Friday Focus - Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints (part one)

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Jenny here with the latest Friday Focus - this is where we take the opportunity to shine a spotlight on a particular product or range currently in stock at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. For the next two weeks Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints will have the special extra 15% discount applied so if you're already a fan or want to try them out now is the time to give it a go! There are smaller 1oz bottles as well as the larger 2oz tubes if you are just trying them out.

As a lover of all things painty I was excited to try these paints for the first time and find out what made them different from those I use regularly. And since there are lots of card-makers out there who may feel paints are just for canvases I decided to create two cards and experiment with a few techniques. Today I'll share the first of those and show you how it came together - you'll have to tune in next Friday for the second card/tutorial!

Here's the first card I created - it may look complicated at first glance but you're about to find out that it was easy and fun to do! And if you click on each photo you'll get a closer look at them.

The initial layer was created in the same way as a recent journal cover (instructions/pictures here). Briefly, this comprised taking a piece of black card, randomly brushing White Gesso over, adding pieces of sewing pattern with Matte Distress Collage Medium and adding a little more White Gesso. I stamped blooms over this with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink (drying with a heat gun) then painted them in with Ruby and Evergreen Heavy Body Paint, loving the fact that this paint is so opaque that you only need one layer! Plus, since Distress Inks are water reactive, that dark grey colour disappeared into the paint!!

I stamped one of the ladies from the Homage to Frida set on thick white card using the same ink as before and painted her. Now I'm no portrait artist so I took Blushing paint, added some White to it and went over the lines across the face. By adding a slightly darker shade (less white) around the edges and on her cheeks it gave the face a little more dimension, and a little Blushing on it's own worked a treat for her lips.

I mixed Umber and Elephant to create the hair colour, then went back to Ruby and Evergreen to colour the flowers, dress and earrings. They don't take long to dry and I suggest making sure each section is dry before you start the next to prevent blurring the lines.

To add highlights I added a quick C shaped swirl of the Blushing shade over the flowers.

The Lime shade was perfect for adding highlights to the leaves and for finishing the earrings. If this all looks a bit technical and 'arty' bear in mind I didn't try to be careful or accurate with any of this because the stamping that came next hides a multitude of sins!

Here's that stamping stage - I find adding paint to sponge one of the easiest ways to apply a controlled layer of paint to stamps, using it in the same way you would an ink pad. Using the Umber shade I stamped the same flowers over the original ones, deliberately offsetting them from the originals for that 50's look. I did the same with the face stamp, again offsetting it from the painted version.

To finish the background I applied White paint through the Jumbled Numbers stencil using a stencil brush.

Here's that finished stamped face. I tore away the edges before blending Old Paper over (the paint will resist the ink) and adding Walnut Stain to the edges.

To finish I added the floral/stencilled background to a card blank and stitched around the edges. Then it was a case of grabbing lace trims, paper offcuts (including some from next week's card!) and layering them all under the face. The sentiment was stamped with black archival ink onto white card and added on top.

Here are a couple of close ups to show how I piled up the layers;

That's it for this week and the first part of the Friday Focus on Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body Paints. I hope you feel inspired to give them a go (if you haven't already)  and remember, the extra 15% discount will be applied through August 17th.

I'll be back next Friday with the second helping of inspiration so I hope you can join me for that. For now have a great creative weekend! Jenny xxx