Remember, Remember, the 5th of November.......

Hi everybody! it's my turn to set the challenge over on the Stamps and Stencils blog and this is what I've come up with ........

......... As a child, I used to love bonfire night. My dad would come home from work with a box of fireworks and packets of sparklers. We couldn't wait to get outside and enjoy the show! Fire works and fire, are used in celebrations all over the world.  I'd love to see your art works based on fire and fireworks. Think bursts of colour. Let rip with the colour sprays, glitter, and paints. Let's have a bit of fun and brighten up these dark days with COLOUR ! Just remember it must be mixed media and include stamps or stencils or even both.

My project, is a square canvas with a tissue collaged background and stamped and stencilled patterns on top. This is how I brought it together.....
I started off by covering the surface with torn pieces of coloured tissue paper, adhered with Mod Podge. I slightly crinkled the paper as I applied it, so as to add some texture. The next step was to stencil the pattern. I haven't got any specific fire work stencils but I thought this chrysanthemum style, flower stencil, had the look of a rocket burst. I mixed a little acrylic paint into some moulding paste and stencilled the first flower. To add to the look of a firework, I sprinkled the surface of the moulding paste with glitter. I then dried it with a heat gun and repeated the same procedure for each flower.......

    I think the glitter helped to transform my flowers into the desired firework bursts. In order to add another 'firework' element, I stamped several areas of the canvas, with a concentric circle style stamp, using Indigo Blu Flitter Glue. Once this was tacky, I layered on some gold leaf, apologies for the rather blurred picture.......

Once everthing was completely dry, I applied some black Archival Ink to the edges of the canvas, with a blending tool. I also ran the ink lightly across the background surface, just catching some of the tissue crinkles. I added the words 'Remember, remember, 5th November, which were taken from a rhyme we used to say at school which commemorates the foiled plot by 'Guy Fawkes' and his buddies,to blow up the King and Parliament.....

'Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder and treason

Should ever be forgot'

......and that is why we still celebrate Bonfire Night to this day.

If you would like to join in with our Stamps and Stencils challenge, I'd love to see your interpretations of fireworks or fire.Hop over to the Stamps and Stencils blog with this link, and you'll find some inspiring work by the rest of this fantastic team, as well as all of the challenge details. Hope I'll see you there ! x