Drippy and wet.....

No, not me personally!!!
Hello!
I have an messy inky background technique to share today, the background I used to make this...

Make sure your work surface is covered, and put gloves on if you don't like getting very inky!
We need to prepare the surface first. As we are going to be using lots of water and ink, the surface needs to be sealed, so give a chipboard square plenty of gesso layers to begin with! I wanted a little texture and pattern on the background, so got out the texture paste and the stencils......

(Yes, I know, white on white makes for a great picture.......)
Next, get out your inks! Now, you can use any ink for this technique (paint too), but I much prefer acrylic inks. They dry to a permanent finish so you can layer them without any mixing and muddying of colours, which is a very good thing! The other benefit is that I find they are much more light fast than other spray inks can be. I like to look at a project months down the line and for it to still be the same colour as it was when I made it!
So....drip on a drop of ink...

Then spray with water. As you play about with this technique, you'll get a feel for how much water you want on the surface. I would say, start out with a little bit at first, then you don't drown the project! You can always add more....

Now tilt the surface so the inky water moves about...

Move it about until you're happy, then dry it off. Add more of the same colour to fill in some gaps....

Again dry it off. Drying in between layers not only stops colours mixing and running, it also stops the surface from getting too waterlogged!
Second colour...

Add the water...

This time I added a little more water, and let most run off to colour a larger area..

Dry off again, and add another colour...this time I used red to complement to yellow and pink...

Once that was dried, I thought it needed a 'pop' colour.....turquoise!

Squirt on the water...

Let it run off....

Add more if you feel it needs it, then dry off for a final time...

Once it it totally dry, you will notice the colours lighten slightly, you can see this if I put a finished pic next to the just inked pic above..

For some reason, the red seems to lighten the most....weird....
Anyway.... I did a little printing and stamping on the background...

I also painted white circles, and melted white UTEE for a splattered look...

Because the background is so busy, I wanted the focal image to stay black and white...

My 'go to' Stampotique girl, with added text stamping in her dress!
Lots of messy detail, and a nice way to play around and make some backgrounds!
Have a nice Friday everyone!
Trish xxxx

Creating a blog banner.

I admit this is a little bit different from the normal type of blog post, but I had an urge to freshen up my blog header with a whole new look. As I was working it dawned on me that I could make it into a blog post on A Sprinkle of Imagination and maybe inspire some of you to do the same.

I started out with a piece of watercolour paper 30 x 10cms and used just the stars from an Andy Skinner stencil called Hippy Chick to spread texture paste through. 

Once this was dry I used watercolour to add the dreamy background. I simply add water to the paper first then touch the paintbrush loaded with paint to the wet paper and let it spread as it wants to. 

I am so in love with Ranger foil cardstock as it cuts beautifully. The shine on the butterfly and frame  is magical but sadly it was so difficult to capture that in my photography. The border along the bottom is Jenni Bowlin washi tape and it has a gorgeous lace pattern.

Once I was satisfied with my piece I put it into the computer and changed the size to 900 x 300px. I'm using blogger but you may need to check the size if you use a different blog host. 

I added the title and my name on the computer and hit save. Done! Now all you need to do is go into your blog dashboard and upload it onto the blog.

'Simples' as they say. 

Jaine 

Stargazing Hares...

Hello!
More paint from me today, but this time combined with a little 3D assemblage...and the use of a niche..

I started off with a box canvas, then flipped it over to use the back! The back of a canvas has a perfect niche, although different sizes and brands of canvases will be put together differently, and so have niches of varying shapes and sizes! The back of this canvas also had the very ugly 'fold the canvas sheet over and use a million staples to secure it' thing going on....not ideal! A great way of disguising this is to spread a layer of texture paste over it. I blasted the texture paste with a heat gun just to give the surface a bit of a 'skin', and then pressed bottle tops and sequin waste into it. This gives nice texture, as you can see...

I used loads of different coloured paint, simply smearing a layer on, then drying and going in with a different colour. I also stamped some dots onto tissue paper, and used Mod Podge to adhere it in places. Once dry, the Mod Podge is transparent and the dots look like they were stamped straight onto the background...

The fabulous hares (Crafty Individuals), were stamped onto scraps of blue painted card, then cut out. I stamped the head parts onto yellow painted card, cut out the crowns and added them to the blue hares. I covered them in Glossy Accents to give a 3D shine. Once dry, they were placed on a bed of thin, curled and twisted green cardstock.
My stars are suspended from a curve of wire...

I took three strands of wire, and twisted a little extra wire around the three strands to hold them together. I painted and then glued three stars onto the ends. The wires were then glued onto the side of the canvas.
I added two spools to the bottom...

And some cut up letters to form the word...

I had fun playing with niches again...I have a feeling I may be making some more soon!
Have a great weekend,
Trish xxx

Texture and stencils

I lurve stencils and it's a little bit obscene how many I have. I also love to mix up what I put through my stencils so I wanted to show you here just a few of the ways I use them on these two 4 x 4 inch panels.

My base was the obvious Dylusions inks sprayed through Dylusions letter jumble stencil and checkered spots.  I then used gesso to add more letters (I used my finger to spread the gesso - messy). 

The die cut circles are cut from another piece of

 watercolour paper also sprayed and stencilled. 

Here I've put texture paste through a Balzar Designs Punchinella stencil then when that was dry I went over the top with more paste and the Letter jumble stencil. To pick out the detail I skimmed over the top with a lime Pie fluid edger ink pad by Prima. 

 I put more texture paste through the Punchinella stencil and when that was dry I put the stencil back over the top and added Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint to it. 

This is just the crackle paint with the Punchinella stencil.

Here I've added Claudine Hellmuth Teal Studio paint to the texture paste and used the edge of the Letter Jumble stencil. I love the colour of the texture paste it didn't water down the paint colour at all and I mixed it one to one.

Here you can just about see the original gesso stencilling underneath.

This is the finished card. At the last minute I used a pen to scribble through the Punchinella circles too just because I could.

I hope I've inspired you to get out the stencils and see what you can put through them. Why not try a 4X4 size, it's less intimidating than a full sized journal page and a great size to experiment on.

Jaine x