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Monday, October 15, 2012

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 powder: Ranger Clear UTEE, Platinum UTEE, Red UTEE
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

21 comments:

  1. I can't even tell you how much I *LOVE* this project!! I love all you do - but WOW. This blew me away. Extra awesome is how clearly you shared your how-to so I'm now inspired to try my own! Thank you for sharing

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  2. Wowza, this looks great! Thanks for the inspiration and the detailed informations!
    Edith

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  3. Anna-Karin...I love this piece! Your step by step instructions are fabulous! I love the layers of UTEE; clear and colored. I love all of the stamped images and then how you finished out this lovely frame. It's really a work of art! <3 Candy

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  4. Well the frame is just wow and then you added the eye hooks with the charms and the bottles and this is just fabulous! Love the embossing with the touches of gold. The charms are wonderful and the main image really pops!

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  5. Anna-Karin your frame is gorgeous, love the step by steps. The UTEE is a favourite of mine too, adds so much texture and interest to your frame. Love the focal image and the added bottles and embellishments too. Tracy x x

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  6. UTEE at its' best!!!! The frame is absolutely fabulous! To be honest: the whole project is sooo awesomely inspired artwork!!!

    Amazingly beautiful!!!!!

    Hugs,
    die amelie xx

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  7. Amazing frame Anna-Karin! Love that technique of stamping into UTEE, never tried it, but now I definitely will! And you've painted it beautifully! Stunning piece! Hugs, Sandra

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  8. Ek hou ook baie van die eindproduk! Dankie vir die inspirasie!

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  9. It's really simple to say: I love your frame!! (:o) Cool colours and your stamping technique looks fabulous.
    Elly

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  10. This is an Awesome piece! You did a great job with this frame. Thanks for sharing your piece.

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  11. The texture from the layers of Utee and stamping are amazing, love the depth of colour too, fab project Anna-Karin.

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  12. What beautiful work! thanks for the tutorials!

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  13. WOW - this is SOOO stunning!

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  14. what a great creation have you made.
    and I love to see how it is done.
    great!!
    greetings

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  15. Sensational work, Anna-Karin! What an amazing project ... the technique of the UTEE stamping looks just fabulous - and thank you so much for the detailed step-by-step instructions (I may be brave enough to try so thank you for the inspiration!). The finished piece is so full of wonderful details - brilliant!
    Alison x

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  16. Stunning frame, Anna-Karin! I love the detailing you put into it and the pretty pops of color!

    *mwah*
    Steph
    Simon Says Stamp!

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  17. Anna-Karin this is truly stunning. Thank-you so much for super tutorial. Such a beautiful piece. Nicola x

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  18. This is wonderful and you have inspired me to have a go at this technique. I love the way you have aged to UTEE with black paint and the perfect pearls shimmer is gorgeous. Perfect image to go in the frame too. Just brilliant. Maddy x

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  19. Love it! What a neat idea for the Utee. And, I always love steampu k!

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  20. AWESOME! Thanks so much for the tutorial!

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment! Happy Crafting!