Watercolours are amazing. Mix them up with a few stencils including a lamppost, and you can easily create a masterpiece – go on, ask me how I know!
This is how I know – I did one!
I’d love to hear if you agree, but I think it’s a pretty good version of a masterpiece, especially as I am generally not all that “artistic”! That is the worderful thing about papercrafting, in my opinion; you don’t have to be “artistic” or “creative” or any of those loaded words which can scare people away from even trying.
More about that in a minute, but firstly I must apologise for missing yesterday’s posting time. Unfortunately I had a migraine yesterday, and it took me most of the day to shake it off. And then I really didn’t want to sit in front of a computer screen, so sorry but you had to miss out! In penance, I will add an extra post for this week which will be live for you tomorrow morning 🙂
So, back to my lamppost masterpiece! 😉
I attended a workshop on Saturday with the ever-lovely Sheena Douglass, ably assisted by Chief Inkoid Donna Ratcliff. Here are the lovely pair in the morning. Someone else was taking a piccie of them together, which I thought was a fab idea, so I quickly jumped in on the action!
When Sheena showed us this card by Donna, and told us it was what we would be making, I will admit to being more than a little intimidated!
The railings and lamppost look so 3 dimensional, and the shadows really bring the image to life. As I mentioned above, I do not class myself as artistic, and this looked like a very arty-type card! But I have been attending Sheena’s workshops for a good few years now, and I have learned to simply go with it, as she’s never let me down yet! And she did the same again.
The card was watercoloured using the Spectrun Noir AquaTints (Bright and Beautiful set) and then stencilled with the railing and lamppost from Sheena’s Victorian Park stencil sheet. We used Archival ink for the stencilling, so that it didn’t lift when we did the next step, which was faux bleaching. The AquaTint paints are amazing, as if you add a bit of water, you can actually lift the colour from the card and faux bleach the areas which you want to lighten. Like the lamppost lamp, the pool of light under the lammpost, and the light spilling from the sides. It’s like magic!
Sheena did an example card, to show us how it is done (she always demos first) and then we were let loose to have a go! Here’s Sheena’s card:
We filled in the “bridges” of the stencil areas with Black Soot distress ink, painted in with our paintbrushes, and then watered it down for the lighter areas of the image to create the 3-D effect. We also used watered down black soot for the shadows. Adding a touch more stencilling for the cobblestones and then some watered down silver paint for the light effects and the beams coming from the lamppost finished it off nicely. We flicked a bit of silver paint over the picture for stars/ snow, and it adds a tiny bit more subtle sparkle. We also stencilled the foliage around the edges of the card to frame the image, and once it was all dry we heat-embossed the sentiment on with silver. My photo was taken before I did that step, but it is all done now!
Here’s my masterpiece again, I hope that you like it! The pool of light could do with a bit of practice, but for a first attempt I am very pleased.
Don’t forget that there are new Weekly Deals available now from Stampin’ Up! and the vellum is lovely! Why not treat yourself while the price is lower?
For tomorrow I have a nice Birthday card to share with you, and I hope you like that. I trust that you have enjoyed this image-heavy “lamppost” today as a treat for having to miss out yesterday while I was poorly. Have a great day!
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