Sealed & Tasseled O' Precious One
Directions
This is a longer project ... but, you'll love the results you'll achieve!
Stamp by Stampa Rosa
Radiant Pearls Paint
KatTrax dTail 3 brush
KatTrax Whiska Stippler brush
KatTrax Kewl Tool
KatTrax Swiper
Black super-fine (detail) embossing powder
Clear fine embossing powder
Paint palette (old CDs work GREAT!)
Black pigment stamp pad
Extra fine glitter (optional)
Pearl or mica powder (optional)
Foam mounting tape or Pop Dots (optional)
The following painting techniques can be seen on the video Radiant Pearls: The Journey Begins ($19.95 + $3.20 shipping + applicable tax -- Click to order)
1. Emboss image with detail black embossing powder
2. Paint vegetation with various colors Radiant Pearls using dTail brush. For example, paint lower vines with Emerald Forrest, Fandango Green and Peacock. The woody shrubs with Wacky Walnut, Mahogany and the leaves with Pumpkin Spice, Sweet Apricot, Royal Satin, and Frosty Pine. Paint in berries, adding more berries, with Candy Apple. For extra pizzazz, dip your brush tip into extra fine glitter and dot onto berries, or dot berries with touch of pearl or mica powder. When you are satisfied with the look, emboss them with clear, fine embossing powder. Now, the leaves and berries will resist the further application of Radiant Pearls.
3. Wet Mask the face, shoulders, & hair: apply a very generous coat of Neutral or pale colored Radiant Pearls, such as Icy Mocha, Oyster Shell, or Snow Queen. This will lightly protect the masked area from further painting in the general area. Some of the paint will bleed through, creating a "reflected light" look to the finished project.
4. Create the back glow or halo behind the central image. Pick up a few pearls of Radiant Pearls (such as Sour Lemon) with the longer whiskers of the Whiska Stippler. Tap the brush bristles onto your palette (pouncing). This will evenly distribute the paint into the brush tip. Now, pounce the brush around the head, overlapping into the leaves. Tap or pounce the brush onto a scrap paper (which will become background paper) removing remaining paint from your brush. Squeeze and pull your brush with a paper towel, ensuring a cleaner brush. Pick up a darker or brighter color that co-ordinates with the color you just used (such as Sunset Glow) with your Whiska brush. Pounce onto your palette, again working paint into bristles, then pounce around head over first color, but not going out as far. You are not over painting all of the first color.
A word about cleaning your Whiska Stippler brushes. After pouncing your brush on scrap paper and squeezing/pulling with a paper towel, you can remove the last of the color by sweeping it over a damp Sweep Kleen pad or pouncing it over a damp pad of paper towels. Repeat this as necessary. When you are moving from a lighter color to a darker color in the same color family, the damp pad cleaning isn't necessary. But, changing color families or moving from a dark color to a light color requires extra cleaning. I recommend that you work with several Whiska Brushes ... one for each color family. One for yellows, one for reds and oranges, one for blues, one for greens, etc.
5. Enhancing leaves and vines. Using the same technique as with the backglow (picking up pearls of paint, pouncing on your palette, pouncing it on your project) apply color that co-ordinates with your greenery, such as Emerald Forrest, over the vegetation. Repeat with a second color, such as Fandango.
6. Surrounding areas. You know the process! Use at least three different colors, letting the colors overlap each other, creating new colors when they fuse. For example, apply Caspian Sea to one corner and Twilight Blue to another corner and overlapping the two where they meet. Work Tropicana and Apricot into these.
7. Remove Wet Mask with the Swiper. Work from the center of the face out toward the edges of the image. Wipe off the Swiper between swipes. You are revealing "raw" paper that is very susceptible to color staining if you drag a deep colored paint across it. If this should happen, quickly blot and wipe the area before it stains too dark. The stain will become more muted as the face is painted and dries. You may even notice some of the backglow colors have gone through the mask lightly coloring the face and shoulders ... even green up onto the shoulders. Don't worry, in the end this will look like reflected light or reflected glow. Don't forget to remove the excess paint from the hair and perhaps, the vegetation.
8. Base coat the face and shoulders, but not the "whites of the eyes". Apply a thin coat of the lightest color of your skin tone (I'll give color examples shortly). A small pearl of paint on the tip of your dTail brush will apply a thin coat. Too much paint will cause dragging of the next coats of paint. On the shaded side of the face apply a thin coat of a darker color. For fair or porcelain skin, you might use Snow Queen and Just Peachy ... for medium skin tones you might use Tiger Eye and Wacky Walnut ... for darker skin tones, try three colors ... Tiger Eye over all, then Wacky Walnut over all but the nose and above the eye brow and the highest part of the cheek and shoulder in the "sunny" area, then Mahogany in the shaded area.
9. Creating shadows. Shadows should be blues and/or purples. Work with at least two ... one lighter than the other ... for example, Royal Satin and Plum Crazy, or Eggplant and Plum Crazy. The darker color should be bluer, as it will be the deeper shadow on the edges of the face. Pick up a pearl of the lighter shadow color, such as Eggplant on a Tiger Eye base coat, and roll it onto your palette, spreading an edge into a thin film. Now, squeeze and pull your brush bristles with a paper towel between your forefinger and thumb nail. This creates a flat "beaver tail" or paddle of your dTail brush bristles. Lightly drag the beaver tail across the film of paint, picking up only the lights amount of paint. Lightly stroke the paint from the shadowy edges of the face, shoulders and under the chin, toward the center of the face and chest areas. Wipe the brush if too much paint is being applied. You can remove excess paint with a cleaned brush, by pulling it across the excess paint. You can feather the edges with a cleaned beaver tail. Repeat this process with the darker shadow color, but don't pull the paint too far onto the face. feather it into the first shadow color. You are sculpting the face and shoulder. Don't forget the area under the chin and under the bangs of the hair, and the eye lids. If the shadows look a bit too "bruised" apply a thin coat of the darker skin tone over it. As the Radiant Pearls dries the colors fuse together.
10. Adding warmth. Apply a hint of blush, such as Sunset Glow or Fantasy Fuchsia to the cheeks and lips. Feather the edges for a soft look. Add sparkle to the eyes with a mixture you've made on your palette of Celestial Sky with either Caspian Sea or Sapphire On Ice.
11. Hair Color. Generously apply Radiant Pearls to the hair so that it works into all the nooks and crannies between the embossed lines. Use two colors ... one for the shadowed side and one for the sunny side, such as Autumn Leaf and Summer Sun.
12. Adding the Texture. Select at least three colors that co-ordinate and/or contrast with your card. When using one of the Satin Pearls, you'll end up with pearly spatters. When working with a Luminescent sheer metallic, you have soft hints of metallic spatters. With the handle of your dTail brush pick up a "scoop" of paint and roll it off onto your palette. You should have at least three puddles. You'll use the Kewl Tool for spattering, starting first with the darkest color, working to the lightest colors, ending with the metallic colors. Tap your Kewl Tool into the puddle of paint working the paint into the nooks and crannies of the Tool. Tap it on scrap paper, testing for size of spatters. When it "spatters" to the size you like, tap it onto your project going around the card. The color needn't go all the way around the card. You might want certain color spatters on only one third of your card. Using wither a clean Kewl Tool or turning your tool to a clean area, work with the next color, and so forth. Set the project aside.
13. Backing card. Using the same Kewl Tools, apply spatters to the backing card, only spattering the area that will be exposed. Spattering too far onto the backing paper creates an adhesion problem later when you attach the main image. For heavier spatters, tap into more paint. Remember, work from dark to light to metallic. Emboss with clear fine embossing powder. Colorize the packing paper behind the embossed spatters by swirling and tapping your "dirty" Whiska Stippler brushes on the paper. Or use darker colors than you used on the main card, such as Midnight, Berrywine, Warm Cinnamon, Malachite, and Fire Opal. Wipe down with a paper towel.
14. Finishing the card. Blot the main piece by laying a clean paper towel over the card and pressing with your hands and fingers. You might see paint coming through the paper towel, especially in the hair area and embossed areas. Remove the towel. Repeat this process until the towel is clean when removed. Attach your card to a black glossy card that is slight bigger, then attach to the backing card. For a greater layering effect, attach with foam mounting tape or Pop Dots.
15. Add Hot Melt Glue Seal and Tassel for extra pizazz and embellishment
Experiment and play with the colors ... !