Fred is Back by Donna Gray

Hi everyone,

After several requests on social media for the return of Fred well here he is.....on a GiganTAG!!

What I did:

First up I gave the GiganTAG a coat of black Gesso (love this as it's so chalky). When that was dry I used one of Magda's stencils (clouds and hearts) for some of the background using light texture paste through it.

I put that all to one side to then concentrate on what I was going to do and I started out with one idea and then ended up with something completely different.....typical of how I create!!

As there are so many parts to this I will just briefly touch on it as I don't want to send anyone to sleep with an extra long monologue ;)

Fred was coloured using diluted Distress Markers with a water brush on Starthmore Mixed Media paper, the feathers and hearts were stamped with orange and red Distress Oxides. The flowers and orange part on the right of the tag were created using Multi Surface paints and the doodling was done with a mixture of my beloved Posca pens.

There was absolutely no set pattern to this as I just went with the flow and it's such a large surface to work on you're not restricted by size. I wanted to make Fred the star of the show though as he rightly should be at all times :)


Here are some close ups for you:

The 'frame' was made from the perforated edges of a water colour pad

The butterfly is one of my carved ones but we all have a butterfly in our stamp collection don't we.

Of course Fred just had to have his name added right at the top!

Supplies Used:

That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - The Freddy and Friends Collection
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Fanciful Flowers Collection - Set 1
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Lynne's Affirmations - Set 4
PaperArtsy Stamp Set - Seth Apter
That's Crafty! Magda Polakow Stencil - Clouds and Hearts
That's Crafty! Light Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints
That's Crafty! Black Gesso
That's Crafty! Surfaces GiganTAGS
Distress Markers
Posca Pens
Tim Holtz - Clippings Stickers
Strathmore Mixed Media Paper Pad
Butterfly Stamp
Bee Stamp
Perforated Water Colour paper (for the frame surrounding Fred)

Hope you like the return of Fred ;)
Donna xx