LeighSBDesigns: Tutorial Tuesdays: "Tangled Maple Leaf" Art Journal Page by Bonnie!

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Tutorial Tuesdays: "Tangled Maple Leaf" Art Journal Page by Bonnie!

Howzit Stamping Friends!
YAY, it's Tuesday and you know what that means right😉it's time for a new tutorial and this week's fabulous installment is brought to you by LeighSBDesigner Bonnie!

Hi everyone!

It's Bonnie here today with this week's

I chose to feature the gorgeous Tangled Maple Leaf image from LeighSBDesigns which Leigh created for a Facebook contest at Markers! Papers! Digis! I didn't get a chance to play along but couldn't resist this maple leaf...especially being a Canadian. I'll explain how it shows up in three different ways in my art journal page.

To begin, I printed a larger version on Neenah Cloud White card stock which I coloured with Prismacolor pencils. This is an amazing image to colour...filled with wonderful detail and tangles. I think I could colour it over and over and never have it look the same twice. Once coloured, the leaf was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border. It was then matted with black card stock and fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border. I like how this frames the image and also strengthens the stem so it won't tear with handling.

Smaller leaf images were printed onto white card stock and cut out a few at a time until I had enough to cover my 6 x 8 inch background. I taped a paper to the back of my 8 x 10 inch gel plate which was the same size as the mixed media one I would be gel printing on. This served as a guide for placing those fussy cut leaf masks which I then layered onto the top of the plate.

When I roll out paint to apply to my larger gel plate, I do so on my smaller gel plate so that I can create a print from it with any left over paint. Above, you can see the Naples Yellow Hue, Cadmium Orange, and Napthol Crimson Liquitex Basics Paint both rolled out on the small plate on the left and then rolled over the leaves on the larger plate on the right.

Once the leaves were peeled off the paint covered larger plate, the mixed media paper was placed onto the plate lining it up with the white paper taped to the back. The painted leaf masks were set aside to dry because they would be included in the design in a later step. See all that yummy paint left on the smaller gel plate?

I layered TCW Mayan Calendar over the small gel plate and rubbed a piece of white card stock over it picking up the positive print. Then I turned the paper 90 degrees and printed what was left on the plate which was the negative impression on the right above. That's how I build up my stash of background papers for future mixed media projects.

Gel plate prints dry quickly because the paint is usually a thin layer. Once dry, four colours of Archival Ink (Sunflower, Tiger Lily, Coffee, and Geranium Red) were applied through Carabelle Studio Weft Fabric & Numbers template to create pattern and texture both on the white leaves and on the painted background.

Jet Black Archival Ink was used to edge the outside edges of the leaf masks as well as the main page background.n Black pen was also used to draw a border on the leaves and eventually around the page as well.

The leaves were adhered to the background so that each leaf touched either the coloured leaf or another painted leaf to break up the background and also help with flow.

A black card stock mat was added to the back of the page to frame the page and add contrast. The hand coloured image was popped up on foam tape to adhere it to the page and create dimension and natural shadow.

The sentiment was printed onto white card stock and then cut into individual words. These were then matted with black card stock and popped up on foam tape to adhere them to the page.

And here is the finished page with the three different versions of the same beautiful image, Tangled Maple Leaf, all used in the same design.

Be sure to stop by Leigh's Etsy shop, LeighSBDesigns, where you can check out the other fabulous images which she has designed for us. There is inspiration a-plenty there and wait until you see the new releases later this week!

Oh my! I can hardly wait😉

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