Bright Mosaic

It is time for the first challenge of 2018 at Stamps and Stencils.  Ruth is hosting this one and calls it On The Bright Side.  Here is how she describes the challenge:

It may still be winter but it's a brand New Year, the days will be soon getting longer, and pops of bright colours will soon start to appear in the garden. This month I'd like you to dazzle us by useing lots of bright colours in your Spring themed creations ...and don't forget to use stamps or stencils.

This time I thought I would make a funky mosaic canvas with lots of colour.  There are lots of photos so put your feet up and be comfortable while you wade through them. 😃

I started by cutting all sorts of squares and rectangles of various sizes from mat board and played with the layout until I was happy.  I took a photo of it and then printed it and marked the sizes on the photo because I knew once I picked the pieces up I would never remember how it worked - an extra step but worth it in the end.

All the pieces were coated with White Gesso (Liquitex) and then I started to add colour in pairs.  I added texture to four panels using Molding Paste (Golden) and a variety of stencils.

Here is one panel with texture using a stencil called Mini Kaleidoscope (TCW) and then it and a plain panel were painted with a mixture of Spa Blue Acrylic Paint (DecoArt) and Aqua Acrylic Paint (Craftsmart).

For this pair I did texture on one panel with a Mini Chickenwire Reversed stencil (TCW) and then painted them both with Lime Marmalade Acrylic Paint (IndigoBlu).

The texture on this yellow panel was done through a stencil called Tasty Textures (IndigoBlu) and then both pnels were painted with Lemon Meringue Acrylic Paint (IndigoBlu).

The final panel with texture was done with the same IndigoBlu stencil and then the pair were painted with Candy Floss Fresco Finish (Paper Artsy).

The remaining pairs without texture were painted with Postbox Red and Burning Bonfire Acrylic Paint (IndigoBlu) and Wild Orchid Acrylic Paint (DecoArt).

Now it was time to add some spring elements as called for in Ruth's description.

I added some stenciling through a Mini Flower Frenzy stencil (TCW) to two panels.  I used Fern Green Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) on the large blue panel and Dandelion Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) on the small green panel.

Vines were stenciled on the plain yellow panel using the Leaf Flourish Small stencil (Dylusions) and Fern Green Archival Ink.

I used Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) to stamp a tiny bee from a set called Random Thoughts (Tim Holtz) on one of the little red squares.  Then I added some Cornflower Blue Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) through a splatter stencil I made myself.

I did the other little red square in the same manner but stamped a little flying bird from the Printery set (Prima) this time.

I used Fern Green Archival Ink to stamp a leaf from the Leaf Prints set (Tim Holtz) and then fussy cut it.  I decided later that I would alter it a bit and inked it with Old Paper Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) and took a little Black Soot Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) to the edges.

The panel the leaf was going to sit on was stamped with Deep Purple Archival Ink (Ranger) and a stamp from the Faded Fragments set (Seth Apter).

I didn't like the only dragonfly stamp that I have so I found some clipart online, printed it and coloured it with blue and purple Gelly Roll Metallic pens (Sakura).  I inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

The pink panel the this dragonfly sits on was stamped with Jet Black Archival Ink and another stamp from Seth Apter's Faded Fragments set.

Both orange panels were stamped with grasses from the Victorian Garden set (IndigoBlu) using Fern Green Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi) and Olive Archival Ink (Ranger).

I stamped the butterfly from a Hampton Arts set using Magenta Hue Archival Ink (Ranger) and Red Geranium Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi).  I decided it was going to be too pink on top of the red panel so I inked it with some Candied Apple Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) and then inked the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.  Some adhesive black pearls (Kaisercraft) were added to the body.

The large red square was stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink and a Script Stamp (Recollections).

Using Jet Black Archival Ink I stamped the little bird from the Vintage Outdoors stamp (Stampabilities) and then did a bit of stenciling with Dandelion Archival Ink and my splatter stencil.

The next step was to ink the edges of each panel with Jet Black Archival Ink and then coat each piece with some Mod Podge.

To assemble the mosaic I first added some crumpled up tissue to my canvas (Michaels) using some watered down Mod Podge Matte and then gave it a coat of White Gesso.  I laid all my pieces on some heave black card stock (Recollections) and drew around the outside and then I cut inside my pencil line to make it a bit smaller.  I used some Soft Gel Medium (Golden) to glue my mosaic to the black card and then used double sided tape with some gel medium to glue it to my canvas.

Finally I added my 3D elements and then a couple of text stickers from the Big Chat set (Tim Holtz).

As you can see there is lots of stamping and stenciling but none of it was difficult and given the fact that we are having a brutal winter with lots of cold and snow so far, the bright colours in this make me very happy.  I hope you will get your bright colours out and create something for the challenge too.