Thursday, June 30, 2016

Patriotic Tag with Craftwell USA

Hello friends!  Barbara here on the Craftwell blog with a very patriotic Happy 4th tag.  Of course, I am using my eBrush to make it all come together so easily and quickly.  I took some liberties, no pun intended, adding white stars to the red tag, with blue and white striped butterflies, representing our freedom.  



First, eBrush Carmine R37 over tag background, then darken the edges with the darker Garnet R39.



Sponge white paint through a stars stencil and let dry.



Die cut two butterflies with the Teresa Collins Project "Today" Die using the Craftwell Cut n' Boss.  



eBrush Royal Blue B28 through a stripes stencil over both butterflies, then offset the stencil and eBrush Ultramarine B29.



I was able to curl and shape the butterflies by misting the back with water and letting it dry.  The paper becomes stiff and will keep its shape.  



eBrush die cut book plate and tag reinforcement with Copper E18.  



Stamp Happy 4th onto a scrap piece of paper with blue ink and cut into an arrow shape, as shown.  Now you are ready to assemble the tag.


Simply adhere the pieces on your tag, as shown.  I adhered the butterflies only along the body, adding tiny red stickers over the body portion, and pearls to indicate the butterfly's flight path.  

The book plate was centered on the tag and the Happy 4th banner was adhered with a wispy bend in the center.  

Supplies used:

Copic Markers
Stencils
Tag
Paper
Stickers

What a wonderful country we live in, and I just wanted to commemorate our Independence Day with a little remembrance of our nation's struggles and blessings.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fabulous, safe holiday!


Monday, June 27, 2016

Gliding Through the Sky Canvas

Hi everyone!  Barbara here today with a fluttery-steampunk-style mixed media canvas using Altered Pages products and our those from our partner, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts!


First, I grabbed a 6"x9" Canvas Panel Board and gave it a light coat of Liquitex Gesso before I added a bit of molding paste through a stencil.  Then I laid out my Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard pieces to see how they will look.


I always give my chipboard a light coat of gesso before adding color.  In this case, I used the Chalk Paints in Brown, Romance, and Heritage.  I used a sponge or Ranger Blending Tool to pick up the colors and dab them onto the chipboard.  I find this works better than a brush because it does not fill in any of the small openings in the laser cuts.


I was going for a rusty look, and I even added some brown to the Pen Nibs to make them look old.  Set these aside to dry.


Back to the canvas, I painted the background with Heritage Chalk Paints, then unevenly spread a coat of crackle paint in the corners.  After that dried and crackled, I grabbed my Splash Inks and added a light wash of Yellow over the entire background.


Then I added a wash of the blue and more yellow to give some green tones to the background.


A wash of blue and red Splash Inks gives me a fabulous purple color.  Simply vary the ratios to get more blue or more purple colors.  Just play with them.  They are so much fun to work with.

I wanted some metallics to add to the background to make things pop, so I pulled out my Metallic Rub-on Sets and applying the colors (your choice) to high spots on the canvas.  Your finger is the best tool for applying these creamy metallics.  I also added some of the green metallic rub-on from the kit around the edges of the canvas.


For more dimension, I added Dew Drops to the centers of the stenciled "flowers".  It really makes them pop!


My canvas is now ready to embellish with my chipboard pieces.  I simply glued them in place with Aleene's Tacky Glue, as shown below.  The large clock hand and two gears were glued over the large butterfly, and the Pen Nibs were glued over the two smaller butterflies.


Still playing with colors on my canvas, I dug out my Mica Paint Palettes and applied more metallic colors (your choice) to the background where I wanted to give some shine to the piece.  I used Water brushes to apply these, as it makes for quick work of adding the colors!


For my last layer of color, I used a Ranger Blending Tool to add Patina Mixed Media Salazar Inkx over parts of the background.


Cut out the phrase from the Fly With Steam collage sheet and adhere to chipboard for strength, then adhere to canvas with Dimensional Adhesives for dimension.


And once again, the finished piece.


SUPPLIES USED:

Altered Pages Fly With Steam collage sheet
Canvas Panel Board
Liquitex Gesso
Chalk Paints
Ranger Blending Tool
Splash Inks
Mica Paint Palettes
Metallic Rub-on Sets
Mixed Media Salazar Inkx (Patina)
Dew Drops
Pen Nibs
Water brushes
Alene's Tacky Glue
Dimensional Adhesives
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts (butterfly of gears, butterflies, clock hands, gears)

I hope you enjoyed my mixed media canvas today.  Please be sure to visit Altered Pages and Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts for more fun products to use in your everyday art!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative week!

Barbara

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Card and Tag with Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts and Xyron

Hello everyone!  Barbara here on the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts blog today.  We are also partnering with Xyron this month, and I can't tell you how easy it makes adhering not only your papers, but even the laser cut chipboard manages to go through the Xyron.  How cool is that?  

Anyway, I want to share a cute greeting card and matching tag using some older paper I found in my stash and dressing it up with my laser cut chipboard.  



I always choose my chipboard first, then give it a coat of white gesso.



I chose my papers and cut them into different sizes, punched or cut edges and/or corners, and began layering the pieces onto a 5"x7" card.    Each piece of chipboard was inked and colored with a chalk ink pad in colors to match those in the papers.  You can always use other types of ink pads, or even acrylic paints.  Use whatever you have.

I made good use of my Xyron Create-A-Sticker.  As you can see in the next photo,  it takes paper quite nicely. 


  

 In the photo below, it also took the chipboard flourish just as easily.  


The chipboard was adhered to the card base, as shown.  I tied a ribbon around the bottom and cut tiny flowers from a length of lace, colored with the same pink ink, and adhered to the card, as shown.



I made a separate matching tag that could be used as a gift tag.  This was put together in similar fashion.  




And a few closeups.











Supplies Used:

5"x7" card
Print papers
Chalk ink pads
Lace

I hope you like my project and maybe are inspired to give your cards and tags, and any projects, an extra oomph with the addition of Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard.  And a special thanks to Xyron for sponsoring us this month.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

Barbara

Bookmarks with Inspiration for Craftwell USA and Latina Crafter

Hi everyone!  Barbara here on the Craftwell Blog with some inspirational bookmarks using my eBrush and stamps from our partner, Latina Crafter.  The style and theme of these are perfect for making inspirational bookmarks for gift giving, special occasions, and of course, to keep.  I know I've said this before, but I think the best thing about using the eBrush is that you can make your own background papers and all of your embellishments to match that background.  


To begin, I cut three pieces of off-white card stock to 3-1/4" x 8-1/2".  I used decorative corner and edger punches to make each different bookmark.  Trim three pieces of white card stock to 2-1/8" x 7-1/2".  These will be the background layers.


I will show you in a bit more detail how I made the first bookmark.  Lay straight edge of a scrap of paper across top of background layer.  eBrush with blue marker.


Now cover the blue section with that same scrap of paper, and cut a slight wave shape from another scrap of paper.  Lay both wave shape pieces over background layer and eBrush with red marker.  Mover papers down the length of the background and continue eBrushing with the red marker to make the flag stripes.


Cover stripes and spread white texture paste through stars stencil, let dry.


Die cut REMEMBER THIS from the Teresa Collins Project Die with the Cut ' Boss die cutting machine.  Save the letters that fall out from the die.  This machine cuts thin dies effortlessly.


Adhere background layer to bookmark.  eBrush with blue marker and adhere to bookmark, as shown. Replace white letters from die.  


For the next bookmark, I embossed the background layer using Teresa Collins' Beautiful Brocade embossing folder and Cut n' Boss machine.  Remove the layer from the embossing folder and eBrush 
it with V04 Lilac.  I love how the eBrush allows you to cover large areas so smoothly and quickly.


I decided to distress the bookmark a bit, so I eBrushed the edges using E31 Brick Beige.  Round corners with corner rounder punch and adhere to bookmark.


I die cut these three elements from white card stock using the Teresa Collins Project Dies using the Cut n' Boss machine.

 

On a piece of scrap white card stock, stamp two sentiments from the Latina Crafter set with black archival ink.   Trim around each sentiment and save one for the next bookmark.  


I cut an extra key, then eBrushed both keys with YR21 Cream and BG72 Ice Cream.  The sentiment was eBrushed with the E31 Brick Beige to match the distressing on the outer edges.  Adhere pieces to bookmark, as shown.



For the third bookmark, eBrush background layer with BG72 Ice Cream and adhere to bookmark.  Tear honeycomb die cut in half, unevenly, and eBrush with BG78 Bronze.  Adhere to background layer.

eBrush butterfly with RV11 Pink, edge with B28 Royal Blue and YG21 Anise.  Round corners on sentiment and eBrush with YG21 Anise.  Adhere to bookmark, as shown.


Since these are bookmarks, I kept them thin and smooth, without much dimension, other than from the die cuts.  

Supplies Used:

Craftwell USA eBrush
Craft well Cut n' Boss
Teresa Collins Beautiful Brocade embossing folder
Teresa Collins Project Dies - Remember This, Today, Honeycomb
Latina Crafter Be a Blessing 
White card stock
Decorative craft punches 
5"x7" kraft card
Copic Markers
Stars stencil
Light Molding Paste
Archival black ink


There will be more fun projects featuring the Latina Crafter, so make sure to check out the Craftwell Blog all month long for more inspiration from the team. 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a crafty day!