Altered Frame using Plaid Crackle Medium

Altered frame using Plaid Folk Art paints and crackle medium

A couple weekends ago, I had the privilege of making this altered photo frame for the birth mother of my 4-month old son, as she needed a gift to give to her mother for her birthday.  (You can read more about that story and our weekend here.)  I had been inspired by this frame by Tammy Tutterow, and got a few of my ideas from her.  I started out with a random $5 framed print from Big Lots, which was about 12" x 12" in size.  After the backing, print, and glass were removed, the frame was painted with a base coat of Pink Balloon Folk Art acrylic paint.  Once dry, a layer of Folk Art Crackle Medium was applied and left to dry overnight (it doesn't actually NEED to dry that long...it just happened to be midnight when this happened!).  The next day, I applied the final layer of Folk Art Titanium White acrylic paint, and immediately as the paint dried, the crackle effect took place - it was very cool!

A close-up of the frame so you can
see the crackle effect - the pink paint
peeks through the white

Then I put a coat of spray adhesive on the actual print from the frame (I used it as the base for my project), and laid on a piece of Warm & Natural batting that I had cut to size.  I laid the piece batting side-down on a larger piece of plain canvas, and on the back side of the print (which was a cross between cardboard and mat board), I applied Glue Ring adhesive by Glue Arts.  (Let me just say, I had never used this before - and it totally ROCKS!  It has major sticking power!!!!)  I pulled the four sides of the canvas around to the back of the print and stuck it down onto the adhesive, and it held perfectly.  Now I had a wonderful blank canvas to work with, and it had just a touch of poofiness under it due to the batting - just the look I was going for!

I had Shelia put on the Distress Inks...Victorian Velvet, Spun Sugar, and Antique Linen.  I showed her how to apply the ink, and using an ink applicator and blending tool, she applied ink all over the canvas, starting darker at the edges and getting lighter toward the center.  I also had her cover the grunge board flourish in Spun Sugar Distress Ink, followed by Spun Sugar Distress Stickles.

I took a piece of natural-colored lace, rubbed the Antique Linen Distress Ink pad over it, then spritzed the lace with water and crumpled it so the ink would disperse a bit.  I dried it with a heat gun, and adhered it to the back sides of the canvas piece using the same Glue Ring adhesive.  At this point, the canvas piece itself was ready to go into the frame; I put a bit of Craft Krazy Glue around the lip of the back side of the frame, and pressed down, then used my glue gun to go all the way around, sealing the edge between the canvas piece and the edge of the frame.  (This was a unique frame that had no pieces to hold the piece in; the print was originally stapled into the frame.)

Shelia had a nice picture of her mom, in front of an elephant, on her phone, so I had her email that to me, and I was able to print that from my computer.  I first added some Spun Sugar ink around the edges of the photo, then distressed the edges of the photo, and finally inked the edges with Walnut Stain ink.  To color the white paper doily, I rubbed the Victorian Velvet and a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink pads on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and laid the doily on top of it.  I picked it up and laid it down again, to absorb the ink colors, and once it was saturated, I dried it with my heat gun.  

I glued the doily to the canvas using Beacon Fast Finish Decoupage.  I added a glittered cardstock frame from my stash, using the same glue.  I added the grunge board flourish, adhering it with Beacon Fabri-Tac, and added the photo to the canvas with Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots.  

Next, I cut a rosette using the Tim Holtz Rosette Sizzix die, from a sheet of My Mind's Eye paper, assembled it, and inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I topped it with a glittered cardstock die cut from My Mind's Eye, and adhered it to the canvas with my hot glue gun.  I made a flower from crinoline using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix die, following Tammy Tutterow's tutorial here, and added a heart button to the center with hot glue.  I used the hot glue gun to adhere the flower to the canvas as well.

I finished the frame by adding an Artisan Element from Pink Paislee above the photo, which I inked a bit with Victorian Velvet and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  It was self adhesive.  Finally, I tied a piece of light pink organdy ribbon through an Idea-ology word key, heated the ribbon with a heat gun so it would crumple a bit and will not fray, and adhered it to the canvas with my hot glue gun. 

And that's it.  The project was finished - and Shelia loved it...and more importantly, per her report, her mom loved it too.  And THAT makes ME happy!!

Compendium of Curiosities #33 and Simon Says Stamp & Show

The challenge this week for the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Studio L3 is Altered Metal Using Alcohol Inks, and the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp & Show is to show some Stripes...so I created this 6x6 layout demonstrating BOTH.  (And it wasn't just a happy accident for once - this time it was actually intentional!!)  

While I can't give the details on how I did the actual metal technique, I can tell you what I did prior to altering the metal.  I had a plain sheet of aluminum, which I first embossed using the notebook texture fade - to get the "stripes" look. Then I die-cut it with the Tattered Florals die.  

There are stripes all over the place - on the metal, on the cardstock sticker strip, on the piece of patterned paper itself, on the little cardstock note...I love how subtle some of them are.

The stamp set I used on the layout is called "Art & Soul," by Unity Stamps.  It's designed by Marah Johnson, and IT IS GORGEOUS!!!!  I cannot say enough how unbelievably gorgeous it is!  Every stamp I used here is from the set - from the flourishes, to the bird and butterfly, to the quote.  I even stamped the bird in chalk ink on a sheet of PolyShrink and created the tiny bird charm you see - isn't it just adorable?!  I'll be doing a full review of Unity Stamps soon on Craft Test Dummies, so keep a look out for it!

Have a great week - and be sure to "nurture YOUR creative spirit"!!

CCC #18 - A Christmas Tag

This week's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge was the Paint Dabber resist technique.  I am also entering this in this weeks' Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, where the challenge was, "Anything but a Card!"  I think a tag will most definitely fit the bill!  I'm a bit over Halloween at this point (and it's not even here yet!), so I'm moving on to Christmas!  (At least for this week...we'll see what next week brings...who knows?!)  I love this reindeer stamp - and it's part of a stamp set I got for a whopping $2.00 at the Scrapbook Expo I went to yesterday!!  What a steal!

While I can't share the details of the technique I used as far as the dabber resist technique, I will share that the distress ink colors I used were Barn Red, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, and Vintage Photo.  My dabber color was white.  I also heat embossed around the edges of the entire card with Peeled Paint distress embossing powder.  

I finally got the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Sizzix dies - YAY!  I used what the ladies at Jo-Ann's insisted is crinoline (I wouldn't know the difference...except it doesn't really look like the crinoline Tammy Tutterow uses for her flowers...) to make the flower.  I combined several layers in different sizes.  I sprayed them with a combination of Glimmer Mists, homemade shimmer mists, and the top red one got painted with Glimmer Glam.  I then used Rock Candy Distress Stickles over several of the petals sort of randomly.  I used the Peeled Paint distress embossing powder on a black button and glued it in the center.  I inserted a memo pin (love those), and attached an adage ticket, which I had inked lightly around the edges with some Barn Red distress ink.

I also added a couple pieces of Tim Holtz's Tidings tissue tape to a couple corners of the tag, and used my finger to apply some distress ink to the tape.  I do so love how the white of the stamp stands out against the inks!!!  Here's yet another pic of the stamped reindeer, as well as the tissue tape.

Someone reminded me that Christmas is just 2 months away!  Have you started to prepare your handmade gifts?