GPPS Street Challenge No. 40!

It's been another busy, busy month but I have been looking forward to having some time to do the lovely Michelle Ward's challenge for May.  I've grabbed what time I could over this weekend and decided to go large!  This challenge was all about size and working outside of our 'normal' range.  I usually work in A5 size or smaller so I decided to go to A3 as that was the paper size I had and also the workspace.  So first up I decided to gesso my paper.  The first time I didn't really think about how I was gessoing so it went on rather randomly.  After letting it dry overnight I then decided to try a technique I have read about but not tried before - spreading acrylic paint with an old credit card.  This was fun and quite therapeutic in many ways after a day of, how shall we put it, exacting relationships!!!!

I wasn't at all sure how I was going develop this piece but knew I wanted to use some rubber stamps so this is what happened.  I used several stamps with archival black ink and then used white paint to add swirls and a white pen for doodles around the edge.

And there was some script of course - just have to have some writing on there.

The second piece was quite different.  First of all I decided to swirl my gesso on the paper making a different sort of texture altogether and then I used water colour crayons which I love to bits.  This gave a gentle effect and the colours were calming.  Again I had no idea what I would do to develop this but went for a big starfish stamp with distress ink and embossing powder (which gives it shine and sharpness and is something I haven't done for ages).  More doodles all round the edge and some distress ink blending all round the edge too.  A favourite quote in the middle which I discovered in the wonderful Tim Holz's range of stamps finishing with a large word stamp again embossed for clarity.  I like this quiet, unassuming result, although I am not sure the photos really show it as it is.

Here above is an idea of size with the tiny tag on the large sheet.

But I didn't stop here - oh no, I was on a roll...

Using gouache paints, I painted wavy stripes and another favourite quote.

Here I used gouache again and played with freehand swirls and rubber stamping with white paint (not sure I like the effect of this but good to try) and of course there had to be some script again!!

All in all this was another great fun activity and I just love this idea of a monthly challenge and Michelle's gentle but freeing guidance.  I'm learning a lot and loving it.  Thanks again Michelle!