Jumping in Puddles

Before I start, let me just say that originally this project was for Allsorts Challenge 46 - 'No designer papers'.  When you see what I came up with, you'll understand just how appropriate this project was.  Unfortunately (and here's the rub) I missed the deadline!  Not because I wasn't paying attention this time, but because Spring Fairy Puddle wouldn't play nice - actually, I shouldn't blame him, it was the dimensional glaze that caused the problem.  But I spent so much time getting this one ready, I wanted to post it anyway, just because it's something different.

 Image: Mo's Digital Pencil, 'Spring Fairy Puddle'

Papers: NONE!!! (I used acetate, though, if that counts.)

Tools: Anita's 3D Clear Gloss Finish; Floral Punch Fern punch

When I saw the Allsorts challenge theme, I wondered how easy/hard it would be to not use papers at all.  Oooo - an interesting thought.  My problem is that when I'm crafting,  I can rarely have an interesting thought without following it up somehow. 

Anyway, I had a week to produce something so I put it on the back boiler whilst I was doing other things.  This was my undoing - see later.

Eventually I turned my attention back to this particular challenge.  All of a sudden (like a bolt from the blue, honest!) the word 'puddle' sprung to mind and immediately I knew what I wanted to create.  It works like that sometimes, doesn't it?  I'll tell you the story of my Mum's jewellery box someday!

Anyway, I coloured up 'Spring Fairy Puddle' and set to work.  I cut the coloured image out, keeping very close to the lines so that there was very little spare white paper to deal with.  Then I laid him on my silicone craft mat (aaaah, the wonder of non-stick!) and covered him liberally with 3D gloss.  I wanted to create a puddle around him, so that he looked as if he was underwater.  I left him to dry for about half-and-hour and then went back to play.

I don't know about you, but whenever I use 3D glaze, I always get a bubble or two that I have to pop.  Not this time, however - the glaze was as perfect as it could be.  So I had to introduce some bubbles and, boy, was this ever difficult.  I played with the glaze bottle, tipping it up so that there was a little glaze at the tip, and then turning the bottle upright and squeezing, sufficient to make a bubble or two appear at the tip, which I then quickly laid down on the glaze. Thankfully, I ended up with just what I wanted, which, in any other circumstances, would be just what I didn't want!  Strange, eh? 

Then I left the glaze to dry overnight ... when I checked it in the morning, it was still opaque in the middle and needed more drying time.  Okay, so I'd still just about make the deadline so I left it to dry again while I was out at work.  I got home and hurried into the dining room (aka, 'a bit of my craft space') to look, only to see that, yup, it was still opaque in the middle, albeit it in a smaller area. So I left it overnight again, but I knew that I would miss the deadline by doing so.  Sure enough, next morning it was beautifully dry but I couldn't stop to play because I had a heavy day at work ahead.  So it wasn't until last night that I finally managed to get this project finished. 

I liked the idea of an easel card, but my acetate wasn't big enough for this.  So I mounted the 'puddle' on to a square of acetate and then created a separate easel to attach this to. 

Here's the easel, side view:

As you can see, the easel only  attaches in the lower third of the  image and has a long 'prop' for sturdiness.  The Papermania acetate I used is nice and rigid/strong, which was a curse when I made my Easter bunny packaging but was an absolute positive in this instance. 

I punched out some ferns in two shades of green and attached these to the front part of the easel before I attached the easel to the main image.  I didn't want the sticky dots to be seen between the image and the easel, which is what would have happened had I stuck the ferns to the back of the image!

Here's the back view.  See how 'clean' it is of adhesive?  When I attached the easel to the image, I used medium sticky dots and placed them in inconspicuous places, among the ferns. This gave enough adhesive to attach the two securely but didn't leave traces of adhesive that could be seen behind the acetate.

Finally, there's the close-up, below, which shows how well Spring Fairy Puddle is encased in the 3D gloss (I hope).  Obviously, the photographs of this project were very difficult to take - I didn't want to place colour or pattern behind it because I wanted to try and maintain the 'see through' property. So I hope there's enough detail in the photos so that you can see the project properly.

I wouldn't say this was perfect by any means, but I would have kicked myself if I hadn't tried it.  It was certainly a learning curve and if I chose to do anything like it again, I would have a much better idea of how to go about it.

Hope you've enjoyed, anyway - I'd love to see your puddles if you give it a go.

Happy crafting.