Painty Pleasures.

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven. Please let me apologize in advance for lots and lots of pictures today! I got so carried away with using lots of PaperArtsy Frescos and my new Lynne Perrella stamps! Over at Country View Crafts this month the challenge is 'Painty Pleasures' so I decided to join in and to enter a card and matching envelope for my old friend, Alison's birthday. It was a gift I created for Alison that set me blogging in the first place back in April last year and I always enjoy creating things for her. A beautiful envelope painted by Darcy Wilkinson of Art and Sole when she was demo-ing at Stevenage recently inspired me to extend the pleasures of paint from the card inside to the envelope - something I have none done before!

 I wanted to create a world of paint for Lynne Perrella's intriguing ladies to inhabit. I had already done some samples using the stamps, but with this project I wanted to give my imagination even more freedom and to use more vivid colours than I do usually. At the same time I wanted to bring in the natural world, as Alison loves Natural History, especially moths and butterflies. There is something so ethereal about these creatures with their gauzy wings that complements Lynne's intriguing images.

I knew I wanted a space to write Alison's name at the centre of the envelope and, although I would not be sending the card but giving it by hand, I wanted to have a place left for a stamp. I masked off these sections on the large envelope and then set about creating a dream landscape for a Lynne Perrella lady.

I did this by building up layers of Fresco paints, stenciling and stamping as Darcy had demonstrated. I used opaques to start with then layers of translucents. I chose colours like Antarctic, Mermaid, Spanish Mulberry and Hey Pesto, then South Pacific, Inky Pool and some brayering with Snowflake. I had been really impressed with the effects Darcy achieved by using bottle lids to draw around so I tried out this technique too. Here is the envelope as it looked after I had applied my layers and then wiped them away in places using a baby wipe and  drying off and sanding down.

I stamped feathers using Snowflake Fresco and stamped a Lynne Perrella image onto tissue, colouring it with Frescos: Chartreuse, one of the new Lin Brown translucents and South Pacific. I drew around the label to give a fake tattered effect and embossed Alison's initials on it. The little moth from PaperArtsy Urban Snapshots was stamped on card painted with Mermaid Fresco, clear embossed and then fussy cut.

These colours evoked twilight to me, when beautiful moths flutter towards the lamps in these fairy tale houses...

I also wanted to decorate the flap so that opening the card would be a painty pleasure too!

For this I used the lovely new Lin Brown leaf stencils. Then it was time to start on the card.

I used the same effect with layers of paint, but I kept an area in the middle of the card pale for my stamped image. I used Nougat, Stone and Honeydew Frescos on this area.

This became this...

I coloured some Grunge Paste with Mermaid and used this through a stencil around the edge. I added some Treasure Gold. I also used some Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste in gold, which is so effective when it dries.

Using a fine brush, Frescos and Satin Glaze, I coloured the detail on the image, highlighting with tiny gems and a Prima Embellishment.

These Lin Brown sentiments are just lovely and this one really sums up my friendship with Alison. We have known each other since we were eighteen and usually when we meet up we share the things we love: we visit gardens, art galleries and museums and I always feel that she has added a little extra colour to my life. I hope my card will bring a splash of colour to Alison's birthday.

If you have stayed with this post, thank you so much for looking so patiently at so many pictures! I really gained so much 'painty pleasure' from creating it. Have a lovely weekend wherever you are and whatever you are doing. I do hope the sun will shine for you and colour your life with lots of fun and joy.