Craft Stamper Blog Hop!

Hello!
Welcome to my little part of the Craft Stamper Blog Hop! If you have landed here from Kims blog , then you're right on track! If not, not to worry...click on the blog hop logo at the top of the post, which will take you to the full list of participants. (Not that you HAVE to do things in order.....of course!)

So, if you're new here, my name is Trish Latimer and I've been on the CS design team for aproximately a hundred years..... :) My passion is paint, although I do possess every ink pad and spray known to man and a good few thousand stamps too! If its a messy technique, I'm your woman to try it!
Today I want to share a painty messy project with you. Grab a cuppa and a comfy chair as I've plenty of pictures to show exactly how I made it, and if you make it to the end of the post I have details on how to win a fantastic prize!
So, without further ado...

The theme for this Blog Hop is 'Looking Back'. This past year I've rediscovered some long forgotten bits and bobs from my stash, and now they've become must have items that I use all the time! Take puff paint for instance. I remember years ago getting very excited watching the paint puff up and go all lumpy when you heated it. Then the excitement wore off, and you were left thinking, "um, how many sheep, clouds or Santa suits am I really going to be using this for?" Back then I wasn't into messy textured art, so that was about the extent of its uses! NOW though, oh my goodness! The possibilities are endless......
Before we get to the puff paint part of my project though, we need to get the background done!
Firstly, add some interest to a square bit of chipboard or thick card. I've used some text tissue, a die cut strip and some corrugated card.

Next, cover it all with a wash of white paint or gesso to give some uniformity in colour and surface, ready to apply colour. Not too much, you still want to see glimpses of text through the paint.

The base colour is next. I've used a Pool Adirondack paint dabber (although not the dabber part, the paint goes straight onto a palette and I use my fingers to smear it on!)

 I added some pale lime ('Lemonade' Americana Acrylic by Deco Art), and some orange ('Smoked Paprika' Fresco Finish by PaperArtsy) highlights here and there..

I also gently brayered some white paint over the base too. Next, its stamping time! For this kind of background stamping I use unmounted stamps without an acrylic block. This way I get just a hint or piece of the design on my project. I use VersaMagic black ink for all my black stamping. Just find it works best for me!

The stamps I've used are a grid background by The Artistic Stamper, tiny Polka Dots by Technique Tuesday, and bubbles and an alphabet by Sam Poole for Creative Expressions.
Printing next! I've used bottle tops and the edge of an old store card to create lines and circles. I've used orange and my 'pop' colour, bright pink (Pebeo Studio 'Primary Magenta')...

I've also added a few tiny white dots here and there for some detail...

Now we're ready for the puff paint!! Yay! I use white puff paint, as then I can tint it to the shade I'm after. Squeeze some into a pot...

Add a small amount of paint to colour (I've used DoCrafts Lush Pink)

And mix well. This isn't like colour mixing though, the white of the puff paint only affects the colour of the paint you are adding very very slightly. You might imagine such a small amount of pink paint and all that white would result in a very pale shade. nope..............

Once its mixed up, you can apply to your substrate. My favourite method of doing this is scraping it through a stencil using a palette knife....

Carefully (you don't want to smear the pattern) remove the stencil...

And then the magic part... heat the paint with a heat tool!

Can you see the texture starting to develop?! Once done, you can gently highlight the lumps and bumps with more paint...

To finish off my piece I added black paint splats by flicking a paintbrush full of watered down paint at the background. I also added my stamped figure (Zettiology) to the corrugated card...

The final touch is the word 'smile'..created from AlphaPart letters..

And there you have it...all finished!

Phew! Hope you've all made it this far!
Now, on to the fun part....Free stuff!! I have a whole bundle of prizes for you to win, take a little look here..

There is... some puff paint, a stencil, some paint and some palette knives so you can have a go at exactly the technique I've shown you above! My project was done on a bit of chipboard, but that's a bit rubbish to offer as a prize so I've included two box canvases instead, a 4" x 5" and a square 5" x 5". Annnnnnnnd, there is also a copy of my 'Create With Paint' DVD too!
To win couldn't be easier, all you need to do is to leave a comment here, on THIS POST, by midnight on Friday February 8th 2013. I will draw a winner at random on the morning of Monday February 11th 2013. I'll be announcing the winner here on my blog that afternoon, so make sure to check back to see if you are the lucky one! Overseas players are welcome, posting outside the UK not a problem.
There will be prizes all over the place during the Blog Hop, so make sure you check out the main Craft Stamper blog and the  Craft Stamper Blog Event Facebook Page too!
To win the main, very very large and fabulous prize (really...go check out the list of what you could win on the main blog site..its massive!!), Blog Hoppers have been asked to collect a letter from each of us participating in the hop. Once you have all the letters, they will form a phrase. Email the phrase to Craft Stamper magazine to be in with a chance of winning! (Full details on the main Craft Stamper Blog) The Letter that you need to collect from me is....... F !

I hope you're having fun on the hop! The next stop on your way is.....

the lovely Carol Fox!

Have fun, and see you soon!

Trish 

xxxxxxx