Playing with Spraying

This has been such a wonderful weekend - very relaxing. I have caught up on some reading and spent two days playing with the "cult." Anita hosted a gathering at her house. We met on Saturday afternoon and the time just flew by; we had such a wonderful time that we invited ourselves back for Sunday.

Ever since we took the online lettering course, Anita and I have been talking sbout getting together to play with our sprays and stencils. We both have ordered sets of the dylusion sprays and some crafter workshop stencils and tried them out - but without much success. We were discouraged by our results, but have seen others use these supplies successfully so we decided that we needed to set aside a chunk of time and space to just play. After watching lots of videos (especially at joggles.com) we gathered supplies and cult members and just played. The slideshow below shows the fruits of our efforts. I am pleased and more at ease using these products; some techniques still need more practice. I am glad that summer vacation is almost here. I wonder how long it will be before the dye comes out of my fingers?

This is the handout including information that I researched before we met to play:

Backgrounds : Joggles and searching youtube for dyan reaveley are great resources

Stencils can be purchased or cut from transparency using your die cut shapes. A die cut can be used as a reverse stencil – perfect for a journaling spot

Slicker surfaces (like manila tags) allow time for inks to blend whereas watercolor paper absorbs ink quickly.

Colorwash has very deep colors – dilute in water (to your color preference) and spray over stencils. This is also  a textile medium

            Mist surface heavily with water first and then work light to dark and then let dry
            To lighten the color you can blot with paper towels or another tag
            You can use a brush to move color around on the surface.
            Secondary layers of spotty color can be added from swiping through overspray on mat
            Use a brush to pick up spray from mat and color stamped image
            Can be added to an aqua pen with some water to use for watercoloring
            Can be sprayed on a craft mat (with a bit of water) and pounced onto a bold stamp
            Can be sprayed over a gel medium (gloss or matte) resist
            Can be sprayed over gesso (that has dried) and it will absorb a second application of color

dylusions is intense color, but not as dark as colorwash. This is not intended for fabric. These sprays blend more easily than colorwash and are more reactive with water.

            Many of the above techniques will apply to this medium
            Use related colors – yel/orange/pink or yel/green/blue so you don’t get MUD
            Create GHOST images on a dry, dark surface by spraying with water, leave for 15 sec, then blot.
            After spraying, flip stencil over and “stamp” the reverse image on another background
            Heat drying will stop next color layer from blending
            Build layers of color

 Adding more visual texture to a colored base
            Stamp with archival for clear image, stamp with distress for blended images (use mega BG stamps)
          Splat with distress stains
            Use pearl mists as water, over the entire surface or through a stencil
            Crumble saran on a wet surface and let dry (better on tags) Gesso can highlight the texture.
            Add luminere to crumpled wax paper and gently touch to surface
            Add ink to bubble wrap and stamp
            spread acrylic paint in a thin surface on a craft mat and use to ink found items (bubble wrap bottle lids for open circles)
            glue on stamped and cut out images (text paper)
           stamp through stencils for partial images
            use blending tool and distress ink (on edges, through stencil)
            use blending sponge to apply versamark through stencil and emboss
           Spray ink over dry gel medium (gloss or matte) image for a resist (clean image quickly after gel is used)
           Apply metallic rub-on paint or ink gold through stencil
           Goosebumps acts as a resist.

Have fun getting messy!