With Brave Wings She Flies...

Hello friends!

Hope you are all safe and well amid the chaos that is currently engulfing the world. When we experience times like these, then there's nothing better than trying to escape it all and settle down to what a lot of us love best ~ creativity and art and today, the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge has begun and this week our theme is called, Stencil Fun and we hope you'll find some time to craft along with us!

For my project, I chose to use the gorgeous Tim Holtz Bouquet Layering Stencil to create a background panel for my Scribbly Butterflies to sit upon and used some of Tim's amazing new Distress Embossing Glazes to add colour to this vintage style piece. I also thought that the Theories Quote Chip was the perfect quote for today's piece....

So, let's get started because it's time to have some stencil fun...

To begin with I cut a panel of watercolour card, slightly larger in size than the Bouquet Layering Stencil itself. I then laid down the stencil onto the centre of the card and applied Crackle Paste through it. Once I'd removed the stencil, I then started to add my Glazes, which are just so cool. These glazes are translucent but create a beautiful sheen to the raised areas of crackle paste. They also blend together seamlessly and you can use them as I have here, but there are so many other uses which I am going to be showing you in future posts.

So whilst the paste is still wet, I used a tiny spoon to sprinkle the glazes over the top, applying Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint and Fossilized Amber, applying them to accentuate and pick up the detail of the layering stencil. Once I was happy with the coverage, I set the panel to one side before moving onto the next stage.

Whilst the panel is doing it's thing, I moved onto the butterflies and for this I used the Sizzix Scribbly Butterfly set by Tim Holtz and using watercolour card, I cut each butterfly twice. I then inked one of each of the die cuts using Gathered Twigs Distress Ink before drying them. For the second of each die cut, I watercolored them using Distress Marker Pens and then after drying them thoroughly, I added a little bit of shimmer to the wings by lightly dabbing a glue stick onto the surface and whilst it was still tacky, I applied some foil sheets over the top, transferring the gold metallic sheen onto the wings.

Layer each butterfly die cut by attaching them by their bodies only and then I shaped the wings to give them the appearance of them fluttering.

So moving on, I went back to my panel which was ready for the next stage, and I used a heat tool to gently heat the glazes until they are molten. Don't overheat but you will see a slight change in colour, they become ever so slightly darker when they're melted and of course, they create a glaze.

To create more of a vintage feel to the panel, I then spritzed it with a light mist of water before applying Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stains over the top. Be gentle when heat drying the background and any excess colour or moisture, can be dabbed away with a dry cloth. If you need any more, colour just repeat until happy.

So, I now have my background and after cutting the panel down to size, I inked the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and machine stitched a border around the outside, leaving some of the threads to hang loose.

I then matted and layered my panel onto gold metallic card, followed by a panel of kraft card and a layer of blue card from the Classic Kraft Stash.

I now have the background panel ready and just mounted this onto a canvas panel, slightly larger in size which I painted with a combination of Antique Linen, Pumice Stone and Picket Fence Distress Paints.

I then wrapped some twine around the bottom section of the panel before attaching a Theories Quote Chip using foam pads and of course, no project of mine is complete without some Hardware Heads and after inking them with Rust Alcohol Ink, I added one to either side of the chip.

Now you could leave it there and create a card or  smaller panel but I wanted to make a larger statement piece and decided to mount it onto a second canvas panel which measures, 24 x 17cm.

The panel is pre-gessoed, so all I did was to apply a coat of Antique Linen Distress Paint over the surface. Once the paint was dry, I then dry brushed Pumice Stone and Ground Espresso over the top before heat drying these layers.

I then applied Crackle Paste to the panel, adding various layers of paste to create different sized crackles. After allowing it to dry, I used my fingertip to add some Vintage Collage Medium, again dried the medium and then used a combination of Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain Distress Crayons, to accentuate the crackles. I usually add a light mist of water over the surface or dampen my fingertip to allow me to blend the crayon into the crackles.

Once I was happy, I wrapped some more twine around the larger sized panel, wrapping it so that it created a fan of twine on either side and then mounted my smaller panel over the top using foam pads before adding some torn pieces of Design Tape to create a bit of interest around the small panel.

We're nearly there and it's just about the finishing touches, starting with a Field Notes Ephemera piece, Private Collection Specimens label which I added underneath the small panel.

I also added some Clips to either side of the twine, inked with Rust Alcohol Ink and placed a Hardware Head over the top.

To complete the butterfly panel, I placed a dress pin into the bodies of the butterflies until they felt secure....

...and added two tacks at the top of the panel.

Finally, I added the Prima Marketing Rusty Clip at the top of the smaller panel...

...and a Remnant Rub number in the top right hand corner.

So, that's my project for this week and I hope you've loved all the ideas and the techniques that I've used. As always, don't hesitate to share your makes by contacting me through social media as I would love to see them and hope you've been inspired by this piece.

Don't forget, if you would like to see more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

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

Stay safe everyone and take care of yourselves and your loved ones!

xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Bouquet Layering Stencil
Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Scribbly Butterflies
Distress Paint: Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Ground Espresso, Picket Fence
Distress Spray Stain: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap
Distress Embossing Glaze
Distress Marker Pens
Distress Crayons: Walnut Stain, Gathered Twigs
Alcohol Inks: Rust

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Hardware Heads, Field Notes Ephemera, Theories Quote Chips, Specimen Remnant Rubs, Design Tape

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Crackle Paste, Vintage Collage Medium

Surfaces: Distress Watercolour Card, Classic Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash, Media Board Canvas Panel
Prima Marketing Rusty Clip

Glass Media Mat

Big Shot

Heat Gun
Glue stick and foil from my own stash