Anything Goes!

Monday morning, and another new challenge over at Use Your Craft Stash on FB! We've gone for and Anything Goes theme this week - so..... Anything Goes. Whatever crafty project you are making with your old stash, join us and enter the challenge- just remember to add your photo to the album and tell us what stash you've used. Here's my inspiration for the week.

At first, I was thinking "We don't have a theme! I don't know what to do!", but then though, what do I really want to play with from my stash? Two things came to mind - rice papers and my melt pot. So

I used them to create the canvas.

The rice paper is an A4 one from Stamperia called Rose Garden with Fence, and I've used a 10x12 canvas.

As the canvas is larger than the paper, I used a palette knife to splodge white gesso and Imagination Crafts Menthol Starlight paint, onto the canvas. Then, rather than using a brush, I used the knife to spread it across the canvas. The paper was then stuck down with IC Satin Decoupage Plus.

The next step was to make some embellishments using the Melt Pot. I found the receipt in with the instruction book, telling me I bought this back in 2013, and I bought all the stuff to go with it - I have loads of large tubs of UTEE and some small ones too. I have the large tub of clear. I have the beeswax with a separate pan, the texture treads, inks designed to colour UTEE and a few moulds. But I am obviously out of practice as I managed to get the stuff on me twice - and that is very painful.

I never throw the unused UTEE out - and consequently I have a collection of things I never used, or ends of batches that I pour into little silicone moulds to set and keep for later. I wanted green leaves for the canvas, so gathered all the green and light coloured pieces from my scraps boxes, chucked them in the pot, and poured it into the moulds. There was a lot left over, so that has been saved for another day.

   

I didn't have much pink, so used the little bit I had, and mixed it with white, blue raspberry and clear UTEE. The little balls are UTEE Flex. The UTEE can be quite brittle when set, so this helps to stop it shattering if dropped.

Once made, the top can become matt from being in the mould. You can heat with a heat gun which slightly melts it and makes it glossy, but I decided to drag something else out the cupboard - my Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders - which I dusted over the top. I used Golden Pear and Pearlescent.

 

And then, as always happens with me and mixed media, I forgot to take any more photos. But the next steps were stencilling the corner details on using Sheena Create a Flower A Leaf of Graph Paper stencil and IC Shabby Chic Relief Paste in Sage and Ashy Rose. I dusted these with Mica Powder too.  A little bit of stamping with an IC art stamp and Distress Oxides in Bundled Sage and Worn Lipstick added a little more to the background (but would have been better if done before the stencilling. And then I attached the embellishments with Finnabair Art Basics Heavy Body Gel, as they are quite heavy in relation to the canvas.

And there you have it. We hope to see all your amazing creations this week. 

Cxxx

I have entered this into: 

Mix It Up Challenge Blog #37

Love to Craft Challenge Blog #46