Tuesday 1 March 2016

Challenge 37 - It's all about the Girls!

Hi there and thanks for popping by to see me today.  1st March today and not really a good start to the month here in Uxbridge as it's raining!.....But, set to brighten later, so that's a bit of good news!!
Another bumper month in February for the Clarity Challenge with over 80 entries again, but I have a feeling this one will top that!?  You are certainly making our job a difficult one choosing just five as our favourites!!
Well, "It's all about the Girls"....so come on ladies and gents, using only your Clarity stamps, stencils or Groovi, (use any, a combination, or all if you want to), I'm positive you'll come up with some corkers!
So for my artwork this month, I chose to go with a bright background and an elegant silhouette using one of the lady stencils I have, combined with a couple of stamps.
Here we go with the simple step-by-step:
Take the funky background - mine was made with Brushos, (but Color Bursts are great too), on a piece of 8.5  x 11 inch piece of Stencil Card - just wet the stencil card (or watercolour paper) and gently shake or puff the powders onto the wet surface to watch the magic happen.  I love the bright colours - certainly brightens this dreary day that's for sure!
Next lay your Gelli-plate onto the Mega Mount and brayer some acrylic paint on (I used Paperartsy Beach Hut & Snowflake combined).  Lay the Leafy Swirl Stencil onto the wet paint.  Quickly dab in between the stencil with a piece of copy paper to remove some of the paint.  Remove the stencil and turn the Mega Mount over so that you can control where you place it on your card.  Once in place, turn the whole thing back over and burnish the back well to transfer the acrylic paint onto the card.  You could use the larger leafy stencil with the large Gelli-plate, but I only wanted part of the card with the acrylic paint on and the lady stencil is A5 so she fitted better on half of the A4 sized card - there is kind of a method in my madness!


 
Place the Flower Head Stencil of your choice over the Leafy Swirl image and first using the Twisted Citron use a make up sponge to lightly ink a subtle design through where there's no acrylic paint.  Then using the darker Archival Ink go over the acrylic paint to complete - Archival Ink is the way to go over acrylic paint as the Distress Inks just wipe off. 
Attach the Elegant Lady over the area you have worked on and sponge Black Archival Ink through leaving a lighter area in the centre so that the colours still show through. Make-up sponge or Blending Tool both work equally well.
Next (and when I forgot to take more photos), remove the stencil and dust your work with talc.  Replace the stencil, and stamp the Leafy Swirl across the bottom of her dress using Versamark.  Remove stencil and white emboss it.
Replace stencil and using a Leafy Corner stamp, pattern the handbag. Remove stencil and use Clear Embossing Powder on that - heat to set.  Stamp a flourish on the hat and add some line art with a Black Sharpie for the hair & her face, then a white highlighter pen to finish the handbag, hat and dress.
Stamp your sentiment from the Line Sentiments 1 on a spare piece of the coloured card and carefully cut out - or leave it square if you prefer.  Outline the main piece with a Promarker or other marker of your choice to contrast, mount on a piece of gold card, then onto an A5 blank greeting card.
All finished!

If you need more inspiration, why not pop over to see the other Design Team Blogs. 
Have fun designing and crafting your entry for the Challenge, and I look forward to seeing your artwork.
Good Luck x