Your Favourite: UTEE frame

Hi everyone! This week we have a pretty broad challenge on Simon Says Stamp and Show, 'your favourite' - so show us your favourite technique, theme, stamp, product or anything you can think of. I stumbled upon an old blank wooden frame, that I got years ago, and decided to alter it:

I used one of my favourite techniques, building up layers of UTEE, adding other embossing powders and then stamping into the hot UTEE. The lovely lady from the Stamper's Anonymous Classics #5 set fit perfectly inside the frame. Here's how I did this:

This is the plain frame, I don't even remember what I was planning with it with I bought it.

I painted the frame cream, just to give a base for the UTEE. Later I painted it black around the edges.

I used the new Ranger Emboss It Dabber to apply embossing ink to the entire frame and sprinkled it with clear UTEE. Because of the size of the frame, I worked on one side at a time, building up layers of UTEE. You don't need to reapply embossing ink, just sprinkle another layer of powder into the melted UTEE, and if it cools too much, just reheat. Be careful since it gets very hot, don't touch the UTEE at all. I built up 4 or 5 layers of clear UTEE. Although it might be possible to do this with ordinary clear embossing powder, you would end up using very much powder, UTEE works much better.

Next step is to start adding coloured embossing powders. I used red and platinum UTEE for this, but you could use any type of embossing powder, since the layers of clear UTEE are there, a thinner powder can be used at the top. Still working one side at a time, sprinkle red embossing powder on the frame, not covering it completely. Add platinum powder here and there - or use other colours all together.

I wanted a clock stamped into the UTEE at the top, and started with that. Ink the stamp with embossing ink, which makes it easier to lift it from the UTEE. Reheat the area you want to stamp into, wait about 2 seconds, so that the UTEE has time to set just a little bit, then press the stamp into the UTEE. Wait a little bit until the UTEE has cooled and carefully remove the stamp.

Continue all around the frame with a stamp of your choice, I used this great art text stamp from the Stamper's Anonymous Classics #4 set, and made sure to get nice impressions of the word 'art' on several places. If you are not happy with an impression, simply reheat and stamp again.

After the UTEE has cooled down completely, paint black paint over half of the frame.

Wipe most of it off, leaving paint in the stamped sections, making the stamping stand out. Leave just a little bit of black paint here and there all over the frame, for a distressed look. If you compare to the previous photo, you can see that it toned down the bright red. Continue on the other half of the frame. I decided to also paint the edges black.

Now to the final step. Mix Biscotti Perfect Pearls into a bit of Perfect Paper Adhesive and paint this on the frame with a paint brush. This gives a lovely shine and also adds a protective layer. You can let the mix be thicker in some areas, so that the shimmer varies a bit. I smeared the Perfect Pearls on the black edges around the frame too. Loved the result!

All the metal pieces were distressed with Ranger's new Vintaj patina inks (Weathered Copper), and sanded with a reliefing block. I attached them with Screw Eyes, which worked perfectly since it is hard to glue metal to melted UTEE. The clock got a gear and of course some game spinners.

Here you can see the impression of the word 'art' better.

I placed a fresh water pearl and two gold seed beads on a head pin and hung them from the screw eyes with a jump ring.

The frame is relatively deep, forming a little shelf, perfect for two corked vials. I distressed them just a little bit with alcohol inks and filled the tall one with turquoise glitter and gold seed beads and the short one with black mica flakes and gold glitter. The word strips comes from the long sentiment stamp on the Stuff to Say set, which has many small words perfect for these types of embellishments.

The piece of the left is a word stick which was aged with the patina inks. The piece to the right is a Vintaj blank, which I placed into an etching folder (Forgotten Times), picking a spot that had a clock. It was painted with the patina ink and then sanded with the Vintaj reliefing block. I used screw eyes and jump rings to hang these under the frame.

The left hand piece is a facet, and I did a tape transfer, using a piece of pattered paper and backing it with aluminum tape (see Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities II, page 55 for this technique). The right hand piece is a Philosophy Tag also aged with the patina inks.

The lady was stamped on Specialty Stamping paper with Archival Jet Black Ink and then softly coloured with Distress Inks; Antique Linen and Tattered Rose for the skin areas, Tumbled Glass for a touch of colour to her eyes, and Victorian Velvet and Barn Door for the lips. I inked the surrounding cardstock softly with Antique Linen and used a cut out word from the stamp used for the frame as my title.

I hope you will join us this week and share your favourites with us. Simon Says Stamp, as always, gives a $50 gift voucher to one lucky participant.

Thank you so much for looking!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Classics #5, Classics #4, Going Somewhere, Stuff to Say

Embossing folder: Sizzix Vintaj DecoEtch Forgotten Times

Embossing powder: Ranger Clear UTEE, Platinum UTEE, Red UTEE

Ink: Distress Ink: Tumbled Glass, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, Barn Door; Ranger Vintaj Weathered Copper, Ranger Clear Emboss It Dabber; Archival Ink Jet Black

Paint: Adirondack Pitch Black dabber

Perfect Pearls: Ranger Biscotti Perfect Pearls
Mica: Stampendous Tarnished Mica Fragments

Embellishments: Vintaj Blank Small Circle; Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Facets, Game Spinners, Word Sticks, Philosophy Tags, Mini Gears, Corked Vials, Screw Eyes; pearls and seed beads, glitter

Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Lost & Found patterned paper; Ranger Specialty Stamping paper; wooden blank frame

Adhesive: US ArtQuest Perfect Paper Adhesive Gloss

Tools: Vintaj Reliefing Block