Be Your Beautiful Self - An Autumn Card

 

Hello and welcome! Today we start a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and Jenny is hosting the theme, 'Fall Foliage'. Here is how she describes it:

"According to most search engines the Fall season has officially begun so we should be starting to see the emergence of all those beautiful Autumnal colours, unless Mother Nature throws us a curve ball! Let's celebrate them anyway by creating a vintage or shabby chic project in traditional Fall shades that includes some form of foliage like leaves, berries and so on."

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details.

I needed to make a fall birthday card for a family friend who is turning 100 years young, and I chose to use my yet unopened Stamperia's Forest 8 x 8 paper collection. This collection is loaded with beautiful fall foliage images, but could really be used any time of year. Here are some close ups, and then I have a few tips to share with you further on in the post.

I had this lacey Foliage Wrap die cut on my worktop left over from my play for this Saturday Showcase tutorial. The Princess Gold and White Wonder embossing was already done, so all I had to do is blend on some coordinating inks (Frayed Burlap and Wild Honey). Then I dipped the back edge of the die cut into a watery puddle of Ground Espresso ink. I love how it seeps through and creates depth of color to the delicate cuts.

The berries are from the Layered Winter Flower die set and are colored with Candied Apple ink and a water brush and Walnut Stain marker. 

The Skeleton Leaves die cut is cut from a scrap left from my Altered Birdhouse; I just added some Princess Gold embossing to tie it in. I give details on the stamped green leaf further on below.

I fussy cut the berries from the back cover of the paper pack and tucked them in. You can see another of the beautifully detailed papers from the set in the photo, under the wood slices.

I fussy cut one of the labels from the same page as the background is made from, and added my own sentiment. The sentiment I used is from the Tiny Text stamp set, and I stamped it in Ground Espresso archival ink on a scrap.

Here are a few tips for making this card...

I chose the label/tag page to use as my overall background for the card. I smooshed Wild Honey ink pad onto an acrylic block and sprayed with water. I use the block to stamp the color onto the paper. This is my favorite way to 'customize' patterned paper. It gives an organic look and ties the papers together with your elements. I repeated this to areas of the squirrel cut apart, also from the Forest collection. After drying the background panel, I blended the edges with Forest Moss and and Ground Espresso inks and mounted to a sanded and inked panel of old Kraft Core paper.

To give the eye a place to rest from the busyness of the background, focal image and other elements, I chose this failed Lumber 3D embossed piece from my stash. I had already applied crackle to it. (I believe it is crackle paint.) Some of the crackle was chipping off, but I liked the worn look. I have linked Crackle Paste below, because you could get a similar effect. I did the acrylic block ink smoosh/transfer with Wild Honey ink, but made the mistake of blotting with a paper towel, rather than heat drying. It ended up looking like dried blood stains, but I pressed on. I salvaged the panel once again, this time by smearing and scribbling with Walnut Stain crayon. Most of the mess up would be covered anyway. This panel is also adhered to a Kraft Core panel.

I stamped a maple leaf from Nature's Wonder in Forest Moss ink onto water color paper from my stash, and colored it in with Bundled Sage ink and a water brush. As a comparison, I did the same on Distress Watercolor card, and you can see it's much crisper.  I have way more water color pads than I will ever use in the rest of my lifetime, but clearly, the Distress watercolor card is worth the investment. I ended up using the latter on my card.  After fussy cutting, I edged in Frayed Burlap.

 

That's it for me! I hope you've found a bit of autumn inspiration here today, but there's plenty more Fall Foliage inspiration from my talented teammates over at the blog. After you've had a look at each of their wonderful makes, I hope you'll link up your own vintage or shabby chic make to be in for one of the great prizes! Happy crafting! Sara Emily

Challenge shares:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes

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

Stamperia - Forest 8x8 Paper Pad

Sizzix Chapter 3 Thinlits Dies - Foliage Wrap

Sizzix Chapter 3 Thinlits Dies - Layered Winter Flower

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Nature's Wonder

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set - Tiny Text

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Watercolor Cardstock 4.25 x 5.5 inches

Distress Ink Pads  - Ground Espresso,Wild Honey, Forest Moss, Frayed Burlap, Candied Apple, Bundled Sage

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Archival Mini Ink Pad -Ground Espresso

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons -Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Dabber

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Pen 2pk

Ranger Embossing Powder - Princess Gold

Emerald Creek Eileen Hull Molten Dimension Embossing Powder - White Wonder

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste 3oz Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Between Shadow and Soul: A Spooky Vignette

Welcome! Today marks the start of a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog and Cec is hosting. She calls her challenge 'Staying in the Background' and here is what she says about it:

"My challenge to you is to create your own background and use it in a shabby chic or vintage project - no pre-printed patterned paper this time. You can create the background in any number of ways and it can be simple or intricate. Using embossing folders, stencils, dies, stamps, washi tape, paints, inks or a gel press are just a few ideas. Make sure you give a brief description of how you created your background in your post."

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details.

Making backgrounds is so much fun, and I was excited to learn of Cec's challenge. Perhaps it's all the mayhem in our country that makes creating for any theme a bit of a challenge for me right now, and I had no ideas in mind.  But the show must go on, so I decided to not sweat it, and got to playing in my Closet, without any direction in mind what so ever. Usually, just getting the ink flowing gets the ideas rolling.

So let's take a look at my Between Shadow and Soul vignette, and then I'll share how I made my background(s).

Starting with a Vignette Box, the exterior is painted with Picket Fence and Black Soot paint and smeared with crackle paste and Translucent grit paste mixed with Prima's Mini Art Stones. Crayon to accentuate the texture.

Bun feet from my stash.

The Spider Web Thinlits web die cut is Metallic Kraft Stock. It's colored with alcohol inks and cut into two pieces.  A Creepy Eye altered with Black Soot paint and crayon fills the void from where I cut out the center of the web. 

I tucked in a twig I found taking a walk and some cheese cloth already colored from my stash. My guess it would be Hickory Smoke and Seedless Preserves spray stain. The plastic spiders from my stash are smudged with  Prima's Antique Brilliance. I just can't take this spider seriously with those whimsical antenna.

The spider also from Spider Web Thinlits die set is sponged with Black soot paint and then given a fat body with Liquid Pearls in Onyx Pearl. The Halloween Words Adornment is smudged with Wilted Violet crayon to make those words pop.

.

This spider is definitely creepier.

I included this photo, because it brings the silver spiders a bit more into focus.

This photo, while over exposed, really shows off the texture of the embossed background.

Now onto the tutorial! Actually, I consider this making lemonade when my efforts handed me lemons; there are few total losses, especially when it comes to backgrounds.

This may be a little difficult to follow along with, but hopefully the photos will help. It's confusing because I am actually working on 3 backgrounds at a time and they play off of each other. As I already said, I didn't have a plan in mind, but my play led me to create a spooky background, and the other two spun off from the first. The first one - and most obvious- is the spider web background inside the back wall of the Vignette Box. I started with a piece of heavy card that had some artwork on the reverse side. It was inside a watercolor pad I picked up at a yard sale a while ago, but it's clearly not water color paper and much heavier than any other paper in my stash. It is a good substrate for all the product I intend to throw at it.

Using the Shattered stencil, I laid down Translucent Grit paste and generously covered it with Distress Glazing powders in Hickory Smoke and Speckled Egg, keeping the colors separate, before removing the stencil. Rather than pouring off the powder, I tapped the panel from underneath, as Tim Holtz suggests, to blend the colors. When the paste was covered completely with the powder, I poured off the remainder. I put the remaining mixed powders in an empty jar, and maybe I'll use it on another project. I allow the paste to thoroughly dry.

Once the paste is dry, I heat it to melt the powder and then some, to get a bit of bubbling from the paste. After it's cooled, I blend the panel with Frayed Burlap Distress ink, and wipe it off the embossed areas. I scribble on Black Soot Distress crayon over the embossing and blend with a slightly dampened finger and a light touch so as not to get it in the 'cracks', working from the center outward.

Repeat with more crayon in the 'empty' spots: Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves, blending each with my finger. When I was happy with it, I cut to size to fit the vignette box. I actually didn't know this was going to be used on a vignette box until this point. Lastly I edged with Black Soot Distress paint, and below is the completed panel ready to adhere in the box.

Second Background

In a 'what if' moment, before cleaning the stencil, I laid the soiled and still wet stencil from the previous background face down onto a tag that was close by. I covered it with a piece of copy paper and used my brayer to transfer the product to the tag.

It didn't look like much, so I sprayed the tag with Chipped Sapphire Spray Stain and then with water to mingle the color, and really that was no better. The web I was hoping to see wasn't really visible (yet). 

After drying the tag with my heat tool, some of the 'webbing' appeared. Even more webbing was revealed when I blended with Rusty Hinge ink. Still, npretty horrible, but worth playing around with some more. You'll see in the collage two photos down, I splashed it with water and dried at this point, hoping to make some improvement, before doing the steps outlined below.

I thought the tag might be salvageable if I lightened it up, so I blended Distress Microglaze through a portion of the stencil onto the darkest area of the tag  to work as a resist. 

I got out Picket Fence Spray Stain, but it was clogged.  I removed the cap and splattered some on the tag and sprayed with water. 

After drying, I was pretty impressed with the result, but the tag needed lightening elsewhere. I flipped the stencil over  in the upper corner and blended Speckled Egg Oxide ink over the stencil. I was pretty much over the tag at this point, so I didn't bother to take a 'completed background' photo. I did end up cutting the tag up to line the side walls and ceiling. You can see a bit of this in the close ups below.

Third Background

Not one to waste anything, I took a piece of card I had on hand and laid it over the tag above while it was still wet with Chipped Sapphire, and then patted the card into the drops on my mat. After drying, I blended with Rusty Hinge and then splashed water on both the tag and the card. 

Using the inked card, I laid the numbers mini stencil over it and blended with Microglaze. Spray stain in Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge are resisted by the Microglaze. I should have stopped there, but I sprayed Speckled Egg Oxide spray over the bottom left corner (not shown), and pretty much ruined the background. 

In an effort to salvage the panel, I sprayed the corner with water to thin the Speckled Egg out and dried. Once again, I laid the stencil over the numbers and sprayed with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray and water. I removed the stencil and dried the panel with my heat tool. 

I replaced the cleaned stencil and outlined the numbers in areas with Walnut Stain crayon and blended with my finger to create shadows. This is where I decided to call it a day and figure out what do do with my original embossed background panel. I hope to make something out of this numbered background.

Bonus Fourth Background

Here's a background I created from the deli paper I sprayed the moss on and which was used on the back of the Vignette Box. I used Black Soot and Wilted Violet spray stains to color the moss and I rubbed the moss in the paper to distribute the color. This left an interesting pattern on the paper, and thought it would make a good background.

 I dried the paper and blended it with Frayed Burlap ink. I crumpled the paper and mostly flattened it back out. I rubbed the Ground Espresso ink pad directly to the wrinkles and then also applied Antique Brilliance randomly. This was adhered to the back with Distress Collage Medium Matte.

That's all for me, but there's more background inspiration by my talented teammates over at the blog. I hope you'll stop by and then I hope you'll link up your vintage or shabby chic project using a background. Remember to tell us how you made your background. I can't wait to see what you'll make! Happy Crafting! Sara Emily

Challenge Shares

Simon Says Stamp Monday Frame It

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vignette Boxes

Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Spider Web

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments - Halloween Words

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Creepy Eyes

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Shatter

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 7

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste - Translucent

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Ranger Distress Micro Glaze

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze  - Speckled Egg, Hickory Smoke

Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair - Antique Brilliance - Amethyst Magic

Prima Art Ingredients - Mini Art Stones

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Kraft Stock

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad- Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap,  Rusty Hinge

Tim Holtz Distress Paint -Black Soot, Picket Fence

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Black Soot, Wilted Violet, Walnut Stain, Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserves

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain - Black Soot, Wilted Violet, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Picket Fence

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Speckled Egg

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray  - Speckled Egg

Ranger Wendy Vecchi Liquid Pearls

 

Altered Bird House Tutorial

Hello ! As promised, today I have a step by step tutorial for my bird house which is my DT project for the current challenge " Birds" at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog. You can see why I couldn't include the steps in my DT post; this is such a long post by itself. Let's start with the original birdhouse...

It's demo day! I always love this part of these rehab projects because that's when the ideas start flowing. After removing all the bark, nails, most of the glue and a piece of gingham fabric (What??), I ended up with what looks like a band stand. Band stands make for spooky places, and I made another here.

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I gave it a new rusty, mossy roof. I smeared streaks of Translucent Grit paste down from the top and sprinkled with Chunky Rust powder with a bit of verdigris sprinkled here and there. When it was about dry I hit it with my heat tool to melt the powders and bubble up the paste a bit. The hanger is painted with Black Soot paint. I smeared on thicker blobs of Grit Paste and allowed it to dry. I scribbled the dried paste with Peeled Paint crayon (lost the crayon in the photo when I did the photo collage) and smudged it with my finger. Lastly, I dripped on alcohol inks in Mushroom and Rust and spritzed with water, drying with my heat tool when I was happy with the way it dribbled and ran.

***

Next, time to work on the wood work. I had a vision of a burnt out charred house that has sat empty for years. I painted the wood with black gesso, right over the old glue and bits I couldn't remove. Grungy is good. To add more grunge and icky texture, I smeared the beams, ceiling and floor randomly with grit paste and let it dry. When it was thoroughly dry, I sprayed with Weathered Wood Oxide spray and dried it with my heat tool. Next, I added random patches of Crackle Paste and let that dry. Once more, I heated with the heat tool to make sure it was good and dry, and then smeared all the texture with Distress crayons in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint.

 I added some dead and diseased rambling roses climbing up the walls by wrapping black string around the beams and securing with collage medium. I also adhered some thorns to the vines (Funky Wreaths) cut from black card.

I elevated the house on a base made from chipboard pieces glued together and painted with more black gesso.I adhered this piece to the bottom of the birdhouse. I die cut and embossed silver Metallic Kraft Stock scraps with the Star Trim Impresslit. I painted on Black Soot paint, sprayed with water and dripped on Mushroom alcohol ink. These pieces were adhered to the edge of the chipboard circular piece.

 I felt like it needed something else, and I found an unfinished wood square plaque in my stash, which I also painted with black gesso, then wrapped with Halloween Design Tape at the very bottom. I coated that with collage medium and when dry, scribbled with Ground Espresso crayon and smudged with my finger. I adhered some fence die cuts from my stash across the back.

I used Brickwork 3D Texture Fade and black paper coated with Distress Collage medium and cut out a section for my brick walkway.  I colored the bricks with Fired Brick and Crushed Olive crayons and adhered the piece to the square base prior to adding the birdhouse and creating the garden.

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I cut a pair of gates using the Gate Keeper dies and old Tim Holtz paper stash glued together, so front and back would look similar. This also makes the intricate dies more substantial and stiff. It helps to use the Chrome Precision Plate to cut these out. Because of the thickness of the papers glued together, I ran it through 3 times to get a nice clean cut. After applying Translucent Girt paste to the gates and allowing it to dry, I scribbled with Rusty Hinge crayon and smeared with my finger. These pieces were added to the two beams at the opening.

***

Now that the house is constructed it's time to add the embellishments.

I cut two panels of mixed media card and spray both with water. I spray one with Distress Spray Stains: 

Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso, spritzing with water to blend further, tilting my paper and allowing to drip onto my craft mat. I use the second panel to blot up the extra stain. When the panels are dry, I spray randomly with Frayed Burlap Oxide spray, activating with water spritzes and drying again. I blot up the extra with the second panel. I repeat on the opposite side of the panels, so there is color on both sides.

I use the darker of the panels to cut three of the thorny Funky Nests and some of the other die set's  accompanying twigs. I cut thin strips from the lighter mop up panel. The strips are spritzed with water, crumpled in my hand and set aside to dry. I cut sections from two of the wreaths and glue the ends to make nests of different sizes, and assembled everything over the crumpled strips within the birdhouse.

I placed some bones (Boneyard) and a skull (Skulls and Pumpkins) in the nest. I did nothing to the skull, but added Black Soot and Ground Espresso paint to the bones.

Next, I cut the spider and web (Spider Web) from clear waste packaging, and a second spider from black card (the spiders were cut off the photo when I made the collage, sorry.) Using a felt applicator I colored the spider and web with Mushroom alcohol ink. I applied Snow Cap Mixative to the reverse side of the spider, as shown above. These were glued into the bird house with collage medium. Because the medium dries clear, the web look like it's been put there by the spider. I applied Translucent Grit Paste and Antique Linen crayon to the black spider, and he's hanging in the eaves out back.

I used the larger of Feathered Friends dies to cut a raven out of chipboard recycled out of my cat's canned food box. I cut two of everything and glued them together, so there would be more substance to them. After drying some throw pillows in my dryer the other day, I found some feathers in my lint filter and glued these around the wings. Everything was painted with Prima's Impasto in Pitch Black. This paint is super thick, and you can achieve some great texture. I sealed with Distress Collage Medium Matte to set down a surface over which to scribble and smear Brushed Pewter Distress crayon, highlighting that texture (not pictured). I finished off the raven with a black half pearl for his eye (also not pictured).

I made a little prop to hold the bird up with a piece of waste packaging. After cutting a rectangle of it, I used my scissors and straight edge to score (but not cutting through) two horizontal lines, and then folded the clear plastic at the lines. I used collage medium to secure the bird to the house. Be sure to leave it sit until the glue dries, and it will hold like cement! (I used collage medium for all the gluing, including securing the birdhouse to the base.) You can see the prop clearly in the photo below.

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I colored an old Halloween Token with Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot paint. I found a die cut dot laying around and used that to cover the hole and adhered this at the entrance. Three Pumpkins of different sizes and a sparkly foam pumpkin from my stash were each smeared with Crackle Paste and when dry, coated with collage medium. I scribbled and smeared crayon in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint and layered them up at the doorway and placed a single one by the raven's feet.

***

I sprayed a panel of olive card with Ground Espresso Spray Stain on one side and dried. From this panel, I cut some foliage using Garden Greens and Funky Floral #3 die sets. I colored a piece of Mummy Cloth with Bundled Sage Spray Stain and Peeled Paint Oxide Spray. These were adhered in the garden and in and around the pumpkins.

More vines hanging off the front of the house come from my stash left over from this very creepy project combined with  more die cut twigs cut with the Funky Wreaths set. I sure have toned down since then!

So here is the completed bird house. If you haven't seen my original post with all the close up shots of the details, you can pop over here to see it. Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week! Sara Emily

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

 Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Spider Web

Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Gatekeeper

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Feathered Friends

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Funky Wreaths

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz 3-D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Brickwork

Sizzix Tim Holtz 3-D Impresslits Embossing Folder - Star Trim

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste Translucent

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Skulls & Pumpkins

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape, Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tokens - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Boneyard

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray  - Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain    - Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Bundled Sage, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Distress Paint   - Black Soot, Ground Espresso, Weathered Wood, Antiqued Bronze

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons  - Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Brushed Pewter, Ground Espresso

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink  - Snow Cap Mixative, Mushroom, Rust

Prima Art Alchemy Impasto Paint    - Pitch Black

Seth Apter Baked Texture   - Chunky Rust