Seahorse Reef, The Canvas, creating the background

Hi! Antony here for my first post of 2018. This is the first of two posts
showing you how I created my Seahorse Reef canvas. In this post
I'll explain step by step how a made the background using
Distress Oxide inks and some home made stencils and a splash of water.
The Canvas itself is a reverse canvas, where you decorate the reverse of
the canvas opposed to the front. This helps give the canvas a really 3D effect!

For this part of the project I used the following products:-
Distress Oxides (various colours), some white card, low tack tape
apllicator sponges for the inks, silver Inka Gold and a toothbrush!

Step 1 Using 3 different colours of Distress Oxide inks I created
a background, laying down the colours in bands working on the white
card at 45 degrees. I used glycerine on the applicator sponges
to help spread and blend the colours together.
The colours I used were:-
Cracked Pistachio at the top
Salty Ocean in the middle
and Faded Jeans at the bottom.
Once I had all the colours in place, I then flicked water over them
and then placed a white paper cloth over it to help absorb the water.
This effect is called faux bleaching, as it removes the ink where
the water was. Then I used a craft heat tool to dry the background.
I then went into selected areas of the background and used
 Wilted Violet Distress Oxide. Once again I heat set it and then
flicked water over it again and absorded the water with a white
paper cloth.

Step 2 Using some white card I made myself some stencils.
All they are, are two cuts going to a point, these will create rays on
the background. I made 3 versions of the ray stencil, each one
just a slightly different width from the other.

 
Step 4 Using an alcohol pen I marked a cross on my glass mat about
2 - 3cm above my sheet of coloured card.

Step 5 I positioned the first stencil in place, making sure that where
the two cuts go to a point, they were over the top of the black cross
on my glass mat. I then used Salty Ocean Distress Oxide and
started to add colour, working from the top of the stencil going
down and then blending into the background colours.
I then moved the stencil round, still making sure that the top part
was still over the black cross.

Step 6 Changing stencil and Distress Oxide colour, I created
more rays and repeated the process of lifting and moving
the stencil.

Step 7 For the final lot of rays using Distress Oxide, I used
the Antique Linen colour and once again repeated the process
of adding the rays.

Step 8 Using the Antique Linen colour I started adding colour to the
very top of the background and blending into the lower colours.

Step 9 For the next set of rays I used a clean applicator sponge and instead

of ink I dabbed it in a little water. I then used one of the stencils and very

lightly dragged the damp applicator sponge from the top of the background

to the bottom. The water will almost erase the Oxide inks from the card.

Just be careful not to over do it with the water on the applicator.

I heat set the background and then flicked a little more water over it.

Step 10 Next I used some silver Inka Gold from Viva Decor. I took a

small amount out of the tub and placed it onto my glass mat and added

some water to it. Using a toothbrush I dabbed it into the mix.

I then took the toothbrush and placed it over the background and

dragged my thumb over the bristles, so that a fine mist of the silver

Inka Gold went onto the background. I force dried it with a heat tool

and then lightly buffed over the surface with a white paper cloth.

Step 11 Finally I went round the outer edges of the background

using firstly Faded Jeans Distress Oxide and then Black Soot.

Well that wraps up the first part of this two part post, I hope

you can join me for the second half, where I'll show you

how I went about creating the rest of the canvas using

some beautifully detailed moulds from Katy Sue Designs.

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

 
Samantha and Antony