Neon!

Astrid Stulemeijer is our hostess this week at Stampotique Designers Challenge Blog. Her challenge is "Neon".

This is what she had to say about her challenge.

"At first I was a bit afraid of these intense colors, but after using them I really love them. They give your work such a nice 'pop'. I challenge you to use at least one Neon color. Can't wait to see your eye popping work :-)"

If you'd like the chance to win your choice of $30 worth of Stampotique stamps, you should play along with this challenge. Visit Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and be sure to read the rules so that you'll have the chance to win that great prize!!!  

I must say that this Neon challenge was a real challenging one for me (which I guess is the point of a challenge after all) because as much as I like bright colors, I don't really like neon and day-glo colors. As such, I don't have a lot of media in these colors. The closest that I do have are Dylusions sprays and a few Distress colors (Picked Raspberry and Ripe Persimmon). I'm also not a big spray gal as I can't control their application very well. As a control-freak Virgo, I find that distressing and not in the fabulous aged grungy way. But, I decided to just go for it and this is what happened.

Here's my journal spread which uses Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles. All three stamps are Janet Klein's designs!

Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink, colored with Copic markers in seriously-bright-verging-on-neon colors, fussy cut, and edged with a black marker. Several layers of Clear Gelly Glaze pen were added to Chessy's eyes and teeth,  Rabbit's  pocket watch, and The Tweedles' cufflinks and shoes to make them dimensional and shiny. White Gelly Glaze pen was added to The Tweedles' trousers. Rabbit's and The Tweedles' eyes were coated with Liquid Glass (DecoArt's Media line) to add glassy pop-eyed dimension and shine. All my characters were put aside overnight while I worked on the background for the journal pages.

As previously stated, I don't much like spray paint because it gets everywhere and because I can't seem to control my spraying. I grabbed a pizza box and opened it on my table to protect the table and stuff that lives there. Two sheets of 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock (Strathmore) were first misted with water, then sprayed with After Midnight, Lemon Zest, and Bubblegum Pink Dylusions sprays (Ranger). I was too tentative with my spraying, so I repeated the process again, then rolled some paper towel over the cardstock. I repeated the misting, spraying, rolling thang a few more times, then realized that my pizza box was soaked and pools were forming under it. So scrap paper, some white-paper coated corrugate, and white flowers were grabbed to try to soak up the ink pond. Most of those became too muddy to use, reinforcing my "don't like spray" feeling. And I still wasn't happy with the look of my journal pages!

I looked around and noticed I had a ginormous bubble mailer and thought to myself "Self! Cut that sucka open and use it line the pizza box!" So I did. 

I sprayed all three colors over the two pages again, did the paper towel roll, noticed that the bubble wrap had some ink, and pressed the sprayed bubble-wrap onto the pages. Yahoo! I was freakin' delighted with the result and got even happier when I heat set the background. Most of the overspray on my table was wiped up and the pizza box was put into recycling. 

Using an old credit card, Black Media Modeling Paste (DecoArt) was spread over one of the two branches on the Flowing Branches stencil (Designs By Ryn)onto both pages. I must say that I love, Love, LOVE DecoArt's Media Modeling Paste! It stencils like a dream and dries really quickly. The White Media Modeling Paste can be tinted with DecoArt's Media Fluid Acrylics (MFA) too, which extends their versatility and usefulness. -End of DecoArt commercial!

I decided that the background still needed to look a bit more neon to fulfill the challenge, so I grabbed my Picked Raspberry Distress inkpad (Ranger), my Time Travel stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), and a very old teacup/teapot stencil (FairyTale Creations), and added some hot pink clock face bits, tea-cups, and tea pots here and there. Much better. Black Washi tape was added to the bottom of both sheets, then the sheets were adhered to two journal pages, which had been pre-painted with Ebony Black MFA paint (DecoArt). Picked Raspberry Distress and Black Soot Distress inks were sponged around the outside edges of the spread. 

Yellow cardstock was die-cut with old QuicKutz dies to create the sentiment. The sentiment, Chessy, Rabbit, and The Tweedles were adhered to the spread and I called it done!

Thanks for visiting today! 

I shall enter this journal spread into the following challenges:
• Come and Get It Challenges: Make Your Own  Background 
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges: Lions and Lambs, oh my! - I've got a rabbit and a cat!