Misted Galaxy Tutorial

Hello crafters! We had a weekend with lovely warm autumn weather. Unfortunately, many leaves are falling, so the trees aren't quite as pretty any longer. I wish that most beautiful period of autumn would last a little longer, but I guess part of its beauty lies in the fact that it is so fleeting and short.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Starry Night theme. Stars are one of my favorite things to include in projects, and they work for so many different themes. Don't miss the last project of our October guest designer Tenia Nelson, aka Jazzy Paper Designs.

This week, I created a dreamy galaxy in one of my art journals. The background was such fun to create and it is quick and easy. I found a little cut-out photo of Anton on my desk, from when he was smaller, and decided to let him fly on a cloud on the page. It looks like he is balancing, which worked extra well together with the quote by Vincent van Gogh. The background would work great for many different projects, such as scrapbooking layouts and Christmas cards.

The larger spot at the bottom right was an accident, but I decided that it kind off looked like a far off planet or a moon.

I used Tim Holtz new Sizzix Swirling Stars for the background. Start with a piece of watercolor paper and die cut the star designs. For the two very detailed dies, it is a good idea to use the Sizzix Chrome Precision Base Plate, since it works great to get a clean cut with detailed wafer-thin dies.

Mist the background with Tim's Distress Resist Spray and let dry. I love resist techniques and this is such a cool product. I misted a larger piece of paper at the same time, for future projects.

Mist the background with Distress Spray Stains, starting with the lighter shades. Instead of misting with water to blend, I used the Cracked Pistachio spray, to make sure I got as saturated colors as possible. It is fun to watch them blend and move around.

There was leftover ink from the misting on my craft sheet, and I pressed a piece of watercolor paper into the ink, misting the ink with a little water first. This will form a cool background for future projects, and made sure I didn't waste all that ink.

Stamp with the a dotted background stamp, just here and there, for a little more texture.

The new Flurry 1 snowflake die has a star shape, and I thought it would work well to ground the photo to the background. Look at the fantastic fine detail of this die. Again, the Chrome Precision Base Plate works great when it comes to die cutting these detailed dies. I die cut it from Simon Says Stamp lovely White Diamond Glimmery Paper.

The same glimmer paper was placed behind the galaxy panel, since I wanted the stars to be white, but also just a little bit shimmery. The quotes were printed and cut into strips.

I loved the effect of the Resist Spray and almost wished I had added some more. It also gives a really cool textured feel to the paper. The swirly star designs and the swirly color complement each other to create a dynamic looking galaxy background.

The cloud was made with a piece of cheese cloth - it is white in real life, but for some reason it is looking distressed here. I also added some Clipping Hearts which were leftovers from Friday's SSS Fun and Festive Blog Hop post.

Here's another lovely quote about stars. 

It is hard to capture the shine of the white glimmer cardstock, but perhaps you can see it a little bit here.

I rounded the outer corners and adhered it in my Small Creative Journal. My journals aren't chronological, but I date every page. Some pages work better as right hand or left-hand pages. When I work directly in my journals, I often choose the right-hand page, especially when the journal has started to become fuller, since that page usually lies flat, while the left-hand page doesn't. So these lose pages that are taped into the journal often end up on the left, but the galaxy worked better on the right.

For more inspiration on the Starry Night theme, check out my Embossed Cityscape tag from last week.

I hope you will join us this week in our Starry Night challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

Dimensional Laboratory Halloween Tutorial

Hi friends! We have had a warm autumn day today. I collected some odd bits and pieces from the garden and sketched them. There are still surprisingly many flowers. Today, I have a Halloween tutorial on the Sizzix blog, for a really fun technique which can be used for any theme.

I was happy to see that Sizzix carries a new cool surface, namely Thermoplastic Sheets. The sheet can be die-cut, dry embossed, stamped and colored. Best of all, they are heat-moldable and once cooled, keeps their shape perfectly. I thought they would be a great match with Tim Holtz new Laboratory dies, to form dimensional jars and vials. I had such fun making a spooky laboratory with vials of weird stuff on the shelves.

This project was originally a card, but my oldest liked it so much, that I turned it into a wall-hanger for his room instead. By simply cutting off the back piece of the card, mounting the laboratory on chipboard, and punching two holes at the top.

It was happy to use some old chemistry jars for the photo, which I bought in a second-hand shop a couple of years ago.

You can find all the steps and close-ups on the Sizzix blog.

Thank you so much for visiting here today!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.

SSS Fun and Festive Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am happy to join the blog hop to celebrate the release of the Simon Says Stamp Fun and Festive collection. This is the last stop on the hop, and you should have arrived here from Mindy Baxter, and I am sure you got beautiful inspiration there. Don't miss all the inspiration in the hop, and of course, there is a giveaway too.

Fun and Festive is a versatile collection with both Christmas and more generally themed products. You can see the full Fun & Festive release here. I also have a special code to share with you, if you use the code FEST587, you get a free Festive Stickles with your order. The offer is valid until Sunday, 10/14 at 11:59 pm ET.

I have two projects to share with you today, and both are tutorials. The techniques can be used on almost any type of project.

The cute Winter Scene stamp set made me want to make a little dimensional winter scene and I thought it was the perfect size for an altered tin. I hadn't done an altered tin in quite a while, and it is such a fun little format. It's an Altoids tin - I have a good friend in the US who sends me Altoids and I am saving the tins for projects. This tin can hang in a Christmas tree, or from a hook, or be tied to a gift. 

Here'a look at the front of the tin, which is also decorated.

These are the Fun & Festive products that I used for the altered tin: Snowflake Tags, Lined Circles stencil, and Winter Scene.

Start by stamping the background from the Winter Scene set on watercolor paper and use a torn paper as a mask to cover the hills when you stamp the mountains. The rest of the images were stamped elsewhere and later cut out. The background to the right ended up not perfectly stamped, so I just stamped images in the sky instead.

Use a masking pen to mask the stars, top of the mountain and areas on the snowy hills.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush. Watercolor the background.

When dry, rub off the masking fluid.

Paint the stars yellow and watercolor the rest of the images. I like to use stamping mistakes to test out colors, as you can see in the middle.

Add snow to the sky with a white gel pen and a little bit of White Opal Liquid Pearls on the mountains and the top of the hills.

Cut two pieces of Heavystock paper and round the corners. Apply embossing paste with a palette knife, through the Lined Circles stencil and leave to dry.

Paint with Distress Paint. Let dry.

Dry brush Blueprint Sketch and Picket Fence on the pieces to add texture and make the lines more visible.

Die cut the snowflake tags from watercolor paper. These are such fun designs. I especially like the one with the circle cut out.

Apply Distress Micro Glaze to the snowflakes to keep them white. Press Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and place the tags into the ink.

I painted the tin with gesso and then Gathered Twigs Distress Paint. Cut the background to size and round the corners, glue into the tin. I cut out the shapes with scissors, but it will be better to use the coordinated die set, especially since these shapes are small and detailed. The house, deer and one of the trees were adhered with foam tape.

To make the snow, I used embossing paste and covered it completely with Rock Candy Distress Glitter, which makes perfect snow.

Here's a closer look at the gel pen snow. You can also splatter acrylic paint.

Glue the two stenciled panels to the outside and inside of the lid. Inside the lid, I adhered one of the tags with foam tape, first stamping a sentiment on it.

The gumdrop heart was colored with alcohol ink.

One of the other tags were stamped with a sentiment and adhered on the front of the lid, using foam tape. I also added two leftover trees.

There is a Fluted Star in the center of the snowflake.

The edges of the tin were decorated with Design Tape. Add glue under the tape to make sure it sticks down well.

I glued a piece of cream paper and the third tag to the back of the tin. The tag then also functions as a hanger for the tin. All the sentiments are from the Winter Scene set.

My next project is a tag featuring the cute Big Picture Book Jack Russell die. It's a cute die and you can also turn it into other kinds of dogs. Our neighbors have a Jack Russell so she was my inspiration for this tag. It can also easily be turned into a card or perhaps an art journal page, and you can use the same techniques with all the Picture Book dies.

Start by die cutting the Jack Russell from watercolor paper.

Smear Distress Inks on a craft sheet, mist with water and pick up with a paint brush to watercolor the pieces. Leave some whites for highlights and texture.

I wanted a little more white in the eyes and on her nose and used a white gel pen for that. To prevent the black ink from covering the white areas, I applied Micro Glaze to the eyes and nose, before gluing them in place.

To make my Jack Russell come to life, I applied Glossy Accents to the eyes and nose.

For the background, I worked on a Heavystock tag which had already been inked with a mix of Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap. Apply Distress Oxide ink with a blending brush through the Lined Circles stencil. The combination of Distress Oxide and the brush makes for a very soft look.

Distress and ink the edges. Stamp randomly with the SSS Tiny Alphabet background stamp.

Give some shape to the ears and add a piece of foam tape under the lower part of the ear, so that it looks like the top part goes behind her head, and the lower part stands out a little. The hearts in the background was die cut with the Clippings Hearts die.

Here's a look at the eye coated with Glossy Accents. I love Glossy Accents.

I also added some Design Tape to the background, for a quick extra detail.

The sentiment was die cut with the Big Friend die from the Good Vibes collection, and accompanied with a Clippings Sticker.

Don't miss all the inspiration along the hop and of course there are prizes to be one too. On each stop of the hop a $25 gift voucher will be given to a random person who leaves a comment. The winners will be announced on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday. These are all the stops on today's hop:

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Debby Hughes

Yana Smakula

Yoonsun Hur

Amy Rysavy

Heather Ruwe

Lisa Addesa

Marge Yoon

Lea Lawson

Kristina Pokazanieva

Cheiron Brandon

Mindy Baxter

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here)

There was also a blog hop yesterday, so don't miss checking out the inspiration there. Did you know that Simon Says Stamp has special inspiration galleries for their releases? Here you can find the Fun & Festive gallery, and if you make something with products from the release, it is fun if you link it there.

Thank you so much for stopping by here today! I hope you will have a lovely weekend and that you will get some creative time.

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.