Love with all your heart

Hi Everyone!  The sun is shining today which led me to want to work with happy colors!  Follow along and I'll show you what I made...
I'm starting with my favorite background technique - Wrinkle Free Distress.  I'm using Ripe Persimmon, Evergreen Bough, and Fossilized Amber + water.  Squeeze out enough to get a good bit of stain...at least a 4" circle.  Keep them close together without mingling the colors.

I'm using Ranger Manila Cardstock as my surface.  Lay the cardstock into the ink and push it down so it can pick up the stain.  Pick it up and dry with a Heat tool.  Go back into the stain as many times as you see fit, drying between the layers.

 I stamped over the dry surface using archival ink and the Patchwork stamp

This Stampers Anonymous stamp has two images of the patchwork.  I used the larger of the two sizes for the card.

The Tonic Distresser allows me to alter the edges of the cardstock.  It's a little tool I have had for many years and I still use it all the time!

 I cut a piece of black cardstock, then stitched the colorful background to the surface (this will eventually be mounted onto a card).

My stitching was a little white so I used Distress Collage Medium Vintage to slightly age the surface including the white stitching (try not to eat it because it looks like caramel sauce).

 I thought I could show you a better example using a plain manila tag.  The left side has a thin coat of the Distress Collage Medium Vintage.  You can see that it gives the surface just a slight age to it.

Next I cut some a couple flowers with Watercolor paper and the Wildflowers Thinlit set, one of my favorites from the CHA release.  I chose to use Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough, and a bit of Fossilized Amber.  I started water coloring the flowers by adding a wash of Tumbled Glass then little by little I added bits of Evergreen Bough with the water brush.  As you work from the top to the bottom the ink will dry allowing you to create layers of color.  The Fossilized Amber was added last wherever there was a bit of white paper still showing.

I decided the card front still needed something to let your eye rest.  Enter Textile Surfaces - I chose one of the linen self-adhesive fabrics and cut it into an oval using the SIzzix Stacked Ovals die.  I did stitch it to the card front...and even though my stitching is not perfect I'm cool with that.  Means it's homemade right?

I used Multi Medium to add the flowers to the card front.  You might notice that I clipped the flowers apart and moved the pieces around to give it more of an organic feel.

And to finish it off I added a sentiment from a Small Talk sticker book and a tiny Mirrored Heart.

I thought I was done, but then I decided to add brown speckles with the Distress Marker Spritzer.  I didn't want to get the over spray on the card front so I created a mask using paper I found in the garbage can (no joke).

How did I avoid getting the brown flecks on the flowers?  Easy.  I painted them with a thin coat of Multi Medium.  The MM acts as a resist and will allow you to wipe off an Distress Ink with a wet wipe.

Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial as much as I did making it.  I love the watercolor flowers!  This technique of adding the colors one by one and seeing how they react to each other can be so relaxing.  I really could have painted an entire garden! 

So here's to more crafting, more relaxing, more creativity!

now carry on,

paula

InLinkz.com

KEEP

Hi again.
I'm here today with a project using Fragments + a few new products from the CHA release.  My goal was to show how you can incorporate personal information into a project.  Now I know I have talked about Fragments before so I won't go into the how-to details I just hope you'll bear with me while I talk about some of the nuances of this piece.  (oh and there is a link below for the, "I need a Fragment refresh").

 I stated with the new Framed Panel.

If you are a follower of this blog, you know I use flat panels all the time for artwork.  But they never quite looked finished because there is no frame....and much to my dismay, there are no elves in my garage making me frames (or even cleaning my garage for that matter).

Problem solved.

The Framed Panel comes with a frame so when you're done with your artwork you can simple add the frame over the top.  EASY as that.

I started by adding linen from the Textile Surfaces pack onto the panel.  It does take more than one piece of linen to cover the background, although you can barely see the seam.  The Textile Surfaces are self-adhesive so there is no worry that glue might seep through the fabric.
I used a photo from the Photobooth strips but you could use a copy of a family photo if you want to make this more personal.

Vintage Journey

Hi everyone!  I am participating in somewhat of a blog hop, meaning that today's project starts here and ends over at A Vintage Journey where I am guest blogging.

This project all started with a vintage green frame I bought at a junk shop for $3.  My frame is about 7 x 9” but really any size frame will do.

Cut a piece of chipboard to fit the frame.  I also pulled a piece of paper from the Correspondence Paper Stash and used it to cover the chipboard.  I ripped a strip of paper to add to the left side of the chipboard (this is the just back of the main paper) and added it along side the first.
A thin coat of Multi Medium was added over the entire top of the paper to seal.  Then I added Frayed Burlap and Iced Spruce to the edges (remember you can always wipe it away with a wet wipe if you get too much on).  Let dry.

 

Lay the Blossom Stencil over the TOP edge of the chipboard so the blossoms look as if they are hanging down.  Add Ranger Texture Paste over the top of the stencil, pulling it over the stencil and into the pattern with a Pallet Knife.

Lift stencil to reveal pattern.  One of my absolute favorites!
Let dry naturally (do not dry Texture Paste with a heat tool because the paste can become puffy). 

Once the paste is dry, paint over blossoms with Perfect Pearls.  I used Blue Patina, Forever Green and my all time favorite, Heirloom Gold.

Spray water onto the craft sheet.  Using a small brush, add a small amount of the Perfect Pearls Powder to the water, creating a paste of sorts.

Use this liquid paste to color the blossoms of the stencil pattern, creating a subtle glittery effect.  Let dry.

Once dry, use a small text stamp and Archival Ink to lightly stamp over the stenciled pattern.  Because the texture paste is raised, the stamped image will only appear on the pattern and not on the surface below.

Go over stenciled surface with a heat tool just to make sure everything is dry before proceeding with the next step.  Outline the blossoms with a Gathered Twigs Distress marker.  Using a q-tip, smudge the ink into the background to create a drop shadow (a bit of Multi Medium on the q-tip or finger tip helps smudge the ink really easily).

Whats next?

To see the rest of the tutorial and the finished project, you will need to pop on over to a Vintage Journey.  See you there!

paula

InLinkz.com