A Spackle Experiment Gone Wrong

Those of you that are familiar with the Gauche Alchemy design team, know that it is fountain of inspiration and learning.  The Alchemists are always playing with product in ways that I never would have thought of.  On top of that, they use things that I never would have dreamed to use.

For instance, Michelle, makes awesome use of graphic design and modernism. 

By:  Michelle Hernandez

Misty wows me every single time with her grunginess using modeling paste (which is really just regular hardware store spackle!), mists, and ink.

By:  Misty Russell

Jo, transforms the boring every day object into some kind of treasure. 

Scrabble Tiles transformed to.....

...THIS!  By:  Jo Urbani

Well, I decided to try something out of the box for me.  I took a page out of Misty's book and tried playing with spackle.  It started out very well and was actually promising.  I used my spackle over the chicken wire template from Crafter's Workshop.

Should've quit while I was ahead.....

I added some Tattered Angels glimmer mist and these really cool paint pens by Kuretake.  They're called Painty FX and I love 'em!  I also added a goofy picture of the kids and some stamping.  It all sounds good and creative and whatnot right???

WRONG!

ACK!  What in the blazing hay-ul happened here?!

Yeah.  Disaster on a page right there!  MY EYES!  MY EYES!  Well, after staring at this...ok...pouting...for a half hour or so, I decided it was time to go to the experts.  I shared this flop to the Alchemists and let them chime in with their tips and tricks on how to fix it.

The advice I got was amazing, priceless, insightful, and brilliant.  Here is what some of them had to say.

Jennifer:  Composition-wise, it's always more visually appealing when the focal image is on one of the intersections of the grid (like a tic-tac-toe board over the page), so if the picture were off to one side and up or down a bit, the composition would instantly improve.  As for the stamping, something I learned while with CTMH (ages ago, feels like) is that random patterns look more natural when they extend off the page, so adding a few more of your stamping patterns going off the page might anchor it a bit better, so would over-stamping with another color (the black looks almost harsh next to the vivid brights).  All that said, the Be You and the heart draw the eye down and through the image, the focus of the page, which is another crucial part of composition--leading the eye--so int hat respect you rocked it out!  And the fact that the subjects in the photo are looking INTO the page instead of OFF or away from the spine is another trick they teach in design classes to create flow in work.

Misty:   If you dislike the stamping what is it that you don't like. I have some stamps like that and what I didn't like about them when I first started doing them was the shape. So i changed the look by ink'n it up very unevenly or if its a cling stamp don't put it on a block and just kind of press it down with your finger tips in random areas...or just in the middle of the stamp and only parts of the edges.  You could add little drips of gesso over the some of the stamping...and then wipe it off with a baby wipe or damp paper towel? this is all that I have learned through experimenting. Its scary because you don't want to screw up the rest of the page but when you wipe it with the wet towel it usually just gives it a cloudy look.

Lori:   I think adding some of the spackling on top again would look cool!  (She also suggested stamping in a lighter color as well, but I don't have any light color stamp pads.)


So, after applying these tips and taking the design advice offered, this is what I came up with.

Still not quite right, but better.

I tweaked, hemmed, haw-ed, and pouted a little bit more before I did some more rearranging, adding some more washi tape and redoing some of the paint splatter.  The end result is this:

I'm callin' it DONE while I'm just a little bit ahead!

Sometimes, stepping out of the box and learning something new often involves a disaster.  If you're mean, it is synonymous with disaster!  I'm still not 100% pleased with the end result, but it's better than before.


Thank you to my Gauche Alchemy ladies for your insight, how-to, and overall brilliance!  I loves youz guys!


Cheers!