Hi and welcome back to another week on the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. For this weeks Tangle Creative Process Mapping Post I’m sharing about my Stencilled Nvelope Enhancer using Die Cut Florals. As you know, this month I am focusing on Nvelope, a tangle pattern originally deconstructed by Alyss Amster, CZT. This week we have been concentrating on enhancing and embellishing Nvelope, and today I’m sharing my attempt at using one of these Enhancers in a tile. Let’s have a look at how it was created.
Making the Die Cut Flower for the Stencilled Nvelope Enhancer
I thought I’d provide greater detail this week about assembling the flower. I shared about the Die Cut machine I have and the die I used for this tile last week, so if you missed that post, you can click here to catch up.
As I mentioned last week I wanted to retry creating a tile with more focus on the flower through colour, and to use a firmer paper type for it.
I used some A4 copy paper this week and ran it through my machine to cut the different floral layers.
I then treated them individually with some Distress Ink using my ink blending tool. For this flower, I used the colour called Broken China.
Next I worked on curling and bending the petals to create more form. I used the end of a small paintbrush and rolled the end of a petal around it. This tended to give the petal some curl. On alternate layers I laid the paintbrush down the middle of the petal, and bent the edges of the petal upwards around it. This tended to give the petal a different form as well.
Working from the smallest piece to the largest, I layered the pieces and inserted a drawing pin through the centre of each layer.
I kept building up the layers until the largest had been applied and the flower was complete. At the end I ruffled the petals a bit to add some more form.
A little tip though: it’s important to be gentle as you do this as it’s very easy to tear or damage the flower.
Nvelope Enhancers and Embellishments
Here’s the Nvelope Enhancers I came up with earlier in the week. I really loved the spiky one, but settled on the beaded design for my Enhancer Tile.
This week I also spent a bit of time really trying to get my head around Enhancers and Embellishments. What are they? How are they different to Tangleations? I shared my notes about this on social media.
This exercise of writing my findings down has really helped to blow some of the limitations and wrong perceptions I had out of the water. Above is a pic of my notes on this and they’ve really helped to refine my thinking, but at the same time expand it! Win win!
Stencilling the Nvelope Enhancer….
Although I loved my spiky enhanced Nvelope, I chose to do a tile based upon the beaded design. I could visualise the finished tile with this Enhancer quite easily, so I got stuck into creating.
I began with a quick sketch and then applied some stinky masking fluid. You can read about my masking fluid techniques in this blog post. The masking fluid was left overnight to dry thoroughly before I started any stencilling.
I knew I wanted to fill the four prongs of Nvelope with stencilled ink, so I found a stencil I thought might compliment it well.
Distress Ink was applied with my ink blending tool. For the four prongs I used Dried Marigold and Rusty Hinge and then sat it aside and allowed it to dry before removing the masking fluid.
Applying a light colour wash To the beads
I knew I wanted my finished colours to be intense, so this meant applying a light wash (like a stain) as a base for the coloured pencil to sit upon. Having a base of colour enables a rich, deep and vibrant colour to be achieved.
For the light colour wash on the beads I used Distress Markers. I began by applying a small amount of colour with the Distress Markers to one side of the beads. I used the same colour as the Distress Ink on the flower, Broken China, and activated it with a waterbrush.
The positioning of the colour in this fashion, helps me to identify where my deeper areas of shading will be later. I then reapplied another small layer of colour with my Derwent Inktense pencils (I used Bright Blue) and activated it with a waterbrush too.
Inking the Stencilled Nvelope Enhancer
I used my good old Unipin Fineliner in 0.3 to then ink the tile. This is my favourite inking Pen, being the one I return to time after time after time! I carried out my inking before the next Derwent Inktense stage.
Making a buttery prong
Then I grabbed my Inktense pencils to apply some shading to the four prongs of Nvelope. Last month I roadtested Derwent Inktense pencils. If you missed the post where I declared my absolute love for them, head here now and have a read about these awesome pencils for colour work.
I wanted the four prongs of Nvelope to have this buttery kind of a feel about them. I didn’t want the stencilled pattern to be sharply contrasted against a white background. Instead, I wanted the stencilled pattern to blend in each overall prong and the Derwent Inktense helped me achieve that.
I used Derwent Inktense Pencils in Bark and Saddle Brown for this component and activated them with my waterbrush to achieve that buttery blend. They looked delicious and I’m pleased with how the stencil and stained background have blended together.
Shading with Copics
For this tile I actually used the warm and cool toned Copics. I used the cool toned greys for the beads and the warm toned greys for the Nvelope prongs. In each grey family I have a 3, 5 and 7 sized Copic Marker, and these were what was used for this tile.
I blended the darker tones into the lighter tones by gradiating the grey Copics. This means laying down some 7 in the darkest area, blending the edges of the 7 shading with a 5, and then blending the 5’s edges again with a 3. I hope this makes sense! Next up came the Prisma’s!
Prismacolor colour for this Stencilled Nvelope Enhancer
Next I grabbed my Prismacolor Pencils in coordinating colours, these were colours that were similar to the Distress Markers and Inktense Pencils. I added more colour over the four prongs and I was quite heavy with colour on the beads.
I used the following Prismacolor Premier Coloured Pencils for this piece:
PC 1027 Peacock Blue
PC 1101 Denim Blue
PC 1012 Jasmine
PC 992 Light Aqua
PC 1006 Parrot Green
PC 943 Burnt Ochre
PC 938 White
PC 944 Terracotta
PC 942 Yelliw Ochre
PC 1095 Black Rasberry
Highlights and Embellishment
As usual, I finished the tile by applying highlights and embellishments using my white Signo Uniball pen and Kaisercraft glitter gel pens in coordinating colours. I always apply some little dots and dashes as highlights and embellishments and it seems to finalise the tile, ground it and make it pop all at once.
I also applied a dusting of Distress Ink to the outer edge of the tile to contrast against the white and to ground the entire piece. Lastly I attached my Die Cut floral.
The finished Stencilled Nvelope Enhancer using Die Cut Florals
So here it is, my finished tile. I used a Strathmore Artist Tile (6in x 6in) in white for this piece so you have an idea of the finished size.
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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
