Colour Blast by Bee Arty: Be strong … when being strong is all you have. By Linda Pearson

Happy New Year everyone!! On the blog today I have created an ‘off the page’ project using a framed canvas board from Eckersley’s Art store, but a standard canvas or journal book could be used as an alternative.

Bee Arty products used:

White Cardstock 350gsm250gsm A4 sheet

Gesso white to prepare the canvas

Darice 6 well paint palette

Versamark Stamp pad translucent

Embossing powder – Stormy Night

Shimmer dust – Navy, Midnight, Passion, Lollipop and Peacock

Eye spy stamp

Gridlock A6 stencil

Craft Powder Spoon

Other products and tools used:

Stamp Press

Eckersley’s – Jasart Floating Canvas Board

Heat Tool

Acrylic Paint; DW Ocean and A by M Mermaid

Small round paint brushes

Make up sponge or dauber/blending tool

Fussy cut scissors

‘Strong’ die cut (own stash) use stamps or other word to suit

Teal Foil Card (own stash)

Pipette

Posca Pen or equivalent (white)

Texture paste or moulding paste

Masking tape

Mask the floating frame with masking tape to protect from the shimmer paints etc.

Cover the canvas board with a coat of Gesso and dry off. Then apply 2 coats of Ocean paint drying between each coat.

Add a small amount of Ocean paint to a palette with a small amount of Gesso or white paint. Tap the makeup sponge(dauber) into the paint (do not mix the paint … you want to apply an ‘ombre’ style effect of colour through the stencil. Using the Gridlock A6 stencil gently pounce the two colours through the stencil. Shift the stencil around to cover the canvas board. Don’t be concerned if the colour looks a little messy. Dry off a little. Do the previous step 2 to 3 times more adding a little more white colour to lighten for each layer. Be sure to end in a ‘whiteish’ layer to finish off. Dry off.

Spread the texture paste through the Gridlock A6 stencil over the surface. Allow to dry completely.

In the meantime prepare quantities of the Shimmer dust (Navy, Midnight, Passion, Lollipop and Peacock) colours in the Darice 6 well paint palette using a Craft Powder Spoon … add some water to each colour and mix thoroughly. Test the colours to ensure they are rich in colour before adding to canvas.

Prepare the area with a piece of paper towel to absorb the run-off of shimmer colours. Lightly spray the canvas area (image below) then using a small round brush drip the colours onto the canvas

I began with Lollipop then Passion and finally Navy Shimmer dust.

Allow to dry then apply more if needed.

Finally apply some of the Midnight Shimmer dust . Lay the canvas flat for this step to keep the colour towards the top of the canvas with only a few drips across the canvas allowing under layers to show through.

Once dry, water down some Mermaid paint (A by M) to add some splatters over the canvas.

Apply the Eye spy stamp to the stamp press with a sheet of White Cardstock 250gsm A4 sheet paper, cover the stamp with a generous layer of Versamark Stamp pad translucent. Imprint the stamp onto the white card.

Sprinkle a generous amount of Stormy night Embossing powder over the stamp imprint. Activate the powder using a heat tool.

Using a small paint brush apply the Shimmer dust around the outside area of the stamp being careful not to colour the eye area. Again, I added the lollipop, passion then navy in turn to cover the stamped area. Dry off, then add more colour if necessary. Dry off.

Pupil area apply some peacock Shimmer dust to the iris carefully. Dry off.

Carefully fussy cut the stamped image from the card keeping as much of the lined detail as possible.

Adhere the stamped image to the top area of the canvas board. Before doing this the image was raised by adding two pieces of cardboard to the back of image then adhered to the board.

Word … using the foil card run a word diecut (strong) through the machine then adhere the word to the bottom area of the canvas board. Remove the masking tape and the project is complete.