Thursday 3 December 2015

Grungy Christmas at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, can you believe that it's the last challenge of the year over at Stamps and Stencils? This time the very talented Julia, in keeping with the time of year has picked a Christmas theme...but with a twist. Here's what Julia has to say about 'Grungy Christmas'.


'I love Christmas but I'm a little shy when it comes to the bling, glitter and tinsel bit. We'd like to see you step away from the normal Christmas colours and create a mixed media piece which has a real touch of grunge. Think alternative colours, layers, antiquing and all things which are not pristine red and green!' 



I decided to alter a couple of mdf star ornaments. I thought the new Christmas fresco paints by PaperArtsy would be great alternative colours and originally was going to do them in 2 colours, the Plum and the Peacock. A base coat went on beautifully.



Lovely but I changed my mind to just the blue. I used small images from a favourite PA Xmas set. Stamped in black archival and quickly added WOW embossing powder in Black glint...still grungy but a touch of sparkle!



Next I mixed some  3D gloss gel with primary elements pigment in green pearl (which is irridescent) and using a snowflake mask by Clarity spread the gel across. I kept lifting the spatula up and down to roughen the texture. Before it dried I sprinkled a little WOW sparkling snow embossing powder on and heat set it.



On the Joy ornament I added text stamping and used a Damask TCW stencil instead. The green which antiqued them both is a glaze I made with the green pearl. A touch of treasure gold to the raised areas and we're nearly there.



Lastly I coloured and aged some silky seam binding to hang them up by. I love how they turned out and thought they would also work well if you wanted to celebrate Christmas in a rustic style....


.....or maybe a Victorian Christmas. Red has crept in but I hope Julia will like this red.


Please hop across and see what my very talented team mates have produced and hopefully inspire you to join in with our Grungy Christmas challenge.

As always thanks for stopping by... x