Paint Fusion - Berries

Well I have done it - produced my first Paint Fusion Effort - actually using acrylics (yes I know I did a couple of practise attempts with icing but this is the real thing!)

Whilst in town during the week I treated myself to some paint brushes from The Works, and some acrylic paints from Wilkinson's - yup that's me - last of the big spenders!   I got 7 large tubes of paint at 99p each and a box of 12 small tubes for £2.50 - so under a tenner!   I thought I would have a practise just to see if I could do it and I can always invest in the proper paints at a later date.   The downside was that I had to mix my shades first, but it wasn't too much of a problem.  I also bought a cheap larger set of paint brushes from Wilkinson's but they weren't brilliant - but sufficed - shall look for a better set.

So I am secretly quite chuffed at my first venture into painting - I have never been good at art, although I like the relaxation of colouring stamps with promarkers, and am getting some results now with water-coouring, but I always wanted to learn "barge painting"/folk art.  (My family will tell you that the only think I can paint is emulstion on the walls - although I prefer wall-papering, and for heaven's sake don't let me loose with gloss paint! - undercoat yes - gloss NO!) so this really is an achievement for me.  Have even amazed my kids - and my son and his wife are both brilliant artists!

Finally I will own up to a couple of "happy accidents".  I didn't quite achieve the transparent centres to the flowers as per Sheena's DVD.  However, having obliterated the stamens on the stamp, and painted the yellow centre - I had a brainwave - I re-inked the stamp and wiped off the petals and just stamped the stamen part over the paint!  result!   Also when I came to stress emboss the edge and the swirls - I didn't think the versamark had stamped for the swirls - so I redid them - seems I now have swirls of ribbon!  - have I discovered a new technique quite by chance?  bet I couldn't get the same result again!