Happiness Blooms From Within...

Hello again everyone...

I hope you're all doing ok and having a great week! Today, it's time for me to start sharing some of my Creativation 2019 projects that I created for Tim Holtz and I'm going to kick it all off with my Sizzix projects. Now many of you will have seen Paula and Tim show you around this amazing booth  (if you didn't, then don't worry because you can see Tim's recap over on his blog by clicking HERE) and since the walkabout I've received so many lovely messages about the projects I made for the stand and just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to contact me, I really do appreciate it.

So, let's get started and the first project I've chosen to share with you all, is my Potting Shed Tag. I always love creating dimension with Tim's flower dies, making them spring into life in a 3D form is something I've done for a long time, probably since day one of crafting as I personally like to make them look as realistic as possible. I also love to have height and layers on my projects, again something I've done since the very early days...so, on this project I've married the two ideas together to make my flower pot, which is packed full with a floral bouquet.

To begin with I took a mini Etcetera tag and began by creating the background and for this I used the beautiful Adorned die which is part of the Chapter 2 release from Sizzix, coming soon.

Using all the dies from the Adorned set, I cut the beautiful flourishes from Mixed Media Heavystock card before taking each of the die cuts and placing them onto the tag, arranging them so that sections of each flourish were concentrated around the bottom and right hand side of the tag. Once I was happy with the layout, I adhered them into place with Matte Collage Medium. At this stage, it won't look pretty because you will have parts of the die cuts overhanging the edges of the tag but just snip these away and once the medium is dry, just use a sanding tool or sandpaper to remove any rough edges.

Now that we have the die cuts in place, I then primed the surface of the tag with a coat of gesso and once the paint was dry, I then started to add some colour ~ using Weathered Wood Distress paint as my base, I applied the paint over the tag and once again allowed it to dry. You do need to dry each paint layer before adding the next to avoid the paint going muddy in appearance. When the first paint layer is dry, I then dry brushed the tag with Frayed Burlap, just catching the surface of the tag before drying it again. As a final layer of paint, I took a clean brush and once again dry brushed the surface but this time used Picket Fence and this time I concentrated particularly on the raised areas where I applied the die cuts, so the white would accentuate these areas.

As a final touch to the background and to add more detail and layers, I stamped some text onto random areas of the tag, using the Script stamp from the Entomology stamp set which I inked with Jet Black Archival Ink. I always give the stamping a quick blast of heat to set it, so that it won't smudge and then, I applied Ranger Crackle Paste by scraping it directly onto the tag, using a palette knife to apply it and allowing it to dry and crackle. I didn't want to apply colour to the paste, I wanted to keep it white for this particular tag ~ so once it's dry, you can move on and as a finishing touch, I added some torn pieces of Design Tape, taken from the Remnants set and just placed these pieces in the top left hand corner and the bottom right hand corner of the tag. Finally, I used the Pumice Stone Distress Crayon and ran it around the edge, blending out the colour with a semi dry baby wipe and attached the hole reinforcer piece, which I had painted with a combination of Walnut Stain and Black Soot Distress Paint to create the look of wood. As a finishing touch I dabbed Antiqued Bronze paint over the top to create more of a distressed feel.

So we now have the background and can move onto the flowers and started by die cutting my flowers, using the Large Funky Floral Die set.

I coloured two separate pieces of card and kept a third piece natural to make my two different flower heads ~ one piece of card was spritzed and coloured with Shaded Lilac and a touch of Milled Lavender and the second coloured with Fossilized Amber and Mustard Seed. After drying the card, I then cut my flower heads ~ each one of these beauties has two layers ~ the purple flowers are cut from just the purple card but the bottom layer is inked around the edges with Dusty Concord DI. After shaping each of the flowers, I layered the section with the holes in, over the top of the solid part and attached them with a dab of glue in the centre. I then added a Bauble Adornment coloured with a mix of Mushroom and Silver Mixative Alcohol ink to each of the centres. You will need three of these flowers.

For the second flower, I used the yellow coloured card to die cut the solid section and the centre pieces and then cut the patterned pieces and the stamen pieces from the uncoloured card. I inked the edges of the top layer with Antique Linen DI and inked the stamen pieces with Shabby Shutters before shaping and layering the sections together. You will need two of these flowers.

The leaves are all cut from card, a combination of two textures ~ the first is Mixed Media Heavystock spritzed with Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters and the second is Classic Kraft Stash. I just love to see the rough and the smooth of this card layered together. Once the leaves have been layered and the twigs were cut it's time to make my pot.

This is created using the Potted die from the Chapter 2 release and made up by die cutting a piece of chipboard as a base and then cutting a second base from a piece of Woodgrain Cardstock. To obtain the gorgeous wood colour on the card, I used Distress Paints and added Walnut Stain directly onto the surface and spritzed it with a mist of water. Take a dry paintbrush and just brush the colour across the embossed texture of the card before dabbing away any excess paint with a paper towel. I then cut my Potted wooden base into six vertical sections to create the look of planks and then using Matte Collage Medium, I attached each of these sections onto the chipboard base. Apply a coat of the medium over the top and then I used the Black Soot Distress Crayon to accentuate the edges of the planks, blending out the colour with my finger and a semi dry baby wipe.

For the metal straps that run across the pot, I used silver metallic kraftstock card and after giving them a light sanding, I then inked each of the pieces with Rust and Pitch Black Alcohol Ink. I attached the straps to the pot and added small Hex Fasteners to the holes, rusting them up with a combination of Rusty Hinge Distress paint and the Black Soot Crayon.

I now had all my pieces ready to assemble and attached my pot using foam pads to give some height and then layered the flowers, foliage and twigs to cascade out of the pot. I also added some real twigs and Spanish Moss to the arrangement. As the finishing touch I popped a 15¢ Ephemera piece onto a Memo Pin and stuck this into the floral bouquet and also placed a small tag complete with the words 'Special Delivery' which I just tucked underneath the flowers.

I also added two Hex Fasteners in the top right hand corner, which once again I altered with Distress Paint and Crayons so they continued with the rusty look.

So, that completes this project and I hope you've enjoyed the creative process behind it ~ it's such a fun piece to make and I love how you can mix and match the dies from Chapter One and Two, they're a match made in heaven and just work so well together.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Large Funky Florals, Chapter 2 dies coming soon ~ Potted and Adorned
Entomology Stamp Set

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Picket Fence, Weathered Wood, Walnut Stain, Frayed Burlap, Rusty Hinge
Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters
Distress Crayon: Black Soot, Pumice Stone
Distress Spray Stain: Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac, Fossilized Amber and Mustard Seed

Idea-ology: Memo Pin, Hex Fasteners, Bauble Findings, 

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Crackle Texture Paste
Alcohol Inks: Rust, Pitch Black, Silver Mixative

Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock Card, Classic Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash, Mini Etcetera Tag, Distress Woodgrain Card

Heat Gun
Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool
Palette Knife
Paint Brushes

Spanish Moss, chipboard and twigs from my own stash