Background with Gesso and Dylusions

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 5.

This is the first of two posts today.

Many of my regular visitors have been justifiably very frustrated and impatient with me lately because I’ve been working hard on several secret projects that I wasn’t at liberty to reveal until now. With her permission, I can now reveal that I have been making stuff for Shaz. As many of you will know, she is about to undergo major surgery and has been through so much over the past year. She and her lovely hubby share the same birthday and I have made cards for them both, a get well card for her (still under wraps) and a selection of bits and pieces for her to play with once she feels up to being creative again. She opened the parcel on her birthday (14th Aug.) and now that she has received them I can share the making of them with you. Until now, I didn’t want to spoil her surprise as she visits my blog regularly. Throughout my own cancer journey, this wonderful friend has been such an encouragement and support to me, and this is one way I can thank her, and show my own appreciation and support. I know that she would love a visit from you to wish her well for her surgery on 2nd Sept.

I shall be uploading a couple of posts each day over the next few days until all is revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

Background with Gesso and Dylusions

One of a series of backgrounds or small masterboards (A4 in size) which I have made to cheer up Shaz, who is going through the mill at the moment.

I saw a couple of videos on Youtube recently giving details of this mixed media technique which I thought I would adapt to my own use.

These are the materials I used to create this background.

You could use any black cardstock (glossy is best) but I painted a sheet of plain white card with black gesso.

To add anything with a sponge, it really helps if you hold the sponge like this, as it avoids any obvious lines being formed.

I added white gesso through a piece of punchinella (sequin waste), moving it around randomly and not covering the whole surface, leaving some of the black gesso exposed.

I sprayed a little of each of the four colours I eventually chose from the Dylusions spray inks collection – Bubblegum Pink, Postbox Red, Squeezed Orange and Pure Sunshine– onto my non-stick craft sheet.

I picked up these colours on my brayer. I would have done better to spray two at a time, and closer together, because the strip was wider than my brayer, and the colours ended up getting more mixed than I’d hoped. This is the first time I’ve tried this, so one lives and learns!

I applied the colours to the background sheet with the brayer, reloading it when necessary.

The finished background.

There was quite a bit of ink left on my craft sheet after this, so I spritzed it well with water, and took another sheet of white cardstock and smooshed it in the ink to pick it up. I ran the brayer over it a few times to distribute the ink, spritzing it well with more water.

I sprinkled the whole surface with coarse sea salt and spritzed it again, and left it for a while.

When it was getting dry, I dried it further with my heat gun and removed the salt.

It was rather buckled with all the water so I left it overnight with heavy books on top of it to flatten it out a bit.

The completed background.

I love the effect of the sea salt. It’s very organic, and quite unpredictable so no two pieces are ever the same. I think this one looks a bit like octopus skin!