Coming *SO SOON* to the Simon Says Stamp? The precious! Let me be more specific: the Relics line from Prima that I am so very in love with! Since it is an “anything goes” week on the challenge blog I’m sharing my first piece. All I did was to adhere it to the canvas. Then coat everything in gesso. Then just layer colors. Loads of colors. That really is it!
This was SO fun to make – can’t wait to create even more with these beautiful embellishments!
Simon is offering a generous $50 voucher that will be randomly drawn from the eligible entries each week. Join the fun by creating a project this week – and for your chance to win a $50 voucher you should hop on over and join in the challenge here.
I get a lot of questions about pastes and paints and things – today I want to take a moment to chat about gesso. Think of it as primer or thin white paint. You’d put it down before you got working, or use it when you want a very smooth blendable white paint someplace. Generally speaking, I don’t like it for anything that has me wanting significant texture or full thick coverage. Generally speaking, white paint will work just as well.
I use gesso for:
primer/base layer on art journaling pages
primer/base layer on canvas projects
base for watercolor projects where I want to be able to blend a ton
cover metal and plastic embellishments I want to re-color
in small amount for a streak/bit of white paint effect without a lot of wet medium
to mix with mist/color medium for a loose color wash paint
When doing side-by-side tests I could really see a difference in quality and effect for what I do with different brands. There are two stand-out favorites that are my recommended choices:
Art Basics Heavy Gesso (Prima Marketing)
This product is heavy, meaning it is quite thick and works great with stencils – the only gesso that I like with stencils. It is great mixed with color mediums, but because it is thick it is not a great choice for a thin primer layer in my art journal.
Dina Wakley Media Gesso (Ranger Ink)
This is my go-to for my art journal, and of the thin/traditional gessos it was by far and away the best. Love that it is small, and in a little tube for easy use.
Here are links to videos of my two favorite gessos:
The letter B inspires our challenge this week, and I can’t help but think of blue. Salty Ocean blue, to be specific. I love this bold blue and I had an absolute blast playing with the color and making this tag.
Here is a video tutorial of the making of this tag:
For the right project, this home décor tape by Hazel & Ruby will absolutely be a game changer. Whether you want to decorate a wall temporarily, can’t use paint or wallpaper (but want to add some color), or want to work on smaller scale projects there is a lot of fun to be had. Hazel & Ruby sent me a few rolls to try out and test- and I have been. I’ve been really impressed with how it holds up on walls and now I want to try it out on a home décor project.
Hazel & Ruby Home Décor Washi tapes are in stores now! Scrapbook.com has a good selection available, and I hear that JoAnn fabric stores, as well as many local craft stores have it too.
For the change to win some of your own (I will send a few rolls of various sizes/patterns out to one lucky reader – compliments of my friends at Hazel & Ruby) leave a comment here before March 15th, 2015. One winner will be drawn and contacted via email (and winner announced here as well).
Hey guys! So my blog got a makeover (yay!)- hope you like it.
Today I’ve got a peek at one of the layouts already featured in my vacation scrapbooking class – you can still sign up at early bird price – and a look at the process of making a mixed media background.
