Blooming Stacking Storage Boxes by Wendy Mallas
00:00We are delighted to announce that Wendy will be joining us as our guest designer for November and what a fantastic project she has to start us off with!
Hello! My name
is Wendy Mallas and I'm an illustrator, designer and mixed media artist. I was
delighted to be invited to be a guest designer for That's Crafty! throughout
November. I hope I can live up to previous designers and their fabulous
projects.
I began with a
stack of four That's Crafty! MDF storage #1 boxes, all painted up on the inside
before assembling. This is a crucial stage as it is almost impossible to
decorate the insides after they've been glued together.
Four boxes hold
96 bottles of PaperArtsy paints, which just happened to be the exact number of
paints I had. (At least it was until Seth Apter released 4 limited edition
shades!) I digress. All paints used in this project are PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk
Acrylic paints.
Gesso is always
a safe place to start. I gave the stack several coats of white gesso then, when
that was dry, I drew a very large flower onto it in pencil. I just copied a
design that I had drawn very roughly at the planning stage. Pencil rubs out
very nicely from gesso. When I was happy with the placement, I went over the
design with a black paint pen.
I felt the poor
flower needed something else though, like a really rough stone wall behind it.
Rather than painting each stone by hand, I took an A4 sheet of 190 micron mylar
and drew rounded brick/stone shapes onto it with a Sharpie. Then, using a very
hot wood burning tool with the pointy bit attached, I traced around that
design, melting the edges of the bricks which enabled me to remove them.
I secured my
new stencil over the top half of the box stack with masking tape and, with a
makeup sponge, stencilled some Taupe paint through it, avoiding the flower
design as much as possible. When this was done, I repeated the process directly
beneath to cover the lower half of the stack.
I had seen
Leandra Franich demonstrating stencil bumping which is when, after the first
layer is stencilled, the stencil is moved very slightly in a diagonal direction
and then stencilled over a second time with a contrasting colour. I did this
using the appropriate colour, Concrete, and was happy with the extra 'pop' it
gave to the background. The trick with stencilling is to make sure you use very
thin layers. You can always add more and that is so much easier than trying to
remove paint that has leaked underneath the stencil. When you think you have
the right amount on the sponge, dab some more off.
I loosely
painted a layer of Snowflake over the flower, leaves and bubbles to clean up
any stencilling that had muddied my flower.
I started
painting the flower with a mixture of Tango and Snowflake, blending as I
painted. I added Yellow Submarine to the spiky bits (technical term) around the
centre of the flower. I painted the petals with Mermaid and blended as I
painted with Snowflake once again. I added some Bora Bora to the very edges,
blending it in with my finger. To finish the painting, I used a blend of Granny
Smith and Limelight for the leaves and stalk. I just love the names of these
paints.
I added Diamond
Ice Stickles to the bubbles, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade Distress
Stickles to the centre of the flower and Peacock Liquid Pearls (my absolute
favourite) around the petals.
Apart from a
little highlight with a white gel pen here and there and some added shadows
with Faber-Castell Big Brush markers and a Stabilo Aquarellable All Black
pencil, my first project as guest designer for That's Crafty! was done.
It's been a
blast. See you next week. Have a great weekend.
Love and peace,
Wendy x
Materials:
Liquitex White Gesso
– you can substitute with a different brand
PaperArtsy Paints
- Taupe, Concrete, Snowflake, Yellow Submarine, Tango, Mermaid, Bora Bora,
Granny Smith & Limelight
Ranger Ice
Stickles - Diamond
Distress Stickles - Mustard Seed & Spiced Marmalade
Liquid Pearls -
Peacock
Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers - Scarlet Red, Permanent Green Olive, Cobalt Green & Warm
Grey IV
Stabilo
Aquarellable All Black Pencil
Mylar sheets
190 micron A4
3b Pencil
Black Fine
Posca Pen
Weller Wood Burning
KitUniball Broad White
Gel Pen
10 comments
Amazing transformation, the bricks are a perfect backdrop for your gorgeous bloom, beautiful Wendy! xx
ReplyDeleteFab project hunni. I need to get me some of those boxes! 😊
ReplyDeleteLooks fabulous Wendy. I can't wait to see what else you've got in store for us. Lx
ReplyDeleteI love this. The brick stencil has come out brilliant and that flower is gorgeous x
ReplyDeleteFantastic blog and thank you for sharing so many great techniques 😀 I look forward to your blogs 😀
ReplyDeleteAwesome make and what a brilliant idea to use several stacked together as one large "canvas"
ReplyDeleteReally beautiful make Wendy and love all the wonderful texture you've achieved. As Moira said, a very clever idea for stcking boxes.
ReplyDeleteFliss x
Love it, such a great idea and what a gorgeous flower too
ReplyDeleteHugs
Donna xx
Great design Wendy! I love your beautiful, bold bloom!
ReplyDeleteFabulous project! Love it.
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