Bird and Nest Bathroom Sign

I’ve been wanting to make a bathroom sign for a long time. We have two doors close together and even when we direct someone to the washroom, they aren’t sure which door to open.

We had a nasty computer paper printed sign in the ugliest font ever since our annual BBQ last summer. I was so sick of looking at it! So I pulled out a plaque that hubby brought home from work. Ya know those ‘employee of the month’ type cheapie plaques?  Yep, one of those. It’s not real wood so I sanded it down enough to let gesso stick and covered it in 4 coats.

Then I covered part of it in the damask stencil using molding paste. I allowed that to dry then added white crackle paste in a fairly thick layer to the unstencilled areas. After that dried, I added the roses stencil over the crackle. So much glorious texture! (check out the area under the BATH letters in the above photo) Then I added some mists over top. I added a mist to the bottom too but I didn’t like the colour so I over coloured it in Copic airbrushing. That was much better, a warmer colour.

Next I started to work on the nest and branch. The nest was premade but I had to cut it in half first. Before cutting it, I applied some gel medium to the area where I planned to cut it. Not such a good idea. It didn’t dry completely clear so I had to colour it and cover it up with some raffia. What a pain! I’d recommend white glue if you ever need to do something similar. To make the branch, I used some wire covered in some sort of natural twine type stuff. I twisted 5 pieces together, shaped them and glued on the leaves and buds.

The bird was made from 5 layered ivory die cuts coloured with Copic airbrushing. I used a black rhinestone for the eye. I added 3 beads to the nest for eggs. Then last but not least, I added the copper Perfect Pearls, the letters and the rhinestone and ribbon bundle along with some bling. The rhinestone already had a loop on it and that’s how I tied on the ribbons. I really wish you could see this in person; it’s soooo much prettier! I’ll try to add some closeups later.

I made this for the Monthly Mixed Media Challenge. This month’s theme was Birds of a Feather. Click the graphic to visit the challenge.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Roses Thanks Card for Mojo Monday

This week’s Mojo Monday was to make patterned papers with stamping and mix them together to make a card.

I used my new MISTI tool to line up the text stamping and it works sooo well! Yeah! I ordered one and in the two weeks it took to get it, I noticed many times when I wished I already had it! It’s a truly amazing tool. The only drawback is that my magnets don’t work well through the foam so my paper can shift. But it’s not too hard to line it back up again.

My thanks die cut is made from a total of 5 layers of cardstock one yellow and 4 white. I wanted to lay it over the roses but as they were popped up, I was stuck because I didn’t want the die cut to be uneven; popped up on one end but not on the other. So I trimmed away the white layers behind the yellow thanks die to help even it out. It worked perfectly!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: PTI BB: Hearts, BB: gingham, sweet life
Paper: white, blush, aqua, harvest gold CS
Ink: berry sorbet, harvest gold, aqua mist, spring moss, Hawaiian shores,
Accessories: foam dots-Sticky Stuff Store, ribbon-May Arts, Thanks die-Mama Elephant, other dies-PTI, wink of stella marker (on thanks die cut)

12 Tags of 2015 - March

I thought this month’s tag was quite doable. And quite pretty even though I decided to use lighter background colours.

There are quite a few different techniques involved in making this tag; an acrylic paint background, masking, adding texture paste and embossing that texture paste. Be sure to visit Tim’s Blog to see the whole tutorial. I made mine pretty much the same except I chose not to mask my images. I just worked around the images mostly. I actually liked them overlapping some.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Tim Holtz
Ink: Archival black-Ranger
Paper: ivory CS-PTI
Accessories: various brands of acrylic paint, Golden acrylic paint, washi tape, stencil-Tim H., gold EP-SU!, Liquitex embossing paste, butterfly charm-Making Memories, other metal embellies, hand dyed seam binding ribbon, gold twine-stash

Thanks Card Set

Sadly my great-uncle is in the hospital dying. My poor great-aunt has been there as many hours as is humanly possible. Lots of people have been helping out, bring food etc. So I figured she will need some thank you cards shortly.

This first card is for the Sweet Sunday Sketch. I liked the wonky panel. I like my banners to point to the right though so I flipped the sketch. The banner is actually made from white CS swiped with Tattered Rose ink. It took ages because my pad is a bit dry. But the colour was perfect with this Theresa Collins paper.

This next one is one of my favourite CAS sketches. I die cut the Thanks and coloured it with Copic markers. I only used two so the ombre isn’t that pronounced but it looks nice. W5 and 7. Very simple but interesting.

The last card layout was one I stumbled upon. I started by trying out the colours I was thinking of using on a scrap in the bottom. I didn’t like the colours so I stamped another bunch of hexagons higher up. This colour combo was much better but when I looked at my scratch paper, I had a much more interesting layout than the single cluster I had planned. I added two more clusters, to balance everything out, and ta da!

I had one more happy accident. I had planned for a totally flat card. Very mailable but boring. But I couldn’t think of what to add. Then I goofed and inked the stamp I always stamped in yellow in the aqua ink and stamped. Not a pretty colour, NUTS! So I stamped it on scrap paper, cut it out and added it with foam dots.

The top left and bottom right most hexagons are up on foam dots. I hope my aunt likes these. I kept her in mind when I made them as she loves soft colours and quilting. I think the hexagons look like quit squares, don’t you?

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE

Thanks for Your Support and Ombre Thanks
Stamps: Thanks all ways-PTI
Ink: cup o joe-HA, tattered rose, frayed burlap-Distress
Paper: Theresa Collins DP, kraft, white CS-PTI
Accessories: die-Mama Elephant, W5, 7

Hex Thanks Cards
Stamps: Hexagons, Thanks all Ways-PTI
Ink: harvest gold, sweet blush, melon berry, aqua mist-PTI
Paper: white, harvest gold, sweet blush, melon berry, aqua mist CS
Accessories: foam dots-Sticky Stuff Store

Butterfly Shaker Card

This is for the latest CAS(e) this sketch Challenge.

I immediately thought about the center rectangle as a recessed area leaving the outer edge was a frame rather than elevating it as a panel. So what to fill the frame with? Of course, a shaker pocket!

I used Lawn Fawn and Pretty Pink Posh sequins along with Martha Stewart heart glitter which is so big it’s more like small confetti pieces. The inner panel was cut from the middle after stamping. It was a bit tricky getting the inner panel aligned correctly after adding all the foam without letting the sequins fall out. So I closed the back by replacing the panel and attaching it to the foam on the frame with a piece of copy paper. Then I added the entire thing to the card base.

Click on the sketch to visit the challenge.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Altenew
Ink: chocolate, hawaiian shores, hibiscus burst, raspberry fizz-PTI
Paper: white, aqua mist, hibiscus burst CS-PTI
Accessories: foam tape-Dollar store, sequins-as above, rectangle die-Spellbinders, Wink of Stella pen, love you die-SSS