Zinnia Masquerade

Oh happy day, dear readers! Today is my turn to host  for Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) new Mix Ability Challenge. I was absolutely delighted when I was appoached to be part of the design team. I like the all inclusive spirit at SCS which encourages all levels, styles and brands of stamping goodness, so this invite was a perfect fit for me. The start of these challenges saw me finally using my art journal. No more does it sit idle, mocking me with it’s blank pages. And judging from the comments and new subscribers to this blog my attempts at this style of creativity has made a connection with you too. Thank you to all who have hopped by and I’m greatly encouraged by you all.

So lets get on with the show, eh! My challenge is called Mask-erade, and I am asking participants to use a masking technique in their creation. If your not sure how to do this is you can find a tutorial HERE, or you can follow thru with me here as I have a step thru of what I did to make my page.

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The technique in itself is quite simple and is great for getting creative with layering of stamped images, as I have done here. My zinnias are stamped with Stampendous Jumbo Clings – Zinnia. Zinnias are so boldly colourful so I didn’t hesitate to capture some of that vibe with some bold colouring of my own. Follow along with me, if you will, and see how this spread came together.

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I open to a clean spread in my Moleskine Sketchbook. I’m working on unprimed pages today. I stamp a line of zinnias across the middle of the page, masking as I go. The images are stamped with Ranger Archival Ink – Magenta Hue, which is a permanent ink. At this stage there is a good likelihood that I’ll be adding a wet medium at some stage and I want the image to keep it’s clean lines.

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Bring on the colour! It’s been ages since I coloured an image with colouring pencils.  I used a combo of Polychromes and Prisma pencils. I’m just not into the detailed colouring and blending to achieve smooth transitions of shades. I like the texture and look of the pencil markings and these zinnia images lend themselves perfectly to my scratchy style. My scratchy style of colouring is also very quick so I was able to move on pretty quickly to the next step.

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Now it was time to work on the background and I’ve decided to go with ink sprays, which are very wet. My masks were made with ordinary printing paper and I knew they would not hold up to the saturation from a spray. I remedied this by givng them a quick spray seal on both sides to they would hold up to thr task. I also gave the backs a quick go over with some spray adhesive so I could get the egdes of the images tightly covered to minimise any leakage

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I try a shimmer spray. Oh dear! Thats awful. LOL. I’m always mindful that I’m never sure how anything is going to go when working with this new-to-me paper surface, so I’m prepared to get a negative reaction. I blot it off and try a different approach. This time I’ll go direct to the paper with some stains and since these will add more fluid to the paper than a spray I’m crossing my fingers the masks hold up to what I’m about to unleash on them.

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I dab Distress Stains directly to the paper, spray on some extra water to aid the blending. The end result was rather blotchy, but with luck and extra stamping I figure it’d be not so noticable when I finish. While I have the masks in place I stamp the lace edge with acrylic paint.

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I held my breathe as I removed the masks, which were by now ruined from getting wet and torn. Yes! It all worked out well. There was some seepage but nothing alarming. In fact I think it actually added some more interest to the zinnias. For the keen eyed, the tops of the two middle flowers had some odd colour reaction when the Archival Ink, colour pencil and stains met. I wonder if I could recreate that under a controlled situation?

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I find a quote to add to my page and stamp it with acrylic paint. It says – “the flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unfraid. I’m taking more chances.” I cut some fresh masks formy image so I can add some vines behind the flowers. You may notice that I didn’t get the whole image on one scrap, but I just move around what I have and work with what I’ve got and it seems to work well for me.

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Voila! Another page completed.

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My eyes are failing me, lol. I totally missed colouring some spaces. How about if I tell you they are now called highlights!

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Some scratchy colouring. In art classes, way back back in my school days, I was described as having an ‘Impressionist’ style. A fair statement given what this looks like up close.

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Masking is great for creating layers with your stamping without the bulk of layering with papers and embellishments.

So come and join me over at Splitcoast Stampers as I host my first Mix Ability Challenge.

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