Believe!

Hi, everyone…I’m Kathy Montgomery, and I’m so happy to be guesting here on the Perfect Paints blog. I’ve always called myself an “equal opportunity crafter” which is really putting a positive spin on the fact that each time I see something I haven’t tried before, I can’t wait to give it a go – I’ve been this way since I learned to sew at the age of 8. I started scrapbooking in 2001, mixed media a year or so later, and cardmaking shortly after that. These days, I’m mostly a card-maker, using lots of hand crafted embellishments in a highly dimensional style I call “fully-loaded,” (although I like to mix it up with clean-and-simple watercolor cards now and then), along with my mixed media crafting.

And that’s why I couldn’t wait for these paints to come to market! As soon as I was able to put aside all my “have-to-do’s” on the list, I pulled out my newly-arrived order of Shimmering Matte Acrylics and Polishing Plasters, and started playing to see what they’d do.

I had a piece of heavy chipboard in my stash, already gessoed and waiting for some fun play (it had begun as the backing to a 9 x 12 spiral bound pad of watercolor paper). What started out as a surface for experimenting turned into a canvas filled with fun! After I played with applying the layers of colors with a combination of brushing and finger painting, an idea began to form...and this is how it all ended up...

These paints blend and combine so easily and beautifully (for example, the violet shade is a combination of the Peacock Blue and Peony Shimmering Matte Acrylic paints).

Once I had the base colors applied, out came a couple stencils to apply the Polishing Plasters through. I was so pleased to see how easily they applied and how much texture they gave with a single swipe over the stencils …

I used Organic Sugar Polishing Plaster for the lines up the side, and a combination of Cayenne and Sunwashed Clay Polishing Plaster for the tree and branches.

I added small burlap flowers, diecut leaves, and larger metal flowers to the branches. Multicolored seed beads and microbeads were glued around the metal flowers, then I used Rain Slicker and Peony Shimmering Matte Acrylics over them to blend the colors together and highlight the metal flowers…

These chipboard hearts were untreated before the paints were applied, and the Shimmering Matte Acrylics paints look just as brilliant and adhered just as beautifully as over the gessoed chipboard base of the canvas. I first used Peony, then a watered down “wash” of Peacock Blue, to add the violet tint to some of them…

Finally, I wanted to see how stamping and ink pens would work over these paints. I stamped a sentiment using Archival Ink, then used Pitt Artist pens in black, Kuretake Zig Mangaka black pens, and a Uniball Signo white gel pen around the sentiment words – they all worked beautifully…no smearing, no skipping, easy-peasy application and smooth as butter!

Thanks for coming by to see my first experiment with Perfect Paints…more projects are already in the early stages…I’m having lots of fun with these beautiful paints!

You can see more of Kathy Montgomery's beautiful artwork on her blog