Saturday, February 24, 2018

Love You With Distress Oxides, Take Two


Hello, Friends! You are so sweet to drop by! I know it's passed Valentine's Day and went back on my promise and made another Valentine's card. My daughter's went missing in the mail, along with a gift card! We are on our way to Charlotte, NC to visit her at college as we speak, so I can hand deliver this one.

A little short on time to get another made, I tried CASING my own that I made for her HERE. Always a big mistake, and it didn't help that this was done after midnight. I really messed up the embossing, but I went with it anyway. This post was more about trying out some photography tips Autumn gave me, and to share a few photos from our weekend together.


Autumn was kind enough to lug along her dies when we met this passed weekend at my friend's lake house,  so I could grab another Tutti hearts and butterflies frame from her. I just picked up this cheapo marque alphabet die set at a local big box store, so I gave that a try for my sentiment.


  Autumn gave me some Nuvo drops as one of many gifts for Christmas this year, and I used some on the hearts. Pretty!


 I used my diffuser in a different way this time, using it like a stencil. I embossed my card, laid the diffuser over it, and smeared Distress Micro Glaze on the inside of the heart with my finger. I dipped my card in Iced Spruce and Black Soot DOX inks, and the glaze resisted them leaving a white heart shape. I removed the glaze with a soft cloth, and applied the Seedless Preserves DOX in the heart area, and some to the edges as well.The lacy bits around the edge are the off cuts from the lace die cuts I added to my prior card. I just coated them and the heart die cut with BoBunny glitter paste. Waste not, want not!


We met Autumn's local friends from South Carolina at the Stamp Scrap Art Tour in Columbia, SC. Here's a photo of us that Carol shared with us. Thank you, Carol;  I would never think to take a photo! L>R: Carol, Madelyn, Autumn, me and Bonnie. What a FUN weekend and what a fun group of girls! It is a SMALL world we live in! I found out that Madelyn's nephew lives right down the street from me!


And lucky me! They included me in their monthly tag swap this month! Aren't these tags fabulous??! You can see details of Autumn's tag (the middle one) HERE.

I'm sharing with these challenges:
Scrapy Land Challenge #84 ANYTHING GOES  Tutti Designs and Sizzix

Thank you for your visit today and for all your lovely comments! I sure do appreciate them!
Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Vintage Mixed Media Altered Frame


Hello friends! You might recognize this framed mixed media vignette from my mixed media framed Focus Word 'Home'  HERE. I can assure you this is a completely different make, but the scene inside is very similar. Like before, I removed the canvas from a framed print and altered the frame.




My background, die cut Tiny House, and other embellishments are pretty much the same as my previous make. If you have questions on how I made the scene inside the frame you can find details HERE. Has anyone else ever tried to case their own work? I think it's 100 times harder than starting fresh. But, you see, I was making this for my good friend, Autumn, who commented that my 'Home' piece was a favorite of hers. I wanted to make one for her, and I had the pleasure of delivering it to her in person this weekend at a way-too-short crafty weekend. I also had the honor of meeting some of her local friends. Hi Bonnie, Hi Carol, Hi Madelyn!




No step by steps, but I can hopefully guide you through the process of the frame transformation. After removing the canvas, I gessoed the inside lip of the frame, since that would only be painted. I cut four pieces of designer paper to fit the frame front and four strips to fit the sides. The front pieces were embossed with an embossing folder, and everything was adhered, trimmed and sanded. I blended on Distress inks, splashed with some water and dried.




Using two stencils, I added flourishes with Distress ink and crayon and a bit of crackle paint, and lattice with crackle paint. I sanded when the crackle dried, and added some gold crackle paste over the crackle paint. Smudges of rust paint were added both watered down and neat. Next I smudged on crayons and blended until I thought it looked like a real vintage frame. The inner edges were colored with Distress inks and oxides, and little bits of tissue tape cover the corner crevasses. To preserve the layers, I gave it all a couple coats of Distress Vintage Collage Medium.



A vintage ruler and some vintage lace from an estate sale, and a couple of Quote Chips provide some balance and a title. I didn't realize this when I created this, but Autumn had used a similar ruler on a favorite piece she made HERE. My ruler was really grungy with years of grime and rust, but I cleaned it up a bit by sanding it. The Quote chips were colored with Distress Oxides and crayon and given a light coat of vintage collage medium.


The tiny fluff of 'weeds' is netting from that vintage hat I described and used HERE. And those 'art stones'? Ha! Ha! As President of the 'Waste Not Want Not' club, I made those from a glob off almost dried light modeling paste I found in my jar. I thought Autumn would appreciate my frugality.


Well, that about sums it up! I appreciate your visit today!
Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily



Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Distress Micro Glaze Resist Framed Vintage Garden



Welcome! Today the Funkie half of the Frilly and Funkie team get to present their inspiration pieces for the latest challenge theme  'Dare To Resist', chosen by the super talented Autumn. Please be sure to pop by the blog to see all of the ir-resistable projects by my Frilly and Funkie teammates!

Autumn says: "For the next two weeks, as we break away from our Valentine creations, we'd love to see you incorporate a favorite resist technique in your vintage or shabby chic project. There are so many options, perhaps you will try something new. Whether it be gesso resist, Vaseline resist, alcohol resist, embossing resist, or watercolor resist, we dare you to resist!"

Since Distress Micro Glaze  is the perfect water resistant sealer for Distress products, I thought I would use it as a resist. I made a sample on water color paper dipping my paper into light Distress Oxides, and drying. When was happy with the colors, and the ink was dry, I laid Tim's Flourish stencil over the panel and applied the micro glaze through the stencil with an ink blending tool and wiped with a soft cloth. I removed the stencil and dipped the paper once more into a watery puddle of Distress Oxide, this time in Walnut Stain for contrast. I dried the panel with my heat gun, and was very pleased with the resist result and those tiny droplets, but the colors were a bit dark to do an entire background with them. I blended with some more ink and added stamping with Potting Soil Archival ink and set it aside to do the same technique in some lighter colors.


For my large back ground panel, I tried the same resist using Peacock Feathers as my final dipping after blending the Distress Micro Glaze through the stencil over a lighter background. I wasn't happy this time, because there wasn't enough contrast, but did some stenciling with the Flourish stencil in the corner, this time blending with Distress ink. I also did some stamping using both images from the Lattice and Flourish stamp set.


I used the micro glaze as a resist over a stamped and colored flower image. I stamped Tim's Illustrated Garden image in Watering Can Archival ink and colored with Distress inks and markers using a water brush. When dry, I applied the glaze with my finger, wiped with a soft cloth and dipped the panel in Broken China Distress Oxide. It's not so dramatic but it allows the Oxide to form droplets here and there. I fussy cut the flowers and gave it a vintage look by blending with Frayed Burlap Distress ink.


Another resist technique I used involved splattering Gloss Mod Podge on my baseball stats page, allowing to dry and blending with Ground Espresso Distress ink. I wiped with a damp cloth, allowing the splatters to peek through the ink.


I tucked in a Tim Holtz doily die cut, and layered the panels with some lace from my stash, a Found Relative, some wadded string, and hand died Little Birdie and Tim Holtz Bouquet flowers. The bright blue flowers are made with Tim's Tiny Tattered Florals Thinlits die and colored with Distress Spray stain. The sweet butterflies are from the Botanical Layers.





I used a wax crayon, Distress Oxides and chalk paint to alter a Quote Chip. I wiped diluted Oxides on randomly with my finger, dried, and then applied wax crayon over top. Then I painted with chalk paint, allowed it to dry, and wiped vigorously with a clean cloth to remove most of the white paint, giving the quote a shabby look.





Finally I crackled my frame (resist technique) using a crackle glaze and then painting with a contrasting chalk paint. I gave it two coats of Vintage Distress Collage Medium to protect the crackle.




Now I dare YOU to resist! You are invited to play along in this “Dare to Resist” challenge by simply creating a vintage or shabby chic project following the challenge theme and guidelines.  Then link your project up at the Frilly and Funkie  before midnight on Tuesday, February 27th.

The Frilly and Funkie team will choose four favorites from your entries, and our favorite artist will be invited to join us as a Guest Designer  at Frilly and Funkie. The next three winners will receive Top 3 badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I'm sharing with these challenges:

Thank you for your visit today! If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you!
Hugs and Blessings!
Sara Emily

The following products were used on this project and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique: