Of rusty supplies...

No April fool, no joke, we're going rusty at Country View Challenges! All lovers of things aged, distressed, grunged up this is your chance to shine and maybe win a £20 voucher to spend on goodies!

For my first project I used a professional product to ensure a perfect rust! Rust powder is the simplest and truest rust form possible for crafting... Here in the UK, it is sold by popular brand Paper Artsy, and stocked in all the good craft shops, including Country View Crafts of course.
If you have held an Infusion bottle from Paper Artsy you will be surprised at how heavy the Rust bottle feels, although it is the same size as the Infusion! This is because the powder is actual metal and not a pigment.

To use, coat the items to be rusted, in my case some cardboard cogs, with an acrylic medium and sprinkle the powder over the top. Let the medium dry, then spray water or water+vinegar to activate the powder and within 20mns to half an hour the rust colour will appear as if by magic!
Don't forget, like I did, to paint a basecoat for your rust effect BEFORE applying the powder!
 
 
I chose dark grey and blue, and had to apply it after the rust... Alcohol inks were perfect and disaster was avoided. [Sorry no photos of said rusting cogs in action...]
Before I get further in my explanations let's show you my make!

For the background I coated my canvas with a mix of Primary Cyan and Prussian blue DecoArt fluid acrylics with some thick gel medium.


Next I applied some crackle glaze and, when dry, a coat of medium grey acrylic. It didn't look very good so I added some pink acrylic ink and then some ochre.

My focal point is an image by Katzelkraft which I stamped on tissue paper with Brilliance ink. I chose this ink because Archival or Versafine inks have a tendency to spread on such a thin paper. Using a wet brush around the image I obtained a feather edge to the image , this helps to get the tissue paper to "disappear" on the finished canvas.
I painted the back of the figure in white where the highlights are, and stuck it with acrylic medium, coating the top as well as the back.

I stamped some texture with a Prima clear stamp (Peeled Paint) and embossed with a mix of powders that include Wow Black puff, clear UTEE, Frantage Aged Copper and some tarnished gold. I can't be more precise than that as I use the same container for my mix and I can't remember what it had in it before I added that day's powder...
It's fun to see the results though!

For the finishing touch I added my rusty cogs with acrylic medium, adding a snippet of fabric and some micro beads.

Do visit the Country View Challenge blog to see more inspiring projects by my teamies and come back from my 2nd Rusty make later this month.

Thanks for coming by,
I am entering the Vintage Journey, SanDee & Amelie's,  Fashionable Stamping, The Artistic Stamper and SSS Wednesday challenges.