One Lucky Day: Make This Journey Your Own

Hello friends,

Things have been very busy around here getting ready for the Create Event in Ohio this weekend. Stacy and I will be doing idea-ology make and takes for the 2 day event, which we are very excited for! We love Heidi at Simon Says Stamp and she runs a wonderful show. We are both looking forward to being there again!

I created this project for a display we are doing at the event. I didn't have anything really grunge amongst the samples I was bringing, so I decided to make something. I love how it turned out! I used a small Vignette tray and two Vignette Boxes as my structure.

I painted the Pocket Watch black and added the Mini Gears and the Gauge Dial. I also added the Hook Clasp (a very under utilized idea-ology product) to hang the watch from the tray.

You might notice I purposefully cracked the glass of my pocket watch. I just tapped on the glass with a small hammer right where I wanted it to shatter out from.

The metal pieces are the most important when it comes to a grunge piece. I have a very easy method to creating a Grunge finish. Let me show you how I did it:

1. Cover metal with white acrylic paint (I used acrylic because it is thicker than Distress Paint so it gives you a better build up). Let dry completely.

2. Once dry, pounce Mushroom Alcohol Ink over the metal. I did at least two rounds. with about a minute drying time in between. Do not cover all the white paint!

The Mushroom Alcohol Ink, over white paint, turns a green patina. The second layer will add brown on top of the green...you want that.

3. Once dry, cover the entire piece with Ground Espresso Distress Paint. Quickly move to a paper towel...

4. Spray metal with water.

5. Take a wet wipe a POUNCE (not wipe) over the metal to remove some of the paint, revealing the colors underneath.

You can decide how much paint leave on the surface.

Here is how my three pieces turned out. I think I got better at knowing how much white paint needs to be left, to make it show in the end result. Honestly, the photos do not do it justice.

Here are some closeups of the final Vignette tray with the metal pieces in place.

The long word band was done using the exact same grunge technique, EXCEPT for one added step. After I added the Mushroom alcohol ink, I squirted the band with 97% Isopropyl Alcohol, which makes the Alcohol Ink fluid. Tip the band up and let some of the ink run into a paper towel, thereby exposing the white paint underneath. Once this is dry, go back to the step where you add Ground Espresso Distress Paint. This extra step allowed the Alcohol Ink to slip away around the letters leaving them more readable.