Playing with clay

In the middle of somewhat (very) busy life I’m having now, I managed to craft up a few bits of clay (I’m positive there must be a phrasal verb ‘to craft up, right?).

Here there are, along with a mini photo tutorial on hows.

I love my newly bought silicon moulds 🙂

Materials used; air drying clay (though I believe for bigger pieces I would stick the thing into an oven for 30 min with some hardening in temp. varnish), acrylics, bitumen by maimeri, twinkling H2Os. Treated at the end with two sprays of polyurethane varnish.

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Mixed media large key cabinet

For this project I tried out Tim Holtz distress embossing powder, walnut stain over the key embossed image that was in the end sanded with 180 grade sand paper to reveal the key pattern.

The inside of the frame is a proper mix of various techniques, including pressing a cake decorating stencil onto a layer of not so dry acrylic paint and splashing the ‘sandwich’ with Tim Holtz alcohol inks. With the last layer of acrylic varnish I sprinkled some mica onto the ‘oranges’. The part with the three pewter hooks was created by pressing actual bronze keys into a thick layer of tile grout. When it dried, it was covered with Americana quadricone gold and then, when dried again, sanded slightly to reveal the key pattern. Must say I like the brown/resist embossing frames best!

Peacock tissue box

Tags

decoupage tissue box, moroccan stencil, napkin decopage, peacock embossing folder, stamping with mica powder, viva decor inka gold

I like the idea of having a paper napkin glued to a piece of card stock that in turn gets to be cut into pieces, sort of like a mosaic pieces that you may arrange on top of that something you are about to alter. This time I played a bit with a napkin with a beautiful peacock motif and after many hours of cutting it down to a homemade moroccan pattern, embossing, gilding and colouring with inka gold wax by Viva Decor it was ready to be arranged on top of a wooden tissue box.

I also used that wonderful waxy paste from Viva to decorate the sides via a stencil. As for the bottom, I quickly stamped the turquoise background with silicone stamp and a versamark embossing stamp pad and brushed three shades of mica powder on.

ps. Could somebody bring back the sun, please? Taking pictures that would show all the intricate details and, most importantly, true colours, is almost next to impossible 🙂

A bit folky decoupage tray

Tags

bi colour stamping, decorate wooden tray, decoupage ornaments, decoupage tray, distressing with inks and acrylics, hot embossing, paper decoupage

Hello all!

Just a quickie before we set off for a bit of holiday…. a whole month visiting my family and friends in Poland. Can’t wait.

so… lots of techniques, let’s start with the sides then:

(hot embossing over background distressed with a bit of shabby chic (-ing :)) plus alcohol inks and distress stains)

I used fine, white opaque embossing powder and a part of a stamp from a lovely Indian paisley set by Viva Decor. Similar stamps from the very same set used here.

For the top I inked a floral background stamp with a shade of off white and autumn leaf, stamped four times, this over a navy blue acrylic background (I know, I know… looks black :))

The rest is quite obvious; it’s paper and some quilling strips of paper painted gold for the ‘framing’ bit. Still needs lots of varnishing so I am still to post the final pic. of a glass like surface over some paper cut outs 🙂

Till next time and thanks for stopping by!

d.

Mod Podge transfer – ferns and wild mushrooms decoupage box

Tags

botanical prints decoupage, dandelion stamp, decorating wooden box, decoupage projects, embossed paper, ferns and mushroom prints, mixed media, Mod Podge transfer

Hello again!

I do always struggle what to call my latest creations. I started my crafting journey more or less three years ago with simple decoupage projects. A bit of paint, napkin cut outs, sealed with varnish, voila! a finished piece. Then, of course, I got hungry for more techniques and tricks. So I’m always itching to try a combination of decorating solutions for one piece. And then I need to come up with a fairly brief title that would give you a rough idea what are you looking at. Not possible. At least not this time 🙂

So, here it is:

Mod Podge (matte plaid) transfer of laser print outs of mushrooms and ferns;

Latin names, flies and dandelions stamped with Versamark pine cone ink;

I tried embossing a couple of flies with a clear embossing powder, later buffed with some silver rub ons;

Cold embossing, hot embossing, Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks, sand paper (I love this technique, it’s pure magic :));

Again, MP transfers and embossed dandelions;

I must say that MP is the easiest and the quickest transfer method for laser print outs I have ever tried. You just need to be careful when removing the backing paper from the edges of more intricate motifs.

Alcohol inks, embossing and inkjet transfer

Tags

alcohol ink techniques, decoupage injet Mod Podge transfer, decoupage tissue box, embossed metal sheet, peacock motif, Tim Holtz inks

Hi all!

Playing with various techniques is what’s makes crafting journey so exciting. This time it was no different. I decided to try this awesome method of transferring inkjet print out onto wood. It involves covering your printer paper with glue and after it dries you simply print out an image of your choice that you then stick face down onto a surface treated with a thin layer of Mod Podge (any other acrylic varnish will do the job as well). Spray mist the back of the paper and gently remove the excess paper with your fingers. You need to repeat that step enough times to receive a clear image. Seal it with spray fixative and then with acrylic varnish of your choice.

The sides are embossed metal sheet, primed with gesso and treated with several colours from the wonderful range of Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks. Sand paper was used to reveal the metal bits from underneath the gesso and inks layer. A few mm thick stripes of embossed sheet were also used to ‘frame’ the top.

Flowery elements were cut out from a piece of embossed paper, also treated with inks.

As the peacock image came out quite pale, I needed to boost the colours with inks, using a fine tip brush. It was later sealed with a couple of polyurethane coats, followed by several coats of Maimeri glossy varnish.

And a close up:

and that’s the bottom:

Must say, I definitely will be playing with the inks some more :)!

Mica powders decoupage butterfly bowl

Tags

decoupage bowl, glossy varnish, mica powders, modelling paste reliefs, napkin decoupage, stencilling with gel medium, structure paste ornaments

Spring is (slowly…) coming to town! Hence the change in my decorating mood :). This time I was curious how easy is to ‘paint’ with mica powders. It turns out that when applied on a slightly wet surface that was primed with gesso several times, they are very easy to work with. You just need a flat, soft brush and some wet wipes in case the surface you are working on begins to dry a bit quicker than expected :). The best way to seal mica powders is a spray varnish, followed by several coats of glossy varnish by Maimeri. The butterfly and floral motifs are cut outs from 3 different paper napkins. Actually, gluing down these tiny pieces proved to be the most difficult part here. As they say – patience is a virtue! 🙂

The reliefs were made using a flexible stencil and modelling paste mixed with gold acrylic paint.

And that’s the back:

Gilded mdf box and a stamping trick!

Tags

decorating mdf box, distressing with ink pads, faux cloisonne, gold leaf, paper napkin decoupage

Just by accident (I love crafting accidents :)!) I discovered a nifty trick to use when playing with faux gilding, ink and stamps.

But let us start from the beginning. This little mdf box was firstly covered with lots and lots of paint, bitumen, patinas, gold flakes and stamping inks. It was then give a few coats of glossy varnish by Maimeri. A small, square cutting from a paper napkin was glued from the underneath the little window in the middle of the lid. Another piece of gold leaf covered the bottom of the image, and since I cut the napkin in several places, the gold leaf begun the show through these tiny holes.

and a ‘before duck’ close up:

The bottom part was covered with gold leaf and distressed with several shades of stamping ink with ‘green winter’ as the primary colour. I then used a clear stamp, and by ‘clear’ I mean I did not ink it with any colour. It was used to remove the winter green ink from the gold leaf, a sort of reverse embossing. This was as if the green ink was removed, lifted off the surface with the stamp. It created a beautiful, almost cloisonne like, floral effect. I really do recommend playing with this nifty technique. Let’s call it ‘reverse embossing’, for a lack of a better expression :). And a note to myself – I wonder how this trick would play out with paint, and not ink… hmm… must try this one out next time.

Reverse embossing aka stamping onto gold leaf with no ink 🙂

And the finished piece:

Citra-solv transfer and UTEE stamp embossing

Tags

citra-solv transfer, decoupage transfer, fornasetti, mica powders, UTEE triple embossing, versacolor

Hello again!

This time I played with a very cool technique of pressing stamps into slightly melted black UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) found here. Before using stamps to make an imprint, I added a bit of colour to the black, triple UTEE coating with various mica powders. Firstly, I tested the technique on a small, wooden heart. It worked well 🙂

Next, I went for a small box and I chose to do a quick laser print transfer with citra-solv of a famous fornasetti image to decorate the top of the box. Further distressed with two shades of ink (Versacolor) and stamped, the top was treated with a few coats of satin finish. As for the bottom, all four sides were coated with UTEE, coloured with mica powders and stamped with four different stamp sets (for clear lines go with bolder designes).

Make sure to check out other amazing techniques used by this very talented craft lady :)!

Embossed paper decoupage box

Tags

brass clock, decorating wooden box, distressing with ink pads, embossed paper, mixed media box decorating

Hi! Did I wish you all a Happy New Year… no, not really… isn’t it obvious that the 2013 will be the greatest ever? of course it is… for everyone…

I’m opening this season with a mixed media/decoupage box. I wanted to play a bit with decorating a wooden box with embossed pieces of paper. Firstly, I painted them metallic copper and once glued, they were treated with a silver rub-on. The top of the box has a scrapbook paper (both the background and the clock faces) glued to it with a thick layer of mod podge. Several layers of varnish later I carefully positioned a couple of brass clock on top of the clock faces to match the time theme.

The bottom was painted antique gold and then distressed with my favourite distressing tools, namely ink pads, a quite of few of them actually. I only gave a one layer of satin finish to the sides, this in contrast to the mirror like top finish.