Insects and Butterflies - Full post

Hi everyone!

I was so thrilled and very proud to have been invited to be Guest Designer at The Artistic Stamper in February. I am adding this post to my blog because it serves as a creative diary for me and I like to keep track of what I have made - so there is no need to add any comment and I apologise for what will be a repeat post for many people....

 

My first creation for the Artistic Stamper started out as just some packaging - plain corrugated cardboard. I now save every piece of cardboard intending to turn it into something. Torn cardboard packaging might be a very humble beginning - but it can turn into a very beautiful creation.

I wanted to create a very earthy, grungy creation and started by tearing the corrugated cardboard and leaving some of the edges looking very torn and ragged.

I dry brushed Gesso all over the cardboard and then began to just randomly spray Adirondack Colour wash over it using the Butterscotch and Espresso colours. After drying the spray I began to dab the cardboard with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

The Adirondack spray gave a lovely textured effect and the result was very much looking like rotted wood - sounds disgusting- doesn't it? - but it was a really lovely organic looking canvas - which is just what I wanted.

Here you can see the wonderful speckled effect created by the ink sprays

The base of the hanging was randomly stamped with the Calligraphic mat in Potting Soil Archival ink

 

I made three panels as decoration for the hanging .One was stamped with butterflies using Coffee Archival ink. The images were then masked before being stamped with a script stamp. I blended some Distress inks over the stamped image - Brushed Corduroy, Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo. I then dabbed some embossing ink over the panel, covered it with UTEE and melted it to resemble glass.

After a second layer of UTEE I put it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. After this it was much easier to bend and snap. I then dabbed it with some Walnut Stain Distress ink to highlight the cracks.

 This panel was wrapped in twine which was then tied into a bow

The other two panels were covered in Gesso and then dabbed with Distress inks like the base.

Waxed Kraft paper was ripped into strips and used on the panels

The butterfly quote was stamped with Coffee Archival ink and edged with Walnut Stain Distress ink. I purposely caught the edges of the stamp with the archival ink to give a more vivid edged effect

The Tim Holtz Bookplate was used with a chitchat sticker attached to a piece of card covered in Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

This panel was covered with a calligraphic script in Potting Soil Archival ink

This panel was stamped with one of the Insect and Butterflies stamps in Potting Soil Archival ink and the calligraphic stamp was used around this image.

Burlap sheets and trimmings were used to decorate the hanging, along with crochet lace that had been dabbed with Vintage Photo Distress ink

 

Several paper flowers were soaked with watered down Distress Stain in Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo.

Tim Holtz Hinge fasteners were used at the top of the panel and twine was tied around then so that it could be hung up.