Making a Major Helmar Mess

Okay.. so I have had a chance to play around with this month's Helmar Challenge.

 

Mind you it really got me thinking that's for sure. I am not normally one to document daily or even weekly things. So I really had to have a good think about this challenge.

 

 So when I sat down and though about this challenge I started to notice that no matter what day of the week it is and no matter what I am doing I always have my trusty faithful coffee. To top it off my coffee is always in the same thermos cup at hands reach no matter what.

 

So for me the inspiration I used for my layout is my coffee. Bit of a challenge to scrap about as I don't normally choose something like this as my subject.

 

Here's what I created with this in mind.

 

I thought I would quickly share with you all how I created the base of my layout. Mainly because it was so much fun, I got to make a HUGE mess, I used up a pile of old chipboard stash letters and I got to play with some of my favourite Helmar products.

 

 For the base of my layout because I knew I was going to play around with a glue wash (made from 1 part Helmar Acid Free Glue and 3 parts water) I didn't want the base to warp. I don't know about you but I have LOTS of chipboard letters left over that I never seem to use because I don't seem to have all the letters I need in the same font when doing a title. So I worked out what I needed with the chipboard letters, spaced them out on the base and then adhered then once happy with placement using Helmar Acid Free Glue.

 

Then.. this was where the fun REALLY began and I mad so much mess..

Once the letters were dry I gave the whole thing a light coat of paint and hit it with the heat gun to speed up the drying process.

 

Once dry I then took single layers of patterned paper napkin I had cut into small squares and adhered it to the base using my Helmar glue wash. Once dry the red paint showed through and highlighted the negative of the napkin. I then coated the whole base with a light coat of red paint wash. to tone it down a little.

 

Next I wanted to  highlight the chipboard alphas to make them pop out of the layout. I grabbed a permanent marker and carefully coloured in each letter then gave the base a light coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Fixative.

 

The final touch I then added to my base was to lightly go over the letters with a white paint wash to highlight them and blend them into the background a little. I went over it a few times using a heat gun to dry it several times till I was happy. Then finally have the base a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Spray to finish the base off and take out any shine.

 

Had so much fun playing around with this challenge. Not only with the theme.. but because I had a chance to play around and experiment with some Helmar products to create my own dimensional base for my layout.

 

Why not have a play around with this challenge yourself.

 

TFL, M x