a sprinkle of imagination: Shine!

Hello again!
Firstly, I want to say a great big THANK YOU for the lovely comments left on my first post here, it means a lot!!
Today I want to share another painty piece with you.....

With this piece, it's mainly an exercise in using stencils in your backgrounds. So, I thought I'd share my thoughts on how to achieve this! (You may want to grab a cuppa, there *may* just be a few pictures here....)
Firstly, prepare your substrate. I've used greyboard (like the stuff that backs an A4 refill pad) because its sturdy and cheap (i.e free when you've finished said A4 refill pad!) As its grey, I painted the whole thing white first....

Next onto the base colours. All the paints used on this piece are Adirondack Paint Dabbers (I unscrew the dabber part and put a blob of paint on my palette) , gorgeous colours and great quality too!
I've used Aqua and Pool smeared over the substrate with my fingers....

Don't forget to dry off each colour of paint before adding the next!!
Now onto the stencils... A Sprinkle Of Imagination sells LOADS of stencils, you'll be spoilt for choice!
Firstly, I've used a circle pattern. Remember, you're creating layers, and this will be the very bottom one. I personally don't use really bold colours for this first layer as it can then be tricky to see other colours when you layer over it, but that's just me. As with all arty stuff, you do what pleases you!
I've used white paint to tone in with the background....

if you're using paint to stencil with, its actually surprising how little you need on the sponge! Too much and the definition of the stencilled shapes will get blurry....but just experiment and see what you like best! Hold the stencil still, and carefully sponge on the paint. Lift the stencil off in one quick movement to avoid smearing the paint underneath...

I wanted to add shadow and a little shading to the circles, so once this first lot was dry, I replaced the stencil over the circles in exactly the same place, and then shifted it a little to the left...

(You can see darker blue crescents where the stencil has been shifted) Then I sponged a little of the Pool colour in a few areas. Not loads, the idea isn't to obliterate the white! Remove the stencil, and you can see the effect...

Of course, my sample here is very tone on tone and a bit subtle, try this with very bright shades over pale and see the effect!
Now, after using blues and whites, I wanted to crank up the colour somewhat, so my next layer was done with Citrus (probably my fav Dabber colour!) Still on the same blue/green spectrum (just about!) but getting brighter!

I also layered this colour over the white circles.

With this stencil, once I'd finished creating the dots, I very quickly (before the paint dried!) flipped the stencil over and used it to print with...

As it turned out, this wasn't that successful, this technique works much better if you're using inks to stencil with (they stay wetter longer) and if the stencil used has a much bigger design than this one. Still, its a stencil effect of sorts, and its much more realistic to show you how things don't go to plan!
Anyway, moving on......
The next colour to be used is what I call my 'pop' colour, the really bright contrast to those which you've used already. I've used Raspberry. The stencil used is also a bold one...

You can really see how the stencilled layers are building up now. Of course, you can carry on building and building to your hearts content, see how many layers you can create!
One last bit of stencilling to do for this piece though. Remember, you don't have to have stacks of premade stencils in order to achieve the effect. Card with multiple punched shapes in it works brilliantly, as do things lying about the house. I've had nice results using net bags that had oranges in, for example! I love using sequin waste as a stencil, if you look hard enough you can find lots of shapes and sizes in this too!

So, the finished, stencilled background..

You can see the splodgy bit of stencil printing in the middle at the bottom, it actually worked better when I tried again over my sequin waste stencilling.... you can also see a pink splodge where I dropped a painty sponge, but that just adds to the fun!
Now, to finish the whole thing I added a few details. Stamping with numbers, grids and dots using black ink...