Friday, 16 May 2025

Aged, Weathered, Distressed. CVC May #2

 Aged and distressed wallpaper

These are the steps I used to create what I've called distressed wallpaper and used it in a project using the fabulous Tim Holtz clip board die.



Take a palette knife and drag white gesso over the surface of your card and leave to dry. Using a soft cloth rub some paint over the surface keeping it thin and light.

Use a heavy duty sander to scrape around the edges and really distress them 
Take vintage photo distress ink and make a puddle and dip the edges in, leave to dry.
Cut and distress three clipboards and the faux metal clips.
Sand the silver clips, rub vintage photo distress ink pad over them and finish the top one with a distress crayon.
Adhere the the clipboards together and attach the clip (See the Tim Holtz video oh how to put this clipboard together.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMnCfC97bOM )
I also added a small custom fastener with a butterfly in it.
I took an offcut from my bits box to create the mount for the photobooth picture of the girls, inked the edges and sewed down the sides
The edges of the photo of the girls was scraped with scissors then dipped into vintage photo DI mixed with vintage collage medium and dried. I added colour to them by using the same technique I used on the first May project using DIs mixed with matte collage medium.
I scraped some crackle paste over media card using a palette knife and left it overnight.
The next day a rubbed over a victorian velvet DI pad .....
.....  then rubbed it back with a wet wipe.
I sanded the edges and blended in ground espresso DI and gently rubbed in some artisan powder and wiped it back with a damp cloth.
Run the background through the big shot in texture fade embossing folder. Then dip into victorian velvet and stormy ski distress inks and dry.








Supplies
TH Sizzix dies - Vault Noteworthy, Specimen, 
TH Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso, Tattered Rose, Stormy Sky, Victorian Velvet.
PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish paint - Blah Mange, Lake Wanaka
Ranger TH - Distress Crayon Vintage Photo,
TH Mediums - Distress Collage Medium Vintage, Distress Collage Medium Matte,
TH - Idea-ology - Remnant Rubs Words,
TH Idea-ology Custom Pin
TH Sizzix - Texture Fade - Dotted
Prima Artisan Powder - Paris Rose

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Aged, Weathered, Distressed, TimeWorn. CVC May #1

 Weathered Shabby Panel and collage

Happy May Day

I have chosen the theme for the CVC FaceBook challenge and it's to create a project that looks aged, weathered, distressed or timeworn.

AGED - to have become old and showing some age.

WEATHERED - worn by long exposure to the atmosphere; weather beaten.

DISTRESSED - having simulated marks of age and wear.

TIMEWORN- damaged or made less interesting or attractive as a result of age or much use.

My panel is vintage, shabby, distressed, looking aged and timeworn. I think I covered the brief.


Seal surface with a layer of gesso. Dry.

Paint a layer of brown acrylic Fresco Finish paint. Dry.

Stamp and clear emboss. 

Paint over with a lighter colour. Dry but leave it still a little tacky.

Wipe over with a wet wipe to remove the paint from the embossing and rub harder over the painted areas to reveal some of the brown showing through underneath.

Dip into watery puddles of brown distress inks and dry.

Sand around the edges and rub over with vintage photo distress ink ink.

This creates a shabby, weathered, distressed background.


Gather together items to create a collage.

I paint the moths with collage medium to take off the shine, I much prefer matte items.

I painted on a little green distress ink, mixed with collage medium, to the dress on the paper doll and a little tattered rose, also mixed with collage medium, to her skin, to add a little colour.

I also add extras as I'm putting the design together and here there are extra snippets and some TH film strip, plus a small piece of border coloured green.


xx



Supplies

Gesso, Clear embossing powder, Vintage Lace, 

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint - Truffle, 

TH Stamps - CMS 266 Newsprint and Type, CMs326 Ornate Trims, CMS189 Merchantile

TH Distress Inks - Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo, Forest Moss, Rusted Wilderness, Tattered Rose

TH Idea-ology - Transparencies Moths, Paper Dolls, Snippets, Film Strip, Small Talk

TH Collage Medium



Thursday, 17 April 2025

Use a frame - CVC April #2

 Apple Blossom Frame

The cherry blossom in my garden, that I can see from my workroom window, is stunning and when I was out last month, in the sun, it was buzzing with bees, in fact I can see a few now flying around the flowers, in and out.               (Time of writing 23/03/25)

I have used the beautiful Apple Blossom edition of stamps by my lovely friend Alison Bomber to meet the challenge theme for Country View Crafts. I stamped all the images and then cut them out and watercoloured the blossoms with distress inks.

I adhered the large blossoms in the background and added some wood offcuts to support the frame.

I extended the layer frame to fit the size of the opening and sewed around it to match the rest of the piece.

The background was created using distress inks and clear embossing.

I added elements I had prepared to fill the bottom inside of the frame ...
.... and the top of the frame. The bottles have real dried seed heads, seeds and moss inside them. Some of the labels were bought from Etsy and others I have made myself. You can of course substitute them with TH snippets.
I also added the bird and 'Springtime'.



xx


Supplies

TH Distress Inks - Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass, Kitsch Flamingo, Evergreen Bough, Picked Raspberry,

Alison Bomber stamps - Apple Blossom Edition (PaperArtsy EAB46)

TH Idea-ology Layer Frames, Snippets,

TH Sizzix dies - Silhouette Birds

Ranger Archival ink - Peat Moss, 

My own bottles but Tim Holtz has great ones to use.

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Herbarium Reference Book

 Using dried flowers and sketches to create a reference book of plants.


I've been thinking and playing with the idea in my head to create a sketchbook/scrapbook/reference book of some flowers I collected and dried last year. 

I am using a Seawhite pocket concertina book in a box.

The sketch of the Black Medic plant which has tiny yellow flowers and black seed pods. It is also known as Hop Clover or Yellow Trefoil. It is a wildflower found on dry grassland, road banks and waste places. I found this quite near to home on a path between a school and a field. It is a valuable source for pollinators.

Here the dried flower itself can be see quite clearly, especially the seed pods.


xx



Thursday, 3 April 2025

Vintage Butterfly Collage Panel CVC April #1

 Country View Crafts Challenge #1 April 'You've been framed'

Small panel, roughly apply texture paste and leave to dry.

Dip in watery ground espresso spray stain - dry.

Collect ephemera and elements to create project. I used a 

TH Layer Frame

Cover butterfly with distress medium to take off the shine.

Arrange elements to create collage.

Blend edges of paper elements with brown distress ink and add remnant rub.

Adhere.





xx




Supplies

small panel

TH texture paste, distress medium

TH Distress Stain - Ground Espresso

TH - Idea-ology - Transparent Wings, Film Strip Ribbon, Paper Strips, Layer frames, Snippets Curator, Number Strips, Remnant Rubs - Words