Hello!

This week I'm sharing the front cover of the art journal that I altered up for the last Hochanda shows and this makes use of my new favourite product from That's Crafty!, the luscious acrylic wax which is a must have for encaustic style artwork.

What I Did:

The first thing I did was to roughly scrape texture paste over the surface, making sure there was an extra thick layer on the left hand side, just above the centre.

I then took an artist trading coin blank (doesn't matter which sort you use although it needs to be fairly thick, and I used a greyboard one) and pressed it firmly into the thick layer of paste to create a circular indent. The coin itself was set aside to use on another project.

Once the paste was dry, I used a daisy stencil with more texture paste to add random floral shapes in 3 places on the cover.

I then misted the surface with Flat Matte Sprays, using Basil, Saffron, Sage and Walnut. As you can see, on texture paste, the end result is more subtle than if you used it on paper or card.

I diluted some Mustard and Orange Multi Surface Paints with water and painted the daisies for a soft and natural colour contrast.

Using Fern Green Archival ink, I stamped on a leaf and some script from the textures collection stamp sets.

I next stamped my chosen leaf (the one that fit the circular indent!) on thick cartridge paper with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with rust embossing powder. I cut the image out, trimming close to the edges.

Now comes the fun part! I brushed a little wax into the indent and pressed the embossed leaf into it. I then used an old teaspoon to dribble more wax over the top. Once it was dry, I added a further layer to encase the leaf in wax. As you'll see, the end result is very like beeswax.


You can see in the close-up, there's also a bit of cracking in evidence too which gives a lovely textured effect - serendipity rules!


To finish off my cover I simply stencilled on the nature text which is part of an affirmation stencil. I used the same Archival ink and went round the edges with a fine black pen.


Supplies:

That's Crafty! A5 Size Classic Wire-o Journal
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Lynne's Carved Leaves Set 1
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Textures Collection Set 1
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Textures Collection Set 3
That's Crafty! 8 x 8 Stencil - TC8049 Daisy Heads
That's Crafty! 6.5 x 7.5 Stencil - TC7036 Lynne's Affirmations Set 2 
That's Crafty! Acrylic Wax
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Flat Matte Sprays - Basil, Saffron, Sage, Walnut
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - Mustard, Orange
Fern Green Archival Ink
Fine Black Pen
Rust Embossing Powder