Eileen Hull and Crescent Collaborate!

This month the Eileen Hull Design Team are collaborating with Crescent to bring you a month of blog posts to inspire you to create!

For today's post I am using the Crescent Photo Mat Art Board and the RENDЯ Paper (HERE is a video showing clearly how fantastic the RENDЯ Paper takes various mediums).

1. Photo Mat Art Board - it is possible to use any mediums on this product, ink it, watercolour washes, stamping, glue, draw, embellish, use with photographs and is a perfect combination with the
   RENDЯ Paper.
2. RENDЯ Paper - The magic of Crescent's RENDЯ Paper is that no matter how much you ink, marker, stamp, spray or paint or whatever medium you use there is no show-through or bleed through; absolutely perfect for mixed media.

I decided to create a travel gardening journal. I visit many gardens and love to take photos so I thought I would make this journal to keep a record of my visits and to also create journal pages inspired by my visits, particularly using colour, various mediums and Eileen Hull's flower dies.

1 I began with the Photo Mat Art Board (this one is 8" in width and 10" in length). I spritzed the Board with water before applying any paint.
2 Brayer over the Mat Art Board with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Paint, using only a light touch.
3 Continue to brayer the paint until the Mat Art Board is covered with one layer of colour.
4 Brayer Picked Raspberry Distress Paint over the Mat Board to give a second layer of colour and then dry with a heat tool.

1 Any paint that was remaining on my craft sheet I mopped up with a piece of the RENDЯ Paper to use at a later date on a second piece of artwork.
2 Take a piece of the RENDЯ Paper from the pad.
3 Brayer over the RENDЯ Paper with Squeezed Lemonade and Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint.
4 Continue to add layers of the paint until you are happy with the coverage. It does not matter how many layers of paint you add there is no show-through on the reverse.

1 Turn the RENDЯ Paper over the the reverse side and then apply Squeezed Lemonade and Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint directly onto the paper.
2 Brayer the two colours of paint together over the paper.
3 Take the Tim Holtz Stripes Layering Stencil and apply Pciked Raspberry Distress Ink directly to the stencil.
4 Repeat the same process with Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink; applying the ink directly to the stencil.

1 Spritz the inked stencil with water.
2 Place the inked stencil face down onto the Mat Art Board and then dab the back of the stencil with kitchen towel to ensure good contact between the stencil and the Mat Art Board.
3 Dry the ink with a heat tool. Repeat this process several times to add random stencilling to the background and dry once again with a heat tool.
4 Apply Texture Paste over the Stripes Layering Stencil to add a further layer of interest and texture to the design.

1 Add Texture Paste over the Stripes Layering Stencil randomly around the Mat Art Board and then allow to dry completely.
2 Die Cut the RENDЯ Paper we coloured in the previous steps; die cutting using Eileen Hull's Flower, Heart and Soul Die. Die cut a circle from the decorated RENDЯ Paper.
3 Cut away the petals from the die cut flower (as for this design we are only using the petals to create a different flower).
4 Cut the die cut circle in half and add shading to the two semi circles with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

1 Add shading to the edges of each petal using Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink using a piece of Cut 'n' Dry Foam to apply the ink.
2 Add a second layer of colour to the edges, in this case Fired Brick Distress Ink.
3 Scribble Distress Crayons onto the background of the Mat Art Board.
4 Blend the Distress Crayons with a finger to blend.

I used Eileen Hull's Twist and Style Craft Tool to create my stems from rusty tin wire. I also added delicate splatters of paint for added interest along with delicate background stamping using Tim Holtz Ledger Script Stamp and Monarch Orange Archival Ink. I love how all the layer are visible! I also added coordinated vintage ribbon coloured with Distress Inks, tied to the book rings.

I added a sentiment to the aperture of the Mat Art Board which I thought was perfect for my travel gardening journal. The background piece in the aperture is a piece of the RENDЯ Paper brayered with layers of paint.

I added a touch more shading to the tops of my faux Echinacea flowers along with some delicate random stamping.

The flower petals were bent a little to give movement and shape to the flower. I also used two of the petals as leaves.

The black splatters of paint and scratchy lines added with an old credit/store card give further interest to the design.

I added three layers of petals to give a 3d like appearance to each faux Echinacea flower.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x