Hooked on Gold

Hi everyone, I just couldn't let another month go by with just one post, and to make up for my lack of blogging it's a longish photo heavy one. The last few months have been quite hectic craft wise but I hope to be sharing with you some of the stuff I've been working on quite soon. For the first time in a while I was able to just go where the muse took me and yesterday created some journal pages. You might need sunglasses, but maybe that's a good thing with the wet weather of late!

I'm always drawn to creations on Kraft card but my own attempts have been a bit hit and miss. It may seem obvious but colours will alter on Kraft unless you use something opaque, mix that with my love of brayered backgrounds using fresco paints and I've been rather happy with the results of my experiments.

The beauty of using Kraft as a substrate is that you don't have to cover the whole area, it becomes part of the background. Here I used fresco paints in rose, bougainvillea and blueberry. I added gold fresco paint on top....but more about that later.

3D transparent art basics gel applied through a stencil and then some frantage shabby white embossing enamel sprinkled on top (yes I did that in my last post - another addiction). Wait till it is almost dry before heating. I created some darker areas with anemone IZink drips.

The stamping and stencilling should have been done before that stage but I managed and used a PA Hot picks plate and a Donna Downey quote with magenta archival. I used various stencils with the same paints and added in some black along with more white.

I think this photo taken in artificial light shows how reflective the gold is. Might be too bright for some but I'm hooked.

It's funny I don't like to wear gold, it doesn't suit me, I only wear white metal..even my wedding ring is white gold....but I love little additions of gold on a project whether it's treasure gold, Krylon leafing pen or foiling etc. I do use silver when I'm using cool hues but it's definite that I am hooked on gold.

Now feel free to stop, take a break or if you have a few minutes and a cuppa to hand please carry on with the rest of my post which is a bit of a catch up (be warned it includes some Christmas cards). So going back to the gold fresco paint, I bought it just before Christmas and I think it might be a slightly different formula (hope I'm not giving any secrets away) but it is the most luscious blingalicious paint and I can't stop using it!

As usual I was on the last minute making the family Christmas cards but using Kraft card stock and brayered paint whipped up some easy cards which were pretty well received and I think could be adapted for none Christmas cards.

The sentiments stamps are waltzing mouse stamps, embossed with WOW black glint embossing powder.

Pen squiggles around the outside

Use a thin line of gold on your brayer and just roll it once, don't go back and forth if you want to leave a lovely touch of textured gold.

It didn't stop there I made matching envelopes..

...and although I don't have any to show you I made gift wrap the same way but on a larger scale...for small presents and special people only.

Another idea that could be adapted are enameled snowflakes using frantage again, well we have had snow recently so I think I just about get away with it!

It won't be as long till my next post as I have a few coming up this week, now I'm not saying any of them are connected to it but as a btw the launch of the new PaperArtsy stamp collection starts tonight which may also mean new frescos (do you get the idea I like these paints?)...anyway I'm looking forward to it....even if my bank balance isn't!