Hey, y’all! I hope you’re having a fabulous February and have had a chance to play with your kits! This week I have a project for you I made using the February Mixed Media Kit! I grabbed up my kit, added some extra mould pieces, mechanicals, and paints from my stash, and created my Mecha Love mixed media piece!
Make sure to check out my video to see what I did!
To start building up some texture, I added some of the sand texture paste using the stencil from the kit onto the canvas board. I didn’t cover the entire surface with stenciling, I just added the stenciling to a few random areas. In the video, you will see that I added black gesso after the sand texture paste had dried, but that was because I hadn’t planned on adding the cheesecloth so soon! If I had thought I would be adding the cheesecloth to fill in the areas without the stenciling I would have waited to add my gesso. Anyhow…I had been rust-staining fabric around the same time I received my February kits, so my cheesecloth got sucked into the process – even if that rust staining doesn’t show much on this canvas – and while I was playing with different ways to build my canvas, I just happened to lay the cheesecloth down in a way that sparked inspiration! I ran with this new inspiration and used some matte gel to adhere some of the cheesecloth to my canvas.
Since my cheesecloth led me on a slightly different path than what I had planned originally, I decided I wasn’t going to add gesso again until I had the majority of my mould pieces in place. I grabbed up a variety of gear mould pieces from my stash – made from a wide range of materials since I tend to pre-create pieces when I have extra resin or clay from a different project or I just need to use up old material – and started layering them up using some 3D Matte Gel. I had some broken bits and pieces in the mix, so I just used them as filler to create some lift under areas they wouldn’t be seen, you could just as easily use scraps of cardboard or chipboard as filler! After I had all my gears in place I added the resin frame from the kit and topped it with the large heart from Finnabair’s “Love Machine” Mould (from my stash). I let the 3D Gel dry overnight, then I came back with my matte gel and some more cheesecloth, adding more to the background and laying it across a few areas of the mould cluster. After the matte gel had dried, I added black gesso to everything.
Now it was finally time to start getting my colors built up! I started with some “Linen” Impasto and a lot of water! All I knew was I wanted to create some type of gradient or ombre effect, so I kept the layer of Impasto heavier on the top half(ish) of the canvas and more watered down on the bottom half(ish).
After the Impasto had dried, I mixed some Tres Jolie “Red” Acrylic Paint and DWM “Fuchsia” Glossy Spray and added this mix to the canvas.
When my paint and glossy spray mix had dried, I came back with more cheesecloth and added it to areas of my resin pieces and canvas. You can see some of the rust-stained cheesecloth on the finished piece still because this final layer of cheesecloth didn’t get completely covered by mediums!
After the matte gel had semi-dried (being fully dry wasn’t necessary!), I returned with some of the Copper and Graphite texture paste from this month’s kit and used them more like paint than paste. I added the copper to a few areas (very few!) of the cheesecloth I had just placed and the gears on the heart, and I added the graphite to the gears. I didn’t want a lot of build-up, I just wanted a bit of color.
After those pastes had dried, I came in with the Platinum Crackle Paste from the kit and added it to the bottom half(ish) of my canvas, then I set everything off to air dry for about 24 hours. When I came back, I had lovely crackles and it was finally time to get the Brown, Red, and Yellow Rust Effect Paste on the (mould) gears, the resin frame from the kit, and slightly spread out onto the canvas.
When I had my rust how I wanted it, I added some “Red Wine” Metallique Paint to my heart and on the top half(ish) of the canvas background. For the background, I really kept the metallique paint watered down, I didn’t want to completely cover what was already there, I just wanted to add a bit of variation.
Once the “Red Wine” was dry, I added some “Vintage Silk” and “Indian Pink” Finnabair waxes to highlight a few areas on the heart. Finally, I grabbed up the (partial) package of Mechanicals from my stash, kept them “as is,” and adhered them to the gears “on” the heart mould using 3D Matte Gel.
Thank you for joining me here today on the blog! I hope this project gave you some inspiration and ideas of what you can do with the items in this month’s Mixed Media Kit! I tried to use the texture pastes in a variety of ways to help you see them in action if you haven’t experienced the joy of crackles and rust effect pastes yet!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! This week I broke into the January Mixed Media Kit, grabbed up some mould pieces and Mechanicals from my stash, and created my “Cordis Gelida” (“Frozen Heart” – Latin) mixed media panel. You could call your piece “Hiems Amo” (“I Love Winter” – Latin) if you are the type of person who loves winter. Actually, it’s your artwork, you can call it whatever you want or nothing at all!
After you’re done checking out the photos and reading this overview of my project, come and join me over on YouTube where I talk about what I did, expose my hoarding of Finnabair Mechanicals, wonder if my obsession with adhesion is genetic, babble semi-coherently, and ask the tough question, “Do New Year [I’ll use what I have] Resolutions apply to crafters and artists?”
Have you seen the mood board yet this month? It’s filled with beautiful winter-scapes and wonder – which matches perfectly for the twist “Winter Wonderland!” I happen to love winter – well, I love looking at winter. From inside. Where it’s warm. If I could figure out how to be warm without 42 layers of clothing, I’d love to sit out at a frozen pond enjoying the quiet tranquility. There is a line from a made-for-TV, two-part movie series (well, when I saw it in the early 2000s, it was in two parts) that came out in 1997, True Women, and my favorite line from it is “Snow makes even ugly things beautiful.” (Side note: Is it strange that the line I remember all these years later was spoken by not a main character, that [the character] was not a…“good person”…? Why did he get the line I remember?!?!) Anyhow, back to the project! Which is why y’all are here, right?
Overall, it wasn’t a terribly complicated project. I used crackle paste with my Finnabair Machinery stencil for one texture/style, then stenciled on some snowflakes with the lava paste. That was the basis of my contrasting textures – “hard” angles and edges, and soft fluffy snow!
I grabbed up mould pieces and Mechanicals from my stash that I thought I would want to use and just started playing around with the layout. I didn’t pre-plan the entire thing – I worked “in the moment” and went with what looked and felt right to me! And, somewhere along the way, I added in the spoon and little pipe from the kit.
Once I had everything adhered and it had time to dry some, I gave it all a nice coat of white gesso. Now it was time for the real messy part – adding some color!
I mixed the Cosmic Shimmer powders with some matte medium or Liquid Color Fluid Medium so they would stay in place after drying, allowing the colors to layer and not keep reactivating. After I had my colors down over the entire project, I came back with the powders in a more concentrated form – using them more as heavy body paint than the “poured on” method I had used for the initial coating. This allowed me to use those powders to add extra dimension to key areas.
Once I had my powder paint where I wanted it and had given it all ample time to dry, I used a round brush to add some of the wax from the kit to the surface. I didn’t add wax to every nook and cranny, I didn’t want to make everything a uniform color, I just wanted that wax mostly to sit on the surface of everything.
The final step was dabbing on some of the lava paste and, using the low heat setting on my heat gun, activating that paste and creating my snow clusters.
Thank you for joining me here today, I hope you enjoyed this mixed media panel and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with the mediums in this month’s Mixed Media Kit!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture Paste, TCW “Snowflakes” Stencil, Finnabair “Machinery” Stencil, Finnabair Moulds: Steampunk Hearts, Stars and Moons, Love Machine, Pieces of Underworld, & Cogs and Wings, Finnabair “Vintage Flowers Metal Trinkets” and “Mini Roman Numerals” Mechanicals, Finnabair White Heavy Gesso, Soft Matte Gel, 3D Matte Gel, Liquid Color Fluid Medium, Texture Powder, Mega Art Stones, Art Stones, Mini Art Stones, JudiKins Diamond Glaze, Liquitex Matte Medium
Hey, y’all! Yesterday was the first day of winter (Winter Solstice). Today is the 4th-5th day of Hanukkah (the 5th day of Hanukkah will start at sundown tonight if my counting is correct – if I’m wrong, feel free to correct me!), Christmas is on Sunday, Kwanzaa starts Monday, and 2023 is ten days away! It’s been a year I tell ya! Don’t worry though, this isn’t my last project for 2022, I still have one more for you next week!
This week I made some ornaments for you using this month’s Cards, Tags, & More Kit and the Mixed Media Kit. Although, the Mixed Media Kit ornaments took a while to dry and haven’t been 100% completed. They weren’t part of my original plan – I had only planned on the three “double” ornaments made using the papers and cardstock from the Cards Kit. (Check out the video to get the details about all the hows and whys!)
My ornaments are also for the mood board challenge – what is a better holiday tradition than handmade ornaments or décor? For me, Christmas Trees need the ornaments my kiddos made – even if it has been close to a decade since the last one was made!
For the blog, I’m just going to talk about what your seeing in the photos, the video is where you can watch my thought process in action!
All of the clear plastic ornaments are 4 inches, and none of my inner, paper ornaments are over (approximately) 2-5/8-inches in diameter.
For this first ornament, I cut four circles, in each size, out of one of the sheets of patterned paper and one of the cardstock sheets from the kit. After I had them together – not all the way “closed” – I added a touch of embossing powder along the edges, then I glued a hat pin along the centers, using a small bead as separators.
I wanted to add a bit of a frosted look to this ornament, so I grabbed up some Finnabair Crushed Crystal and dabbed it onto the inside, keeping to the outer edges so the center would remain mostly clear, allowing the inner ornament to show. I used a combination of hot glue and 3D Matte Gel to hold my ornament in place – the hot glue to tack it in place long enough for the gel to dry – and after all the mediums had dried, I glued my halves together.
This ornament was my “experiment” with Foundry Wax – I had assumed the plastic would not hold up to the heat needed for the Foundry Wax, but I experimented so you wouldn’t have to! My official stance is – don’t use mediums that need to be heat set!
This second ornament is made up of four circles cut from one of the patterned papers and four circles cut from one of the cardstock sheets. I used a touch of paint along the edges, nothing that stands out, just a bit of White Pearl Metallic Paint. Once again, I didn’t close up my inner ornament until I had glued in what I was using to suspend it within the clear plastic ornament – in this case, a bit of gold (costume jewelry) chain. I added the gold Little Birdie wreaths to the sections that were made of the cardstock, used my hot glue and 3D Matte Gel to start the process of holding everything in place – then decided that wasn’t enough!
As I was looking at this ornament, I decided it need a little something more – not frosted like the first one – but something, so I grabbed up some glitter and added it to the top and bottom of the ornament, trying to create the look that the chain was coming out of the glitter “mound.” After I had the two halves glued together, I still thought there should be more, so I did something rare – I added glitter to the outside of a project! I just used some (regular weight) matte gel since it wouldn’t run the way glue might to hold the glitter in place, and set it off to dry.
For my third and final (actually finished) ornament, I used a small doily die to cut out four pieces of patterned paper and four pieces of cardstock, then glued them together the same way I did all the circles in the other two ornaments. Since this patterned paper is a darker and busier print, I only added a touch of the Bubbly Embossing Powder from this month’s Mixed Media Kit to the edges and wrapped the “Holly” and “Jolly” Tres Jolie Chipboard words around the center. The chipboard words are embossed in a layer of the Bubbly powder, and an extra layer of Lindy’s Holly Berry Red Gold on the bottom half-ish to create a bit of a gradient effect.
I was attempting to create the illusion that the inner ornament was floating within the outer ornament, so I used a length of fishing line to suspend it inside – just adding a few small beads to give it a little “extra.” I didn’t add any mediums to my outer ornament besides the bit of Vintage Gold Finnabair Wax – after adding a light coat of clear gesso – at the top where the hook will go.
Alright, as I stated in the video, I have a photo here for you of the two ornaments that had the Distress Mica Sprays and some glittery mediums in them – that took for-EV-er to dry! They are dry now, but they weren’t dry soon enough to do anything else with – that would also need time to dry! They were unplanned, I just needed something to experiment on before doing “things” to my planned ornaments! I’m hoping that I will finish these unplanned ornaments before next December!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner, I hope you enjoyed these ornaments and they gave you some ideas of what you can make using this month’s kits.
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
We’re halfway through December, and almost to 2023! Hopefully during this hectic time of the year you’ve been able to take some crafty time for yourself! This week I used the December 2022 Mixed Media Kit and put my adorable little trees together. (Although, I did have some struggles trying to get the photos taken!)
I didn’t pull too much from my stash to create these trees, only a few staple items and a few mediums from previous Tres Jolie Kits to help [me] hold my colors and embellishments in place.
Make sure you swing by and check out the video to get the full process!
I created all three trees the same, so I’m just going to go over that process and pop in the photos as I go along! I did not glue my trees together! I knew they would be getting wet and I didn’t want to try and get them together after the wood had swollen! And they don’t really need any glue – they fit together well on their own, and by the time I was done, all that swelling was all that was needed to finish the hold. The only place I added a touch of wood glue was at the tree tops to help hold the point together while I dyed, sprayed, painted, and sprinkled!
The first thing I did was put my trees together and add a bit of wood glue to the tops to hold the tips together. Once that glue had dried, I sprayed down the trees with water, to start getting the wood to swell some so the “Merrymint” Distress Mica would be able to soak in better. After all three trees were thoroughly coated, I let them air dry overnight.
The largest tree.
The next morning I took my trees to a well-ventilated area and gave them a light spray of some Workable Fixatif. The Distress Mica Sprays are water-reactive and I didn’t want them to start dripping color as I worked with them!
After the Fixatif had dried (it only takes about 5 minutes), I used a small brush to “paint” on some Ranger Embossing Ink (refill bottle) to the areas of the tree with the snowflake cuts, added the Bubbly embossing powder, and heated it up. Then I repeated the same process to the tree trunks. Since embossing powder is a smooth, slick surface after it’s melted, I gave my trees another spray of Fixatif so my next layer of color would have something a little better to grab ahold of.
The middle tree.
As I was shaking up my bottle of Shiny Bauble, I got to thinking that I really wanted it to stay put and not drip during or after spraying – and that led me to grab up my bottle of Liquid Color Fluid Medium and add a thin coat to the tree. You could use clear gesso, just keep in mind it is a matte finish – I didn’t want to lose the shimmer and shine of the mica which is why I didn’t use gesso. I didn’t heat dry the spray and medium thoroughly, but I did use the low heat setting to dry it all just enough so it wouldn’t run. After all of that had finished air drying, I added embossing powder to the trunks again, and to the base to cover any spray that might have landed where I didn’t want it!
Then, before I started sprinkling on the Mini Prills and chunky glitter, I gave my trees a good coating of Fixatif then, after the Fixatif had ample time to dry, I sprayed my trees down with water to remove any spray that hadn’t got sealed well! I didn’t want any of that spray to bleed into the clear medium I would be using to hold the Mini Prills and chunky glitter in place!
The smallest tree.
Now the only things I had left were the finishing touches! I used some Distress Crackle Paint, coated the tree, one section at a time, and sprinkled on the glitter and Prills. I didn’t put a heavy coat of paint on, and it is a thicker medium – so I could stand my trees up and let them air dry and my paint didn’t run down!
To make sure all those little bits of glitter and Prills stayed put, I gave the tree a light coating of Triple Thick Crystal Clear Glaze before adding the finishing touches to the trunk and base.
I wanted to add some texture to my trunk and base, so I decided to experiment a little. I coated the trunk and base with some DecoArt Crackle Glaze (not too thick!) and then covered it with more of the embossing powder. I didn’t know what would happen; I wasn’t sure if it would crackle or not, but I figured I’d get some kind of texture in the end!
I let that glaze dry overnight, then I came in with the heat gun and hoped for the best! It may not have made noticeable crackles, but it did produce a bubbly, rough texture!
With all of the decoration done, I gave the trees a final coating of the Triple Thick Clear Glaze to provide protection and to really make sure my glitter and Prills stayed on.
Thank you for joining us here at Tres Jolie! I hope you enjoyed this Tree Trio and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with this month’s Mixed Media Kit to create your own unique Christmas Tree décor!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Holiday gift shopping season officially begins tomorrow with Black Friday, followed by Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday! And with all the gifts being given, whether they are handmade or store-bought – or in the case of us crafters and artists, store-bought to be handmade – I have some gift tags made using the Tres Jolie Kit Club November 2022 Cards, Tags, & More Kit for you this week to add to gifts, give as gifts, or use as decoration!
Make sure you swing by and check out the video to catch the process of my tag-making!
When I started this poinsettia tag, I didn’t have any direction in mind to go, I just love poinsettias! I grabbed up my poinsettia embossing folder and a piece of red cardstock and got to work. As I was looking at the embossed image, I decided it need a little extra color, so I started adding embossing powder to the leaves and foliage – until I found myself done and thinking I needed to bring the poinsettia back into focus. So I added embossing powder to the petals and a touch of gold embossing powder to the center. This turned out to be a double-embossed poinsettia tag!
I wanted to mute the background a bit, so I sprayed on some Antique Linen Distress Oxide, trimmed down the edges of the cardstock, and started cutting out the edges of the petals. I had only planned on cutting just enough to give the petals a little curl, but as I went along, I realized if I added a back, I could make a little tuck-in spot – so that’s what this tag is; a tuck-in tag that would be great for a letter or gift card!
This tag is another double-embossed image. After I embossed the snow flurries on the cardstock, I used a water brush and my Salvaged Patina Distress Watercolor pencil to add a touch of color to the raised image. Then I topped it off with some Antiquities Embossing Powder – which, if you don’t know, is a matte finish powder – then added some Aqua Tinsel embossing powder to the (mostly) background around the flurries.
This tag also has some Antique Linen Distress Oxide to age it up, and I used my craft knife and small scissors to cut out the section of flurry so I could tuck the ephemera bit in.
This next tag was an easy-peasy mixed media tag – there’s only one medium on it! I used my candy stipe stencil and some Stickles from my stash to add some shine to the striped paper, roughed up the edge of the green candy paper, glued it in place, and folded the top over. Then I stitched on the gingerbread man tag.
I used all of the leaves and pine needles I had die cut out to create my little wreath for this tag. The lid on my Micro-Glaze jar was just the right size circle to trace so I would have something to follow to help me make sure my wreath stayed round and didn’t inadvertently become an off-center oval! (Which it would have if I had tried to free-style this wreath!!)
I just worked my way around the wreath layering and tucking in the pieces, trying to alternate the patterns so I wouldn’t end up with a lop-sided color scheme, then I glued down the little ornament pieces and set it off to dry.
This tag was created using the “Hello Deer” cut-apart piece from the paper pack, I just cut it up a bit more so I could layer the words up for some dimension and add a bit of extra color with some of the pink and red striped paper peeking out the bottom.
These last three tags are all just pieces stitched together – they also all have the largest rectangles laminated because I had originally planned on using them in my cookbook that was shared on November 3rd.
For all of the stamping, I used some Staz-On so I could stamp on the laminated surfaces as well as the paper. Then I just added some red baker’s twine to the tag holes where there was one and called it done!
I hope you are having/did have a fabulous holiday if you celebrate, if you don’t celebrate I hope you are having/did have a fabulous Thursday!
Make sure you swing by the Tres Jolie shop tomorrow and check out the Tres Jolie Kit Club Black Friday Deals!
Stay Safe & Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Is everyone ready for Halloween? I am because I don’t have anything to get ready for! The kids are all 21+, so Halloween has been their business for a while.
I love making Halloween-themed decorations! I don’t know why exactly, I think it must speak to the GenX “goth” side of me! Anyhow, the Mixed Media Kit this month from Tres Jolie Kit Club has just what you need to get going on your next Halloween (or goth!) décor piece – a bat base, foil transfer sheets, purple glitter paint, “Black Hole Black” Magical Powder, and some Distress Crackle! You could easily use just the mediums from the kit to decorate the bat base, or you can start with the bat and see what you can build up on it.
I have lots of layers – and had loads of dry time to go with them all – but I had fun and love the end result! Watch my video to see how this bat came together!
The first thing I did was give my bat base a coat of heavy black gesso, and after that had dried, I added some sand texture paste – in a random, patchy fashion – then coated that with more of the heavy black gesso. You can easily add the sand texture paste on the bat base first, then coat everything with the gesso – I just didn’t think of the sand texture paste until after I had the first coat of gesso on!
The next layer to go on was some of the FolkArt Purple Glitter Paint from the kit this month. It is a rather thick medium, so to make sure I got it between all of the rough spots of the sand texture paste, I watered it down some and spread it out.
After the FolkArt paint had dried, I started adding patches of the foil transfer to the base. As I mentioned in the video, if there wasn’t an extra tip in the package for the glue pen, I probably would have made a puddle of the glue on my media mat and then brushed it on; but, since there was a spare tip in the package, I used the glue straight from the pen! I really liked doing it this way just because it wouldn’t go on smoothly!
Once that glue had dried, I used a palette knife to drizzle on a layer of the Distress Crackle Paint and to just smooth it out across the surface. I didn’t want a thin, brushed layer, so I drizzled just enough to make a nice coat but without overflowing off the sides.
After the crackle paint had completely airdried and those cracks had formed, I gave a surface a light spritz of water, sprinkled on some of the Black Hole Black Magical Powder, and spritzed on more water. It doesn’t take a lot of powder! That Lindy’s Black Hole Black really deepens as soon as the water gets to it! I kept it watered down and let it flow into all of the cracks, then just dabbed off any areas that I didn’t want it – like on top of where the foil spots were.
While I let the Lindy’s dry, I started prepping all of my resin pieces. All of the bones started with a layer of white gesso, followed by a layer of Finnabair “Linen” Impasto Heavy Body Acrylic Paint. All of the other mould pieces started with a layer of black gesso and then were coated with a mix of “Ink Black” Liquid Acrylic Paint, FolkArt Purple Glitter Paint, and some Cosmic Shimmer “Fireworks Burst” Pixie Powder. I just mixed everything together to darken the pieces while giving them some shine at the same time. I also took this opportunity to give my bat a spray of some Finnabair Pixie Dust to hold the Black Hole Black Magical Powder in place.
With my bat set off to dry again, I started working on adding some dimension and color to my bone pieces. I started by adding some Burnt Sienna Liquid Acrylic Paint, watering it down, and just letting it catch in the textured areas of the mould pieces. After that paint had dried, I started adding more layers of color and some shine using the “Decayed” Distress Crayon and spreading it on my bones.
Because the Amun skull with the little bird skull I added on has so much detail on it, I came back with the Burnt Sienna, darkening some of those detail points – such as the nose ridge, nostrils, and eye sockets. Since it was going to be a little easier to work on before adhering to the base, I added a couple of waxes to Amun. I used some Sepia Antiquing Wax on the horns and added some Old White Matte Wax to create some highlights on the skulls. Then, because I had the Distress Crayon on my bones, I coated them with some MicroGlaze so the Crayon wouldn’t reactivate with water, and added everything to my base using some 3D Matte Gel. And, since I would be waiting for the 3D Gel to dry, I grabbed up my (regular) matte gel and some art stones and spread them on to add more texture.
With the gels dry, it was time to add more layers of color while I worked toward what I had been picturing in my head! I used more of the Purple Glitter Paint, the Black Hole Black Magical Powder, some of the Cosmic Shimmer Powder, and more Burnt Sienna to create the darker shadows around the bones.
After all of those mediums had dried, I came back in with some more of the Distress Crackle, mixed in some purple mica powder, and spread it out across the bat. Next up, more foil!
I was on a mission to try and lighten the area behind the resin pieces so they would pop more, so I added some White Pearl Metallic paint, then I had to fix some of the shadow areas with more Burnt Sienna!
I finally reached the end of this project! All of my wet mediums were dry, and it was time to grab my waxes and add the finishing details. I started with some Old White Matte Wax, then built up on it with some French Lavender Matte Wax, Electric Violet Metallique Wax, Royal Robes Opal Magic Wax, and some Ash Grey Antiquing Wax to finish it up.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope that you enjoyed this Mixed Media bat and it gave you some ideas of what you can do with this month’s Mixed Media Kit! Don’t forget to get yourself a kit if you don’t have one already – or get yourself another while supplies are still available – and HAVE FUN!
Stay Crafty, Friends!
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! I just love the papers in this month’s Scrapbooking Kit from Tres Jolie Kit Club! The mix of white with a touch of light grey is perfect for building or expanding on.
Now I know, if you’ve seen the mood board you may be wondering how I came to a pink and grey mixed media panel from a mood board filled with autumn colors and décor with a “Vintage Fall” twist (Shabby is a form of “vintage,” right? I’m not the only one that thinks that, am I?). Well, I’ll tell you – it all started with the sweater pillow – and I do have some leaves on here!
I will admit, I love the mix of white and grey – I adore Farm Chic décor – but I don’t usually lean towards pinks. In fact, there are probably people who know me that are very confused right now seeing this pink! However, contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate pink, I just won’t wear it (unless it’s socks!) or decorate with it. (Fun fact: I will put pink in “strange” areas – my phone cases, Kindle cover, wallet, etc.)
Check out my video to see what I did to get this project all put together:
This month’s mood board is filled with beautiful autumn colors and fabulous textures to inspire your project! Mood boards aren’t really meant to be “copied” – they are, as the name suggests, designed to invoke a mood in you. How do they make you feel? What parts catch your eye?
As I mentioned, I saw that cable knit pillow and then just ran with it! I just thought something like that would be a fabulous background. Truthfully, I didn’t even notice that the mood board had some pink flowers on it until after I had finished my panel!
Make sure you join us for the October 2022 challenge! Place your entries in the October 2022 folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page before October 31st, 2022, 11:59 pm CST. All entries must be in this folder to be eligible for the prize (to have everyone eligible to win, we are limiting the same winner to once every 3 months).
For my panel, the first thing I did was get the paper I had picked out collaged down to the canvas using some Liquitex Matte Medium – although any collage medium would work such as Mod Podge, Distress Collage, etc. I didn’t trim my paper until after I had it glued down and it had a chance to dry. It is a little less stressful if I am not worrying about every edge being perfectly lined up!
After the matte medium dried and I cut down the edges, I started the stenciling process. I used my “Victorian Tiles” stencil first, with a mix of regular (Ranger Opaque Matte) texture paste, then came back through and added some areas of Distress Crackle Paste. I also grabbed up a leaf stencil and added it to a few areas between and on top of the previous stenciling. Then, and this might be the most important part for me, I let it all dry overnight! It is possible to use a heat gun on texture paste, even crackle paste, but allowing anything “crackle” to dry naturally has always given me the best results. Drying too quickly just doesn’t allow the crackle to crack as much. Then, the next morning, I came in with the leaf stencil again, lined it up on the previous stenciling, and added some extra crackle paste and some “Kitsch Flamingo” Embossing Glaze – then set the panel off to dry and crackle before coming in and melting the glaze.
To finish off preparing the base, I added the two skinnier ScrapBerry column pieces and little “bricks” along the top – cutting one of the columns in half (I used a pair of wire cutters, and with a little squeeze it snapped right apart!). I didn’t want my canvas perfectly symmetrical, so I used one of the halves and one of the bricks on the left, the other half, the whole piece, and the second brick on the right. Then, after the glue had set, I coated the entire background in clear gesso and set it off to dry while I started work on the flowers.
For my flowers, I started by gathering up some white roses and leaves from my stash and dismantling the pink flowers from the kit – separating the green parts from the pink. Then the prep work began!
I started by coating all my white flowers and leaves, along with the two long leafy pieces from the 49 & Market flower pack, with some white gesso. Then I grabbed up a sheet of the paper from the kit to cut out some extra leaves from one section, and I fussy cut a few of the larger pink flowers from the other side of the sheet (it is the second, matching sheet from the pack that I used for the background).
Now things were really about to get messy!
I coated all of the die-cut leaves in Distress Translucent Grit Paste – working carefully with the now wet paper – to crumple, uncrumple, and shape the leaves while placing them on my background where I planned on building up all the flower clusters. I also took this opportunity to add the Translucent paste to the fussy-cut flowers so I could shape them, add a layer of protection, and get them in place.
For all of my green pieces from the flower packs and the white roses and leaves from my stash, I made a mixture of white gesso and opaque matte texture paste to coat them in, placing the long leaf pieces from the 49 & Market pack on my background and setting the rest off to dry.
My next step was to get some extra color on all of my flowers and foliage!
For the fussy-cut flowers on the background, I used a combination of Tattered Rose Distress Oxide and my Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons – just using a water brush to add a bit of color and definition to the fussy-cut pieces.
Then, to add a bit more depth to the pink flowers from the kit, I made a “puddle” of the Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons mixed together and brushed them onto the inner edges of the petals. To get the color to feather out a bit, I just gave the flowers a light spray of water and let them air dry.
For the six smaller 49 & Market flowers that I pulled off their stems, I put them in a little palette and let them soak in some Cocktail Party Distress Mica Spray.
To get all of my other pieces various shades of gray, I started coating them in a mix of Grave and Crypt Distress Grit Pastes with some Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Spray thrown in!
After they were all coated with that mixture, I decided they needed more gray – the Pumice Stone has a tan-ish tone – so I sprayed them with a combination of Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Spray Stains and Oxides.
Even though a lot of my water-reactive mediums are mixed with texture pastes, the colors on the flowers were not! So I took this opportunity to give everything a coat of Workable Fixatif so I could continue working without worrying about my colors moving.
Now I had to add some color to the 49 & Market leaves I had already attached to the canvas. For those, all I did is make a mix of Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Distress Crayons on my mat watered them down and used my water brush to brush the colors on.
After a spray of Workable Fixatif on the canvas, I started the process of getting all of my flowers and foliage in place using some 3D Matte Gel.
While the 3D Matte Gel started drying, I worked on all of my mould pieces. After coating everything in white gesso and letting that dry, I started adding all of the other mediums.
For my large, pink keyhole frame, I started with a base of Tattered Rose Distress Paint, Translucent Grit Paste, and Finnabair Texture Powder for a little extra texture to make up for the watering down of the paste. While that mix dried, I started work on all of my gray pieces, using a mix of Grave and Crypt Distress Grit Pastes, and Finnabair’s Cool Gray Rust Effect Paste. After all those pastes were dry, I coated them in a light layer of Hickory Smoke Distress Paint, gave them a light mist of water, and dabbed off areas of the paint to allow areas of the texture pastes to show through and add some variation of color.
While the paint was drying on the gray pieces, I went back to the pink piece and gave it a light, inconsistent coating of Kitsch Flamingo Distress Paint, some spots of Cocktail Party Distress Mica Spray, and some water. After all of that was dry, I came back with Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party Distress Crayons, adding them directly to the mould piece, and watered them down so the colors could flow where they wanted as they air dried.
To finish up all of the gray mould pieces, I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Spray Stain, mixed it up with some Graphite Texture Paste, spread it around some, then sprayed them all with both Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood Distress Oxide Sprays before that paste has a chance to dry.
Now it was finally time to get everything on the panel and finish it up!
After all of my mould pieces were in place, I added some areas of DecoArt White Crackle Paint, tucked in some pink sisal, added more crackle paint, got my Ingvild Bolme birds in place, and added a little crackle paint to them.
After the 3D Matte Gel had a chance to set up overnight, I mixed some Payne’s Gray watercolor paint with some water and Liquid Color Fluid Medium and used a pipette to get that mix under all of the flowers and mould pieces. For any areas I wanted to make a little grayer, I mixed the Payne’s Gray with some of the fluid medium and brushed it on, watering it down some if I needed to.
For all of the “shadow” making, it was just a process of adding the mediums, adding water if I needed to, and tilting and turning the panel until I had the colors where I wanted them – drying a little at a time to start getting the color set as I went.
For the cabochon [mould] pieces, I used a mix of white gesso and Tattered Rose Distress Paint as my base coat then added some Kitsch Flamingo Distress Paint before adding them to the canvas. Once on the canvas, I added a thin layer of crackle paint to them, blending it onto the canvas around them.
On top of all the crackle paint I added, I started to give some extra color and definition to all of my pieces using Distress Crayons – Kitsch Flamingo and Cocktail Party on the pink areas, and Hickory Smoke and Weathered Wood on the gray pieces and birds.
To add a little extra sparkle to the flowers, I brushed on some Finnabair Pixie Effect Paste – it has the pink flakes in it to go with the canvas, but it also has some light teal-ish flakes for a bit of contrast.
After everything was dry, it gave me a chance to stand back and take a look to see if there were any areas I wanted to add a bit more Payne’s Gray to.
The last step was to add the final touches with some Finnabair Waxes, and I was finally done!
Thank you for joining me here in my corner. I hope my non-traditional, vintage-shabby-fall, mixed media panel gave you some ideas about how you can interpret the October mood board and what you can do with this month’s Scrapbooking Kit.
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! It’s officially been autumn for a week now, and I don’t know about you, but I’m still wearing shorts! It’s the give and take of living in a southern state. Mild winters, which makes the husband’s hot-mess joints happy; but less-than-desirable (for me) hot and humid summers. As for me, I’d be happy with two seasons – spring and autumn! The best temperatures and the best colors!
It is almost October, and besides the lower temperatures here in the northern hemisphere, the October Kits from Tres Jolie Kit Club will be getting revealed on Monday! YAY! New crafty supplies and lower temperatures? Yes, please! So, to bring September and the summer to an end, I have two more cards this month – with a little extra touch to them using mixed media mediums.
Neither of these cards is difficult – the majority of their assembly time is spent just waiting for the mediums to dry. Check out my video to see how these two cards came together.
Now, let’s get to some photos and highlights of what you saw in the video.
This first card is a step-card that I created. I used a dark pink cardstock for the base topped with some white, printer-weight cardstock. I did put a solid back on my step-card, which also required a couple of extra pieces tucked in to make sure my “Let’s Celebrate” square popped forward when the card was standing up.
Before I glued on the patterned paper, I added some light mixed media. I used the DecoArt Crackle glaze from this month’s Mixed Media Kit with the Prima stencil from the August (2022) Mixed Media kit, and before I removed the stencil, I added a little dusting of some Jaquard PearlEx powder, and a little spritz of Finnabair’s “Pixie Dust” Fixative . Then I just set those pieces off to dry while I worked on the center pieces.
I used the dies from the kit this month to add some decorative cuts at the tops of the patterned paper that would be going on the steps and backed them with a piece of paper that I coated in the beautiful ink from the kit. Now it was just a matter of gluing everything down!
I added the patterned paper that I had stenciled on and started building up my steps. I glued the top of the back step patterned paper to the back of the card, and the bottom of the back step patterned paper to the back of the lower step. Then, to help keep the “Let’s Celebrate” square stay forward, I added some extra pieces of white cardstock to help “push” it forward.
When everything was done, I added some of the Prima gold trim circles to the front and gave the card a final spritz of Finnabair’s “Pixie Dust” Fixative for a little extra shine.
This slimline card went together even faster than the step-card, because I didn’t have any cut files! I used another piece of dark pink cardstock as the card base, set it aside, and started working on my layers.
Since the slimline card is 4” x 10”, and the pink and white striped paper from the kit was an 8” x 8” square, I cut one piece 6” long and a second piece 2” – both are 3.75” wide – I knew the seam would never be seen by the time I was done! (I used some double-sided tape to hold the two pieces together at the seam while I kept working!)
I mixed some of the ink from this month’s kit with some of the glitter paste from this month’s Mixed Media kit together and lightly brushed it along the edges of the flowers, and then added what was left to the striped paper. After the glitter paste had dried, I grabbed up some white texture paste and a palette knife, scraped a thin layer of the paste onto the surface of the striped paper, and used a paint comb to add some stripes to the texture paste; then I glued the striped pieces down to the white cardstock.
Once the texture paste had dried, it was just a matter of gluing all of my flowers down, along with some leaf die cuts (using a die from my stash), a few bits of lace trim, and the sentiment square. I used my hot glue gun for all of this, so I was able to move right to adding the sequins to the front after adding the top “For Someone Special” sentiment at the top and a little square of the same teal paper at the bottom just to have that blue “continue” all the way down. All I did to add the sequins was use some more texture paste, watered down a little to make it more spreadable, dipped a brush into the paste, use it to pick up some sequins, and “brush” them on.
Thank you for joining me here in my little corner! I hope you enjoyed all of the cards I created this month and they gave you some inspiration and ideas for your own cards!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
Hey, y’all! Have you checked out the Tres Jolie Kit Club September Scrapbooking Kit yet? Seen this month’s mood board? Both are fabulous! The kit has the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from 3 Quarter Designs – the perfect fit for the “Shabby Steampunk” mood board challenge!
Now, I love, L-O-V-E, Steampunk, and while I’m not a 100% Shabby Chic type of person, there are aspects I really love about that style too. This week, for my mood board inspired project, I have a Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat I created using a cut file I designed, the “Gilded Steampunk” Collection from the kit, a couple of moulds, and lots of mediums from my stash – quite a few that are from previous Tres Jolie Kits!
It wasn’t until I was editing the video that I realized this project isn’t all too “complicated.” The majority of the time spent working on it was really just “busy work” – i.e. rolling clay, gluing, painting, etc. Once I had my base together, and finally figured out where this hat was headed, it went together rather smoothly! Check out my video and see what I mean!
Don’t forget to join the Tres Jolie Mood Board Challenge this month! Make sure to place your entry in the September 2022 Challenge folder on the Tres Jolie Kit Club Café Facebook page by 11:59pm CST on September 30, 2022, for your chance to win a prize!
Alright! Time to get talkin’ about this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat!
The first thing to do was to put my base together. There aren’t too many pieces – I tried to keep it as simple as possible while creating the size I wanted while using my 12” x 12” cutting mat and cardstock. There really is only one way everything fits together, but I have included a photo for reference using the cut file.
After my cardstock base was together, I added some black gesso to all of the areas that I thought may or may not get covered by the patterned paper pieces – I did it mostly because I had used white cardstock, if I had used a darker cardstock or a coordinating cardstock, I don’t know if I would have added the gesso. However, it did also give a little extra stiffness to the base, so that was a bonus I hadn’t really thought of! And, even though it is no longer noticeable, I also added a layer of “Halo Pink Gold” Metallic Paint on top of the black gesso – just to be prepared in case any of those areas didn’t get covered in the later stages.
I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do for the inside of the hat, I just knew I didn’t want to just give it a coat of paint. Finally, I decided to see if I could do a paint pour – on some tissue paper – to create a liner! It was messy, but it worked! And I was able to use that paint pour on the inside, sides. For the inside top, I just mixed up a little more to pour and dumped it right in.
I wanted to get as many pieces ready for assembly as possible before sitting down to start the process, so I used some leather-effect polymer clay to create the “leather” underside of the brim and I used some metallic and glitter polymer clay in a couple of embossing folders to create the sheets of “metal” to fill between the leather-clay and to use along the outer edge of the brim.
The final set of pre-assembly pieces I made were the patterned paper panels and the pink band for the hat. For the pink band, I just cut the half-sheet from the paper pack in half and connected the ends to make one long strip.
For the top, side, and brim patterned paper panels, I partly eyeballed, partly measured approximately where the cut would be – especially for the pieces that have the mannequins, hot air balloon, etc. – and cut them all out. Much like the base pieces, there are not a lot of ways for the pieces to fit all together, but I will add a reference photo here for the panel locations on the base.
As I sat staring at all my pieces, trying to decide how to use those chipboard and cut-apart pipes, I thought of windows; little steampunk windows to see the “inner workings” of the hat. I grabbed up some circle dies, picked a few places around the brim and on top of the hat, and cut the circles out of the patterned paper.
I used a couple of stencils with a couple TCW Stencil butters to add some dimension and texture to the circles I cut out, coated the chipboard pipes in copper embossing powders, and added some Beads In A Bottle to create a little dimension and bolts/rivets to the chipboard. Then I started the assembly process while I waited for my resin to set up in my gilding flake coated, polymer clay window frames.
After all my pipes were in place I gave them a coating of clear gesso so I’d be able to add my paints to create the illusion of depth with shadows.
Now it was finally time to add my patterned paper panels! I also added the pink band, and I created the inside band using the half-sheet of paper from the pack that looks like leather. I finished adding all my clay pieces to the underside of the rim and added them to the outer edge of the brim.
So now I had all of the pieces of the hat together – except the windows – and started my work on filling any gaps and smoothing it all out. I used a mix of gold Stencil Butter, gold Beads In A Bottle, and 3D Matte Gel to smooth along the edge of the brim with all the layers, and to fill in any spaces that I thought needed it. To prepare for the addition of the windows, I added a ring of Beads In A Bottle around the circles on the hat brim and top.
While my hat sat off to let that gold mix dry, I got to work on putting the focal point of the hat together. I grabbed up some mould pieces and used 3D Matte Gel to hold them in place, and after adding my gesso, I started adding the first layers of paint. While the gears and heart were setting up, I put my pipe pieces together and added the first layers of paint to them. I added the heart and gears to the pipes using more 3D Matte Gel, and set it off to let it set up while I added my lace bits and gilding flakes to my hat base. Before I got too much further along, I added a coat of Workable Fixatif so when the time came to add my final paints there would be a layer of protection on the patterned paper that would keep the wet from just soaking right in.
I laid my hat on its side, using whatever I had on hand to hold it in place and prop it up so the side I wanted to add the heart and pipes to was, at least mostly, level. I made sure to do this close to bedtime, so the 3D Matte Gel I used to hold the resin pieces in place had time to set up – without me becoming impatient and checking it too soon! I also started adding some art stones to the areas I could get at with the hat on its side.
Now it was finally time to add on the windows in preparation for the final layers of paint, art stones, and waxes.
I added more paint to my resin pieces, being careful when I was near my windows so they wouldn’t get splatter on them, and then just started working my way down from the top of the hat with more art stones and my paints. I let all the paint dry before flipping my hat over and adding some paint to the underside of the brim.
The final touches on this Shabby-Steampunk Top Hat were the addition of a few Finnabair waxes to the top, sides, art stones, lace, and the top and underside of the brim.
Thank you for joining me here in my corner! I hope you enjoyed my Shabby-Steampunk, mood board inspired, Top Hat and it gave you some ideas and inspiration for how you can use this month’s Scrapbooking Kit and/or find inspiration for your own mood board project!
Stay Crafty, Friends
Did you get a kit? Share what you made in our Facebook Group!
C.J.'s Corner Scraps 