Happy Monday everyone...
Hope you've all had a good weekend and ready for the new week! Can you believe we're half way through November already and there's less than six weeks to go until the big day? Where has 2020 gone? Well, I'm sure that many of you will have started your Christmas makes by now and if you haven't then this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge will definitely help to get you in the mood because we are celebrating the festive season with our new challenge...HAPPY HOLIDAYS! So whether you want to create something for Thanksgiving, or Christmas, it's time for the new challenge to begin and we hope you'll play along!
For my project I decided to have a little bit of fun this week and created a project perfect for all those Snarky Cat lovers and made a double layered frame full of festive fun.
So, let's get started and here's how I made this piece!
For this project I used a mini framed panel as my substrate ~ these come in a pack of two and each frame has two separate pieces, a backboard and a wooden frame. I began by painting the frame and the sides and back of the baseboard with Candied Apple Distress Paint. Once the paint was dry, I then dipped a dry paintbrush into Black Soot Distress Paint, removed the excess paint from my brush on a dry paper towel and then dry brushed the surface with the black paint. If there's any areas that you feel you have applied too much black paint, don't worry as all you need to do is go over those areas with a little more Candied Apple and this will knock back the darkness of the black paint. Once I had the colour I wanted, I set the framed panel to one side and started work on the smaller, inner frame.
For this I used the largest Vignette Frame in the set of 4 and primed the surface with a coat of Picket Fence Distress Paint. I then used the same dry brushing technique as I did on the larger red frame but this time applied Frayed Burlap paint over the top. Again if you feel you have areas that are too dark, allow the paint layer to dry before applying the lighter colour over the top. Once the smaller frame was dry, I added some touches of gold foiling, just to make it sparkle slightly. I used Transfer Foil from Ranger Ink but you can use any foil you have to hand.
The smaller frame won't quite fit snugly inside the framed panel, so the way that I got around this was by using a Etcetera Scallop Trim and painting it with the same coloured paints as I painted the smaller frame and this will then sit directly beneath the inner frame, covering up any gaps.
At this point, I also cut a second trim down to size, painted it with Speckled Egg Distress paint and this is eventually going to sit on the inside of my white frame, along the bottom to form a ledge, again hiding any gaps that I didn't want to be seen on the project.
Now for the main focal point, the Snarky Cat and I chose to use my favourite from the set. I began by cutting a panel of watercolour card, slightly smaller in size than my framed panel and then stamped one image onto the centre of the cardstock, and a further two images onto separate pieces of watercolour card. The first image is going to be my base image and I decoupaged the second and third over the top. Cut around the outline of the second and third image, each time cutting away areas of image so that you can eventually layer these pieces over the top of one another and form a decoupaged, 3D image. You can see from my cat, that I cut around the outline of the first image, and then cut just the cat from the second image. I then watercolored each separate stamped image using Distress Inks, which I smooshed onto my glass mat and a water brush. To add shadows and detail to the images, I used Polychromos Pencils over the top of watercoloring.
Set aside the watercolored fussy cut images and taking the image stamped directly onto the card panel, I added colour to my background. For this I used a combination of Speckled Egg, Pumice Stone, Old Paper and Iced Spruce Distress Inks and blended the inks directly onto the paper. Place a piece of kitchen towel over the artwork to protect it and then lightly spritz the inked background with water, allowing the inks and water to create gorgeous little inky pools. I then heat dried the background, dabbing away any excess water. You can continue building up the colour of your background by applying more ink but I was quite happy with how mine looked.
For the snowflakes, I inked up the stamp that is on the same stamp sheet using clear embossing ink and then stamped around the top section of the card before heat embossing with white embossing powder.
Layer the second and third snarky cat image over the top of one another using foam pads and building up the dimension.
To complete the image, I stamped the quote directly underneath the cat and also added some shading around the base of the present to create some grounding to the image.
Attach the image onto the baseboard, ensuring that once you place the red frame over the top it will be in the right place and adhere to the baseboard.
Adhere the red frame over the top using Matte Collage Medium and then attach the white painted frame inside the red frame, adding the scallop etcetera trim directly beneath it so that it hides any gaps.
Attach the speckled egg smaller trim onto the inside of the white frame to form a ledge.
At the top of the frame, I added a Tim Holtz Icicle piece. These come in a set of four, and you get two of each size and I used the larger size. To created an icy look, I painted the back of the icicle with Picket Fence Distress Paint and once it was dry, I flipped it over, applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium and sprinkled it with Rock Candy Dry Glitter. Allow for the glitter to dry and then attach the icicle by aligning it to the top of the white frame.
I placed some die cut foliage onto each corner of the icicle. These are cut from Mixed Media Heavystock Card which I spritzed with Rustic Wilderness, Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Spray Stains. The dies I used for the foliage are: Holly Leaves from the Large Funky Festive Die Set and I just cut away the berry section from the die cut, and the little fern pieces are die cut using dies from the Winter Wardrobe set and also a few sprigs from the Merry and Bright Thinlits set. The tiny berries on some of the foliage are created using Tonic Nuvo Crystal Drops and then sprinkled with some of the Rock Candy Dry Glitter.
Once you have all the foliage pieces cut, I then smeared a thin layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top and dipped each piece into Rock Candy Glitter, allowed them to dry before arranging them in the corners. I then added a Tiny Bell to each corner.
In the centre, I placed a Christmas Bottle Cap, (which has been so popular, I'm sorry to say has now sold out) but if you have one of these, I just attached the piece directly onto the icicle using Matte Collage Medium.
Along the top of the icicle, I applied a good amount of Matte Collage Medium before sprinkling Mica Flakes over the top and setting aside to dry.
I also added some Mica Flakes on the inside of the frame, where I placed the small scalloped etcetera trim.
We're nearly there and this is the final bit of stamping that needs to be done ~ the "special delivery' label which I stamped with Barn Door Archival Ink using the label from Vintage Holidays Stamp Set. After cutting around the outline for the label, I adhered it to a strip of the red Christmas Velvet Trim, (unfortunately, this has now sold out but hopefully, some of you might have this in your stash already). I then attached the ribbon and label along the bottom of my frame using red tape to secure it into place and taking it around the back of the panel, so that it looked neat on the sides of the frame.
I then attached two Mini Pins to either side of the ribbon strip.
Finally, I added a Hardware Head to either side of the larger Etcetera Trim, both of which I altered to make them look rusty using Rusty Hinge, Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot Distress Paints and to complete the project, I added a Hinge Clip, painted with Candied Apple Distress Paint and clipped this to the top of the frame!
I hope you love this piece and it's inspired you with some ideas of Christmas projects. Of course, you don't have to make a framed panel, this project would work equally as well on a card, or a tag if you prefer...it's entirely up to you but I would love to see what you create if you do make anything!
Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 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....
this is absolutely brilliant!!! Such a fun use for the stamp to create such a scene!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous artwork Emma!! the whole design of this is fabulous! I ordered this cat set, can't wait for it to arrive!! Will CASE this ;-)
ReplyDeletehope you have a great week!
luv
Lols x x x