Give it a try

Hello everyone. It's Bonnie here today with a mixed media project that started as an experiment. Last week I was watching one of my favourite YouTube channels, ContadinaK. She is not only a wonderful artist but also a gifted teacher and I love reading her blog and watching her videos. I always come away inspired and ready to try something new. One of the techniques that she uses is to tear off bits of wide masking tape and apply it to her substrate in a wrinkled and raised manner. Then she "drizzles" a mix of water and colour, often from gelatosor sprays, letting it pool and follow the tape ridges. I decided that it looked like great fun and I needed to give it a go.

I began with a 6" x 8" piece of 140lb. mixed media paper to which I adhered the torn masking tape. White gesso was layered over that and allowed to dry.Next a healthy dose of water was spritzed onto the paper, followed by Dylusions Cut Grass and Fresh Lime Ink Sprays and more water to allow it to drip and run. Again this was allowed to dry. Both Lime and Spearmint Gelatos were scuffed across the raised tape and encouraged to spread using a waterbrush. A lighter layer of Blueberry Gelato was applied by loading the waterbrush directly from the Gelato and then directing the darker blue to the creases and valleys along the tape.

To add interest and texture to the background, Salty Ocean Distress ink was applied through the TCW Halftone Borders stencil. Mowed Lawn Distress ink was used to stencil some words from the TCW Art Is stencil and then Studio 490 white embossing paste was scraped over the TCW Confetti stencil. I love that it picked up some of the Dylusions ink from underneath, creating a lighter version. Both Salty Ocean Distress ink and Blueberry Gelato were applied to the edges, followed by a wet finger to spread the goodness :) A dark blue Stampers' Big Brush pen was used to line the very outside edge and keep the eye within the page.

Ranger Jet Black Archival ink was applied to a script stamp from Tim Holtz and also to the chevrons on a Hampton Arts Classified stamp. I wasn't trying for a perfect impression from either stamp, just a little black patterning and texture. The sentiment from Studio 490's A Form Of Art set was stamped with Versamark ink on black cardstock and embossed with Shabby White Frantage embossing powder. The sentiment was popped up with foam dots and adhered to the bottom left of my project.

Because the tape was reminding me of a tree branch and to add pops of colour, I decided to punch two different types of Martha Stewart butterflies. The small black ones were dotted with white gesso using a stylus end. The larger gold ones were punched from a piece of Fancy Pants Park Bench paper and then matted in black. Watch hands and black gems created the bodies of the larger ones. The final step was to mat the project with black cardstock and chipboard so that it would remain flat and have the look of a frame.

And that's it for my experiment of the day...lol. I actually love this technique and will definitely be using it again in other mixed media pieces. It's always fun to experiment and add to my technique repertoire. I hope you came away with a new idea or perhaps a nudge to try something new. Thanks for visiting today.

Bonnie

The thumbnails below link directly to some of the products I used from the eclectic Paperie store:

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Dylusions Ink Spray - Cut Grass	Dylusions Ink Spray - Fresh Lime	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Blue Colors
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Green Colors	Distress Ink Pad - Salty Ocean	Distress Ink Pad - Mowed Lawn	Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490 - Embossing Paste - White
TCW - 6x6 Halftone Borders Stencil	TCW 6x6 Template - Confetti	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Art Is	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Blue
Fancy Pants - Park Bench 6x6 Paper Pad	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad