Distress Stains Canvas Board - Sue Carrington at Paper Artsy

Over on the Paper Artsy blog this week, Sue Carrington is back! I love Sue's work and I was lucky enough to meet her briefly at Ally Pally this year. I was really inspired by the canvas board piece she made and have stuck as closely to her inspiration as my supplies allowed, for my challenge entry piece:-

I have used a smaller canvas board than Sue used, a 5 x 7. I need to try to make items which either take up less space or are useful. Colin has told me this week I have to 'get rid' of all my 'art work' that has been on the mantelpiece in the living room. He didn't use the word 'art work' actually. So I will be offering things to anybody who comes round to craft! Fortunately I don't feel any attachment to things once I have made them; the fun is in the making, so I'm not bothered. I started off by stamping with Frescos on some old telephone directory sheets from France. I haven't had such fun since Helen Chilton was last on Paper Artsy, so thank you, Sue! I made a couple of sheets as I thought they would be useful for future projects. They are real people so please don't call any of them up (the French people I mean, not Sue and Helen):-

I remember years ago stamping with paint and giving it up as a bad job, but this was great. I don't know whether it is to do with the quality of the PA stamps or the Frescos, or a combination of the two, but you do actually get a good clarity of stamping. I love the viscosity and vibrancy of paint compared to inks. I chose the French directory because I wanted to use this Hot Picks image with the Eiffel tower. I added some cogs which are cut from the Tim die in shrink plastic, then dabbed with Versamark and two types of embossing powder before shrinking, for a rusty look (I think I used some Vintage Photo ep - sounding vague here as they were in my pre-made embellishment stash).

This is the base of the canvas before I added the main image. I used the harlequin mask with Bora Bora mixed into the Grunge Paste as per Sue, highlighted with Ice Fire Treasure Gold, and similar colours of Distress Stain although I think I will try to pick up Squeezed Lemonade at Newbury Art Stamps tomorrow as I didn't have that one and I think it would have lightened it. I used the flourish from the Hot Picks set in Snowflake to try to lighten the effect although maybe my stains were a bit damp as they sucked up the whiteness a bit.

 I used a bit of the pink washi tape I made following Darcy's instructions last week with a stamped button I saved from when I made the wooden block when Helen was on some time ago. I love how the bits and pieces we are learning, are starting to build up over the weeks!

Ok, I feel I'm rambling today and explaining things in a very back to front order. I took some migraine tablets yesterday which have left me feeling very odd as some of you have witnessed before! So I shall leave it at that.