Treasure the moments – Kristy Abela – Dusty Attic – Australian owned and operated Laser Cutting business

Treasure the moments – Kristy Abela

July 24, 2020
Posted by Jen Burns

Hi Everyone,

Hope your enjoying your annual weather extreme, be it hot or cold. Sydney is at its peak of cold and my feet are permanently numb this time of year. This project is for the spring which is just on the horizon.

I cut the canvas off the frame and then trimmed some 12 x 12 chipboard to create a base for my frame. I have this awesome paper from Simple Stories and a pack of ephemera to play with. The other thing I have is an oversupply of flowers from Prima from a kit club and thought I could use some up creating a bouquet of sorts to sit inside my frame.

For the background I used some Matt Gel Medium and a bubble stencil. I ultimately aimed for a transparent seal and for the watercolour to sit around it …. but cold weather doesnt aid drying.

OOPS.

The gel wasn’t dry enough when I applied the watercolour and absorbed the colour I was using in the background and created a bit of a mess when I touch tested it. It was destined for the bin. I hesitated, I really liked that paper. I was disapointed to see it wasted. So I left it for a few days and I tried not to think about it.

When I did come back to it I used a little Gelato to cover the messy areas & add some shimmer, a distraction of sorts, and then stamping to flatten all the layers in the background.

So… moving on! I painted my chipboard. Much less of a chance to stuff this one up. I used two different shades of blue in chalk paint and a pop of orange. I used some Glossy accents to shiny up an area of the leaves.

I painted my chipboard white and sponged on some colour in lime and turquoise. Then using a script stamp stamped a sheet of scrap paper and then tapped the stamp on the frame in areas to leave a more ghosted image.

I also found a sentiment I liked so I painted that as well.

TIP: When the time came to add the layers and stick them down I cut the remnants of chipboard into small pieces and used them instead of foam tape.

I added some beads and some cheesecloth to fill in some of the valleys and my framed photo gift is done. I’ll I needed was a few pieces of chipboard from my stash, some paper, ephemera and an over supply of flowers… can anyone relate?