Today is the second Second Floor Challenge. Julie and I are so amazed by the response and the awesome things you showed us wether officially in the link list or in the private Flickr Group!
This time the challenge was to use a supply from your room you never used before. Whatever that means to you or however it inspires you. The prompt is simply meant to get you started. The level of challenge you aim for is entirely internal and up to you.
Click here to see what Julie did.
So I first was looking around in my craft room and one of the supplies that I snapped right away were my Letraset Aquamarkers.
Aquamarkers are water based markers and I have to admit I have them for over a year and not even unpacked them – it was about time!
First of all I unpacked them…and actually tried them on some different surfaced papers …well that is not really even getting into the first floor…that is more like taking something out of your mailbox and sniffing in the envelope before you actually enter the front door.
After playing around a bit I finally took out a Mistable Paper – a paper by Pink Paislee that is coated with a Resist and to which I know the Aquamarkers as a water based color medium would work on. I applied different colors and blended them with a brush.
mhhh – ok…fine…..it worked, but it wasn’t really pushing me out of my slippers…so time to take it up to the second floor.
I used a Crafter’s Workshop Template over the background and sprayed it with Ranger’s Color Wash, then stamped it, applied a paper stencil on top which I had also unused and forever in my stash and put some white gesso over it.
After it dried I applied some of the water markers to a craft sheet and with a wet brush I picked up the paint and painted the gesso areas…BOY….that was UGLY…I totally disliked the result and I was about to give up and cheat…yep. Not lying here…I was thinking, if I would just pick another supply I haven’t used yet, you might never know…LOL. But ok…if you put yourself out there- you’d better be honest…so ….ok…I fell down a couple stairs, but let’s try to get going. TACKLE those stairs….
So I applied the markers directly to the gesso and AHA- better with the outcome of the paints- but boy….STILL UGLY!
I started to get a bit annoyed…and angry…with myself…I felt a bit like Anette Bening in American Beauty where she starts crazily cleaning the window repeating “I will sell this house today” besides I was mumbling through my teeth “I will tackle those markers today” Take a look here to imagine how I felt:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-78hfZOu_s]
I applied a stamp over…mmmhh- that tied it a bit together and actually I started to like SOME parts of it.
Wait a second….some parts….mmmhhh – ok – so I just cut some circles free hand out.
And I remembered that I actually liked the look of the Aquamarkers on the watercolor paper – so decided to do a background which I later on applied to my artjournal.
I actually like my journal page…LOL- especially since I …and now you…know the story behind it ;)
What I learned from this challenge
- I do not like the fact that I, the person who loves paint media has unused paint media in the studio– what a waste. This will not happen again ;)
- I realized though that there is paint media that I get only luke warm with.
- The darker colors spread nicer over porous surfaces then the lighter colors
- Although water based, sprayed with something else water based, doesn’t reactivate in a huge capacity as other water based reactivated media.
- When I applied white gesso on top, the gesso picked up some of the Ranger Colorwash but it didn’t pick up the Aquamarkers.
- I was never able to really put my finger on it, but now I know for sure I do not like muted colors too much.
- I also learned – or better finally I know for sure- that I do not like harsh marker lines– I like it blended.
- If something doesn’t work as a whole …try to break it down…cut it in pieces.
- Keep going…the outcome might be still fun…especially because you remember the process itself.
- While just playing, even if it doesn’t go the way you think, you might have some other cool ideas for different projects.
- I really love watercolor paper ripped and with the watercolor effect – I think I will use this again!
Wow…actually not too bad what I learned…I hope you enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see what you come up with too.
If you decide to play along with our Second Floor challenge (we’d love to have you) please leave a link to your blog or wherever you decide to share your project! Of course, I would love it if you’d share a line or two in your blog post or flickr photo comment about something you learned from the project. (If Julie and I have done this linky list correctly, when you leave a link on Julie’s blog it should show up on this blog and vice versa.)
If you’ve made something for the Second Floor “Use Something New” challenge, leave a link!
If you’re not up for sharing 100% publicly, we have set up a totally private flickr group. It’s a way of sharing within a safe space. If you want to join the flickr group, you will need to e-mail us at (secondfloorchallenge AT gmail DOT com) and we’ll send you an invitation.
have a wonderful day
hugs
Nat
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