Better Together

 Hello friends,

Today I am sharing one of the projects I made for the idea-ology release last month. This one is a favorite (okay, I liked them all) because I just love the three girls from the new "Groups" pack of Paper Dolls. They fit so well on the back of the large Vignette Tray!

I began by painting the sides of the tray with Pumice Stone Distress Paint, wiping away excess so that the grain of the wood tray still comes through.  

While the paint was drying, I cut used my Tonic Guillotine Trimmer to cut eighteen, 2 x 2" squares of Heavystock paper.  There are three squares across the Tray and 6 squares running down = 18 squares.  I found that once I had the squares cut I could easily add the Backdrop papers to the front with Collage medium, then trim them with scissors.  

Some squares have only one piece of paper, like the marbled book paper right in the center of this shot.  Then others have two, even three pieces (scraps).  No matter what I did to the square, I always kept to the 2 x 2 pattern size.

Once I was ready to adhere the squares, I did have to trim a few of the squares to fit the tray perfectly. I started with the bottom row of three and worked my way up to the top. Once I had them in place, I added the flowers, labels and stamps that crossed the borders of the 2 x 2" cards (like the blue label below). I also painted a layer of Collage Medium over the whole surface, rubbing it in with my hands to get rid of the brush marks. Once dry I was able to add the Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

The next thing to work is the Vignette Advert Panels.  These are new wood panels that can be added to projects, or in the case of the the two largest, they can be use to fit the top of a Vignette Box to create a lid or hinged door.  I used the one marked with a red arrow.  

In the finished piece I combined the Advert Panel with an Etcetera Trim - Pinked to create the shelf.  I painted the pinked (sawtooth) trim piece with Black Soot Distress Paint (both sides) and set it aside to dry.  

The Vignette Advert Panel is a light wood and I wanted a very rich looking finish so I used an easy technique to make that happen.  Rub any brown distress ink color directly over the surface of the panel (it won't look very good at this stage) then with your finger, rub Collage Medium over the surface to allow the ink to "bloom" and become very rich in color.  Set aside to dry.  It's just that easy.

NOTE: I tested ink colors on the backside of the panel to I could find the right one before starting on the front - Walnut Stain was my choice with Vintage Photo as the runner up.

I drilled a hole on each side of the Panel just big enough to push eyelets from my stash into the hole (no glue needed). I added 3D Foam Squares to the back of the Advert Panel to raise it from the surface of the Tray, then ran the Velvet Trim into the holes. Once this is done, you can adhere the panel to the Tray.
I evened up the Velvet Trim and pulled it to the back side of the Tray where I used a hot glue gun to secure it to the inside back.
Use Collage Medium to add the black Etcetera Trim to the top of the Advert Panel. Once this is secure, you are ready to add the Paper Dolls and embellishments.

The Paper Dolls were tinted with multiple colors of Distress Crayons.  I kept them light and airy.  I love how the scarf of the girl on the right is blowing in the wind!  Since the original picture has their names listed, I know they are: (L to R) Helen, Nola May, and Wilma.  So welcome to the Paper Doll family, glad you are here!

The rest of the blog post today will focus on the Heirloom Florals and how I transformed them for this vintage piece.  The loose pieces are the ones I used for this Tray.

First of all, this is a recreation I what I did originally so the amount of ink will be a bit different than the finished piece. I dripped Mushroom Alcohol Ink over the flowers.  I would do this two or three at a time not all at once.

Then I took the felt that is normally on the tool and rubbed some of the Alcohol Ink away.  You can always wipe more away with Blending Solution added to the felt (I did not have to do that when working with 2 or 3 at a time).

Just as a reminder, you can easily get Alcohol Ink off your fingers using Hand Sanitizer.

Next I decided to cut up the resin flowers with my Tonic scissors. I cut the base off the tiny flowers so they would not stick up as much when using them in the garden. I'm going to be honest, this is the first time cutting them up and it worked out better than I even hoped.

I placed the tiny flower into the scissors and made a cut...turn the flower, make a cut, turn the flower, make a cut...until I had gone all the way around.  Little by little is the key!!

This is what it looked like once I cut through the flower.

For the larger one, (this one is admittedly harder to cut into the center because of the thickness) I cut a V shape pulling out three flowers.  After this cut, it was easy to split the larger piece in two.  My goal here was to get individual flowers.

Using the one piece, I cut each flower apart.  I only used two of these flowers in the finished piece.

You can see here that I used cheesecloth (Mummy Cloth will work too) to cover the top of the black Trim.  I added the Paper Dolls with a double stack of foam Squares, then filled in around their feet with a bit of shredded cheesecloth.  I also added a new Quote Flair, six sets of leaves (Sizzix Garden Greens) and the resin flowers, in that order.  I used hot glue to add each element.  It was especially helpful with the layers of leaves since hot glue gives dimension between the layers.  

I used tweezers to add the small flowers over and under the leaves.

The last item I aded was one of the new knobs from the Mini Hardware set.  I just dabbed it with a bit of Mushroom Alcohol Ink and glued into place with Collage Medium.  At that point I hung the Tray on the wall to give the glue time to set.  Easiest way to NOT knock it over.

I hope you liked the tray enough to give it a go even if you use a different substrate or size. I loved creating the patchwork and know I will do it again!

If you missed the Live with Tim showing all the new products and projects you can watch the replay here on Tim's blog: idea-ology release  You will not be disappointed!

now carry on,

paula