Mosaic Pen Holder Tutorial

Hi and welcome! It is a new week and my favourite part of the beginning of a week is that there is a new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Valentine's Day is coming and we have a Love is in the air + red theme for this week's challenge. 

I don't normally do a lot of Valentine's projects, and yesterday I posted an art journal tutorial showing how to use Valentine's dies for a different topic. Heart dies, for instance, are really useful year around and are one of my favourite shapes of dies. More than ten years ago, I did quite a  bit of decoupage and I still have wooden blanks left-over from that period. I found this pen holder and thought it would work great together with Ranger's Distress Mosaic Kit, which I have been wanting to try out. I took some step photos. You can do the technique on almost any surface. 

I started by painting my pen holder with white gesso, to cover up the wood. Then I applied a thin layer of the Distress Paper Mosaic Grout on all four sides, but leaving the wood uncovered here and there. The grout has a really cool gritty texture.

When the grout was dry, I made it a little less white by inking with Pumice Stone.

I used Sizzix Tim Holtz Mini Hearts and Stephanie Ackerman's Hearts #4. Die cut from masking paper, or you could just use printing paper.

Trace the hearts with a pencil. I used a watercolour pencil first, but it was a little too faint because it was grey, so instead I just grabbed the nearest pencil on my desk.

You can use patterned paper for the tiles, but I wanted to make my own papers instead. Three sheets of manila cardstock were coloured with Distress Paints. Apply paint to a craft sheet, mist with water and press the papers into the paint. Let dry.

The papers were stamped with Tim Holtz stamps, using both smaller detail stamps and background stamps. I used Red Geranium, Jet Black and Watering Can Archival Inks. It is important to use a waterproof ink, so that it doesn't run when you glaze the tiles later.

Each paper was stamped with a different set of stamps, so that they wouldn't look the same. This one is mainly Tiny Things.

And this is the pink paper, with, for example, Distressed Damask and an Ultimate Grunge background stamp.

Cut the papers into irregular tiles. I only used a small piece of each paper and will save the rest for later.

Arrange the pieces on the background. You might need to cut the tiles a little to make them fit nicely. I put mine a little too close together, especially for the heart. Glue down with Mosaic Glue and add a thin layer on top too. Let dry.

Now to the really cool step. Apply Distress Paper Mosaic Glaze on the tiles, working carefully. It is pretty thick stuff, so it doesn't run. Leave to dry completely before continuing. My pen holder took a bit of time since it had to dry before doing the other sides. The glaze seems to be similar to Glossy Accents, but a little thicker.

I drilled a hole in one of the sides and attached a Swivel Clasp with a piece of wire. The areas which weren't covered with grout were painted with grey and so was the inside of the box. I also dry-brushed some grey over the grout.

At this stage, Anton came into my room and very much wanted to have the pen holder for his pens, so he got to chose what to hang on the clasp. He picked an airplane.

And a shield with the word strong - after choosing between 'strong' and 'brave'.

He also picked a Heart Charm which says 'forget me not', so that 'every time I will see the pen holder, I will think of you'. Sweet.

I die cut words from grey Core'dinations paper and glued to each side of the box.

Here you can see what it looks like from the top. It is a good high pen holder. I have the same one, although an older one that I decopaged probably ten years ago, and keep my tall paint brushes in it.

I covered two of the sides basically completely. This one has a tall red heart and a smaller pink one.

I love that you can see little details and words here and there, almost like a puzzle which has been all scrambled up.

The tiles look really cool with the glaze surface. It is hard to quite catch the effect on a photo.

The two other sides have two or three hearts and more of the grout exposed.

Some of the pencil marks still show, but I was okay with that, since the pen holder is indeed meant for pencils. You can easily paint them over with white paint.

If you use smaller tiles, you can make even small shapes on your project. Don't worry too much about finding the perfect tile shapes, they are supposed to look uneven.

Here you can peek a cup, a watch, birds, an elephant, and lots of great words. I really like the look of these glossy tiles together with the rough grout.

A pen holder full of pens an pencils holds the potential for lots of adventures and discoveries. I am happy Anton wanted this, and he also needs a pen holder much more than I do at the moment, since his markers and pencils somehow end up everywhere.

I hope you will join us in our Love is in the air and red challenge. As always you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

If you want to, follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

If you use instagram add #sssmchallenge to your challenge entry uploads, so that we can see them on there too.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Tim Holtz Distress PAPER MOSAIC KIT	Tim Holtz TINY THINGS	Tim Holtz ULTIMATE GRUNGE	Tim Holtz URBAN CHIC	Tim Holtz STUFF TO SAY
Tim Holtz CURIOSITIES	Tim Holtz DISTRESS DAMASK	Tim Holtz GRAPH & CROC	Tim Holtz LIFE QUOTES	Tim Holtz DOCUMENTED
Tim Holtz PLAID & NORDIC	Tim Holtz MINI ORNATES	Tim Holtz SCHOOL DESK Stampers Anonymous	Sizzix Bigz HEARTS #4	Tim Holtz Sizzix MINI HEARTS
Tim Holtz Sizzix ADVENTURE WORDS	Ranger 8.5 X 11 MANILA CARDSTOCK	Simon Says Stamp MASKING PAPER Label Sheets	Tim Holtz Core'dinations DISTRESS ColorCore 12 x 12	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival RED GERANIUM
Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival WATERING CAN	Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PUMICE STONE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint ANTIQUE LINEN	Tim Holtz Distress Paint PUMICE STONE
Tim Holtz Distress Paint VICTORIAN VELVET Ranger TDD36494	Tim Holtz Distress Paint HICKORY SMOKE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint SPUN SUGAR	Tim Holtz Distress Paint CANDIED APPLE	Tim Holtz Distress Paint BARN DOOR
Tim Holtz Idea-ology SWIVEL CLASPS	Tim Holtz SOUVENIR Adornments	Tim Holtz Idea-ology 75 JUMP RINGS	Tim Holtz SHIELD CHARMS	Tim Holtz Idea-ology HEART CHARMS
Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER Ranger	Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White	Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS	Tim Holtz Tonic Craft SCISSORS	Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET
Tim Holtz Tonic CRAFT KNIFE	Tim Holtz Sizzix BASE TRAY

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