Pooh Tries a Texture Technique

Hello there to our lovely visitors, old and new, how lovely of you to pad your paws this way to see what the bears are up to.
You may know that we have a bit of a magazine habit here at The House of Bears, but Wilbear was grumbling that we never try out any of the techniques in them, and threatened to stop our pawcket money if we didn't try at least one idea a month. So, I hot-pawed it to the bears' desk to peruse magazines for ideas, and found this idea for textured backgrounds, using Gesso, in November's Craft Stamper magazine.




For those of you who are Craft Stamper-less. I shall show you my interpretation of the project. CS showed a Christmas themed project, but I thought, seeing as it's October, I would utilise our Spooky stamps, and try a Halloween theme.
First, I cut two squares of scary orange card to 4"x4" - oooh look, can you spot my furry shadow on the card? Spoooooooky!




But not as spooky as my Pumpkin costume; well, a Halloween project called for a Halloween outfit!




Back to my how to -although if you wish, you can follow my lead and change into something that matches your individual project, in order to make it more meaningful- anyhow, next step, Gesso. I Gathered a large gloop of the stuff on a sponge applicator




And spread thickly on the two pieces of cut card.




I squidged (very technical term that) the two pieces of card together.




To achieve the maximum effect, I stood on my card sandwich, oooh squelchy!




Ugh, Gessoed slipper, maybe that wasn't my best idea.




(Once I'd wiped my slipper)
I carefully peeled the card apart to reveal two lovely textured pieces of card. Which then need to be left to dry overnight. Zzzzz




Next morning, still in the same clothes as the day before... The CS project suggests certain supplies, including water colour crayons; the bears don't possess a lot of craft stuff, as we gave our stash away in a fit of madness late last year, and are now rebuilding our craft Cupboards. We were lucky to have these chalk pastels donated to us by our fab friend, Florence, so I thought they would do the job just as well.




Now, a lot of commentators on the blog ask how come the bears have such clean paws despite getting very inky on occasion. Shall I let you into our secret? Rubber gloves!!! We've yet to find paw - sized gloves, so have to make do with the hand shaped variety!




With rubber glove on, I selected some chalks, (choose two or three coordinating colours,) mine were red, yellow, orange, and a bit of black, for added atmosphere.




With the chalks, I scribbled randomly on my gessoed card, gosh, I haven't coloured in such a random manner since I was a cub!




Next, I sprayed water liberally over the chalky design, and blended one colour into another.




This is why we don't have inky paws, we have inky gloves.




I had to leave the coloured and blended card to dry completely. This is what they looked like.




Ugh, I just looked in our mirror, and noticed Gesso on my furry face, can you spot it? What a messy bear, maybe I need a face mask for my next art project?




Next, I needed to add some decoration to my textured backgrounds. I chose a slightly lighter orange card




And some suitable stamps.




I stamped on my acrylic block, oops, I think I should have stamped the block, not stamped on the block! Oh well, it achieved the same outcome!




I randomly stamped my images directly onto the textured card for a background effect, and also by stamping onto card and cutting and sticking to the textured background for a more pronounced effect.




Here are my finished projects. I think that displaying them with me in the middle really lends my project that perfect finish.




But just in case you don't agree, here they are on the easel




I thought I'd enter into the following challenges with the picture below
Anything Goes
eerie Inspiration
Halloween or fall colours




Now, what can I use them for?
disclaimer the bears do not accept any responsibility for accidents occurring due to persons (or bears) following any of Pooh's more silly suggestions, IE, standing on your gessoed squares, or your acrylic blocks!!
With love from the bears.