Tuesday 20 September 2016

Jayne Nestorenko's Agapanthus

Hello there!  Have you treated yourself to any of these wonderful floral designs by Jayne Nestorenko yet?  Groovi plates or stamps;  you know you need them!  For now, I wanted to share a little piece of art I created using the beautiful new agapanthus stamp set.   

I'm going to concentrate on the frame first.  I wanted to get a proper gilded frame effect, so I did a little test piece first, to make sure my idea would work out.  And yay!  it did!  So here goes..

I stamped the frame and swirls into place onto stencil card using black archival.


Then I cut out the frame.

Next, I started to apply glossy accents to the areas of the design that I wanted to appear raised.  This stage required a bit of patience as I had to work in stages and leave plenty of time for it to dry.


Its very difficult to photograph, but I hope you can see in the details below.  I didn't stress too much if it wasn't quite perfect, as all I'm trying to do is create raised areas.



Once dry,  I washed over with DecoArt paynes grey acrylic. 


To add a greater sense of dimension to the frame, I went around the inner edge of the frame with another coat.  What I really love about this paint is that its transparency allows the stamped detail to show through. 


The glossy accents resists the paint.


Let it dry thoroughly;  then very, very gently so you don't overcook it, apply silver gilding wax.  The raised areas will pick this up and the whole piece will take on a metallic sheen.  Keep going until you achieve the lustre you want.


You can buff it lightly with a soft tissue too which will really bring out the sheen.


Now to concentrate on making the actual picture.

I made the background using antique linen and old paper distress inks;  first splodging onto my blending mat and spritzing with water, then "free" stamping (without a mount), in the same colours to add texture.


As well as this piece on stencil card, I also did the same on some paper that I could use for my decoupaged agapanthus. 

The flower was stamped in black archival and coloured with my gorgeous new Faber Castell polychromos;  the most fabulous present for my 50th birthday from my husband Martin.  I've just reorganised my craft room, so they can take pride of place.  I love looking at them, stroking them and using them! 


Preparing the layers for the decoupage involved a lot of very intricate fussy cutting, which I quite enjoy doing, although it was very fiddly.




The final touch was to add a little angelina fibre and film butterfly.


I mounted the finished piece onto some foam board.  I hope you like it.


Jayne's beautiful designs are a pleasure to work with, and I have a sneaky feeling that at least one more of the sets may fall into my shopping basket at Leyburn on Saturday. 

I am so looking forward to catching up with Barbara and all the Clarity team, and loads of Clarity friends.  Its sure to be a great day.  Till next time.  Xxx  


15 comments:

  1. Absolutely stunning Barbara, looking forward to catching up at Leyburn xx

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    1. Thanks Lisa. Looking forward to seeing you again too. Xxx

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  3. This is stunning, and so much work has gone into it. I love your technique for the frame too and may just have to try, thank you for the inspiration xxx

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    1. Thanks for your lovely comment Julie. I'm really happy to have given you some inspiration and I'd love to see your take on this glossy accents technique. Xxx

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  4. Wow wow wow Barbara this is absolutely stunning and brilliant step by step. The fussy cutting is amazing too. Hugs Janet x

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    1. Thanks for taking the time to leave such a lovely comment Janet. Glad you liked it. Xxx

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  5. Wow wow wow Barbara this is absolutely stunning and brilliant step by step. The fussy cutting is amazing too. Hugs Janet x

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  6. This is gorgeous, love your technique for the frame and may just have to try. Admire your patience too as a lot of work involved in this but so worth it xx

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  7. A fabulous piece of art, Barbara. I was with you till you said "fussy cutting". You know how much I love fussy cutting. However, I can see how I could adapt your beautiful design. Thank.you for sharing such a detailed step by step. I am even more impressed at how you remembered to take photos at each stage. You are such a talented lady. xxx Maggie

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Maggie; I would love to see what you create. I did think about you when I was cutting out the agapanthus... I could always suggest to Maria that we try this in class! (Only joking!) LOL!!! Xxx

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  8. This is gorgeous, love your technique for the frame and may just have to try. Admire your patience too as a lot of work involved in this but so worth it xx

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  10. Stunning. What a fabulous birthday present.

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