Pixels and Paper ~ Team Training in July!

Team Training in July - Colorburst!

Whilst still searching desperately for my mojo, I have managed to put together my very first tutorial for Team Training on the wonderful Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog.  I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite ways to create interesting backgrounds using Ken Oliver's Colorburst. [Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the photos - the batteries were dead in my DSLR, and so I was using a phone camera.]

I'll start with creating a watercolour background on watercolour paper.  I give the watercolour paper a spritz with water on the front (and here's a little tip for you - if you give it a quick spritz on the back as well, it will help to keep it flat while you work, instead of bowing up). 

I then sprinkle the Colorburst powder on the paper and watch the first lot of magic as it reacts with the water and spreads.  (I've chosen Pthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson for this demonstration).

I then add some of the Alizarin Crimson to the white areas on the paper.  As I spray more water to activate the Crimson powder, you can see that it also reactivates the Green powder, leading to a few muddy areas where they mix.

After drying it off, you can see that the overall effect is a very soft watercolour effect, with very vibrant colours. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Now for the fun part - here's something I discovered whilst playing around with my Colorburst and different surfaces.  I thought to myself, is there a way to dry off the surface after one colour has been applied, and hopefully stop the 'muddying' effect when more water is added - I didn't realise it until I tried it, that photo paper is the answer!

After spraying the surface, sprinkling the Colorburst powder and spraying again with water to activate the powder, I can then 'blot' the moisture away from the surface with paper towel - when I spray the surface again, the Green stays where it is - it doesn't get 're-activated'.  This means that I can add the Crimson over the top and not have it 'move' the Green at the same time. 

As you can see from the side-by-side comparisons of the two backgrounds I've created, there is less blending with the one on the photo paper (and no 'mud' when mixing a primary and a secondary), which means you can create beautiful backgrounds that take advantage of the 'spread' of the powder with the Colorburst.  I've included some other samples of backgrounds I've created on photo paper below.

This is the technique I used to make my flowers on my May art journal page with Pixels and Paper, criteria to use flowers.  I didn't end up blogging that creation personally (there was a bit going on at the time), but if you didn't see it over at Pixels and Paper, I thought you might like to see it here.

I hope you enjoyed my very first tutorial - I had heaps of fun making it!
Thanks for visiting, and don't forget to enter this month's wintry challenge at Pixels and Paper!

Cheers!
Deb.xx

Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog - Chilly July

RED Coats

It's been a while since I've blogged my work - I've been finding it hard to come by any form of mojo whatsoever, and have truly struggled the past few months to even meet my DT obligations with Pixels and Paper.  However, I'm hoping that this month's piece has finally fired me up to get moving again - time will tell!

This month's challenge over on the wonderful Pixels and Paper Challenge Blog is to take inspiration from the photo below, and use a winter theme...

It certainly does look chilly, doesn't it??  I took inspiration from the fog, and wanted to recreate it in the background of my layout.  I wasn't sure what sort of photo to use, and so with permission from my friend, I used a photo of her gorgeous girls wearing matching winter coats.  The real winner in the photo is the cheeky look on Sienna's face!!!

And those magnificent winter coats just happened to be a marvellous shade of RED!!  What a fantastic pop of colour for my layout - I was rapt!

To create my foggy background, I used white gesso tinted with a smal amount of black gesso and used a pallette knife to slather it over the page.  Once this was dry, I used a circle stencil and some Liquitex Modeling Paste to put random white circles of texture over the page.  Here's where that gets interesting!!

After allowing the modeling paste to dry almost completely, I then used a snowflake stamp to stamp into the paste.  Some of the paste circles were almost dry and some (the thicker ones) were still quite pliable and I was able to get a better, deeper impression.  After the modelling paste had all dried completely, I then used some Deco Art Antiquing Cream in 'Carbon Black' to bring out the detail in the snowflakes.  This also allowed for darker areas immediately around the circles of paste, and took away the bright whiteness of the paste as well.  I finished off the snowflakes with a dot of Ranger Enamel Accents in 'White' right in the centre.

I trimmed down my white cardstock a bit so that I could mat it onto a red piece of cardstock to provide a border.  (I had cut out the middle of the 12x12 piece of red cardstock so that I would have some to use to mat my photo).

I then mixed up some Dylusions paints together (using 'Cherry Pie' with a small amount of 'Postbox Red' - this gave the 'Cherry Pie' a more reddish appearance on the white/grey background, rather than pink).  I then stencilled randomly using a Kaisercraft hearts stencil and a makeup sponge.  After this stencilling had dried, I used my white Sharpie Paint Pen to doodle around the edges of the hearts.

I cropped the photo down to a square and used the white Sharpie Paint Pen to doodle a border and then matted the photo onto the red cardstock.  I also used more of the red cardstock to cut out the word 'RED' using a Nini's Things alphabet die set.  I also cut out the word 'COATS' using a Stampin' Up! alphabet die set and this was cut from white cardstock.  I diecut some snowflakes from the white card stock as well.

I grabbed some patterned paper (I think it was Creative Memories) - basically I chose this paper for the white with black grungy details and loved that it had black polka dots with the same grungy details on the reverse - this was used to create a bit of layering with strips of paper to add interest.

Once the letters were stuck down, I went over them with Wink of Stella to give them a bit of glimmer so they stood out on the page.  My final touch was just to add "Gorgeous Delainie and Sienna" with a black Sharpie Paint Pen.

Thank you to my friend for allowing me to use this awesome photo of her gorgeous girls!  And thanks for popping by to visit!  I hope you join in on this chilly July theme at P&P to help you beat any winter blues!

Cheers!
Deb.xx