Summer Burlap Panel Tutorial

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. This week we are all about summer and sunshine at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog.

 

I had so much fun dressing up a Tim Holtz 6 x 8 Burlap Panel into a piece remembering beautiful childhood summers. So much fun, that I took step-by-step photos to show you how I made this:

A large part of our summers as children were spent at the sea or at one of the many lakes in the vicinity. I really like this photo of my sister and me taken at a lake, depicting summer. I wanted to keep the great burlap texture of the panel and not cover it up with papers, but I still wanted more patterns and decided to play around with a transfer technique. The flower patterned paper was transferred to the panel, and since transfers are to some degree transparent, you can still see and feel the texture of the burlap. I was really happy with how it turned out.

Start with covering a part of the panel with gesso, I painted it where I planned to do the transfer, but also lightly over most of the panel. The part where the transfer would go was painted with three layers of gesso, letting it dry in between. Transfers are transparent, especially where the colour is light. White areas will be completely transparent. If I didn't first apply the gesso, the transfer would look very dark.

Tear the edges of a piece of patterned paper. The torn edges make the transfer blend better into the panel. Apply a medium layer of matte multi-medium where the transfer will go. Place patterned paper with the print down and burnish thoroughly with a bone folder. I used matte medium instead of glossy, since any medium ending up outside the transfer will hardly show at all. 

 

Leave to dry completely. Then mist the back of the paper with water and start rubbing the paper away with you finger. Apply more water as you go along. You might need to let it dry once to check if there are any white pieces of paper left, if there is, mist again and rub off.

 

Here's the result, the tiny flowers on the patterned paper have been transferred to the panel. Pretty cool. You can still see and feel the texture of the burlap.

 

I dry-brushed Broken China here and there because I wanted some blue on the background. 

 

I wanted even more texture on my panel and applied Wendy Vecchi's white embossing paste through her Never Enough Hearts stencil, with a palette knife. Leave to dry.

 

When the hearts were dry, I painted them with Barn Door and Fired Brick Distress Paint and when the paint was dry, a little bit of Antique Linen was dry-brushed on top.

 

I wanted a flowering tree branch and die cut a lot of small flowers from Neenah cardstock, using the Tattered Flower Garland die. They were inked lightly around the edges with Tattered Rose distress ink. I used my Susan's Garden tool kit to shape them, which is so easy. Love this tool kit.

 

I layered the flowers together with a brad in the centre and grabbed the legs of the brad with tweezers and dipped the flowers into UTEE. The UTEE was melted in my melting pot. Be careful, it is very hot. Hold them for a little while with the tweezers before placing the flowers to cool down on your craft sheet. Love this faux porcelain look. I tried to take a photo of the dipping process, but my camera is hard to manoeuvre with my left hand only so it got blurry.

 

To make the branches, I covered Wendy Vecchi white modeling film with natural sticky-back canvas and die cut with the Branch Tree. The branches were inked with Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain. I heated the branches with my heat gun and shaped them. The film keeps its shape perfectly.

 

The leaves were die cut with the Tattered Flower Garland, from Core'dinations Distress cardstock (Bundled Sage). I veined and shaped them with the Susan's Garden tools and inked the edges.

 

Another piece of white modeling film was covered with natural sticky-back canvas and I die cut butterflies from it. The butterflies were embossed in a ruler folder, placing numbers in the centre. I ended up only using one of these.

 

The butterfly was inked with Barn Door and Aged Mahogany distress ink. It was heated with my heat gun and the wings were shaped.

 

The ornate plate was painted with Broken China, Bundled Sage and Barn Door Distress Paint. When dry, I sanded it lightly. The brads were painted with Broken China too.

 

The compass was painted with Broken China and Bundled Sage, and when the paint was dry, I burnished the paint away from the raised areas.  

 

At the side of the canvas, I hang a Word Stick and Philosophy Tag, also painted. I used a screw eye to hang them from a swivel clasp. First I placed this underneath the canvas, which is why you don't see it on the first photo of the post. Later, I changed my mind and moved it to the side.

 

On this photo, you can see the metallic pieces hanging to the left of the panel. The ruler ribbon was painted with Antique Linen and inked with Gathered Twigs. I also used a word band, with paint rubbed into it.

Join us this week in our summer and sunshine challenge and you can be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp.

Thank you for looking!!

Happy summer crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology District Market: Burlap Panel Bare 6 x 8; Core'dinations Tim Holtz Distress Color-Core cardstock; Claudine Hellmuth Natural Sticky-Back Canvas; Wendy Vecchi Clearly For Art Whiteout Modeling Film; BasicGrey: True Love 6 x 6; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Dies: Sizzix: Tattered Flower Garland, Branch Tree, Mini Butterflies
Embossing folder: Sizzix: Bottle Caps & Rulers
Stamps: Hero Arts: Basic Lowercase Letters
Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Barn Door, Aged Mahogany, Tattered Rose, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain; Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black
Paint: Distress Paint: Broken China, Barn Door, Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Bundled Sage
Embossing powder: Ranger Clear UTEE
Medium: Claudine Hellmuth Multi-Medium Matte, Gesso; Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste
Stencil: Wendy Vecchi Stampers Anonymous: Never Enough Hearts
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Word Bands, Ornate Plates, Chit Chat stickers, Ruler Ribbon, Compass Coins, Long Fasteners, Swivel Clasps, Philosophy Tags, Word Sticks, Screw Eyes; Studio Calico: Tiny Hearts
Tools: Sizzix Big Shot, Susan's Garden Tool Kit; Ranger Melting Pot