Guest Designer at A Vintage Journey

Well I am amongst some prestigious company today! Absolutely delighed that Brenda asked me to be a guest at the A Vintage Journey challenge blog today.

The theme is 'Texture/Embossing Paste' and I've used several different mediums to add texture to my piece. There's an introduction to my project on the AVJ site and here are the full step outs of how I made it.

1) Paint a 6x4" canvas with DecoArt Cobalt Turquoise Hue paint diluted with Tinting Base. Use a scrunched up baby wipe to add patches of neat Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Cerulean Blue and white gesso here and there.

2) Stamp the Rubber Dance girl stamp onto white card (from my very own Take the Plunge set!). Stamp the sun (Tim Holtz) behind in two colours of Archival Ink. Stamp the girl a second time and colour with alcohol markers (mine are Graph It). Stamp the sun again in darker Archival colours. Cut out as shown.

3) Use a stencil (this one is Tando) and matte heavy gel to add some 'water' texture to the canvas towards the bottom.

4) Glue the sun rays and lady in place. Add scraps of cheesecloth to add more texture.

5) Mix embossing paste or modelling paste with paint to tint it - I used Yellow Oxide and Raw Umber DecoArt paints. Use the paste through a stencil (TCW) to make embellishments.

6) Add extra stencilling around the edges (TCW) - you can get texture with a heavy gesso by pouncing it through your stencil with a sponge.

7) Add a 'beach' using Texture Sand Paste from DecoArt. While still wet, add some Art Stones from Prima. When dry, tint with Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide paint.

8) Add a collage of pebbles and shells on the left. Glue the shell embellishment and stamped words to a piece of driftwood and add on the right to finish.

I really enjoyed creating this retro-themed piece, I hope you've enjoyed my adventures with texture today and hope to see you soon.

Katy x