Friday 31 October 2014

Recycled Mini-Album–Sun, Sea and Sand Pt 1

The latest page is a remembrance of summer holidays at the seaside, and has just one photo, of the family holidaying with friends, in the 1950s.

The first photo shows some of the supplies lined up, to make a seaside-themed page.

35 Supplies for Sun Sea & Sand Page

Some time ago, I was experimenting with painting foil with acrylics, and made the two ATC-sized samples you can see on the left, which were then mounted to be part of a display at a craft show where I was demonstrating my stuff. (I don’t seem to have done a post about making these.) Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do the same technique here, and create a fishing net, this time from a fruit net instead of scrim. The small bag contains some spacer beads from a necklace I bought at the village fete and took apart, and these will make great floats for the net!

Also in my stash, I found some pieces of blue card left over from another project, with a rather interesting edge to them, which looks like waves, so I cut them to size, inked them with Salty Ocean distress ink (appropriately), and layered them together with my ATG glue. I added a bit of inking to the top as well, to indicate the sky.

36 Inking the Wave Pieces

Next step: the foil. I crumpled up a piece of kitchen foil and applied it with generous amounts of regular matt gel medium.

37 Adding the Foil

To create the glaze to colour the foil, I mixed a small quantity of phthalo green and Winsor blue, thinning it with some acrylic polymer. (If you use water, you start to lose the adhesive quality of the paint and it won’t stick on.) I didn’t mix it too thoroughly, so that there would be some variation between the blue and green on the foil.

38 Mixing the Acrylic Glaze

The foil painted with the glaze. It’s quite shiny, but this doesn’t show up ion the photo.

39 Acrylic Glaze on the Foil

I painted the net with what was left – the blue and green combined with the orange made a nice dark colour. I made a lot of mess on my craft sheet (and my hands!) doing this, and the final stage was to use the net to wipe the remaining paint off the palette. No waste!!

40 Painting the Fruit Net

I tried drying it gently with my heat gun, and it started to shrink up (being plastic) – this was actually a good thing because the mesh became smaller, and it had a firmer texture. I must try melting the stuff a bit more and see what happens. Next, I laid the net down onto the foil, again using copious amounts of gel medium. I then added some glass bead gel medium to the bottom of the net, which, when dry, will look like foamy sea water, and some coarse pumice gel medium to the right, to create some sand, which will be painted when dry. I do love these textured mediums! I have used the pumice one to create earth, and the bitumen roof on my beehive explosion box, as well as sand. With the right colour added, it’s very convincing!

41 Fruit Net and Textured Mediums Applied

Some linen thread and the beads to make the floats.

42 Materials for the Floats

The floats added to the net, stuck down with a generous amount of matt gel medium. All this gel medium will dry crystal clear, sticking everything down and just leaving the texture.

43 The Floats Attached

The excess will be folded round the back or cut off, once the gel medium is dry.

While waiting for the left-hand page elements to dry, I turned my attention to the right-hand page. For this I am repeating what I did on an earlier page, using Versamark to stamp, and then brushing on some Perfect Pearls for an iridescent background against the black page, heat setting it to finish.

44 Materials for RH Page Background

I used the Berry Twist Perfect Pearls at the top, and the Biscotti at the bottom – sky and sand! I tore off two strips of the blue card with the wave pattern at the top, and inked them with Salty Ocean distress ink as before, before laying them down with the photo, using regular matt gel medium.

45 RH Page Elements Attached

The pages so far. I have laid the left-hand piece in place, but it is not stuck down yet. I added a bit more of the glass bead gel medium along the bottom of the blue card on the right-hand page. Waiting for everything to dry, which is taking quite a long time!

46 The Pages So Far, Left to Dry

I have completed the border though, using a wavy line to suit the theme, but not so specifically sea-like that it won’t work on the page I’ve drawn it on (larger page on the right, further on in the signature). I still want to do a bit more work on the right hand page as well, and there is some text to be added. Watch this space.

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