Rusty Flight by Amanda Southern

Hi Everyone

I hope you have all made the most of the fabulous weather we have had at the moment in the UK and in honour of the sunshine I have brought the butterflies out.

Here’s what I did:-

I have had this paper mache mannequin torso hanging around for simply ages and it was time to do something with it and that something was to give it a total rust makeover.

The wooden stand was rusted using rusting powder, give your item you are rusting a key for the powder using acrylic wax, or craft adhesive, you can use a very thin coating of matt medium as long as the powder sits on the surface, you then spray with white vinegar or water and watch the magic happen.

Now to tackle the body, I wanted to stencil on a metal grid effect but as there are no straight sides getting the stencil around would be difficult if not near impossible. Instead I stencilled texture paste through the Dinky stencil onto Tim Holtz tissue paper first.

When the paste was dry I applied pieces of it to the mannequin, with matte medium, which allowed me to get around all the curves of it. I then left this several hours to dry.

Next was to give it all the rust treatment and this has been created using another of my current favourite products, Rusting Pastes by Finnabair. You get 3 colours and as the colours get darker the texture get thicker. I applied the gold rust colour all over the piece, after that I apply Bora Bora PaperArtsy Fresco paint to add a little patina effect. Then I alternate adding the red rust and the brown rust until I am happy with the result.

Here you can see the effect that I achieved. I also wrapped rusty wire around and flicked Bora Bora paint onto it.

Final touch was to add my butterflies which were stamped onto a piece of mixed media card that I had coloured with a couple of colours of Lindys Stamp Gang Flat Magicals Powders. Each butterfly was then cut out.

Each butterfly has been edged using a Rusty Hinge Distress pen as I didn’t want white edges to them, the reverse of the butterflies are also coloured with Rusty Hinge. Each butterfly has been painted with Vintage Distress Collage Medium to tone down the colour and strengthen them. There are also sections of clear crackle texture paste which have been highlight with DecoArt Patina Antiquing Cream and a few random dabs of Quinacridone Gold. Sadly I can’t get all the texture to show on a photo but you can just see some it on the large, top left, butterfly. They have then been stuck to the mannequin using Cosmic Shimmer Glue.

Finially I have cut down a Tim Holtz saying, edged it in Rusty Hinge and painted Vintage Collage Medium over them, the medium also helps them stick to the mannequin.

Here’s What I Used:-

Paper Mache Mannequin (from my stash)

Rusting Powder

Matte Medium

Vinegar in a spray bottle

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Plain Tissue Wrap

That's Crafty! Metal Grid Dinky Stencil

Texture Paste White

Finnabair Rust Paste Set (due back in stock this week)

PaperArtsy Bora Bora Fresco Finish Paint

Rusty Wire (from my stash)

Mixed Media Card

Lindys Stamp Gang Flat Magicals - Mango mania (from Caribbean Cruise set), Ocean Breeze Blue (from Hawaiian Islands set)

Black Archival Ink Pad

Finnabair Stamps – Don’t Forget to Fly & Dream On (for the butterflies)

Distress Collage Medium - Vintage

Prima Finnabair Texture Paste – Clear Crackle

DecoArt Antiquing Cream – Patina

DecoArt Media Paint Quinacridone Gold

Tim Holtz – Small Talk & Chit Chat Stickers

Hopefully butterflies mean Summer’s here!!

See you all next week

Love

Amanda X