It’s Bonnie here today subbing for Barb this week…and I am excited! I had so many ideas about which direction I could take that I was in stall mode for a bit. Finally I came back to my first idea and just went for it. This week’s prompt is all about creating texture by adding crumpled tissue paper to the background before adding colour. I began with a page which already had gesso added and dried. Over that, I applied a coat of gel medium, and over that spread a piece of plain white tissue paper which had been previously crumpled into a ball. Crumpling the tissue first adds extra wrinkles which translate into extra texture. I also smooshed (very technical term) it together a little when I was laying it over the gel medium so create even more creases and wrinkles. A coat of gel medium was applied over the tissue and it was left to dry. I trimmed off the excess before moving on.

I applied three layers of Liquitex Basics Acrylic paint over the dried tissue: Light Blue Permanent; Cerulean Blue Hue; Bright Aqua Green. With a wet brush, I dipped into the Light Blue Permanent to dilute it a little, brushed some off onto paper towel, and very lightly scuffed it across the page. I wasn’t looking for solid coverage nor did I want an even coat because the variation adds interest. I did apply it to the whole page.

Next I added Cerulean Blue Hue using the same method but applying it in fewer places than the first colour. I was mainly trying to hit the high places of the tissue wrinkles so I had less water in my brush and wiped more off onto the paper towel before starting.

Finally, I added the third colour, Bright Aqua Green. I added still less of this than the second colour so that there were only a few places highlighted with Aqua. I have done this same process with browns to create the look of leather. It’s a versatile technique.

Ever since I clapped my eyes onto Joggles/Virginia England’s Percy Goodfish Cling Mounted Rubber Stamp, I’ve been itching to colour him with my Coloursoft pencils. He makes me smile and needed to be the star on my sea coloured background. I cut him out leaving a white border and matted him with black to help him stand out.

Percy needed some sea plants so a piece of white card stock was spritzed with Delphinium Turquoise and Bells of Ireland Green Lindy’s Two Toned Starburst Sprays and dried. Skinny wavy shapes were cut to make the five plants.

A little text was added to them using Jet Black Archival Ink and Joggles/Margaret Applin Designs Vintage Correspondence Cling Rubber Stamp. A length of cheesecloth was spritzed with Lindy’s Opal Sea Oats Starburst Spray, dried, and adhered to the bottom of the page with Aleene’s Super Thick Tacky Glue. This glue was also used to adhere the plants to the background.

Percy needed some bubbles so .5 inch Sticky Snippets Mini Circles were added above his head. Two smaller ones were punched from two of the .5 inch size. More circles (and texture) were added by scraping Ranger Texture Paste through TCW Tiny Circles stencil in several places including over some of the grasses. This helps embed them into the page so they become part of the background. After all, Percy is the star!

To finish off, I doodled a very wiggly border (the page is very textured which does funny things to the pen) and added the computer generated sentiment which Dory made so famous! And that’s it…three types of texture: wrinkly creases from the tissue, dimensional texture from the Texture Paste and stencil, and flat texture from the stamping on the grass.

Have fun! Thanks, Barb, for letting me play today!