For you this time, I decided to do a canvas made with the Clarity Club stencil (from May I think). (Just a little aside........The Clarity New Design Club has great benefits - as well as getting a stamp & stencil at the beginning of each month if you're a Gold Member, you get a 10% saving on all purchases and free postage on orders over £10 - I highly recommend it!)
Anyway, back to the challenge........"Anything Goes!".....so, here we go.........My finished artwork and how it came together........
Ingredients:
A4 canvas board
Powder watercolours of your choice - I used Ken Oliver Crafts Colour Burst (the little puffer bottles are fab for control) or you could use Brushos
Stencils - Fish (Club Stencil), Seaweed & Seaweed Frame, Jo's Bubbles & sequin waste
Grunge paste, Spreader & palette knife
Pirate Treasure Gilding flakes
Clarity Stencil Brushes, Blending Tool & Brayer
Inks - Adirondack Stream & Eggplant, Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn & Peacock Feathers,
Archival Ink - Fern Green, Archival Brilliance Moonlight White
Stamps - Tall Grass, Fish from the Harbour Set & grass from the Foxes Set
Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Blueberry & Limelight
So first of all, spritz the canvas board with water and very lightly puff on some yellow powder and gently brush with a clean stencil brush
Next the blue - same process,,,,
Then finally the green
Next you need to compose your background with the seaweed stencils. Place them around the canvas and using all the inks, gradually build the pattern through the stencils using the brushes.
That'll do!
Allow to dry completely, then attach the fish stencil where you would like him to be swimming in the deep ocean. Spread some grunge paste on the side of the stencil with the palette knife.
Drag the grunge paste through the stencil with the spreader. Immediately remove the stencil and place in water, together with the spreader & palette knife - be quick though as you then need to sprinkle the gilding flakes on while the grunge paste is still wet. Once applied, VERY LIGHTLY press the flakes onto the grunge paste & pray for no drafts!.......
Ooooooo, looks a bit of a mess, but be patient and allow about an hour for it to dry completely........
Once dry, gently brush off the gilding flakes - not too hard as you don't want to remove them all!
Next - the border.....Take the Fresco Chalk paints and squeeze a small amount onto your crafting mat and brayer round the edge of the canvas, lightest colour first until you're happy with it. I used the Limelight sides & top, and the Blueberry along the bottom.
Next, Jo's bubbles & the sequin waste. Using the blending tool & Moonlight White Brilliance ink, dab through the stencils adding a few bubbles here & there.
Then stamp the grasses at the bottom of the ocean, which gives the picture depth, and also some little fishy friends - all using the Archival Fern Green ink.
And there you are - all done!
Hope you are inspired to create something for this month's challenge. There's some fab inspirational pieces from the other Clarity Design Team members too, so please do check out all of their blogs as well.
As "Anything Goes" it doesn't have to be something new, how about looking around the house to see what you can up-cycle?......I've spotted quite a few things which could do with a make-over.....I just hope my other half Peter doesn't stand still for too long - he could end up covered in stamps & paint!!!
Don't forget there's a £50 Clarity Voucher up for grabs for someone picked at random, which means everyone's in with a chance, beginners & experts alike. (Please check out the Clarity Challenge Blog for the rules).
Anyway, I look forward to seeing all your artwork....Happy crafting all, Carole xxx
