Sponsor Spotlight No.2 - Tando Creative

Servus! Claudia here bringing to you another spotlight inspiration showcasing another of the products of this month's challenge sponsor

If you haven't already seen Julia's fantastic project, I highly recommend you scroll down (or simply click the link) to find out what she made of Tando's advent calender (who would have guessed it was so versatile?).

I chose Tando Creative's  "3 Clocks in 1" for my spotlight creation:

and altered a 3 Euro clock from one of those 1 Euro shops to make it look like this:

I had a massive play with a lot of the new DecoArt media stuff (you'll find a list of all the materials I used at the bottom of this post) and accidentally "invented" a cool technique to create a kind of "splintered enamel" effect.

But lets start with how my clock looked "before":

it looked quite "nice", but was too small, so I was very happy to find that the largest of Tando's "3 Clocks in 1" fit perfectly as a kind of outer frame. I only had to build some framework to attach the clock face. So I used some small pieces of wood (left from a very small canvas) and glued six of these to the back of my small clock - using DecoArt matte Decou-Page.

Then I covered my clock and the Tando piece with a layer of DecoArt's black Gesso from the new media line (don't worry if there are any brushstrokes visible - these will be covered later). 

Once this had dried, I gave it all a coat of DecoArt media "Matte Medium" to seal my surface for further treatment. 

The Matte Medium spreads really easily and goes a long way! It is also fast drying, so I didn't have to wait or speed up the process with the heat tool (which I wouldn't recommend anyway as this can cause nasty bubbles when acrylic colours or medium are getting too hot). 

I prepared some colour washes for the next step, using DecoArt media fluid acrylics Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Raw Umber, Titan Buff and Quinacridone Violett.

 Then I got out the new DecoArt media white Crackle Paint and started painting only a small area of my clock at one time - as the crackle paint dries rather quickly, painting the whole clock would leave you with dried paint - which will prevent my technique from working! 

So here's what you have to do: 

- paint a rather small area with white crackle paint

- take a fine tip brush and load it with your washes (one at a time) and sprinkle these onto the still wet crackle paint

- vary the size of the sprinkles to get large puddles of wet paint as well as smaller stains that will dry quicker

- leave the large puddles of watery paint as they are and repeat all the steps until you have covered the whole clock

Allow your sprinkled on colours to mix and create random colour effects. Don't dab any of the large puddles dry until the crackle paint has done its magic!!!!! 

Once the crackle paint has dried completely, take a piece of kitchen roll and dab off the wet paint from the larger stains - this will remove the  diluted acrylic colours AND the crackle paint and reveal the black colour from underneath! 

This way you get the look of a splintered enamel surface:

You can also see how the black Gesso underneath the white crackle paint makes the cracks more visible! 

Next apply some DecoArt Traditions "Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide" and "Carbon Black" onto a palette and dab the colours onto your clock's edges using your fingertip:

This will create an uneven edge that looks a bit like splintered enamel too. 

I did this with both - my clock and the Tando Clock frame - first applying the lighter colour and then the darker - trying not to work too evenly. 

After all had dried I fixed the clock frame to the clock face with some more Decou-Page (using cloths pins to keep everything in place until dry):

Done! 

I hope you like my "splintered enamel" technique!!!

I add some more close ups so you can see the variety of effects I got on the crackle paint:

Materials used:

- Tando Creative "3 Clocks in 1"

- a cheap wall clock from the Euro/Dollar/Pound Shop

- six pieces of wood (left overs)

- DecoArt media fluid acrylics:  Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Raw Umber, Titan Buff and Quinacridone Violett

- DecoArt media black Gesso

- DecoArt media white Crackle Paint

- DecoArt matte Decou-Page

- DecoArt media Matte Medium

- DecoArt Traditions: Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Carbon Black

- brushes, palette, kitchen roll, water

***

As it is only a few days past mid-month, I would like to remind you of my actual "Autumnal Image Inspiration" challenge over here at Our Creative Corner, which is still open until the 28th of the month! I would be sooo happy to see you join in!!! 

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia xxx