Friday 28 April 2017

Round wooden box with Tim's butterflies - Flutter

Hello everybody, it's Monika here with two wooden boxes.

When my hubby saw one of these boxes - the blue one - he suddenly told me this:
"Now, this is beautiful!"
It was a really big compliment from him because mostly he just says 'hmmm' and sometimes he nods in addition when he takes a look at my creations :-)

Unfortunately when I was making the blue box I forgot to take pictures. But don't worry I made another one, a more feminine version of the original and this time I clicked a few times.


Well, here is the blue box:












I used poplar boxes. The blue is 14 cm, the pink is 16 cm in diameter.

I painted white the top with DecoArt Americana White Wash acrylic paint. I put at least two layers.
After drying I sanded with a very soft sanding paper to get a smooth surface for the easier stamping. So, I started to stamp the butterflies with Ranger Distress ink (Old Paper) and melted Ranger Gold embossing powder. (For the blue one I used silver embossing powder.)






The next step was to smear pink dye ink onto the top. For the pink I used Ranger Archival ink (Peony Pink) for the blue one Tsukineko Memento Sky Blue and Ranger Cobalt blue.





Then I coloured yellow the butterflies with Ranger Distress marker. For the blue one I smeared yellow dye ink all over the top. And actually I achieved the same effect with the pink box too because the Distress ink blotted when I applied the matte varnish in the end. And that was my goal.





I sanded the edges and inked with Ranger Archival Potting Soil.





I painted the bottom of the pink with Razzle Berry and I put Uniform Blue for the blue one.


Now let's see what I used:

DecoArt Americana acrylic paints (White Wash, Razzle Berry, Uniform Blue)
Ranger Archival inks (Potting Soil, Peony Pink, Cobalt)
Tsukineko Memento inks (Summer Sky, Dandelion)
Ranger embossing powders (Gold, Silver)
Ranger Distress inks (Old Paper, Iced Spruce)
Ranger Heat It craft tool
sanding paper
matte varnish









I hope you like it!

By the way, which one do you prefer?

Big hugs, Monika



Wednesday 26 April 2017

A little birdie

I am thrilled to share a page in my Dylusions Journal. I wanted to use a tag as the central image and to create a background that was complementary but the reverse... I hope that makes sense!
I used an old store card to spread paint on a tag.
Then I sanded the tag and added some brown Distress Ink.
I forgot to take a photo of the next stage of the tag but I did the same on the journal page! After putting paint on the page (as before) I added the darker colour through a stencil. When dry I added white over the top and then sanding when dry.  
Then I added a little stamping to the tag and it's complete! The stamps I used were Zinski Art for PaperArtsy - ZA05, ZA07 and ZA08
Thank you, as always, for popping by.

Monday 24 April 2017

More oxides and butterflies

Hi it's Brenda here with you today.

I so love playing with the oxide and butterflies together I have another design for you today.


 I found some pieces in my bits box that I was really happy with when I did them and I'm still happy with them now and rather than let them just sit there I decided to retrieve them and make a couple of cards. I thought these infusions and stencil backgrounds would make the perfect backdrop.


Whether it's because of Spring I don't know but I seem to have butterflies on my mind and I took one of Tim's stamps and his oxides and using peeled paint, broken china and walnut stain I stamped two mixed colour butterflies and before I knew it I had spritzed one with water - I just wanted to see what it would do .......


....... my brain was working overtime so I quickly heat dried the watery mess and re-stamped the butterfly again over the top and look what happened once I had cut them both out  ........  one beautiful crisp and multi coloured butterfly and one beautifully smudged looking one - I don't think I can choose between them so I'm pretty glad I had enough backgrounds to make two cards.


I continued on with some more edge inking and sentiment gathering until I was happy to assemble the cards together.



I kept it fairly simple even though I sat for ages trying to add other embellishments and stamps that I knew would clutter the design and spoil it.



Thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda


Sunday 16 April 2017

Hippity Hoppity

So Trace here today with some Easter cards that I have created using lots of yummy distress oxides and lots of other goodies..


I started by applying some matte texture paste through Tim Stencil, no 034 and leaving to dry. I applied at top and bottom of piece of card to fit card front in opposite corners...I love the crisp design it creates .


So I will carry on with all the details for the orange card and all the steps are the same for the greeny toned card and the tags  - yes I made matching tags too...


I started by smooshing some distress oxides onto my craft sheet and spritizing with water..( here I used worn lipstick,fozzilised amber and spiced marmalade ditress oxides )


I swiped my card through and dried, spritizng with a little water and repeated this dipping and dabbing and drying between each layer, spritzing a bit more water until happy...I just love how the colours layer and the effect of water is something special!



I used the left over oxides to dye some seam binding, spritzing, dipping in left over colour and scrunching in a ball, leaving overnight to dry as I like the crinkle you get but you can gently heat dry if you're in a rush.


For the green colours I used peeled paint, fossilized amber and a smidge of cracked pistachio distress oxides.


Mr Bunny was cut from a movers and shapers Tim Holtz die and covered with a layer of grit paste which I dabbed my palette knife into to create texture...once dry he was coloured with ink and distress crayons and his little bow added.


The flowers were cut from a piece of card already coloured with the same technique using the distress oxides as for the card from without texture paste ...I then used the new Tim Holtz thinlits - small tattered florals die cut lots of flowers and leaves that were edged with brown distress ink.


I added some distress ink in brown to the edges of the card having added coloured panel to card front, I used ground espresso distress ink.


To completed the card I added a stitched oval piece, also coloured in same way, Mr Bunny, the hand dyed seam binding and the flowers and leaves with potting soil enamel accents for centres and finally a stamped greeting using black soot archival and Tim Holtz crazy talk stamps..


and here is the completed green tones one...


I also made some matching tags , minus the paste in the same way ...



And people are always asking how I use my tags ...so here is how...this was part of an Easter gift for my Mum and Dad...and I think the tag looks so much nicer than a bottle bag...


so there you have my Easter makes
Have a Happy Easter

trace x

Friday 14 April 2017

Easter card

Hi Everyone - Brenda here with a Spring Easter card for you using the lovely Distress Oxides.


I began with the wrinkle free distress technique using just broken china and iced spruce distress oxides ...... 


and then splattered over some ground espresso and hickory smoke DIs to get a sort of speckled egg effect.


For the oval I used broken china DI direct to card using the ink pad and then stamped with water to create the ghost effect. I blended hickory smoke round the edges.


I stamped and cut out the bird colouring it in with watery hickory smoke and broken china DIs ..... 


... and I stamped the nest onto the oval.


I created the egg by again using the wrinkle free technique this time with pumice stone and scattered straw DIs and stamped with frayed burlap.


Although I stamped four I only used one on the project, but it leaves me with some to tuck into other projects if they fit.

 

To bring some contrasting colour into the card I die-cut some of the small tattered florals from yellow and orange offcuts of core'dinations paper, spritzed them with water and scrunched them before leaving them to dry.


I also triple dipped some seam binding ribbon into broken china oxide.


I used the hashtag sentiments for my sentiment word but I cut the actual hashtag sign off of it (don't tell Tim!) but I do like the words on their own and I cut the legs off the bird so she could sit neatly on the nest.


There we have my Easter card, I hope it brings you a little inspiration to create your own Spring card.