Experimenting with Sprays

Hi Peeps - are you like me and have lots of things in the craft room which you purchased, used one or twice and then forget they were there or simply were too afraid to use them again? 

I am a bit like this with sprays - even though I purchased my first ones bout eight years ago! Every time I use them I tend to get very messy and make something that is not very attractive.

So, when I knew the current July challenge #91 at Unstampabelles was to be 

Stunning Stencil Play  

TWIST It Pays to Spray

Using stencils to create and sprays to play!!!

Prize:
$15 au Gift Voucher

I thought I should make an effort to learn to use the sprays properly, as well as suing stencils to create something worthwhile. I made a page for my Journal - which is a repurposed old book by Jane Fonda - remember her? Firstly I have to remove some pages and then glue a few together, painting with m with white Gesso to prepare. I then worked on a piece of watercolour paper first and later glued it into the book.

I started with the stencil and some texture paste

on a sheet of smooth watercolour paper.

I didn't wait for the paste to dry before hitting the sheet with three different spray colours from the Dylusions set.

Well, the challenge didn't say you had to use the sprays on the stencils.....

However, if you wanted to do this, here are some of my thoughts. 

When you use a stencil you can employ paint, pastes, inks (smooched on with foam or sprayed on) pens and pencils, Versamark and embossing powders and I am sure there other ways - just look at the amazing number of videos about using stencils on YouTube. However, when I tried to find some with both sprays and stencils I got far less help. However, I did learn some tips and here they are....

TIPS:

1. If the sprays are too fluid, they will spread under the stencils - so work in small steps and take it slowly.
2. The closer you are to he paper, the more concentrated spray you will have
3. If you want more control do what Tim Holtz does and use misters which are purpose made for each spray -but I don't have that money or time
4. The height you spray from affects the outcome - as I have just said in No 3 - but so does the amount of pressure you put on the sprayer. If you press all the way down you will get a big burst of spray; half depressed gives better control.
5. If the sprayer won't work after shaking, a pin in the hole will often solve the problem but avoid facing the hole while pressing the pin into it or you will get a face full of spray! I know. If the pin doesn't work running the whole sprayer bit under hot water will usually get stuff moving but it is messy so wear an apron and have old cloths around to mop up.
6. Play on scrap paper like copy paper to get your technique right first.
7. Some crafters use coffee filters to clean up after a spray and then dry them out and use them in their next collage. I don't use these, so I have cheap baby wipes and then throw them in the bin.
8. I also use a silicon mat which can be run under water later to clean up properly and paper towel to mop up along the way.
9. Coated or thick, smooth card is better to work with - trial and error with tell you what to use.
10. You can doodle through stencils later also with pens and pencils. 

I hope that helps

This is what I created 

It is glued into my journal with clear gesso - although it had nearly 20 hours to dry it till moved the inks a bit and so I got some white lines and colour movement that I didn't want occurring. 

You learn as you go.....

I used a few different stencils but I tried this face one from Scrap FX.

I think I should have used TH black ink (Soot) rather than the Gathered Twigs I used.

I dried the clear gesso with the heat gun and then went back in and around the letters with a white pen as they had vanished into the background too far. I also did it with the elements of the girls face for the same reason. I used the same idea to go around some of the dots from the Coutour Creations stencils of aboriginal themes. 

For some reason I thought a stencil of a plant would work  - so I laid it over my work prior to attaching it to the book and sprayed it with some Dylusions Spray Acqua. It worked as a stencil with the spray but not as an element in the work. However, I cannot remove it.

I scribbled around the edge of the work in the book once it was glued and dried to anchor it to the background. That was also why I used Soot around the edges of the sheet as well as Vintage Photo's.

Well, it is complete and while I like some of it I am not happy with it overall.

However, that is why I have the journal - to create some works and find out what works and what doesn't. Guess I will have to make another page as well now.

While it didn't work - it was quite fun and therapeutic. 

Let's see how you approach this challenge!

You have a month to enter at

Unstampabelles