Wednesday 27 March 2013

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 199? Ditress Paint

Hello there fellow desk hopper!  Welcome to my desk over in Cape Town, South Africa!

This post should really be called TESTING, TESTING 123...

I finally got hold of a batch of Distress Paint and they are truly wonderful!  They are just so creative and unpredictable, that it makes them so enjoyable.  It is a case of paint, spray with water and watch the magic happen!

At the back of my desk you can see a canvas that I first smeared with Gesso and let dry, then I added Mustard seed, Picked raspberry and Salty Ocean followed by a good spray of water and let it dry.  So far so good, not sure where to from here...
To the left of my desk there are 3 squares from a Keiser Kraft kit I never finished at a Convention and they got a dose of Fired Brick, Antique Linen and Victorian Velvet.  The fronts I mixed the colours together and sprayed, while on the back I just did one colour and sprayed to see how it would react.  The single colours with stronger pigment left a watermark effect where as the Antique linen was still very plain...this is the one where you can see the marbled front.

Next I tried stamping with the colour Distress Paints onto black paper and fabric, they worked like a dream.  Followed by Picket fence on the black paper which gives a lovely chalk board look.

I have also given each of the bottles a dab of colour on their lids so that I can see them easily in my box.  The interesting thing is they dry 2 shades darker than when they are wet.  Just an observation if you are trying to match colours up later for a repeat effect.

Finally I played in my Art Journal and used 3 colours, Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves which I sprayed with water and closed the book to get the colour onto both pages.  I then added the Keep Calm and Carry on Stencil with Black soot Distress ink over the top.  I am yet to finish the page, but it has been fun so far.  In the photo below you can see the marbled effect before I closed the book to spread the colour to the other page.

This is a lengthy post so I better get out of here and onto Julia's desk to see if you have linked up!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella




Wednesday 20 March 2013

Whats on My Workdesk Wednesday 198? A kit in progress

Hello fellow Wednesday Desk hopper!

Here is my desk today.  Nice and quiet.  Just one kit to make for an order from a class I ran last week.

NOT A ROSE IN SIGHT!  For those of you who were asking last week how I made them, I recorded a video on Sunday which is in my top right hand corner bar, just click on the rose photo and it will take you there if you are interested.  I show how to make both size roses.  It is about 10 min long so have a cup of tea or coffee handy.  I am no pro video maker, but I think you will get the gist of it!
This was the finished order for 40 plus roses done and dusted!

That's me for this week.

See you at your desk if you have linked up with our hosetess Julia...

Oh and I am keen to make extra ATCs for the 4th year celebrations if you want to swap just let me know either via email in my side bar or in the comments...

Bella


Sunday 17 March 2013

Sizzix cup cake pop up card with Tim's tattered flower decorations



I have been very busy at my desk today.  This concept has been in my head for a while and it took a few prototypes to get it to work.  Good thing they are not edible or I would have put on a fortune of weight by eating the "flops"!

I started with the cupcake case die by Sizzix which I cut, assembled and folded in half.
Medium_658008
I then cut 2 white and one yellow Sizzix Rosettes by Tim
 Medium_656931
I pleated them and glued the two white ones together to make a LONG strip of concertinaed paper then made them into a circle.  I pleated the yellow one and made that into a circle.

I glued the yellow one on top of the white one so they made a Christmas tree shape.

I made a 6"x6" card and using two scraps of paper I glued the cupcake holder to the centre of the inside of the card.

I then built a support shelf on the inside of the cup cake holder with kraft card stock.  This is to hold the candle.  The candle was not long enough to stick out the top of the "icing" so I placed it in a drinking straw and hot glued this to the centre of the shelf.
I used the shelf to glue the tree of  rosettes to with tabs underneath.  Here is a view from the top where I added a medium tattered flower to finish it off, supposedly to look like the candle holder....
While all of that was drying...
I decorated the outside of the card using white card stock which I ran through the sizzix embossing folder and clipped its edges with Mustard seed yellow distress ink to highlight the pattern.  I cut a small piece of the cupcake holder again to use a section of for the case of the 2D one and ran the "icing dome" (I cut a shape by hand) through a paper crimper to imitate the concertinas of the icing of the cake inside the card.  I cut 3 of the tiniest tattered flowers and curled them with my stylus on a foam mat to add to the top of the cupcake with half pearl centres.

Because the 3D cupcake was so bulky, I needed to tie the card together so I made some crinkle ribbon by running it over the Mustard seed distress ink pad and spraying it with water before drying  it in my tweezers.
This is as closed as the card gets...not one for mailing to anyone! 
Here is the finished cupcake in the card!

It was fun getting my concept into reality!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Saturday 16 March 2013

Tim's Tattered Flower Challenge - My version 1

Hello there fellow Tim-a-holic, welcome to my first version of Tim's Tattered flower challenge!

I saw Tammy Tutterow's blog on how to make vintage flowers and because I could not find the crinoline anywhere, I decided to try her same concept without the color wash sprays using paper and different fabrics instead to see what effects I could get.

I put them on quite long florist's wire covered in green florist's tape and then used my stack of Tissue tape rolls as my vase!  Now I have a lovely feature on my desk!

I could not stop at these three and made another one which is in my next post here!

Thanks for the visit.

Bella

Tim's Tattered Flower Challenge - my version No2

Hello there fellow Tim-a-holic, welcome to my second entry into Tim's Tattered flower die challenge.  I have been sitting on the fence with this challenge as there is just so much one can do with this die.  I have used it so many times to make different flowers that my mind was spinning as to which style to make to enter.  In the end, I made two projects and will enter both.  So this is project 2.
I made the canvas by covering the 12"x 12" base canvas with tissue paper and the 4 mini canvases with dictionary paper then randomly adding gesso.   While the gesso was still wet, I sprayed it with Colour wash in Stream and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearl Mist.

Once the base was done, I added my embellies consisting of plaster board tape, tile spacers(xxx), game pieces and the key hole together with wire and bling.  I cut the Hardware findings from grunge board and covered it with Tarnished Brass Distress Stain.  The silk flowers and burlap ones were bought from my local scrapbook store and the main feature flower I made as with Tim's Tattered flower die follows:

Tammy Tutterow has the most amazing step out set of photos and explanations on how she made vintage looking flowers using cotton crinoline.  I went off to every fabric shop in town and could not find it here in Cape Town South Africa so I bought fabric stiffener which is nylon...  I die cut the layers, two of each flower and sprayed them with the Stream Color wash, then I layered them all together with the brad and blow dried it with my Ranger heat tool which gets VERY hot. Using tweezers to hold the flower, I held the front of the heat tool really close to the edges of the petals on purpose so that they melted and curled up.

Thanks for the visit, Hope you liked my version of Tim's Tattered Flower!

Bella

Wednesday 13 March 2013

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 197? Roses, Roses and More Roses!

Yes fellow Wednesday desk hopper, everything is coming up roses on my desk this week.  My order for 40 plus roses is due today and seeing as I work best under pressure, I am still cutting and rolling the last 20 this morning...My machine is going great guns in the background while I am typing this!

Here is my desk as it progressed last night!





They still need their bases glued on so that they don't come apart when someone picks them up and I must make another 12 small ones.  The little petals you can see in the left hand corner in yellow and orange are the original ones done with the punch.  I still need to cut 24 of those strips to make up the last of the order as each rose takes 2 overlapped strips...it is 7:30am as I write this and they need to be done and dusted by 9:30! No pressure...!

I will desk hop from the launch pad at Julia's place as soon as I come up for air!

See ya later.

Bella


Wednesday 6 March 2013

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday 196? Roses and photos

Hello there fellow Wednesday desk hopper!  Nice to have you at my desk over in Cape Town South Africa!  The relax, laugh and peace are back up in place with mirror tape this time, not the sticky putty stuff that melted in the heat...the drawers are still waiting for their pretty knobs...one thing at a time!

Today I have some photos I printed from my Hubby and son's recent week-end spent with family at a gathering 7 hours drive from here.  I could not go with due to work commitments, but have enjoyed living vicariously through the photos and bbm messages I got along the way.  Technology is fabulous.  The top photo is of all the cousins, well 6 of the 9 anyway...the younger lot.
I also have the beginnings of an order for 40 paper roses on  my desk.  You can see the ones already done and glued at the back of my desk and then the piles of already prepared curled petals in cream and gold as well as the white pile that still needs prepping...the red ones are yet to be cut!  it takes 1 and a half sheets of Bazzil to make one rose!  I have my work cut out for me!  Excuse the pun!

So that is what is happening on my desk, now I am off to see what you are doing on yours if you have linked up over at Stamping Ground where Julia valiantly hosts 150+ peeps every week!

Thanks for the visit

Bella



Friday 1 March 2013

Tim's March tag of 2013

This is always my favourite day of the month, I look forward to the 1st like a child does to Christmas, only I get a treat every month!  Tim has posted his tag for March and as usual, none of his CHA January releases have hit our shops yet so I don't have half the supplies he has used and have improvised greatly!

Instead of his printed paper, I decided to try an idea I had in my head since the distress paints are not yet available...I have used paint dabber mixed with Distress ink re-inker and water to make my background for the tag and here is a photo of the craft sheet before and the 5 tags I made with it...I get almost the same look as the distress paints, only it is not water safe when dry...the distress inks still re-activate, but hey, this will do for now...my order for distress paints is in!

I Then used the Martha Stewart 5 blade scissors instead of his die to make my grass which I streaked with paint dabber.

The butterfly is the only appropriate spring type mover and shaper die that I have so I used that and instead of tinsel, I used double sided tape and glitter.
Again, I had to use my own sentiment stamp as the yummy ones of Tim's are just not in my hot paws yet!  To make the tattered ribbon stand out a bit more, I added some paint dabber to that too.

I used the paper roses from my stash and brushed them with the Distress ink called Worn Lipstick which is what I also used for the bow round the butterfly.

Oh me, oh my, Oh Happy Day, I loved making this tag!

Thanks for visiting.

Bella