Monday 13 February 2017

Spring is in the Air!

I've been busy up in my craft room trying to get ahead with my long list of cards needed for 2017, and as I was tidying up I found some bleeding colour tissue that I've had for ages but have never played with.

I didn't have my laptop at hand to re-watch the YouTube tutorial that the very talented Eileen Godwin had done on the technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oivloSbeLXA), so I relied on my memory instead! What I did recall was that she used dies to cut multiple shapes of the tissue, and reinforced that it was messy, that you should wear gloves and an apron, and dispose of the wet tissue carefully to avoid unwanted blotches of dye everywhere in your craft room.


First I cut various sizes of stars and circles in multiple layers of tissue, and put them into a container to keep them away from my water! Then I had a go at placing them onto pieces of watercolour card and spraying them, then removing them with tweezers after a few moments, but the result was a bit pale, watery and the shapes were quite indistinct. I finally decided to use a waterbrush to apply water directly to the shape before removing it, and that gave me a much brighter colour, with a definite shape.

Above are some of the scraps, some of which I've gone round with a black fineliner pen, and I'll use these for backgrounds for other projects. I really liked how some of the shapes had white areas in them, so I might try scrunching up some of the tissue shapes to see if I can enhance that effect in the future.

I used the main square piece of watercolour card for a background for my Clarity Stamp Challenge piece for the February 2017 theme, Flower Power. I thought the brightly coloured circles were reminiscent of the swinging 60s, and I used the Clarity Stamp alium flower stamps to enhance the circle theme, stamping using archival black ink, and stamping using versamark ink with white and coloured embossing for some variation of texture on the finished piece. Finally, I edged the square with a black sharpie pen, and matted onto yellow card for contrast. I added the Spring sentiment (one of the Clarity NDC club stamps) and coloured the lineart with some green pencils to finish the card, which will be sent for one of my upcoming spring birthdays.



Thanks for visiting, and if you'd like to leave me a comment that would be really appreciated!

Susan x

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful design Susan and thanks for sharing how you created the background. (I thought you had used the circle gelli petite). I tried this tissue paper technique once after seeing it used somewhere but my tissue paper didn't bleed at all. Where do you get the 'bleeding' sort? Congratulations on winning the challenge x

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  2. Hi Lesley - I got my tissue from Amazon and it was very inexpensive. Spectra 20-Piece 50 x 76 cm Paper Bleeding Tissue, Assorted Colours, just over £3.00 plus P&P. I find the dark and bright colours work best. Enjoy x

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  3. Thanks Susan. I will have a look. x

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  4. Brilliant... super card and it's worked so well ! Love the tissue technique and thank you so much for the credits and mention.
    Cheers Susan .
    Eileen xxx

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    1. Eileen, it's an absolute pleasure and credit is well deserved! You are so generous sharing all your skills and knowledge - thanks, Susan x

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  5. Hi Susan, your card is gorgeous, must try that technique some time. Thanks again for your company today.
    And hey, I managed to get the follower widget to work!
    Liz x

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    1. Thanks Liz, and it was so nice to meet you today. It's a great technique and really fun, so do have a go. Works really well on canvas too apparently. Susan x

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  6. This is a really beautiful and happy spring card, just what we need is this horrible weather! I love playing with bleeding art tissue, but I always end up in a mess and with multi coloured hands : )

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  7. Thanks Jannet. It was so much fun to do this, but don't forget your tweezers or gloves! Susan x

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