Grungy Time Tutorial

Hi friends and welcome to my blog this Monday! It's the last day of April and this month went past so fast. Today we are celebrating Walpurgis Night in Sweden and we will go and look at a bonfire.

This week we have a Time Out (time related) challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog, and it is the last week for our April guest designer Paula Roomer aka PaNaRoo.

I was inspired by this Tim Holtz sentiment stamp about time, which is a favorite of mine. The page is done in my Dina Wakley Media Journal, on one of the kraft pages. I aimed for a grungy look this week, and there are lots of different clocks on the page.

I had already added the stenciled dots on this page, when I wanted to use up leftover paste a while ago. The paste was colored with Dina's metallic Medieval paint. I stamped various clock stamps here and there.

The clocks were inked with Distress Inks.

The background was stamped here and there with a script stamp.

I wanted touches of red on the background and stamped red paint, with the lid of the paint bottle.

Black paint was splattered on the page. I also added some dry brushed silver paint.

Foil tape was adhered to cardstock and dry embossed. I was planning to have used another embossing folder, namely the Pocket Watches, but couldn't find it, even though I looked for a long time. It will fit the theme even better than this one.

Paint with Black Soot.

When the paint is almost dry, remove most of it with a paper towel.

I dabbed on some Cracked Pistachio and Mermaid Lagoon paint. Wipe some of it off, if you want to.

The Sizzix Weathered Clock was die cut from Heavystock paper.

I painted the clock red and the arms silver.

It was distressed with some stamping, using a calendar stamp, and black and brown paint.

Finally I added a touch of silver with the Brushed Pewter Distress Crayon.

The title was die cut with the Storybook die from paper I found in my scrap box.

The sentiment was stamped on a piece of patterned paper, turned into a tag with the Angle Corner Chomper tool.

The metallic panel was layered on top of an old book page, with an interesting sentence at the top of the page. There is also some Design Tape.

I scribbled around the edges with the metallic Distress Crayon. It looks nice on the dark background.

The Paper Doll girl was colored with Distress Markers.

I always liked the look of dry embossed foil tape since it gives such cool texture.

I also added some Small Talk stickers, which fit with the them.

I hope you will join us this week in our Time Out 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 for taking the time to stop by 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.

Flower Power Tag Tutorial

Hi friends! We had a lovely weekend here with beautiful weather. I went to an antique and vintage market and had a great time. We also had time for soccer, a bike ride, a walk, and trips to the play ground. I hope your weekend was good too.

This week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Flower Power theme. Flowers are one of my favorite things to include in projects, almost any time of the year. I am looking forward to seeing all the creations for this challenge. Don't miss the gorgeous project by our April guest designer Paula Roomer aka PaNaRoo.

I made a tag filled with colorful flowers and enjoyed combining flowers in different shapes, colors, and patters. For the flowers, I only used scrap papers from my colorful scrap folder. I have one folder for neutral scrap papers, one for papers that I have colored with various mediums, one for colored cardstock and one for patterned paper scraps. It was the second of these folders that I dug into this week.

I used Tim Holtz Funky Floral 1 and Funky Floral 2 to die cut all the shapes. The papers are a mix of watercolored, stamped, Distress Inked, and acrylic paint scraps. I picked a variety of colors and patterns and die cut lots of flowers and leaves.

Here you can see the two die sets, Funky Floral 1 and Funky Floral 2. There is so much potential in these sets and such a variety of flowers, leaves and stems. You don't need to assemble the flowers as they are in the example on the packaging, instead you can make up you own combinations.

I used the Tonic Craft set to give the flowers some shape and dimension and then layered and glued them together. Don't they look happy?

For the background, I coated a tag with gesso and when dry added some white Texture Paste at the bottom.

When the paste was dry, I painted the tag with Distress Paints and misted heavily with water.

After it dried, the background was stamped with the script stamp from Tim's Entomology set. Later, I also dry brushed the tag with Ground Espresso and Black Soot paint.

The flowers were layered on the tag, tucking leaves and branches in among them. The crinkle ribbon was dyed with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink.

I used label letters for my title, and Small Talk stickers for my sentiments.

If you look closely at the flowers, you'll see that there is a big mix of colors and patterns. I also really like the tiny blue flowers.

If you have colored backgrounds that didn't turn out as planned, this is a perfect use for them. The Distress Ink reinker background that this flower is die cut from, wasn't a favorite of mine, but as a flower, it looks really nice.

Tuck some of the flowers in among the grass, to give the tag even more dimension.

Here's a better look at the texture paste ground. The dry brushing makes a big difference.

And a look of the happy flowers from the side. This tag is now hanging on my idea-ology Clip Carousel, which is pretty full and always makes me happy to look at. There is a photo of it in this Mixed Media Envelopes post, but it is much fuller now.

I hope you will join us this week in our Flower Power 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 for taking the time to stop by 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.

Guestbook Tutorial

Hi friends! During April, the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team has an Spring Showers theme, with party and baby shower related projects. I always liked the concept of a guestbook at parties and events, since it is a great memory keeping document, with words and signatures of friends and family. I made a guestbook for this project, but the book can also be used for many other things too (just change the title).

A guestbook can be made for a specific event, such as a wedding, or as a more general guestbook that is brought out after all parties and happenings. My book is of the second kind, but you can easily customize it to fit a specific occasion instead. The book can be turned into an ordinary journal or sketchbook too. The base is Eileen's Sizzix Journal Die, which creates a book in just the right size (8.75 x 4.5 in). The cover was inspired by one of my recent art journaling pages, since I thought the big Simon Says Stamp Brushed Branches tree stamp would look great on my guestbook.

Start by die cutting two Journal covers from cream mat board. You need the Extended Cutting Pads, but the die fits perfectly through the normal Big Shot or Vagabond. I also die cut two covers from Dina Wakley's Cotton Watercolor paper. It is the same watercolor paper that you find in her Media Journal, and I am happy that you can get it as loose sheets too now. It gives a great feel to the cover too.

You might have spotted that the background is pretty similar to the Doodled Wildflower Garden project I posted yesterday. I've had fun making backgrounds with Paper Arty Infusions lately and they were already on my desk, so I decided to use them again. Mist with water, sprinkle a little bit of Infusions on top (I have poked a hole in the lids) and mist more water to make them blend. If you want less brown, dab with a paper towel to remove some of the walnut ink crystals. I especially did this in the center of the page, where I planned the tree to be.

Ink the Brushed Branches tree with Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and a little bit of Peeled Paint and Forest Moss. I added some extra details with Distress Markers in the two darker shades. Mist with water and stamp on the background. The tree stamp is large and I used a Sizzix Cutting Pad as my stamping block.

When the tree was dry, I added more details by smearing Distress Inks on a craft sheet, misting with water and using it as watercolor paint. Grass, branches and shadows on the tree were added with Distress Markers. Some of these marks were left as they were, others were turned into watercolor with a paint brush loaded with water.

Die cut the small flowers from Eileen's Bookmark, Tag & Pocket set, from left-over cotton-rag watercolor paper. Smear Mermaid Lagoon on a craft sheet, mist with water and press the flowers into the ink. The label is from the Bookplate, Hinges & Label set and was also die cut from left over paper and colored with Golden Sands Infusions.

I stamped Tim Holtz birds in the sky, misting with water before stamping.

For the inside I used a mix of white, cream, kraft and patterned paper. Most of the patterned papers are by Prima, but any neutral-looking paper will work well. Cut 8.25 x 8.25 in (21 x 21 cm) squares and round the corners. Fold and place into signatures of about six papers (depending on the thickness of your papers). Stitch down the spine to secure the papers together.

I made three signatures.

Glue the watercolor paper to the covers. Before placing them under a heavy book, or in my case, under Sizzix XL dies, fold along the score line slightly. This conditions the watercolor paper so that it won't tear when the glue is dry and it is folded all the way. I only did this on the front, and the back tore slightly. Assemble an elastic cord according to the instructions on the packaging of the die and tie it through a button to secure.

The signatures are slipped under the elastics and held in place.

I tied the elastic so that it also forms a closure for the book. Glue the flowers and the label to the cover.

Here's a look at the back cover. You can stamp and add decorations to it too, but I decided to keep it plain.

The Infusions form an interesting background, without overwhelming the stamping.

My tree is a spring tree, with light green leaves, which I hope will soon be the case out in nature too.

The label was stamped with alphabet stamps. You can also use stickers or rub-ons, or add a quote instead.

Glue the blue flowers here and there in the foreground.

Tuck the signatures in behind the elastics and your guestbook is done.

I placed the papers so that there is a mix of neutral patterned papers and cream, white and kraft papers. You can of course also only use white or cream papers.

The guestbook has a nice chunky feel to it and the cotton watercolor paper almost feels like fabric. You can easily alter this book to turn it into any theme and it is great as a gift too.

Thank you so much for visiting here today! Don't miss checking out all the Spring Shower projects by the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team this month.

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.