Ladies Who Lunch

Hello friends,

Hope you are well today and that you had a wonderful week! I have been lamenting the lack of traveling as we always take a vacation over Easer break when my husband has time off (he's a High School teacher). Well, no traveling for us so we have been busy doing a few things around the house and trying a few new recipes. Enough about what is happening here and onto sharing the project for today.

This piece was all designed around the group of ladies from the new Paper Doll Groups.  They fit perfectly in the large Vignette Tray so I started with that and then filled in.  Let me show you the details...

I took a few step-out along the way but I need to explain how I got to this point.

I have covered the tray with Worn Wallpaper from the new pack called Worn Wallpaper Scraps. We called it that because there is a mix of traditional wallpaper as well as cut pieces. No fussy cutting, we've done it for you. You might notice in later photos a strip that says "made in England", that is on one of the papers that I did not choose, so I just cut it off in a long strip to ad later. 

Once the Worn Wallpaper was added to the tray with Collage Medium, I added a layer over the top to seal so I could use a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon over the now slick surface. The Distress Crayon always adds to the age of a piece. Here I scribbled it on and then used a damp paint brush to move it around, especially into the corners and where the papers meet.

I love the new wooden Vignette Advert Panels. They come in a set of five, this is the largest panel in the set. To "color" the wood I use a two part technique. First, rub a Hickory Smoke Distress Ink pad directly over the panel. Then, using my finger, I rubbed Collage Medium over the surface of the wood to allow the water-reactive ink to "bloom". You could use a paint brush for the Collage Medium but the ink will react with the wet medium and you could transfer the ink into the jar. Dry the Collage Medium with a heat tool. TIP: use the back of the panels to test multiple colors of ink if you are unsure and note that the ink looks very different once the collage medium is added.  It also dries a lighter shade than when it is wet.  Testing is good (and you will never see the tests on the back).  

Rub white paint over the surface of the metal Adornments Butterfly. Once dry pounce with Mushroom Alcohol Ink. Adhere to wood panel with Collage Medium, let dry.

Now to assemble - 

Adhere the wood Advert Panel with 3D Foam Squares to raise it off the surface of the tray. 

Adhere the large cut floral with Thin 3D Foam Squares.

Adhere the metal butterfly with Collage Medium.

If you look closely you can see the I have cut off the leaves on the lower right side.  This area will be hidden by the Paper Dolls so I determined to cut off the leaves and use it elsewhere on the tray.

The ladies are from the new Group Paper Dolls.  I love that polka dot dress, don't you?  The only thing I did with the ladies is tint the group using a detailer water brush and a variety of Distress Crayons.  what you cannot see here is that the group of ladies is pushed out from the Advert Panel with three 1/4" wood blocks.  One block is behind the neck of the standing lady, one is in the center of the group and the last one is at the base.  The wood blocks make a huge difference in the dimension of the tray.  By using the blocks, it created the exact amount of space needed to slip the CROWN Tin Top between the Advert Panel and the Paper Dolls.  Notice the use of the snipped-off leaves?  That little element ties the right side to the left...now that I like.

On the right side I used 3D foam to adhere a Timepiece with added Clock Hands (did you know the have Clock Hands?)  The Timepiece got the same treatment as the Butterfly, then I sanded down the high points to reveal the metal numbers below.

I used more Worn Wallpaper Scraps + tiny pieces of ephemera from the Field Notes Snippets pack.  I love the TINY pieces!  

Clippings stickers were added to the Advert Panel.  There is more to the saying I created but I didn't want to cover more of the wood so I placed it on the bottom lip edge of the tray (you can see it in a later photo).

Here are some photos of the finished tray.

You might notice that I gave the standing lady a "halo" of sorts.  This is just a white and gold sticker from the Metallic Sticker book.

I also added a vintage button next to the Snippets butterfly ephemera.

And there is the rest of the saying, "as if this were a travelled road", right at the bottom.

I hope you like this tray as much as I do!  I love working with the new Worn Wallpaper Scraps as well as the paper.  I also love these new Paper Doll Groups...more people to tell a story about! 

now carry on,
paula

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