Wish -tone on tone paint effects.

Hello!
I'm back to painty messiness today...and I want to show you how you can incorporate scraps of waste, but matching colours into your work.

I created a background using lots of layers, and added in some stencilling through some sequin waste, and splats of black UTEE. A few random painty lines too!

When I'm adding paint to cardstock, I always work on a base of white copy paper. This means when I go over the edges of the card, paint ends up on the paper. When I'm done, it means I have a piece of A4 paper with random painty mess on it too! In this case, I stamped the heart onto a section of the A4 paper, then cut it out and added it to the background using gel medium....

With a tone on tone effect like this, it can get a little lost, so I gave the heart a little shading around the edges. Everyone has their own favourite way of adding shadow, I like using a black pastel pencil and smudge with a paper stump. Whilst you want the heart to stand out, you also want it to blend in too, so it looks part of the piece and not just plonked down on the background. To do this I made sure my painty lines went across the heart too, and the UTEE splatters were on there as well!

The final touch was a simple stamped word....

You could always stamp onto tissue and glue down with Mod Podge if you're not that confident stamping directly onto the finished piece!!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Trish xx

French Country magnetic notepad

I don't know if it's the same in your house but we are always looking for something to write a quick note on.. I've come up with the idea of having a handy notepad to keep on the fridge door..

I started out with a chipboard sheet and ran it through my Bind-It-All before giving it a generous coating of white Gesso.

I then painted the chipboard using Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints. I love how creamy they are and only needed to use one coat, a little goes a long wayy..

I wanted to keep a grungy effect and ran through the paint with a dry brush as it was drying..

I then added white dots using a Posca Paint Pen and then set to work building up a decoration using some of the gorgeous, gorgeous papers from Graphic 45's French Country Collection. The little flag banner is from a Jenni Bowlin sticker sheet.. they come blank so you can add you own message.

My kitchen has a pine/country feel to it so these papers work perfectly, I can see more projects to come using these fab papers!

Everything was given a generous coating of Modge Podge ... my NEW addiction.. everthing, EVERYTHING in sight atm is getting a coat.. I love this for sealing projects.

My finished notepad! I added a length of cloth and a pencil so it can't 'just' disappear... (to where all the hair bobbles go to... in our house!!!) some notepaper and a sticky magnet to the reverse side and it's already to go onto the fridge door..

                                     Thank you for calling and leaving a comment if you get the chance. 
                                                                      Happy Tuesday, Gez