Thursday 7 May 2015

Three Of A Kind. . . . . . . .

There's a new challenge today at Stamps & Stencils. Our host is the hugely creative Ruth and here's what she has to say:

'For this challenge we want to see 3 of the same sort of focal element on a project so we don't just mean 3 buttons or embellishments! It could be 3 flowers, 3 figures, 3 inspirational quotes?.....or thinking wider, if you're feeling adventurous you could do 3 ATC's, a trio of ATB's or maybe a Triptych. Plenty of scope, we hope, to make a mixed media project of your choice.Please remember it  must include some stencilling or stamping or both.'

I decided to make a tag with three hearts (er, well, three plus a half heart which I added by mistake!) and using three stencils. I've got quite a few tag bases which I cut from gelli plate prints I made so decided to work on one of those:

My 'Three Of A Kind' are the hearts and the three main stencils used on this tag:
Other stencils have been used but these are the main focus. Annoyingly, I forgot to take a photo of the tag before I started to add more layers! And yes, I'm very bad at cleaning my stencils!
All the hearts are stencilled onto the background using a DecoArt Crackle Paste. When dry, this is painted with Titan Buff Fluid Media Acrylic. Some of the letters are stencilled using this same colour.
All of the hearts have been washed with Quinacridone Gold Media Fluid Acrylic and this colour has been extended onto the background to make it look as if it has bled from the hearts. More stencilling is done using Prussian Blue from the same paint range - some of the letters and all the little stars. 
The 'cup rings' have been stamped with Quin Gold paint as before. The little white circles are applied using a paintbrush protective tube and some Americana Chalky Paint from DecoArt. The other paint layers seen here are part of the original gelli plate print.
Extra depth is achieved by adding shading with a black colouring pencil. More paint stamping is visible here too. The top of the tag is finished with some curled rusty wire and tiny rusty bells. The edges of the tag are sponged with some Carbon Black Media Fluid Acrylic to help create a frame.
Another image to show how the edges are sponged and the pencil is used to add depth (on the large cog in the bottom left hand corner).
The products used to develop the original gelli plate print tag. The Matte Medium is applied to the tag to protect areas which I wanted to remain in their original state - this is really useful for instance, to keep the white areas clean as they won't be stained with other colours if this product is applied. The stamp is a favourite for building backgrounds; the plastic paintbrush is great for those little circles and the black Inktense pencil works it's magic on layered backgrounds.
I hope you like my take on the challenge! Please do go over to Stamps & Stencils to see what the other amazing DT ladies have come up. It's your turn now! Remember to check out further details such as rules and posting dates whilst you're there.

We had some absolutely amazing entries for our first challenge and you can see who the DT choose as the winner and top three if you pop back on Tuesday 12th May. Thank you so much to everyone who joined in and helped to make our first challenge so special.

25 comments:

  1. Love the colours Julia, and all the detail is fantastic...
    Sharon xx

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  2. Gorgeous Ruth! Love those strong colours and your fabulous crackled hearts. I'd love to get some of those Deco art paints and mediums, just bought a set of Dylusions paints so I can't justify another paint spend just yet !!! Thanks for tips at the end Toni xx

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  3. Fabulous tag! Great stencil nd paint work, love howw you did the top of the tag too, really suits the style of the tag!

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  4. Oh I do love the boldness of your wonderful colour palette in the background and the way the hearts just pop off the page! Quin Gold is my favourite at the moment and I love the look of it on the 'cup rings'. Great tips at the end too - thanks so much for sharing them! Hugs, Anne xx

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  5. such a stunning piece you have created here Julia. Love the wonderful colours and the hearts look amazing. TFS and crafty hugs
    Annie x

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  6. gorgeous tag Julia - love this to bits! Hugs rachel x

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  7. A fabulous tag Julia.
    xxx Hazel.

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  8. One of the things i love about your style Julia is your use of bright colours and textures, all your colours are harmonious and work beautifully, if i tried this it would end up a mess lol, your looks so 3D :-) xxx

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  9. Love this! A fantastic MMedia piece :)

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  10. WOW!!! Fabulous color for sure, and the texture is amazing! LOVE this!!!

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  11. Beautiful tag Julia ! I love the impact of the colour combo and the crackle with the bleeding colour from the hearts is fantastic ! Sue C x

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  12. What a gorgeous tag! I love the shining colours and the crackle hearts!

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  13. Fabulous tag Julia, loving the bright colour combination and of course the amazing textures.
    Yvonne xx

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  14. Wonderful layers and shading, could look at this all day and still see more, another GORGEOUS creation Julia...and those colours....yummy! Ruth x

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  15. Wonderful layers and shading, could look at this all day and still see more, another GORGEOUS creation Julia...and those colours....yummy! Ruth x

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  16. Julia hun, I LOVE,Love,LovE this tag!! xoxo

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  17. Love this tag, Julia!! It's bold and graphic and edgy--Just Fabulous!! XOXO-Shari

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  18. wonderful layers and your usual wonderful use of colour x

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  19. Julia...your tag is awesome! Love the crackled hearts! They really pop against all of your other colorful background. Great tutorial!

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  20. What a awesome tag design, texture and colors.
    Hugs diane

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  21. Stunning tag Julia, so many layers and textures! Love how you have used the different paint colours to emphasize your sentiments and tie them in to your lovely crackly hearts.

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  22. Fantastic colour combination. The crackle on the hearts looks great too! Very cool tag! Hugs xx

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  23. Fantastic paint layers to create an amazingly funky look, Julia, and I just love those crackly hearts - fabulous!
    Alison xx

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Juliax