That Craft Place Challenge Blog: VonPappe Wednesday #3

Servus and welcome back to the third episode of "VonPappe Wednesday", dear That Craft Place readers, lovers and players!

If you don't know by now what VonPappe Wednesday means: once per month I try to provide That Craft Place Challenge Blog readers exclusively with a tutorial that shows how to use and what to create from some of the fab stuff Lisa offers at her wonderfully sorted shop.

If you have missed the two previous VonPappe Wednesdays, just click the "VonPappe Wednesday" label at the bottom of this post and all related posts (=tutorials) will show.

If you haven't yet checked out the new challenge here at That Craft Place, just click HERE to learn more about it. It's an "Anything Goes" challenge - so don't hesitate and join in the fun! You could win some fab digi images from this month's challenge sponsor! So check it out!

But back to this Wednesday's programme: this time I decided to use the lovely "Home is Where the Art is" MDF cut set to create a little wall hanger for my studio. Or maybe for my 7 year old niece's room (as she is very creative already and loves to craft, draw and paint).

Sorry for the slightly blurred and dark image, but it has been grey in grey outside now for days over here in Vienna and this was the best result I could get so far.

I have used a lot of DecoArt stuff on this (which you can order with That Craft Place as well of course) and some designer papers as you can see.

Materials list:

DecoArt products:
- media White Gesso
- media Black Modelling Paste
- Decou-Page "Antique" glue and sealant
- Traditions acrylic colour: Carbon Black
- Triple Thick
- Americana acrylic colours: Dusty Rose, Cadmium Orange, Green Tea, Primary Yellow, Black Plum, Primary Red, Alizarin Crimson

and

-designer papers (I used some from Spellbinders)
-an old book page
-scissors
-thin black wire
-long flat nose pliers
-cutting pliers
-palette knife
-hole puncher plus hammer (or crop-a-dile)
-brushes (one for painting, one for dry brushing and one to apply the Triple Thick with)
-white Sharpie and black and pink PITT artists pens

So let's go!

This is the "Home is Where the Art is" set:

1. Arrange the pieces until you are content with how they look. In my case I only used three of the four plates that come with this lovely set (which is cool as I can use the fourth for a later project. Yay!).

You will find that I changed my pieces' arrangement while proceeding with my project...but it is good to know if all of the pieces you want to use really fit in ;)

2. Choose some matching designer papers and cover the panels with them. I used the new "Antique" DecoArt Decou-page as it tones down the colours a bit (due to a slight brown-ish tint).

3. Cover two of the small hearts with some old bookpages.

When decou-page-ing small items it is easier to apply a coat of glue to the paper and place your items/substrate face down on it. You can cut off the excess easily once it has all dried.

4. Give the third heart a generous coat of black modelling paste. Dab the paste onto your heart with a palette knife and create some cool texture by holding the palette knife flat and pressing down lightly and lifting it again in different areas. This will create these little "peaks" (the book page is just for protecting the craft sheet below).

(If you want to spare yourself the nuisance of heavy rubbing and cleaning of your brushes and palette knives, just dump them into water right after use. I do the same with the brushes I use for applying the Decou-page or Triple Thick).

5. Set the black heart aside to dry and start painting the borders of your book page hearts.

I painted a thin outline and then quickly cleaned and loaded my brush with clear water and pulled/diluted some of the already painted on colour towards the center of the hearts. This will only work as long as the paint is still wet. So if you paint larger pieces make sure you only paint short sections at a time.

6. Once the painted on hearts are dry apply a generous coat of Triple Thick (maybe even two...but let the first dry completely before you add the second).

The Triple Thick is self levelling - so you just have to make sure you really add plenty of it to your pieces.

7. Re-punch the holes of your paper covered panels.

Pay attention to leave the two holes at the bottom of the bottom panel covered! (See my pointing finger? It says "No, no!")

8. To finish the black heart for the bottom panel give the dry black modelling paste washes and some dry brushing with Black Plum, then True Red and Alizarin Crimson (working from the darkest colour towards the brightest). I applied some Triple Thick on this one too, but you could also leave it the un-shiny way.

9. I am afraid I somehow lost some of the pictures I took of the next steps - which were painting the words and stars - , but it was rather unspectacular: first I painted the words with Green Tea Americana and then I outlined them with a black PITT artists pen. For a finish I added some white highlights here and there with a Sharpie and also added some pink. After all had dried I covered the letters with Triple Thick too.

10. To make the hearts fit in, I dabbed some Carbon Black acrylic colour around their edges with my fingertip. I did the same with the edges of the panels.

11. The stars were given a dabbed on coat of White Gesso (very similar to the texture I created with the black modelling paste). Once it had dried I dry brushed on some Cadmium Orange, then some Primary Yellow and for a finish a hint of Dusty Rose to blend them in with the whole colour design.

Dry brushing means: load a soft flat brush with a bit of acrylic colour and then "paint" some kitchen roll with it until there's hardly any colour left on your brush (=until your brush is almost dry). With the traces of colour on your brush now softly brush over the texture you want to highlight. This step needs to be repeated until you are content with the result. Do not rush this as it will very likely make you apply too much colour (which will destroy the subtle effect of the dry brushing).

12. Glue all your words, hearts and stars in place. Let dry. Then create the hanging loop and connectors from thin, black wire.

To do so cut four pieces of about the length of your panels' width. Then with each one insert the upper end from back to front in the upper panel and the lower end from front to back into the lower panels' holes. Bend down/upwards and curl the ends around the center part of your wire "hooks". Use thin round or flat nosed pliers and make sure you bend in the ends thoroughly (as these are quite sharp and could scratch or poke).

13. Cut a longer piece of wire for the hanging loop and insert the ends into the upper holes. Curl ends around the wire from the loop. Hang it up. You're done! :)

In this picture I tried to capture the look of the two layers of Triple Thick. Hope you can see it:

And of course I hope that you like my little "artsy" project! The Triple Thick creates such a cool dimensional effect and the dabbed on modelling paste and Gesso are a beautiful contrast to the glossy, shiny look of the words. AND even I do pink and girly sometimes. Who would have thought. lol

Hugs and happy crafting ,

Claudia xxx