Nothing New Under the Sun Series...Gothic Arches

Hello again, and welcome to another chapter of a Tutorial/How I did that section of my brain. This one however may leave a lot to the imagination because I kinda forgot to take pics along the way. But I know that your imagination will be able to pick up and run with what you see none the less.

I actually started working on this project (background) back in late March when a swap for using gesso went up at ATCsforall. Didn’t join in on this one due to other pending projects. And slowly finding myself shying away from ATC’s. But I wanted to experiment with the gesso. I’ve only ever used it as a primer, and that was rarely.

I try to recycle papers, boxes, clippings, backs from office calendars, and pieces from old projects that didn’t make it into the final work. Talk about collecting stuff...gaah, lets not. Went about gathering what called to me and came up with a few recycled pieces this time. An Epson paper box. A heart that was rubber stamped, embossed and colored with markers from 2005. A little cutie with wings, sitting in a shoe leftover from a project last year. Dragonflies from my Greeting Card making days, and ribbons from my doll making days, 1994.

It started with the Epson box. Got the gesso and a foam brush and did a slap dash dance on the blank side, let it dry. Then danced the other direction with a another layer, let it dry. Hmmm, looked too plain for my taste. Needed more texture. Got a plastic top from a water bottle, took it for a few dips in a pool of gesso, and randomly stamped about the paper. Yup, that was better so I let it dry.

The dance continued with acrylic paints brushed to cover most of the surface. When it dried, watercolor paints were spayed to cover the rest adding more of a textured, speckled look. Loved the results…

...fast forward to May. Gothic arches, OK. Let’s try our hand at this. So I joined in on a Gothic Arch Chunkies: Vocabulary swap, 3x3 or 6x6. I printed out the arch template provided, and made my own vocabulary words on the computer. The assemblage of this process happened over a few days.

You may be asking, “Where is your Muse?” She’s letting me call the shots on this one, and silently working in the background. She’s letting me think that. Hah!...I tried to pull off the “chunky” part of this theme, but I was goin’ on a downward spiral from 0-60, headin' for the realm of Gaudiness. Sweet Pedro help me! Eyes popped wide, sweat drippin’ off my forehead. I was quickly turned around, never to look back that way again. Oh the horror! My Muse got me out of that one!...pics have been edited for fear of causing horrible nightmares.

Ahh, that's better

Doors, yeah, I like those. This one was gonna be for the heart. I took a scrap piece of the gessoed card stock, peeled off the top layer and used it as the background for the heart to rest on. It made the opening less bulky. To make the arches extra sturdy, I applied a piece of chipboard from a recycled office calendar using gel medium and let it dry completely...meanwhile

The vocab words needed tending to so out came the Distress inks in a variety of colors. Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Aged Mahogany, Dusty Concord, Antique Linen, Old Paper, Vintage Photo, and Walnut Stain. Did I use all of them? Well, yeah. At some point from all the mootsin’ around with putting the theory into practice, they got used.

The beginnings of mootsin’. Still very plain. Needs more vavoom to it, yeah?

Let’s crumple it a bit. *goes to fridge and gets the lemon juice* Grabs a brush and the heat gun.


Smoothed the paper out and brushed on the lemon juice. Hit it with the gun and got some nice effects from this method. But I still played around with the lemon juice for a few more layers until the desired effect was reached.

Tore the vocab words around two of them, the third one I cut out. Edged them with Distress inks and was satisfied.

By the time that was finished, the arches were ready to be cut and assembled. I added papers, rubber stamps, gel pens, and distressed the edges on them. There were two arches that begged to be outlined with a white opaque pen. Grabbed the pen an got busy.

OMG! Do you know the time I had trying to make this pen work? I thought I had “The Ultimate Gel Pen”. Hey, that’s what it says on the pen. Yeah, well, it ain’t! Once I got it to write I went about doing the outline on one side of the arch. By the time I finished the other side, it all disappeared! You could barely see it. Aaargh! What was that? So I went up another notch and pulled out the white Sharpie. And after pumping and scribbling for what seemed like forever, it flowed white. So I went over the first pen with it. It looked better, so I left it...Until the next morning when I went to view them. Awww crap! It disappeared too! Get on ma nerves why don’t ‘cha. Ever have one of those moments? I walked away.

Went out for coffee with my friend Jannie and she was telling me about her encounters with finding the right “white” pen to use. She had tried different ways to achieve the effects and also gotten a few ideas from one of the sales clerks over at Blick that she was going to try out. Guess I wasn’t the only one flustered about this. And I remembered reading a thread somewhere on AFA about the best one’s to use. When we left each other, I was determined to find a pen that worked.

I searched and found that Kati started a thread a year ago (see, recycling does work) about white pens and the best kinds to use. Singo came up a lot, it was the overall favorite. Sakura, Gelly Roll, and Sharpie were also used by some. There was a link posted about Roni over at Ink Stains and how she did a side by side comparison on three different white pens called “Inkssentials White pigment Pen vs. Signo and Galaxy”. I so went there ‘cuz I needed visuals. Blown away to say the least. So much so that I went out the next day and bought two Inkssentials white pens. Just what I needed! Went back to the arches in hopes for a miracle and got one. Did the outlines again, and they are still there, as white as snow! Happy dance! Even sent a pen off to Kati. It’s the little things, ya know? Aww geez, went on a rant about the white pen. So sorry about that. *jumps off the “rant box” walks away embarrassed.*