieces with black acrylic and assemble the dial.

Adhere pieces onto the tag and distress the edges to finish.

I hope you can pop over to see the fabulous designs from the Creative Guides and go visit their blogs too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy your designing and creating.

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