I wanted to create something for Finnabair’s Art Recipe for June which you can see below.
The Inspiration
Colours of June Art Recipe:
brown
green
blue
and at least two of the following Products:
Finnabair Moulds
Art Alchemy: Impasto Paints
Art Ingredients: Mica Powder
Art Basics: Modeling Paste
The Process
I like the colour combination for this month’s recipe and have a lot of options from the product list, but what I didn’t know (again) was what kind of project I was going to make. OK so colours are good, got plenty of options for those, and after some thought I decided to use Impasto Paints and Moulds from the required products list. This is another project I am starting with no clear idea of what I am going to make or what substrate I am going to use.
Prima Moulds And Hot Glue
I had some little moulded pieces leftover from another project so I pulled them out and assessed what else I might need. I added more stars, some of the cogs and keys from the mechanicals mould, and more wings and the locket from the wings mould. I used hot glue for all the pieces as I didn’t want to wait 24 hours for air dry clay to dry and actually I quite like using hot glue for some of these more intricate or delicate moulds because they are guaranteed to come out whole and unbroken, plus they are very flexible and the glue dries in minutes rather than hours.
Tips – make sure your glue gun is hot and ready to go and that you push the glue down into all the nooks and crannies to avoid gaps and air bubbles
Once the glue was dry (minutes) I painted all of them with white gesso as a good base for painting them later.
The Substrate
I remembered I had this scrapbook which I bought last year and planned to give to my friend at Christmas but the package had to be sent overseas and in the end I left this out as it was just a cheap book and nothing special that would be worth the extra postage. However, it occurred to me now that it could look very special if I customised it instead of just giving it to her plain. So this cheap kraft scrapbook is now going to be a birthday present for my friend, but something unique and special.
I started off by removing the front and back covers from the spiral binding and covering the ribbon ties with masking tape to protect them from the paint..
Gesso, Tissue Paper and Stencilling
Then I gessoed both covers with black gesso and left it to dry (minutes) before applying this Solar tissue paper by Finnabair on the outside and the inside using Distress Collage Medium. Once the Collage Medium was dry, I decided to stencil over it using this Bubble stencil by Finnabair. This is an older stencil that is hard to find now, but similar bubble stencils are available. I used Impasto Acrylic paint with the stencil in Green Apple and Jade, applying paint randomly through parts of the stencil and leaving other parts untouched. I used the Green Apple first and then the Jade paint, and in some places blended both together giving a third colour, by just spreading one on top of the other.
Change of Plans
Now ignore that big hole in the centre of the right hand cover! I had this crazy idea to create a 3D goddess type thing emerging out of the book like she was bursting through the surface but then I changed my mind and after applying stencil and paints I glued that big hole shut.
Positioning The Elements
I started playing around with the positioning of the moulds, and as you can see, I wanted this celestial being to be emerging from the hole in the middle, but I decided against it because I remembered that I had this AMAZING frame which you may recognise from this post (where it was not used in the end!) However I think, with a bit of work, it would be perfect here as the centrepiece to frame the winged goddess. I moved around some of the other celestial images until I was happy with the placement. Tip – when you are happy with positioning of elements always take a quick photo with your phone or camera so you can use that to make sure you get everything in the right place when it comes to the gluing stage.
Choosing The Colours
As I was working with greens and blues for this project because of the Art Recipe Challenge, I already knew what my palette was, broadly speaking, but there was still some scope to play around. So I did 🙂 Clockwise from top left – Goddess in white gesso, in Frosty Pearl Metallique, in Dragonfly Metallique and finally Mermaid Teal mixed with Magical Pond. I had some alphabet die cuts leftover from another project which I had already tested some Stormy Ocean Metallique paint on and realised that they would be perfect for this project since it was an Art Journal cover, so I painted the frame in the same Stormy Ocean, and decided on the Mermaid Teal/Magical Pond combo for the Goddess and wings.
The Moulded Elements
I painted the celestial moulds in Frosty Pearl Metallique paint, and the padlock, key and screw in Raven Black Metallique paint and to give them a little more interest, I decided to wire-wrap them with some 22ga bronze wire – which is technically “brown” so helps to add more brown to the project. You will need wire cutters for this but no other special tools. I wrapped the wire around the moulded elements just following the contours and shapes, making sure that the ends were positioned on the backs where they would not be seen or catch on anything later on. For little moulded elements made of glue, they were starting to look much more special!
Referring back to the photo I took earlier, I repositioned the elements and started gluing them into position using 3D Matte Gel. Some of them like the moon needed to be held in place with a clamp to stop it warping.
The Final Touches
Once it was all dry, I went around the edges of the covers with black acrylic, touching up any parts that needed it. Then I mixed up some Hazelnut paint with the liquid acrylics fluid medium and used it to go around the edges of the covers and all of the elements, creating a shadow and an aged, vintage-y feel. Then I added some Unicorn Paste to the wings, the moon, stars and sun. After everything was dry (again) I went over the entire cover with gloss gel, and we are done!
The back is left without moulds because being a practical book, you really want a flat(ish) surface to lean on,
Here’s a closer look at the little screw and locket, which I think look so REAL considering they are made of hot glue and paint!
PROJECT RECIPE::
Finnabair black gesso,
soft matte gel,
3D gel,
unicorn paste,
bubbles stencil,
Solar tissue paper,
Hazelnut, Magical Pond, Mermaid Teal, Night Shadow, White Pearl Metallique Alchemy/Sparks paints,
Black Liquid Acrylic Paint
Acrylic Fluid Medium
Finnabair/Prima moulds,
Hot Glue
Sizzix frame die, Altenew woodgrain cardstock, Altenew bold alphabet diecuts(leftover from previous project)
Vintage bronze 22g wire
Kraft scrapbook journal book
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