Step-by-Step with Louise!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Step-by-Step with Louise!

Today's step-by-step tutorial is by the fun and super talented Louise Nelson! Louise's style is minimalist with a splash of artistic techniques. Today she is going to walk us through how she made this gorgeous fall-colored backdrop!

Layout - LOL

Louise likes to create her layouts on a sturdy background as she uses layers of wet mediums that would otherwise make cardstock disintegrate. So she begins with a 12 x 12 grey board, which has been spray-painted with white paint.

When the background is dry select desired stencil [Louise just loves this new release stencil by Finnabair] and place on background in desired position.

Then using a clear embossing inkpad, apply embossing ink over the stencil to create a doily pattern on the background.

Sprinkle over a good layer of clear fine embossing powder. Shake off excess and then heat set using a heat gun.

As you can see from this close up the stencil pattern isn’t perfect, it is quite abstract! But that is okay as it fits perfectly with the ‘look’ Louise wants to achieve.

Apply a very liberal coating of chalkboard mist over the embossed area.

Tilt the background ensuring that there is some paper towel to catch the dribbles.

Then with water mister set on spray ‘rinse ‘ the mist off until there is a faint coating of the chalkboard mist. Continue to mist the whole of the background with water until there is a fine coating of water.

Once again apply a slightly less liberal coat of chalkboard mist over the embossed area.

Lay the layout flat, then using the heat gun start to dry the mist and water starting at the centre of the embossed area. As you can see from the picture above it spreads the mist out across the background.

While the background is still slightly damp, mop up the mist and water using the same paper towel used to catch the drips. Don’t be too particular and concentrate on leaving patches of the mist colored to create a free-style pattern of color that extends out from the embossed area.

When you have finished blotting up some of the colored mist, re-wet the centre of the embossed area with the water mister.

Using the same paper towel blot away some of the colored mist from the centre of the embossed area. This will help to subtly highlight some of the embossed pattern.

You can now allow the background to dry naturally before completing it or dry it off gently with a heat gun.

Well, I do hope you liked that technique.

Louise encourages you too have a try; but please not to get discouraged if it doesn’t look the same or as good as you would like it. Louise NEVER knows how her layout backgrounds are going to look when they are finished! She just loves the process of creating, and experimenting, and going with the flow to see what evolves.

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If you do ‘have a go’ at Louise’s background technique, please do share with a link to your project in the comments section here, or on the Prima Marketing Facebook page. We would so love to see what you create!

Prima Products Used:

6x6 Stencil Lace Doily #1	Joulee - Quartz	Canvas Alphabet Stickers - Lifetime	Finnabair Mechanicals Leaves 2
Chalk Edger Dark Rust Chalk Edger Dark Rust	Florella-Brown Flowers Florella-Brown Leaves	Say It In Crystals	Say It In Crystals Individuals Say It In Crystals Individuals