Sea Salt - Ink - Water-BEAUTIFUL

 Fact or Fiction designer paper matched beautifully with the Ranger distress paint I used on the sides. Used Big shot to cut out layered flowers.  After I cut my flowers, I spritz them with water and crunch them into a ball and allow to dry. Carefully open them up and layer them.  Used some flat back pearls in the centers.  Dabbed distress stickles on the petals to glam them up.  I hand cut the leaves-I don't have a die for those.

 Layers:  doily, swirl cut from cricut cartridge, flowers.  Sentiment from Stampin Up was punched from fancy border punch.

The sides were gesso'd, then I used barn red distress paint dabber.  I spritzed water on top to activate the paint. Did more dabbing with a sea sponge.  While it was wet, I sprinkled sea salt on it and allowed to dry overnight.  (after I rubbed the salt off) I then stamped Paper Artsy stamp using purple and green pigment ink. Allowed to dry. What you end up with is a cool texture that is unique and interesting.  I attached round knobs for the feet on the bottom.

Going to make a cool gift for someone -or maybe I'll keep it for myself! 

Thanks for joining me today.  Have a GREAT Friday!!

Karen Conner

Decorate Pilar Candles for Christmas

There are several ways you can decorate a candle. 

Using Archival ink, stamp your image/sentiment onto tissue paper.

You can color your image.  I used markers and gelatos with a paint brush.

In the past I've also colored with pencils. Even though the tissue paper is delicate, it's amazing how well you can color it without ripping it.

Cut it out as close as possible.

 lay the image onto your candle and cover it with a piece of was paper. You want the waxy side facing the candle.  Heat it with heat gun and it magically melts the tissue paper into the candle!
I love doing this-amazes me every time!!

 I tried stamping directly onto the candle with a word stamp and brown archival ink.  It ended up smearing off. I think it was the finish on my candle?  I ended up taking a paper towel and wiping it off.   The candle on the left is the sentiment and image (cut two different pieces) and melted them on.

 The I took minimal embellishments and added to them.  I was really fun.

 Use buttons, ribbon, flowers, lace, cardstock-whatever you want!

You can find the supplies: cardstock, archival ink, distress ink, prima flowers, lace, trim, Kaiser Craft and Graphic 45 Christmas designer papers, ribbon at our store.  Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium  PRICES ARE DISCOUNTED DAILY 20-25%

Hope you have a fabulous Friday!!
Karen Conner
 

Mixed Media with Stencils

I have a shirt that I've been wanting to duplicate in some way.  I love the colors and the design.

 I started with a 9x12 fiberboard.  I applied a layer of gesso and allowed to dry. I sprayed some inks-blues and greens, allow to dry a little and then blot with paper towel.  Allow to dry completely. Using stencils I sponged vintage photo over top in various places.

 To highlight my stencils, I used black fine tip pitt pen and white broad tip pitt pen to make lines and dots.  It didn't show up good at first, so I sealed the top with Liquitex Matte Gel and allowed to dry.

My gorgeous flower-I took a piece of mixed media paper and wiped up the excess inks on my mat, ran the paper thru my big shot using a stampin up flower die.  Layered them and put a bead in the middle.  The leaves were cut with a cricut cartridge and then I ink them up a bit to blend.

I printed my sentiment on the computer using different fonts. 
I love how it turned out.  The blues and greens swirling....Oh-to finish it off, I rubbed Traditions black paint around the edges.

I hope you'll be inspired to pull a design from something you like to wear!!
Have a fabulous Friday!!

Karen Conner

Friday Feature - faux birch bark

Hi friends.  Melody here with another Friday Feature.  I have always loved the look of birch bark in crafts, but hate to hurt the trees to get pieces big enough to use.  So I thought I'd see if there was a way to make a look-alike.  I checked online for tutorials and didn't come up with much.  Although there are a few, I wasn't really thrilled with the final product, but I did get some ideas. 

I started with some brown paper bag.  Since birch bark has a very matte finish, I decided to use my snow white paint dabber.  But rather than using the dabber top, I simply opened the cap and poured some on the bag and used a foam brush to spread it, keeping my strokes all in one direction. 

Once the paint was dry, I sponged on some tea dye and gathered twigs distress ink, and then proceeded to add LOTS of little black lines with a black Pitt pen. 

I then inked up two stamps from Nature's Moments (Tim Holtz) with distress markers, spritzed with water, and stamped them on the 'bark'.  The sentiment was stamped with jet black archival ink. 

To give the bark an even more realistic look, I snipped the edges with a scissor and curled them with my bone folder, allowing some of the brown from the underside of the bag to show.  I also used a distressing tool and mess the edges up even more.  I really love how much it looks like real birch bark. 

I glued it to a pacific point (SU) card base that matched the faded jeans really well. 

Almost all the products used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll try this technique. 

Finger Painting

For Technique Tuesday today, I'll share what I made from custom made paper in a jar with Golden paints, a little H20's and die cuts.

The paper perfect was spread over my journal page with a pallet knife and evenly spread over plastic film for a small sheet of perfect paper.
It took over night on the journal page to dry, but it's now three days later and the paper on plastic film is still moist in the middle. With humidity in the air it's taking longer to dry. 

journal page

Impatiently waiting, on the fourth day, I gently started peeling the handmade paper off the plastic film and was able to remove the paper with just a few tears. I don't think this will be a problem when I die cut three mini tattered flowers. The handmade paper looks rough on top and smooth on bottom. 

First I'll show you the die cut flowers. I started painting with H20's and realized the color wasn't dark enough for the project I had planned to do with the journal page, so I finger painted all the flowers with Golden liquid Quinacridone Magenta paint over the H20's. The color is beautiful with the highlights of the H20's underneath. 

The journal page was painted with Golden gesso over the perfect paper and then finger painted with Golden paint mixed with Golden Matte Medium. 
I used Golden liquid paints in these colors; Ultramarine blue, Yellow ochre, Jenkins green, Turquois (Phthalo), Quinacridone Magenta fluid acrylic paint, and Golden Colbalt teal acrylic paint. 
[Using the matte medium extends the color and decreases the gloss.] 
After the paint dried on journal page, the flowers were applied using glue n' seal.
Golden Jenkins green was used with an old credit card to make stems for flowers.  
Inspire from Tim Holtz word play alphabet die was die cut with chipboard and then painted with Golden Colbalt Teal acrylic paint. I used a foam applicator with vintage distress ink to grunge edges of each letter before applying to page.
I wish you could feel the texture on this page. It's rough from the handmade paper but soft from the paint! 
I love this page! 
If you have one of those Craft scrubbie this is the time to use it, all the paint came off my fingers with just a little bit of liquid soap.

Finished page: 6 3/4" x 10"

Supplies:
H20's
Golden Liquid Paints
Golden Matte Medium
Tim Holtz Mini Tattered Flower die
Tim Holtz Word Play Alphabet
Distress ink
Sizzix Vagabond 
Glue n' Seal Adhesive
Golden Gesso
Journal 
Chipboard
Ink blending tool (foam)
DecoArt Perfect Paper
Inkssentials Craft Scrubbie
Plastic pallet knife
Paint Brush; my fingers

You can view my personal blog here:
http://wwwstampedimpressions.blogspot.com/