Textured Gesso Tease

Over at the Next Generation Stampers they have a few challengers a month and I have been just too busy to join in much.This month when I was sick I decided to try this months one which was textured gesso.The basic idea was to lather black gesso on the base and texturize it with blobs,pressing things in and lifting them off and pressing card on top and pulling it off to create "waves"etc etc.Once it is dry use rub ons,dry brush on metallic paints and anything else you can think of to highlight the texture you created.Above is my first attempt.While it was wet I sprinkled on Opals embossing enamels into it.After it was dry I hit it with the heat gun and then dry brushed on Golden Iridescent gold paint in places and Jo Sonja Opal Dust which has really shimmery bits of glitter in it.This all looked like a stary night and got me thinking about heaven LOL...would it look like this and so on.
Well I had Monday off to myself so I started to make a large A4 plus canvas.It isn't finished yet(had to clean out and downsize the bedroom today) but I'm loving the look and texture in this piece so far.Here is a pre-view till I have time to complete it *grin*.It started as textured gesso and Opals bg that I have imbeded some plastic mesh in at the top and painted with the Golden Iridescent gold paint and Jo Sonja Opals Dust

This is the head which is an air dry clay caste mold face.The hair was made with painted Liquid Nails set on a gold decorative oval.The face was painted with Pearlescent paints

AAAHHH yes and why did I want to make Angel wing stamps with the stamp making machine from my previous post...it was for this project so here are my very own made wing stamps on hot fix Angelina fibres.You place the fibres on your stamps,cover with Gladbake and iron it using a hot dry setting..Oh La La they look nice and are about 14cmx4.5cms

Now here is the last sneak peak and it is some foam that I applied Liquid Nails to and then painted it white when dry.Then I painted some Golden Nikle Azo Gold on top and dusted on some Gold Schmincke while wet

Hope to finish it soon but I have a visit from my brother for the next five days then do my ten busy days for work so not sure when I get it all together.You will have to wait for the final showing o) .I'll do photos in better light then too.

Krafty Lady Mold Caste With Dressing Gauze

Here is a Krafty Lady "lady with scarf" mold that I caste with dressing gauze and gel medium.I folded the gauze and put it in the mold.Then I put a folded tissue behind that.I pressed it all down with a paint brush soaked in slightly watered down Golden gel medium till I was sure it was all wet thru.Behind this I put one more layer of gauze that I also wet with the watered down gel medium.I pressed it all down again firmly with the end of the paint brush to ensure this mash went right into all the creases of the mold.
I left it to dry for 24hrs.I thought it was all dry and peeled it up but areas of the face were still damp and her nose and part of the scarf got left behind YIKES...no drama as I put it back in and pressed all around the mold again with my fingers.Left it for another 24hrs and this time it was all dry and her nose was reattached LOL.It had a lovely texture to it and was quite firm and sturdy.

I painted the caste with Luminarte Primary Elements polished pigments mixed with the Simple solution for fabrics.Then I hand sewed on the beads around her scarf.I then dusted on gold Schmincke gauche around the beaded area.I had a square of coppery orange Organza and some hand dyed gauze that had the same colours I had used on the Ladies scarf.I fused these two pieces together with some shimmery plastic squares scattered between using Vliesofix(heat bondable fusible webbing) and an iron.What amazed me there was that the purple squares changed colour and went coppery,orange and a purply orange.Very interesting.I had found them in the cheap shop while looking for small mirrors...think I had better go back and sus out other colours o).

The German scrap was coloured with Crayola water soluble crayons and the edges high lighted with Golden iridescent gold paint.The metal corners were pressed into the Stuart Superior black stamp and stick glue pad and the adhesive activated with a heat gun.Then Pearl-ex was dusted on.Lastly I hand sewed small beads around the German scrap and layered the whole thing on copper,metallic red and gold card stock.The photo was taken under room light with the flash off so what you are seeing is exactly what I am seeing here IRL...a shimmery sun lady :o)

First Try Of the Instastamp Stamp Making Machine

Her are my wings and funky figure stamps stamped onto card stock...not bad hey and I am not great at drawing at all.

These are the polymer stamps I made...should have taken pic before I used them LOL..sorry about the ink on them they are totaly clear with a light blue tinge when cleaned

This is some of the kit I won.There is also 10xA6 sized Photopolymer sachets,a washout brush,Two acrylic blocks,some Instagrip,vellum sheets and a CDrom to make images into stamp looking images and some samples to print onto vellum

I've caught an awful flu and have been home the last few days off sick.I can't seem to think well and although I have time to be creative I can't seem to make anything as the bug has stollen my brain LOL.Anyway I thought I would get out my Instastamp polymer stamp making machine and try it out at last.I was totally amazed in mid December to find out I had won this stamp making machine in a competetion and it came with everything needed to make polymer stamps.Robert at Instastamp has come up with an awesome little machine indeed and after my first tries last night I am impressed and I am also very thankful to Robert for holding the competetion in the first place.

There are full instructions with it and although I did stuff up the first two sachets of polymer getting the timing right(some smaller test sachets would have been really good in the kit)the end results are really good.It makes shop quality stamps that are a good few mm thick.I needed a left and right angel wing for a project so drew them from a wax embellishment I had and used those to try the machine with.I also used a funky figure drawing of mine to fill up the A6 sized sachet.My first tries were not too good as I didn't read the instructions first like you are supposed too and I was trying to read and do it at the same time...hence I over exposed one sachet and under exposed the other.I'm normally really good with reading instructions but as I told you my brain has gone walk about at the moment.

A few things I did learn are it's easier to make up the washout solutions and post exposure solutions FIRST,get images ready and all equipment close by then do the stamp making steps.It is easy though.The stamps come out great though my drawing needs alot of work *grin*.I thought I had lost details on the top of the wings just looking at the stamps but once inked there they were just as I drew them.Robert also sells Instagrip and there was some of it in the kit.It feels like a polymer sheets and you put it on your acrylic blocks and the clear stamps made with the Instastamp grips onto it VERY easily.I like this stuff...in fact I am very impressed with the whole thing LOL.The machine uses UV lights so you can make the stamps any time of the day or night(I've made stamps using photopolymer sheets and the sun before...not good when you live where it rains for 6months of the year).The last thing I learnt that wasn't in the instructions is the stamps come out on a thin plastic backing that I didn't realize at first that I could peel them off from.Once I got them off that they feel like good quality see thru shop bought clear polymer stamps...I'm in love *grin*