Monday, October 28, 2013

Peeled Gesso

So, you know how when you discover mixed media, and then you never throw anything out?
And, if you do think about throwing anything out, you think twice.
And then, you don't throw it out?
And then, you discover a new technique because you're hoarding?
Yups. That happened to me today.
I was minding my own business in my Craft Room as I was using gesso on my non-stick craft sheet.
As I went to scrape the dried and partially dried gesso off, I thought, "Hey. This would be cool if I could use it."
So, I did.

As you can see, my "non-stick craft sheet", aka Teflon oven liner, was covered with gesso.



I made sure it was completely dry. Some of the thicker areas needed to be coaxed with my heat gun.



Then, I decided to color it with some Distress Paints and Distress Stain. 



I played with a little color mixing as well. Distress Paints are permanent when they're dry, so I made sure to mix them while wet.



I wanted to keep my peeling colors separated, so I ran my credit card on the sheet to divide them.


I scraped the gesso by pulling away at the edge. This way, it kept the peelings small.


Then, I pulled the thick parts up in sheets.



Here it is decopaged onto a book page which I will be using in a junk journal.


Close-up



Then I thought, "Why not stamp it before I pull it up?"
So, I did. 
This was stamped with Staz-On, because I knew I'd be using Mod Podge to adhere it to the book page, so the ink had to be permanent as well, otherwise it would smear.


Here's some blue and white stamped with dots.


Some more peelings.


Blue dots, decoupaged to another book page.


The texture and color variations are fun.


Tone on tone-ish.










And, here is my baggie of peelings, ready for another project.


Of course, I had to experiment with some more stamps. Here's my favorite crackle stamp.


I'll be sure to post more pics when I finish my journals. 
Thanks for reading!
Fondly, Tami