Art Journal Houses

Hello again, Liz here bringing you a project using some of the new PaperArtsy stamps in stock at Crafters Cupboard. I thought I would do a journal page for you all today.  I really wanted to play with the Eclectica House plate EDY08:

I had to add in my current favourite Eclectica Mini 07 as well.

So, this is what we are making today - in typical Liz fashion there are a lot of layers and paint effects on this page.

 I started with a piece of 9"x12" 300gsm watercolour paper and coated it with a thick layer of liquitex gesso - making sure that i got some good ridges in the gesso for texture.  It is hard to see in the picture, but I was going for a swirly Van-Gogh Starry Night kind of feel.

Dry that thoroughly because we are going to start the page with a base of rust.  I use a 2-step product that you can get in the specialty paint section of the hardware store (well I do know that it is available in Masters. Bunnings used to stock something similar, but I am not sure if they still have it).

 Don't worry if you don't have this rust paint, you can use the current fresco limited edition paints in browns as a base, but it won't give you the same "greenie" effect in the sky later on.


Apply the first undercoat, and dry thoroughly. Apply a second coat and dry again.  This is what your page will look like at this point:

The paint is essentially iron particles suspended in goo (sorry - I'm not a chemist!!). Next step is to add the rusting fluid.  Please make sure that you do this in a ventilated area.  Put plenty of the liquid onto the page and leave it on its own to work its magic, while you get on with the other bits for the page.   This is what your page will look like after about 15 minutes:

(apologies for the shine in that photo - its the rusting liquid sitting on the page).  Keep adding more rusting liquid to get a super rusted effect.

Now we are going to start prepping the pieces for the foreground.  I'm using some sticky-backed foil tape by Ranger for this, but you can use any type of foil tape - again the hardware store sells this, just make sure it is wide enough to take the stamps (I regularly buy rolls of the widest they stock, and that will be fine for this project).

We are ranging back into the past here, but pull out those alcohol inks that have been getting dusty in your cupboard and get some colours onto your foil.  I used sunset orange, sunshine yellow, sailboat blue and citrus.

Dry thoroughly with a heat tool to set, then using a stazon ink pad (remember - only stazon works with alcohol inks) fill the foil with stamped house images.  Heat set the Stazon as well - just to be sure.

Next, stamp some more images onto an un-inked piece of foil.  We will add "pops" of colour to this later with copics.

 

 Stamp again but this time onto transparency. You don't need to have the same number of  house "types" on each substrate, were going to mix and match them all before adhering them to the page.

Now you can get ready to assemble!  Cut all of them out and lay them in front of you. Carefully cut elements from the inked and un-inked foil houses out and adhere to the transparent ones, and vice versa.  Use copics to add colour to house elements on the un-inked foil houses. This is what your house collection could look like at this point in the process:

Paint the back of elements of the transparencies with fresco paints (not pictured).  I used Zesty Zing and Baltic Blue, as these are the colours I am putting into the sky.  Put these aside to dry while you work on the background.

Get your background and dry it thoroughly with a heat gun.  This will finish off the rusting process that you have started naturally.  See how light the page is now?  It should feel rough to touch.

Mix baltic blue with some type of paint extender in a 2:1 ration of extender to paint. GAC500 is the best but if you don't have that, use matte medium.  Using a paper towel rub it onto the page.  I went through 2 paper towels to cover the entire page.  Be rough - you want this coat to be a bit patchy.  Dry this coat thoroughly. Here's a close-up of what you are looking for.

Next we are going to work with 2 colours simultaneously - mixing them as we go to get accentuated greenish & rusty patches. 


Prepare your zesty zing in the same way as you prepared your baltic blue. (and top up your baltic blue mixture again). Working in sections (paper) towel the colours on in exactly the same way as you did previously, but this time making sure that you work the colours together in places.  Make sure that you get the zesty zing over the areas where there is more rust showing through - the zesty zing is translucent, while the baltic blue is opaque, so the zesty zing allows you to see more of the rust effect.


Here's how my page looked at the end of this stage.  See the coverage is thicker, and there is less of the rust showing through on this coat than on the previous.

Dry this thoroughly, then lightly, lightly sand the page.  This will allow the rust to peek through the page again, and will accentuate the texture that we put on in the gesso.

Seal the page with Fresco Satin Glaze and dry thoroughly. This just gives the page a little bit of shine, like so:

Now its on to the composition!!   

Arrange your houses along the landscape bottom edge of the page.  You want the houses to be higher in some spots than others, it simulates a more urban landscape.

Once you're happy with the layout, adhere them all using glossy accents behind the transparencies.  Seal the entire page with matte medium.

Next, apply a layer of rusty hinge distress ink using your applicator to the whole page.  This will help to tone down the very silver foil houses.

Now, stamp the sentiment in black stazon on a piece of foil. Stamp the stars from the plate as well using mustard (or some other yellow) stazon. Heat set, and then overstamp the stars with black, making sure to offset slightly.

Trim and adhere to your page. Using a dark brown alcohol marker, outline the sentiment, the stars and around the uninked foil houses - making sure to smudge the ink with your finger as you go.

Using your white paint pen, highlight elements of the houses, particularly on the transparencies.  Splatter some of the ink onto the sky to accentuate your clumps of stars.

And there you have it - a very dimensional, shiny, page for your art journal.

Till next time!!


~Liz