1 week ago.......

Studio DaphNat - Sculpting with Gel Medium

This time Nat and I chose a somewhat labour intensive technique; it takes several days for your project to dry fully so if you plan on making some short term, don't try this one.

Take your time and will get great results.. hopefully hehe!

For some time now I have 2 traditional photo albums lying around, which I planned to use for my wedding pictures and my honeymoon (now 2,5 years ago). The linnen cover and the colour made me buy them...but I wanted to get rid of the embossed words in the cover. So.....when I ran into this technique in this book I knew I wanted to use it to cover up the words.

And so I started:
Step 1: Cover your project with gesso.
Step 2: Add a thin layer of acrylic paint.
Step 3: Add 3 dimensional object to your project.
Step 4: Cover this completely with extra heavy gel medium.
Step 5: Wait a few days until the project is fully dry.
Step 6: To finish: add another thin wash of acrylic paint to the project.

The pictures suck because of the dark weather... circumstances for taking a good picture are not that good..but you get the point I think. I might change the photo album cover later on... because I like the result..but not enough. haha!

Hope you like the technique.. I think that this one also needs some more practice. The point is to make 3 dimensional projects with extra heavy gel medium. Just have fun and don't be afraid to experiment and throw away the results when you don't like it. Just start over!

Now go over to Nat's site to see if she like the technique or not and what she did with it!

Global Perspectives # 2 - Your Background

I am really starting to like maternity leave and wish it would last forever (without the big belly of course hehe...).
I finally have the time again to join different challenges and take my time to create a layout without any hurry or obligation. The latest challenge blog that I really love is Global Perspectives. If you haven't checked it out yet... do so.. you won't be dissapointed!

The layout took quite some time.
What I did was the following:

I scanned some old pictures, changed them to sepia colour in photoshop and printed them on thin photo quality inkjet paper.
Then I transferred them to watercolour paper with Golden Gel Medium, which this time worked perfectly! The background consists of various layers of Ranger Distress Ink that I used over a Heidi Swapp mask. I thought the colours were the too bright so I added a thin layer of gesso over it.
The layout still needed some more darker colours for more contrast so I made a border with my favorite Vivid Ink colour: Coffee Bean! (The perfect brown colour).
With gouache paint I coloured a bit of the backgrounds of the inkjet transfers.

What else is on it? Dymo tape, on the left and right some other tape, scraps of Daisy D paper and a text stamp I received with the latest "Get Inspired Kit".
I am not too sure I like the result, but I had a lot of fun making it. Especially the colouring of the transfers was great! I will add this layout to the album I am making for the baby.

Be on the lookout for a new Studio DaphNat technique today or tomorrow :-)