Friday Feature - big little things

Hi friends.  Melody here with another Friday feature.  Today I have a card to share with you. 

I started by gluing an old book page to a piece of chipboard from a tissue box with matte mod podge.  Then using artful dwellings die, I die cut one of the houses from the chipboard.   Using an ink blending tool, I added vintage photo distress ink. 

I used several papers from the Alla-Prima collection.  Each piece is edged with vintage photo distress ink.  One piece was put on the lower part of the house.  Another piece was die cut with the vintage lace die, coated with vintage photo distress ink and wrapped around the house. 

I stamped the small butterfly from Nature's Discovery stamp set with jet black archival ink on the house, and cut a heart from red card stock to add to the house.  The house is attached to the card with dimensional foam tape. 

The sentiment is from Good Thoughts stamp set, stamped with jet black archival ink. 

And finally, I added dots with a black Pitt pen. 

Most of the products I used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

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. 

Friday Feature - fan card

Hello friends.  It's Melody with another Friday Feature for you.  Last week in my monthly technique class, one of the cards we made was a fan.  It might seem complicated, but it's really quite easy to make.  A note or a sentiment can be put on the back. 

The first thing you need is a pattern for your fan blades.  There is a free pattern available here, but I ended up making my own.  My blades are about 6" long, and 2-1/2" to 2-3/4" wide at the widest part of the blade, and taper to about 3/4" wide at the base.  If your blade is narrow, you will need more blades to make your fan.  If you have a wide blade, you will use fewer blades in your fan.  You want your fan to open to about a half circle. 

To make a pattern, fold a piece of paper in half, and then measure about 6" along the fold for the length.  On one end, measure out from the fold half the width you want, so if you are making a blade 2-1/2" wide, measure out 1-1/4" and mark it with a pencil.  Draw the shape of the top of your blade.  This can be straight across, a gentle rounded end (trace the edge of a plate), or a point at the center, or you can get creative and make it fancy.  The widest part of the blade will be where the top comes down and meets the side (see picture below).  Taper the blade from the widest point down to the bottom, at just under 1/2" from the fold.  Then cut it out and open the fold.  I trace the paper pattern onto cereal box chipboard, but you could also use clear packaging material, so you can see through your pattern.  This would be helpful if you are tracing the pattern onto pretty paper and want to capture a certain part of the print.  Here are three different blade patterns I made.  You can also vary the shape of the narrow end, as you can see in the picture. 

The first fan I made had six blades, but I like five better, because the uneven number is more pleasing to the eye.  Here is my first prototype that I made.  It's very simple and has all kinds of craziness on the back, since I was figuring out all the steps to put it together. The last time I had made a fan similar to this was about 7 years ago, so I needed to rethink a little bit. 

The next one is my sample for my class.  You will note that the blades are a different shape.  As explained above, it is very easy to change what shape you use for the blades. This one has more stamping and details.  I also added a tassel, which I made from embroidery floss.  I did a Google search for instructions, and found many.

Here is a closer look at the details with the fan closed. 

I wanted to make a new fan for this blog post, and to also include directions on how I stamped and colored the blades.

If you want your fan to have a consistency from one blade to another, then it is important to make each blade the same.  You want a heavy card stock, so your fan isn't flimsy.  Trace and cut as many blades as you need for your fan.  I used five.

I stamped Dylusions background love (flower stamp) just once on each blade, trying to stamp in the same position on each.  I used jet black stazon ink, so I could color the flowers with twinkling H2O's, again making each blade the same.

There was quite a bit of blank space on each fan blade, so I used the wood grain cover-a-card stamp from Impression Obsession to stamp over the complete blade with sepia archival ink.  After stamping, I immediately wiped over the flowers with a paper towel to remove some of the ink from that area before it dried.

I then lightly sponged tea dye distress ink over each blade and then applied vintage photo distress ink along all the edges.

Now that the blades were finished, it was time to put the fan together.  Stack all the blades together and use a crop-a-dile to punch a 1/8" hole about 1/4" from the end on the narrow part of the fan blades.  Insert a paper fastener (or a fancy brad if you prefer).

Spread out the fan blades to the position you want them to be when the fan is open.  Carefully turn the fan face down on the table.  Make any necessary adjustments in the position of the blades, and place a post it note across the blades to hold them in place.

You will note the arrow is pointing to the blade that is now on the top of the stack.  You will start to attach your string or ribbon at the opposite end of the fan.  You only attach your string on one edge of each blade.  (If you do it wrong, your fan will not close.)  On the final blade (on left), I attach the string on both edges, because I think it looks more complete.  I used score tape and copy paper for the little tabs that hold the string in place.  Be sure to press firmly to make sure your string doesn't slip.  Once your string is attached, trim the ends and remove the post it.  You should now be able to gently open and close your fan.

I wanted a little tab attached to make it easier to pull the fan open, so I used half of a small oval and just attached it to the back of one side of the fan.

I really like how the wood grain stamp makes this look like the blades are made from wood.  The tassel on this one is made from crochet cotton. 

If you compare the open fans, you can see that the last one opens differently than the others (the front blade is on the left instead of the right).  I liked the design better when it opened this way.  I don't think it really matters which way your fan opens, but this is where that little pull tab is helpful to open the fan correctly. 

Just for fun, I have two more to show you.  These are tiny - less than 3" long and only 1-1/2" wide.

For my technique class, we always make a small sample of the technique for reference, and that's what these were for.

Some of the products used on my fans can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and will give it a try. 

Friday Feature - live in the moment

Hello friends.  Melody here with another Friday Feature. 

This is a 4"x6" page for a book I'm putting together.  I started with my base (made previously) of cereal box chipboard, covered with reused coffee filters and coated with gesso.  Then I tore some newspaper and glued it on with matte Mod Podge.  When that was dry, I brushed some gesso over it. 

Being impatient, I used my heat gun to dry each layer. 

Next I used some distress ink sprays, made with reinkers and water, and sprayed my page.  I used mustard seed, barn door, and faded jeans.  Some I blotted away with paper towel. 

Next I did some stamping with Nature's Moments (Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous).  Flowers were colored with distress markers and stains, and the bird and sentiment were stamped with jet black archival. 

I added some washi/tissue tape from Tim Holtz & 7 Gypsies, as well as some that I made myself.  A couple of them were brighter than I wanted, so I rubbed some gesso wash (watered down gesso) over them with my finger. 

Finally, I added a couple of black mini flourishes (Sizzix), but I again decided there was too much contrast, so I blotted some more gesso wash over the flourishes with a cotton ball. I like how that gave a mottled look to the flourishes. 

Many of the products used can be purchased from Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - a little steam

Hello friends.  I've been doing some monthly challenges on the Motley Soul Mixed Media Art blog.  February's challenge was to make 20 4"x4" heart cards.  In other words, a 4"x4" card with at least one heart on it, and each one needed to be different.  Mine are all shown on my blog, lilacs & butterflies, tagged 20 hearts.  This is a scheduled post, so at the time of this writing (Feb. 25), including this heart today, I have 15 finished.  Hopefully, I'll get five more done before the end of the month.  It's been a real challenge for me, because I don't normally use hearts very much. 

For this one, I decided to go with a steampunk theme, something that doesn't come naturally for me, although I find it fascinating. 

The base of the card is made from cereal box chipboard. I then cut a 4" square of card stock, cut it at an angle and covered each piece with wide duct tape.  After trimming the excess, I ran each piece through my cuttlebug, one using diamond plate embossing folder and the other using riveted metal embossing folder.  Then, using a cotton ball to make sure the ink got down into the crevices, I dabbed alcohol inks (black, gold, copper, and silver) all over the pieces and then rubbed some of it off with a paper towel.  The pieces were then attached to the card base. 

I cut a heart from cereal box, the die cut a bunch of gears with gadget gears & mini gears dies, as well as the clock hands from weathered clock, from cereal box.  I glued a bunch of the smaller gears to the heart and trimmed off any that extended beyond the edge of the heart.  Then I placed some metal foil tape over the gears and pressed the tape down into the crevices.  I used a stylus to get the tape tight around the gears.  I trimmed the tape to about 1/4" around the heart and folded it over to the back side.  Then I used the same technique with the alcohol inks on the heart.  I also used a sanding block to take off some of the ink.  Then I glued the heart to the background. 

I wanted a clock element without actually putting a clock on the piece, so this was also made from gears.  I glued two together for extra strength.  The same alcohol ink technique was used on these pieces as well.  The clock hands were too long, so I just trimmed them to a point, short enough to look right with the gears.  Glue and a brad hold the clock together. 

At this point I was really loving my card, but I felt like something was lacking.  Even though each part has a unique finish, there was still a sameness to the whole piece, and I really thought it needed an accent color.  Hence, the red heart, which was cut from red card stock and strengthened with cereal box chipboard.  I wrote 'hot' on it with a Pitt pen and then generously coated it with glossy accents, which I have a tendency to touch before it's dry and leave finger prints, so I made myself leave it alone and let it dry overnight. 

I used black quilling paper and a quilling tool to roll up some tiny paper beads to dangle from the heart on some black thread. I coated them with decoupage medium. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Many of the products used here can be purchased at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - winter arch

Hello friends.  It has been awhile since I've posted here.  Shame on me.

The OWSE Yahoo group has a monthly arch swap, with a new theme each month.  Although I didn't join the swap, I was intrigued by the arch shapes and wanted to try my own.  I thought I would follow the theme that the swap group is using.  January's theme was winter wonderland, so my first arch is a winter scene.  I searched online for arch shapes, because I wanted a different shape for each month.  I found some great arch shapes, but settled for the less elaborate shapes, since I had to cut them by hand. 

My arch base is cereal box covered with recycled coffee filters, and then coated with gesso.  This one I painted with white acrylic paint.  I created snow covered hills by cutting white card stock and lightly adding some tumbled glass distress ink on the top edges.  The one in the foreground is raised on dimensional tape.

The trees and bird are all Tim Holtz Sizzix dies.  I added some details with a black soot distress marker and added white paint with my finger to create snow covered branches.

The word winter is an old retired SU stamp, stamped with jet black archival ink.

As a final touch, I added star dust stickles on the snowy branches and on the hills.

Most of the products used can be purchased at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - bloom with joy

Hello friends.  It's Melody here with another Friday Feature.  I've been working on a monthly challenge at Motley Soul Mixed-Media Art.  The challenge is to make 21 (4"x6") cards.  This is actually my 21st card, although I do plan to make more, since I'm having so much fun doing them.  I've been making mine two-sided, so the back side of this one is still blank. 

I recently made an Inspiration Jar for myself.  Although the idea is not original, I tweaked it to make it work for me.  I've been reaching into my inspiration jar for ideas to get started on each card.  For this card, I pulled out the words, black, stencil, and chipboard.  I didn't use the word chipboard other than the card is made from cereal box chipboard covered with recycled coffee filters. 

I started by painting the surface black.  My paint dauber top is all hard and dried out, so I just opened the bottle and used a brush to spread the paint.  Once the paint was dry, I used my mini bricks stencil (Crafter's Workshop) and, since I don't have any texture paste, I spread some light spackling through it.  I've never used this stuff with a stencil before, so I guess I was a bit heavy handed, and some pushed underneath the stencil.  The bricks are quite as defined as they should be, but that's OK.  It dries very fast, so I proceeded to add color with a sponge and a number of different distress inks (tumbled glass, mowed lawn, mustard seed, spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, barn door, and seedless preserves), working gently, since I have no idea if the spackling is going to flake right off the card.  So far, it seems to be holding.  I hope it continues.  I'll just have to handle it gently. 

I stamped a bunch of flowers from Heartfelt Creations on a piece of white card stock with jet black archival ink.  I heavily sponged several with spiced marmalade distress ink, cut them out, and then sponged the edges with picked raspberry distress ink.  On three of the flowers, I removed some of the petals, so that when I placed them over the full flowers, the blossom looks fuller.  Two flowers were sponged with mowed lawn distress ink.  I cut the petals apart to make leaves.  After figuring out an arrangement I liked, I glued the flowers and leaves onto the card.  I then added some white dots in the center of the flowers with a white gel pen. 

The sentiment was handwritten with a white galaxy marker. 

Some of the products used to make this card can be found at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium. 

I'm really happy with the bright colors over the black background. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - blessings

Hi friends.  It's Melody, here with another Friday Feature for you.  Today I have a card that was part of my technique class yesterday.  The technique featured stamping on canvas. 

I started by stamping the green card base with a background stamp, victorian diamonds (Rubbernecker), with dark brown ink.  Every layer on the card is edged with vintage photo distress ink. 

At the bottom of the card is a piece of rust card stock, stamped with a sentiment from an older set from SU, graceful words. 

The die cut circle is part of a brown paper grocery bag, stamped with a Penny Black background, circles and lines. 

For the main image, I die cut a piece of canvas with mini labels movers & shapers (Tim Holtz/Sizzix).  I then stamped the leaf from natural beauty (SU) in jet black archival ink, holding the stamp against the canvas a bit longer than normal to make sure the ink settled into the fibers. 

My canvas is just yardage from the fabric department at my local Walmart, but you could also use sticky back canvas.  I heat set the ink with my heat gun to make sure it was dry. 

The next step was adding color.  I decided to try watercolor pencils (I'm using Inktense) to see how well they worked on canvas.  As you can see on the center leaf in the photo above, I just added a small amount of the pencil and then used a water brush to blend it and spread it out, being careful to stay within the lines. 

In the above closeup, you can see the color is more vivid when wet (bottom leaf) and fades a bit when it is dry (top leaf).  I dried it with my heat gun. 

I wanted to add some vintage photo ink along the edges, so I very carefully used a small sponge dauber and pounced on the ink rather than rubbing, so that the threads didn't fray.  Sometimes that would be OK, but on this piece, I didn't want fraying.  I again heat set the ink before attaching the canvas to my card with Fabri-Tac (Beacon Adhesives).   And here is my finished card. 

I'm really happy with how well the watercolor pencils worked on the canvas. I hope you get a chance to try this technique.  I would love to see what you make with it. 

Some of the products used can be found at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.  Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Friday Feature - eggshell ornament

Hi friends.  Melody here with another Friday Feature for you.  I love being able to create something from an item that would normally get thrown out in the trash.  Some time ago I came across a tutorial to make a trinket box covered with crushed eggshells.  I loved it, so I started saving egg shells.  I always rinsed them well, removed as much of the thin membrane as possible and let the dry thoroughly.  In order to save space, I then would crush them up a bit.  I just pressed on them with a glass or bottle.  In order to use them, however, it was necessary to crush until the bits of broken shells were quite small.  I put some in a plastic bag and used a rolling pin to crush them. 

With Christmas just around the corner, I chose to make an ornaments for the tree instead of a box.  I made a total of 12, which ended up as gifts for the most part.  I still have four of them.  This one is hanging on our tree.  With my limited photography skills, I had a hard time getting a clear picture with the tree lights on. 

Being a huge fan of recycling, I started my ornaments with corrugated cardboard.  I die cut circles of corrugated cardboard (old boxes, of course) with a Sizzix circle die that's about 3" across.  To get a bit of thickness and stability, I glued 3 or 4 layers together with Mod Podge.  Then I roughly cut some larger circles from an old encyclopedia and glued one on each side, wrapping the edges around to the other side.  This covered all the openings in the edges of the corrugated cardboard. 

I used a very long needle (I think it's for making dolls) to pierce through the center of the ornament from one edge to the other, so I could add loops to attach beads and a hanger.  It was a little tricky getting the needle to go exactly through the center, but if the first shot missed, it didn't matter if there was an extra hole, since it would be covered over later.  Once I had a hole, I pushed a piece of wire through it and made a loop on each end.  And then the fun began. 

I applied decoupage medium with a foam brush and then poured a generous amount of crushed eggshells over the wet glue.  Then I gently pressed the eggshells into the glue with my fingers, because I wanted a nice solid surface without any spaces or air pockets.  Then I let this dry for at least a few hours, but usually overnight.  It actually took several days to put all the eggshells on -- two coats on each flat side and two coats around the perimeter.  I was careful to keep the wire loops free of the eggshells. 

Once all the layers were on, then it was time to paint.  I used white pearl Lumiere, again applying two coats to all the sides.  This paint dries quickly, so the waiting time between coats was a lot less than for the glue.  I pretty much used up what paint I had in the bottle and don't know if there is any place locally than sells this type of paint.  The store I purchased it from originally has since gone out of business.  I did purchase another brand of shimmery white paint, but it was more silver than white, so I decided to not use it for this project.  I think there are some places that didn't quite get two coats, but you can't tell by looking at them. 

I added a beaded spangle at the bottom and an ornament hook at the top.  I think they look like snowballs, but my daughter is convinved they are cookies coverd with shredded coconut.  They are slightly more than 1/2" thick, and surprisingly heavier than I thought they'd be, but not too heavy for hanging on the tree. 

Although these ornaments did require quite a bit of time, they were still very easy to make.  I hope you give it a try.  You could easily make these another shape, or use a colored paint instead of white for a completely different look.  So many possibilities. 

Some of the products used on this project can be purchased at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium.  Thanks for stopping by.