It's Crackle Time...

....ohlalalaaaa... I am a lucky lass indeedily you know.  I am fortunate to be part of the 2013 Darkroom Door DT and this month sees the release of some fabby new stamps.  I have been given the new Crackle background to play work with and I came up with a mixed media canvas design.    To see the new stamps that have just been released, CLICK HERE and also, do take a mo to pop over to see the artwork from my talented teamies who have been busy making eye candy for us all to see... HERE.

The canvas is an 8" square, coloured with Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints, using my fave Traditional Tan for the base and then using Sable Brown mixed with Traditional Tan to make an in-betweeny colour and then the Sable Brown on its own for the darker colour on the top layer.  I used the scraped paint technique to apply the paints, I loves this technique and it goes perfectly with the new Crackle stamp.

To add the stamping to the canvas, I first got a Kleenex tissue and de-plyed it so it was a single layer.  The crackle was stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink and zapped with a heat tool to dry the ink off.  I then tore pieces of the image and applied it to the canvas using Glue & Seal Matte to collage over it.  The reason I use a cosmetic tissue is that when it is torn on the edges, the Glue & Seal kind of melts it into the canvas so it doesn't just look like it has been plonked on there.

I set about adding some texture, using a Claudine Hellmuth stencil and some 490 Embossing Paste (black) and once this had dried I went right over the top of the whole canvas with more Glue & Seal to provide a nice waterproof coverage to it.  Out came the old Stabilo All pencil to add some shading to th textured parts and once I had blended this part, I painted my two-tone edges - yep, I am a smidge addicted but hey, there's nowt wrong with being addicted to paint right?

I added a pile of flowers (coloured with Dylusions sprays and Cosmic Shimmer spray) and then set about embellishing the canvas.  The large metal butterfly is actually a Graphic 45 embellishment, I simply jazzed him up by stamping the crackle background over him using the Black Archival Ink and then heat setting it - remember, you needs to heat set Archival Ink as it is oil based... but totally waterproof when set... perfect!   The word is actually one of the new Sizzix Alterations Stacked Words dies from Tim Holtz... the whole word is ARTIST but I only wanted the ART bit so I snipped into it and then used Treasure Gold to color the black card it was cut from.   I also added Treasure Gold (liberally lol) to the rest of the embellies and textured bits.   The finishing touch is the little orange butterfly which is also a Darkroom Door stamp - he is from the Wings set.  And there you have it... one finished mixed media canvas... and pretty simples to create at that :o))

I shall away now as I am scheduling this post ahead of our trip away and I have packing to do... feels weird talking about something that hasn't happened yet as if it already has... confoosed?  Me too lol   Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x