Splish, Splash, Splosh, Spritz, Spray & Stencil!

Yes.. it's all the S's at Simon Says Stamp & Show! which is quite a mouthful indeed so early on a Monday morning! Thanks for popping in - how was your weekend? I always say I can find both inspiration and solace in a paint pot! My old DT buddy Lynne would be proud of my private splodge party which was oodles of messy fun. 

So the new challenge is Spritz, Spray or Stencil - and I went for all three! I love rooting around in stationary shops and have a bit of a thing for envelopes. After hoarding too many for too long, I thought it was time to actually let two come out to play...

These are 10x5 inches, really sturdy with gusseted sides and are a great size for turning into gift bags. I found them in Holland. No idea what they are called though...I decided to just go for it with my supplies and not worry about being pretty or neat. I wanted to create a wild and freestyle look with lots of colour and texture. Definitely the hand made genre!

I gave the bag a good coat of Gesso to add white and also create a good base for the other inks and paints.

If it's a 'non-crafty' substrate you never know how the products will react so a coat of Gesso, (available in white, black or clear) is always a good plan!

I started by spraying circles onto the bag using Color Wash and Dylusions inks. I used my various circular paper punches to create my own stencil so if you don't have any bought ones ... just get die-cutting, snipping and punching and create your own! After drying I added areas of Punchinella, flipping it to also get a reverse print and followed with some water to create drips and dribbles...

It's important to dry in between so that you don't end up with a muddy mess... I went on to add another layer with the Numbers Collage not worrying about any random spray or drips - it's all part of the story....

To create texture, add white contrast and break up the solid lines I added random swooshes of gesso and dried well.

Then my fave bit - getting all messy and funky with the red flowers. I used my Red Pepper Dabber and the mini-mum stencil. Nothing to do with your mamma...

   but the chrysanthemum flower methinks...! Just dabbing it through with my fingers. Not always super neat but what the heck!

I went onto add splatters of Black Marble and Sunset Orange and a bit more gesso or ink where needed. I gave each bag a name... Bag of Stuff" and "pretty Things" using an old tag end, cardboard and letter stickers.

I finished off with some random stamping and big words using a great Tim letter set I found on ebay! You can stamp anything you want, use die-cut letters or even cut up newspaper! You just have to have fun, let yourself go and go with the flow. So get in the crafty zone, get messy and spritz your cares away..

Just not up the wall like I did. Ooops. Note to self - next time pizza box at the ready.
There's sooooo much you can do with this theme - take a look at what the Design Team came up with! I'm looking forward to seeing your creations and colours and wonder who will win the fab $50 spree this week?!
Thanks for calling by and have a great week!
Taraa for now...
Sarah.