Reach For The Stars...

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is called, TOUCHY FEELY and we hope you will join us for this fun challenge and show us how you interpret the theme!

For my project, I created a panel which will be perfect for Father's Day and included so many elements of 'touchy feely', that I just wish you could all just reach into the screen and touch! As many of my friends will know, I do love creating my own backgrounds and textures but this week, I wanted to use and show different ways to create the texture and dimension without getting painty or inky and as the main "touchy feely" part of this project, I've included a metallic panel which is actually created using kitchen aluminium foil and then embossed. It really does give such a wonderful effect and makes a fabulous background for my panel. So, it's time for a new challenge and hope you enjoy the project I've created....

 

To begin with, we'll start with the metallic panel and for this, as I've already mentioned, I used aluminium foil. I cut a piece of regular card, 6" x 4" and then cut a piece of foil, slightly larger than the card and attached my foil to the card panel using collage medium. Ensure that the foil has no bubbles by rolling a brayer over the top. Allow the foil to dry completely, maybe batch make and allow to dry overnight and then, once it is dry, you can emboss it. I chose the Tiny Stars Texture Fade and embossed it though my Big Shot. For the gorgeous rusty colour, I then applied some Black Soot Distress Paint, allowed the paint to go slightly tacky and then wiped away the excess with a dry cloth.  Give it a blast of gentle heat (don't heat it too much as the foil will lift) to ensure the paint is dry and then add some Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint over the top, again allowing it to almost dry before wiping away some of the wet paint. When the panel is thoroughly dry, sand over the top of the painted surface to reveal some of the silver underneath and then I used Black Soot and Vintage Photo Distress Crayons and just ran them over the surface before blending the colour out with my fingers. The crayon just gave that extra layer of rust and depth and accentuated the stars beautifully!

Matt the embossed panel onto a layer of paper from the Dapper Paper Stash, followed by a piece of burlap from the Textured Surfaces pack.

Now to create the larger background panel and for this, I cut a piece of the plaid background paper from the Dapper paper stash, 18 x 16 cm and machine stitched around the outside before scratching the surface very lightly to create a more worn, distressed feel to the paper. I then matted the paper panel onto a piece of thick chipboard for stability before cutting a further patterned paper from the stash, the stripes, again machine stitching the edges and mounting onto corrugated card which I attached across the centre of the background.

I took one of the Collector's Layers ephemera pieces and some snippets, attached them with collage medium to my embossed background and then, added a Paper Doll.

I have always loved this image of the dapper gentleman and gave him a light wash of colour using Distress Marker pens but there was one thing missing ~ no distinguished gentleman would have gone anywhere without his walking stick and for this, I used a BBQ skewer. I cut the skewer down to size and then coloured it with Walnut Stain and Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint before attaching reuniting my gentleman with his walking stick.

I added a metal gadget gears coloured with Rust and Gold Mixative alcohol inks behind him and also added a snippet piece, crinkled for an aged look.

I distressed the "Original" quote chip using Vintage Collage Medium and then applied inked the edges before attaching it to the side of my panel....

...then added some finishing pieces of a broken ruler, a star adornment coloured with Gold Rush and Steampunk Copper Alchemy paints and a mechanical knob.

As the finishing touch, I added a monocle, coloured with Prima Alchemy waxes and attached to a swivel clasp. I also added some Mushroom alcohol ink to the glass to give an antiqued feel.

I attached the swivel clasp to a hinge clip and clipped it to the side of my panel to hang freely.

Finally, I added some corners to the panel which I had in my stash.

I really hope you love this project and it's inspired you with some last minute Father's Day makes and you've enjoyed the techniques I've used and how I've created dimensions and texture using various papers and card, stitching, fabric and embellishments.

As always, if you do need any further inspiration, then you need look no further than our blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the 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 and good luck....

Thank you so much for stopping by today and see you again very soon!

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Texture Fade: Tiny Stars

Distress Paints: Black Soot, Antiqued Bronze
Distress Crayons: Set 3
Tim Holtz idea-ology: Star Adornments, Ruler Pieces Findings, Quote Chips, Paper Dolls, Snippets, Collector's Layers, Gadget Gears Findings, Monocles, Swivel Clasp, Hinge Clip, Index clips
Mediums: Collage Medium, Vintage Collage Medium, Mushroom Alcohol Ink, Rust Alcohol Ink, Gold Mixative Alcohol Ink
Prima Marketing Waxes: Rich Copper, Aged Brass, Red Amber
Prima Marketing Acrylic Paints: Gold Rush, Steampunk Copper 
Prima Marketing Products: Mechanical Knobs
Surfaces: Textured Surfaces, Dapper Paper stash

Ranger Craft Sheet

Heat Gun
Distressing Tool
BBQ Skewer and metal corners from my own stash