Clarity Challenge 1st August 2015 - Bingo!

Clarity Challenge 1st August 2015

 Bingo

(Full House - Stamps, Stencil, Grunge Paste, Gilding Flakes, Glitter, Die Cuts, Shrink Plastic, Flowers, Perfect Pearls.)

Medusa

Hi there and welcome again to Shelagh-land! 

August is upon us and we should be still be enjoying summer but this is Great Britain, I'm in the north east of Scotland so-o-o-o-o balmy days are not quite the norm! July passed in a flash as there was a lot for me to keep up with and in o-o-o-o-nly four days time I'll be down in Crowborough attending two fabulous days of Barbara and Clarity's workshops. Can't wait!!!!

We-e-e-l-l-l this challenge has gone in an opposite direction as intended - I had prepared a three piece wall plaque to decorate but whilst gathering all the paraphernalia together, masks kept getting in the way - I've only got two - and I hope you like the (literally) off-the-wall result.

This was great fun although the alchemy corner (Mike's term for my 'wet area') in the kitchen took a bit of a pasting. N.B. Must dissuade him from a new kitchen for the time being!!!!

However, when first introduced to the 'Bingo' theme, the old bonce was scratched more than a number of times - Two Little Ducks, Legs Eleven (my dear departed Dad's nick-name for me), Kelly's Eye No One, (can't believe it myself but I actually had composed something along these lines) - b-u-u -t -  how far off base was I!!!! Then all was revealed - choose a designated option from the grid - four corners, any vertical line, either diagonal or a full house and create a piece of art to include the designated products. At that point, the brain whirred into action!

Meantime enough of the preambles and down to business.

Let me introduce you to Medusa!

Medusa

Materials:-

·         Canvas :- One 8 ins x 8 ins canvas, one 12 ins x 12 ins canvas

·         Card :- 7 ins x 7 ins Gelli card, heavy duty watercolour card

·         Gesso – White, Black

·         Color Burst – Lemon Yellow, Phthalo Green, Ultramarine Blue

·         Stencil – Clarity :- Tree of Life (NDC), Leafy Swirl

·         Grunge Paste

·         Paint – Silver

·         Papier Mache mask

·         Acrylics – Fresco Finish Snowflake, Nougat

·         Stamps – Clarity :-  Remountable Spring Day set, Butterfly Montage

·         Inkpads :- Encore Silver, Archival Black

·         Embossing Powder :- Holographic Silver

·         Gilding Flakes :- Clarity Silvery Moon

·         Glitter :- Holographic Silver

·         Shrink Plastic - Clear

·         Perfect Pearls :- Forever Blue, Forever Green, Blue Smoke, Perfect Pearl

·         Dies :- Tattered Lace Flourishing Hearts

·         Glue: - Glossy Accents. Low-melt glue gun, Clarity Double sided sticky

Instructions :-

Cover work surface well – I taped a bin bag over the work top.

Canvas

1.       Spritz the 8 x 8 canvas lightly with a fine water mist then puff on Color Burst Lemon Yellow, Phthalo Green then Ultramarine Blue – SPARINGLY. Spray again across the canvas allowing the water mist to settle. Allow to dry then turn the canvas to resemble a diamond shape, deciding which corner you wish to be at the top.

2.       Select the ‘Tree of Life’ stencil and mask off all but the bare branches. Place stencil over coloured canvas and ‘pull’ grunge paste through. Allow to dry. Rotate canvas by one corner and repeat.  Do this once more.(At this point I added a little water and silver paint to Grunge before using. The dry results were still too ‘grainy’ for what I wanted so I re-applied the stencil and painted over with a thick concoction of white glue mixed with silver paint.)

Mask

3.       Paint the brown papier mache mask with gesso – I used three coats. Paint over with Snowflake when dry.  Too stark, so I painted it with Nougat.

4.       Sketch the eyes and mouth on in soft pencil and colour in with desired colour. Apply Glossy Accents to these areas.

5.       Apply silver paint to mask, painting carefully around eyes and mouth.

Mask embellishments :-

Hair and Wings

6.       On watercolour paper, draw around ‘Tree of Life’ three times and cut out. (I tried other papers but this proved to be the best to ‘manipulate’ into curls around a paintbrush handle.) Paint both sides of each with black gesso. When dry, roughly paint one side of each with silver paint. When dry, repeat on reverse. When dry, apply Mod Podge to first side and leave until tacky. Apply gilding flakes. Repeat on reverse. Glue to side of mask to suit.

7.       Stamp butterfly (I have mislaid mine in my nice and tidy craft room – NOT - so had to use the collage stamp!!!) a few times onto a scrap of card (I used lightweight black pearlescent) using Encore Silver, add silver embossing powder and heat to set. Cut out butterfly images. I have made six but decided to use only two.)

8.       Mix Perfect Pearls Forever Blue, Forever Green, Blue Smoke and Perfect Pearl to suit and paint butterflies. Cut wings from body (ouch!!) twice and further cut one pair of wings, following the lines,  to make a smaller set.

9.       Die-cut Tattered Lace ‘Flourishing Hearts’ a few times, cut to suit and paint with same Perfect Pearls mix. Attach a frond to the foot of each of the larger wings.

10.   Glue the wings top and bottom to one of the mask eyes using Glossy Accents. Attach each smaller wing over.

Flowers :-

11.   Attach ‘Leafy Swirl’ stencil to a piece of Gelli card. Spritz with water. Apply Color Burst as in (1) and pull a number of prints from this. (How about the impromptu drying line - cooking string tied between two door handles - wet prints placed above hob as the drips were easy to clean there, wouldn't do that in a new kitchen!!)

12.   When dry and using Encore Silver, stamp the Tulip circle from the Spring Day Remountable set six times onto a print. Apply silver embossing powder and heat emboss. Colour each tulip and vertical leaf to suit. (I used Spectrum Noir) Cut out. Colour reverse of each circle with chosen colour. Apply Quickie Glue Pen to each leaf around circumference and apply glitter of choice.

13.   Cut along edge of each vertical tulip leaf on each circle, shape. Off-set and attach a circle to the centre of another to form three flowers.

14.   Stamp the same as at 12) three times onto clear Shrink Plastic using Archival ink. Colour to suit on reverse of stamped side using permanent pens and cut out around perimeter. Shrink using either a heat gun or oven as per directions. Glue to centre of flowers.

15.   Place and glue in place onto mask to suit.

16.   Attach mask to canvas using low melt glue gun.

Background canvas:-

17.   Mask 12 x 12 canvas as in photo and apply a mixture of silver and gold gilding wax to create a frame.

18.   Using Clarity double sided sticky sheet, apply (as a diamond)to centre of background canvas. Place main canvas over.

Et voila! Medusa is in our midst!

This is my favourite project since joining the Challenge DT in January; my brain took me on the most enjoyable journey and I did want to add so much more, however exercised a modicum of restraint although it is probably not too apparent! Medusa certainly enticed me into her lair!
Many thanks for looking in and as always, any questions etc I will attempt to answer.

Once again looking forward to seeing all of your fascinating projects in this month's Clarity 'Bingo' Challenge; just have a look at the rules, decide which line, diagonal, four corners or full house you wish to use, have a play and submit your art work via your own blog or by email.

Best wishes,

Shelagh  ;~}