ATC with the Nebula Grunge background

For a swap on CC Swaps, made with the Nebula Grunge background.

More Nebula Grunge experiments

My pal Fiona has experimented and done her own take on this technique. Check out her blog at http://fionascreations.blogspot.com/ to see what she did. I love that she tried it with different sprays and on glossy cardstock as well!

Nebula Grunge!

Yesterday I posted about a happy accident while trying to make something for a journal cover. Today I decide to experiment and see what I could come up with intentionally. Here are some finished backgrounds. In subsequent posts, I will explain how and what I did.

The basic technique and order is: paint chipboard with white acrylic and let dry. Spray with mists/colors of your choice. While these are still wet (immediately), lightly overspray with a darker colored spray. Dry with a heat gun ( I use a Marvy), moving the gun quickly and with short strokes over the surface until dry.

My theory is that by using acrylic paint (instead of the gesso I would--and do--normally grab when working with Color Mists), the paint "resists" the sprays and beads up when dryed--thus creating this distressed and starry look. The colors peek out from behind the darker color. In real life, these have a subtle sheen where pearlescent colors were used, and you can see the brush strokes in the paint (which adds to the grungy appeal).

My family kept saying these pieces look like galaxies and nebulas, and I kept loving how grungy they were, so folks, I offer you "Nebula Grunge," which I think is my own discovery. I've had A LOT of fun with this.

From the top down:

-Bright Colormists on chipboard box.
-Bright Color Mist Sprays with Tungsten Carbide (black) overspray;
-Halloween Color Mists with Emerald Green overspray
-Starburst Stains with Cobalt Sky overspray;

And one not to do: the bottom one is Adirondack Color mists in Butterscotch, Terra Cotta and Cranberry, oversprayed with Espresso. I tried a few other colors and these sprays just do not work with this technique. (I love these sprays for fabric (silk scarves) but I rarely use them for paper projects.)

More on Nebula Grunge

To give you an idea of how bright these are before I do the overspray, here are:

-Color Mists in bright colors (Lemon Yellow, Margarita Magenta, Slimescent Green, Cobal Sky and Tahoe Turqouise. The first picture shows the true brights, the second is the dried finished background. Overspraying these with Tungsten Carbide (black) gives the whole "night sky appearance" as the colors peek through. This was on one layer of acrylic paint.

-Starburst Stains in California Poppy Orange, Beauganvillea Fuschia and Delphinium Turquoise. Oversprayed with Color Mist in Cobalt Sky. This was also on layer of acrylic as well.

I experimented with lighter overspray colors as I went along, but I really like the darker look.

Nebula Grunge on a box

Here I used Color Mist's Lemon Yellow, Slimescent Green and Tahoe Turquoise. Sprayed the box with these colors and while wet, I oversprayed the box with Cobalt sky and then dryed with the heat gun.

I added some Copper Kettle to the lid and dried again. The box had one coat of white acrylic on it to start.

Nebula Grunge: how I started

Re: the Nebula Grunge Technique: here's where I started: white acrylic paint on chipboard. For the piece in the left, I painted just one coat, while I did two coats on the right-hand piece. Painted one coat on the box, which is also chipboard.

More in the next post...

Happy Accident

Today has been a fun day of just experimenting. If you look at my "background noise" journal from earlier this evening, you'll see I use what looks like a stencil on the cover. It was actually a piece if scrap watercolor paper that I sprayed these letters on. I liked the negative image better for the journal, it felt perfect.

These are chipboard letters I painted with white acrylic paint. I was reaching for my trusty gesso when I opted for the paint instead. I originally sprayed these with Aileen's super bright Color Mists, but they were just too bright for my needs. So grabbed her black spray, which is called Tungsten Carbide, and oversprayed them all lightly, and then hit them with the heat gun.

The result was these, which I think look batiked and very cool. I think the acrylic caused the sprays to "bead up" when heated.

I love happy accidents.