Flowers and Diamonds

This fortnight Paper Artsy is exploring acrylic gels and mediums. As a fairly recent acrylic dabbler I am still unsure as to what product to select or how to use, so I was keen to  test some of the ideas published by the DT...

However, I also wanted to try out my new supplies acquired on my holidays, Izinks acrylic inks, and got a bit side tracked from my starting inspiration of Paua shell effect as demonstrated by Lin Brown on the PA blog.

Yes the stencilled gel medium stayed but the sprays made way for the Izinks (no shine), so different altogether. My other use of gel in this project is as transfer medium for a piece of Chatsworth paper one of my favourite technique!

My base panel is gessoed wood, the stencil has been die-cut with Tim Holtz mixed media Thinlits.

I stamped the tulip from the ELB03 set with paint but the impression just wasn't good enough (more practice required for this tricky technique...) and I had to use a fine brush to go over the lines, finishing with coloured pencils.
I added a butterfly die-cut (Impression Obsessions) sprayed with a mica mist and stamped and embossed "Artful Blooms" from the same stamp set.

As to the lustre of the Paua shells... there's always next time!

Also entering the PolkaDoodles, Tando Creative, We Love 2 Create and Stamping Sensations challenges.