Tando Creative: October Colour Theme by Art Angel

For my first post here at the Tando blog, i thought i’d share the decorating of a little cubbey, using some rice papers and embellishments and the colour theme for this month. This is what i started with,

My first step was to lay out all my pieces and do a quick dry run, so that i knew what slotted where, i then white gesso’d each piece front and back being very careful not to cover tabs or fill in slots.

I used decoart Americana chalk paint in lace and cherish, randomly on my glass mat, spritzed with water and the picked up with watercolour card to create a mottled background. When dry, i placed the back panel on my painted sheet and drew round in pencil to give me the shape required to cover. I made sure to cut my piece slightly smaller than the panel so that my fixing tabs were not covered. I cut a second piece then adhered to back and front.

I then used a water brush on the rice paper so that i could tear panels for all side of my cubbey, inside snd out, again, i made sure the rice paper pieces were smaller than the panels as i was going to be painting the edges anyway, and im very sparing with my rice paper so as to not waste any! Save all your scraps these will be used later.

Glue both surfaces, panel and back of rice paper, then marry the two together, smooth out any creases or air bubbles using your brush from the centre pushing out towards the edges.Set aside to dry fully. Use a pokey took to pierce through the rice paper where slots are, this is easier when dry.

Think about decorating before putting your cubbey together some bits are easier to do when disassembled, i used lace paint to create a vignette round the edges of my back panel (both sides) and added some splats in raw umber and Enchanted green with a fan brush

I then assembled the sides, top and bottom using pva, again set aside to dry

Once dry i took a number stencil ( distressed digits by Andy Skinner) and placed a thin cost of gel medium through it on all four outside pieces to act as a resist when dry

Once dry i used raw umber antiquing paint to give the outside of my cubbey a vintage feel. Once the paint was dry i used the antiquing paint remover to take away the top layers revealing parts of the rice paper underneath

I used a mixture of paint colours refreshing and lace to dry brush over the texture to bring out the detail and the added splats in Cherish in order to tie the outside with the back panel on the inside, i also added cherish splats to the inner edge of uncoated rice papee

Finally i used the leftover scraps of rice paper to collage a grey board heart, i edged this when dry with more of the Enchanted and paint a second, smaller heart in the same colour as well as adding a key painted in Cherish and coated in decoart triple thick gloss varnish, these i mounted inside the cubbery on spare pieces of grey board just to give them a bit of depth

And heres my finished piece, i have really enjoyed doing this hope you like it and will have a go at decorating one yourself x x