It must be Love... a project for Bubblyfunk

My first DT project is here now!!!
I really enjoyed creating this piece (good job because I had to do it twice because I got excited and forgot to take pics lololol)
And can I just point out how fab the packaging looks... so much more environmentally friendly than plastic bags and much easier to store them in!!
Oh, and I also read the stencil as “Love” but its meant to be I 💗u... I think it works either way to be honest lol

Have a look at the rest of  the blog while you are there because there are some fabby projects by the design team on there!!

The how to...

It’s not an exact replica of the original but the nature of the techniques used are never going to give the same results. Its more about playing with the paints, inks, brayer and stencils until you find a balance and pick out the elements that you like.

So I started out by choosing a selection of acrylic paints, inks and stencils. I stencilled on to my mixed media paper with my archival ink pad as my very first layer using a sponge – don’t worry about perfect stencilling as any imperfections will be covered in the layers and you just want to be able to see the shapes under the paint. 

Once happy with the result I put a little bit of each acrylic paint on my glass mat. I like to start out with the lighter colours then go in with the dark tones (Be a bit cautious with dark colours like grey because it can take over). As you can see I am currently using an old kitchen worktop protecter but use whatever you have – nonstick craft mat, glass work mat or even a smooth tile would do. Roll the brayer through the paint and the colours start to blend then apply over your stencilled images. I tend to stick to horizontal and vertical strokes but randomly applied all over. Just add as much or as little as you want until you are happy with the effect. 

I decided I wanted more of the pearl colour so went back and brayered a bit more on. Keep scrap paper and cardstock to hand to clean up your brayer and any left over paint. Its amazing the results you can get from this for future creations. 

I then went back in with my stencil with a darker shade of pink acrylic paint. In some places I emphasised the original images but others were just randomly placed. Next I picked out the area I liked the best, weighted down my stencil large heart stencil and applied the distress resist spray ( I sprayed too much on the second version so you can’t see the letter detail but that’s just another variation in the end result). 

Make sure you wash your stencil before this drys as it will leave a coating on your stencil. Once its completely dry on your artwork you can start adding your inks. I started by picking out the heart with hickory smoke distress oxide using a sponge. Then I swiped my worn lipstick distress ink across the top then put the paper on an angle and spritzed with water letting it run over the heart shape. 

When dry I took my black soot distress ink pad and swiped it a few times diagonally following the pink drippy ink, then spritzed with water again an let it run off at the angle again. I blotted up some of the ink on the paper then dried it off. You will end up with a big black puddle of distress ink at the point so have lots of scrap paper or brayered pieces to hand to mop up the ink.

Once your ink is dry buff off any excess ink on your resist heart and it will really start to stand out. I then went back to my worn lipstick distress ink and stencilled the scattered hearts and dots over the diagonal stripe ( I found pouncing the sponge left a stronger colour then swirling did – I would have used distress oxide but I don’t have a pink one yet lol).

Dry off and then add more hearts and dots with texture paste. Now go and make a cuppa and wait for this to dry or you will smudge it and ruin the texture. If you do make any mistakes or make an area too dark you can always go in with gesso or your acrylics again until you are happy with the result. I did that on my first attempt but didn’t bother the second time. 

Once its dry you can then go in with a fineliner and outline the main heart and any other images you want to pop. I like the scribbly effect and its also much easier to do. Because I was too heavy handed with the resist spray the second time I repositioned my stencil and outlined with the fineliner, then went back and scribbled over. 

I stencilled the word “love” in the pink distress , shifted the stencil slightly and stencilled again in my black archival to create a drop shadow. To finish I cut it down to a square keeping my favourite areas and created a scribbly edge with the fineliner. I added white highlights with my paint pen and then splattered dots by tapping my pen over another pen. 

Hope this inspires you to get your paints and inks out and get messy and creative. 

Hugs, Julie x

Hugs’n’snogs,
Julie x