Today I'm sharing another project using the new Perfect Paints - specifically, the Shimmering Matte Acrylics. My first experiment with these was the "Believe" canvas that turned out bright and brilliant and very colorful. This time, I wanted to see if I could come up with a muted, vintage-looking project using the same paints, and I think I was successful...I hope you agree.
I got this different look by using a base of black gesso, and applying the paints with a dry-brush technique that put the color on with a lighter coating and let the black gesso show through in spots. The shimmer of these paints really gives this muted look a beautiful glow...
The base is a couple plastic dollar store frames that I glued together with E6000 glue - then added a scroll cardstock diecut to the corners of the very boring, plain, and very smooth outer plastic frame (these plastic frames were very shiny, so to make them easier to photograph, I did apply a thin coating of clear gesso over them prior to this picture so there would be a whole lot less reflective glare)...
And then I made an "oops!"...but then I thought it might work to my advantage because it could be a better way to show you how I did the next step.
The plan was to apply one-coat crackle medium in spots along the smooth outer frame, and the smooth section of the inner frame, then apply heavy black gesso over everything. But I got carried away and started applying the heavy black gesso with a stippling brush and a palette knife, and then realized I'd forgotten the crackle medium...oops!
So I decided to finish the gesso coat, then apply the crackle medium, and put another, thinner coat of black gesso over the whole thing again. Turns out I was right - you can see the shiny clear crackle medium better in the photo when it's over the matte gesso...so here you go..."spot" applications of the crackle medium along the outer edges, and a continuous coating on the inner frame...
With the final coating of gesso done, you can now see how the crackle medium and a stippling application technique of the heavy gesso combines with the cardstock corner diecuts to add a great overall texture to what were smooth sections of the frames...
The next fun step was to start applying a base coat of colors. In my head, I was picturing a finished project with a border of silvery-blue and a center of rose-gold embellishments. To start, I combined red and blue paints until I had the purple shade I wanted, and started dry-brushing the color on, being careful not to cover too completely, because I wanted the black gesso to show through from the lower areas of the textures.
Next, I applied some of the blue paint alone, and then some silver...blending the three colors around the outer edges. I didn't worry that this was looking darker than I envisioned, because I could later add some of the lighter colors used on the embellishment areas to the frame to blend it all together...
Then I started pulling out and laying out embellishments. There's a bit of everything here - a paper baking doily, an old hand scarf pin, a handmade flower backed with cotton lace (that I didn't like after I'd made it years ago, but set it aside to find a way to rework "later"), some older chipboard alpha letters from my scrapbooking days, buttons and paper flowers and silver seed beads, a metal corner scroll, a snippet of lace, an air-dry clay frame, dragonfly charms, and butterfly beads - little bits of fun to layer and stack.
Except for the seed beads, I coated them all with black gesso before gluing them down, then, after the seed beads were glued down, applied a final coating of gesso over everything to cover the beads and any wayward glue blobs...
Here are some detail shots, starting with the paper flower I made too long ago...it's text patterned paper with just a touch of clear coarse glitter on the petals and a cotton lace bottom layer. I didn't like the finished flower at the time, but never got around to taking it apart and redoing it. I pulled it out and discovered it was a pretty good fit for use up in that corner! A coating of gesso and some beautiful paints and you'd never know it was doomed for the "round file" so long ago.
There wasn't a way to continue the clustered look of the round seed beads up in that flower corner, but I did find some stamens in my flower boxes that were almost the same size as the seed beads. So I clustered some of them up and stuck them in around the metal leaves, and after they were painted, you can't tell where the beads stop and the stamens start...
A mulberry paper cherry blossom sits among lots of metal bits and bobs, along with an air-dry clay mini frame and a chipboard bracket, also left from my scrapbooking days (and if you look closely, you'll see I couldn't resist applying pink paint to the fingernails on my old hand pin... :) )
These chipboard alphas are covered with copper, green, and red paints to simulate old metal with a couple different patinas...
And finally, a closeup of a corner that shows a bit more of the blending after applying a bit of the lighter, center colors to the outside frames...
Supplies:
Color mediums: Perfect Paints Shimmering Matte Acrylics - Red Wagon, Peony, Tarnished Silver, Peacock Blue, Moss Green, Spring Green, Aged Copper
Art Mediums: DecoArt One-Step Crackle; Art Basics heavy gesso - black
Dies: Spellbinders "Twisted Metal Tags & Accents" (corner scrolls)
Metal leaves, metal flower, metal corner element, scalloped lace: TheFunkieJunkie.com
Small metal findings: Prima/Finnabair Stamen clusters: ChocolateLetters on Etsy
Frame clay mold: Martha Stewart Chipboard letters: Heidi Swapp
Miscellaneous craft store supplies: Plastic frames, Wilton doily, chipboard circle, chipboard bracket, hand pin, washers, butterfly beads, dragonfly charms, shaped buttons, air dry clay, silver seed beads, mini pearl trim
Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!
