Brusho and Stampendous Butterfly Charms

 

 After the Easter break we're at the end of the short working week...

You'll probably know by now clocks are my thing! Lol
I find it particularly easy to design these little time pieces and very enjoyable too.
So I've done a mini tutorial for you today to show you my thought process and each stage.

I'm a big fan of Stampendous stamps and this Butterfly Charms clear set is no exception.
I also wanted to show you how I've used just one colour of Brusho, 

this one being Light Brown.

I start by die cutting a circle, this one is 12cm, and making a hole 

big enough for the clock mechanism in the center.
I use a good quality stamping card or watercolour card.

I nearly always sketch or plan my designs on copy paper,
this saves wastage and is good for future reference.
This also means I can work out the positioning of any digits I want to add
and planning the overall composition.

Before begining my stamping I marked lightly with a pencil where the main 12, 3, 6 and 9 digits would sit.
The butterflies can then be positiioned correctly.
Next I stamped my design in Black Onyx Versafine.
When I stamped the butterflies I clear embossed them too.

Now the reason I chose just one colour of Brusho was to highlight that there are many other colours contained within some of the individual colour pots.

These little pots are highly pigmented and I have used only the tiniest amount.
The brown is no exception and the colours within this pot work

 particularly well with this vintage feel I was trying to achieve.

 

 

Before starting to add the colour I masked off the postage mark and postcard area, 

this gives more interest to the finished piece.
I sprinkled the smallest amount of crystal on the areas I wanted to colour, 

mainly the center and in between the butterflies.

Then I spritzed with a fine mist spray to disperse the colour.

I added the colour very sparingly and built up to my desired affect by drying with a heat tool in between each application and repeating three times.

You need to dry between applications otherwise the card gets too wet and the colours all just run together.

As I'd embossed the butterflies the Brusho sat around the outer edges creating nice interest.

I didn't want to colour the butterflies.

Once I'd removed the masks I then applied a tiny amount of Brusho just around the outside circle edge of the postcard section.

Using a Versamark watermark pen and clear embossing powder I further embossed the whole of the butterflies another couple of times to make them really glossy and stand out from the rest of the design.

I also outlined them with a pale grey alcohol pen.

Now I usually mount my clock discs onto a CD but for this I used greyboard

 again die cut from the same size die.

The circles can then be glued together and I sponged the edges with 

Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Finally I assembeld my clock with the mechanism and hands.

If you have any questions about the clocks please just ask Lisa or myself.

Hope you found this tutorial useful and like my little vintage design.

Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead.

Thanks so much for reading today.

Crafty Hugs xKx

      

 

Layer It Up

 

 

 

**This post is part of the Magnificent Men promotion fortnight. Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway.**

 

Morning, Kirsten here, I hope you’re all well.

 

For today' card I cut three pieces of kraft card; one central panel & two smaller ones for each side. I used a circle die to cut the semicircles. Using my fingers I began adding paint to the pieces, covering the kraft card in places & leaving it slightly visible in others. I added a few layers of paint, sometimes wiping paint off with a baby wipe & drying in between each layer until I was happy.

 

 

Now for some stamping. I used the Kaisercraft Bubble Wrap acrylic stamp with Coffee Archival ink, holding the stamp in my hand instead of using a block.

 

 

This, combined with only using second-, third-, etc., generation stamping will give you a much more random & faded result.

 

 

Now for some colour. Some inks, like Versacolor, won’t be permanent on acrylic paints, unless you use embossing powder over them, so I used Archival inks, a red & a brown, on the two side panels. You could also use Stazon.

 

Now for the focal image. I used the Kaisercraft birdcage clear stamp with embossing ink & Stix 2 Copper Transfer Foil from the Vintage Tones set.

 

 

If you haven't used transfer foil before, I’ve broken down each step as follows;

 

Swipe your card with an anti-static pad

Stamp image with embossing ink, e.g. Versamark

Cover with Stamp ‘n’ Bond - a heat activated adhesive in powder form -  return the excess to the jar

Heat set the first section

Quickly place the foil onto the sticky image. Make sure the SHINY side is FACING you.

Burnish for a few seconds with your finger

Gently pull the foil away from the image

 

This is the result………….

 

 

Super shiny!

 

Sometimes, you'll get a patchy area, which I like, but if you don’t you can reheat the image & replace the foil, that usually works.

 

After this, I decided the background needed something else, so I added some water to white acrylic paint, loaded a small paintbrush with the mix & tapped it sharply over the panels to get white splatters, which I let dry naturally. You can heat dry, but the mix will tend to be absorbed into the paint underneath, leaving only faint splatters. I used a baby wipe to remove drops of paint from the foiled birdcage.

 

To finish, I added Crafts Too metal brads to each corner of the central panel, tied some seam binding & a metal embellishment to one side panel, added the die cut labels – I used Old Paper distress ink on these, they’re not as white as they look here -  with tiny Crafts Too brads & stamped the sentiment from the HobbyArt's Butterfly Kisses Musical Print stamp set with black Versacolor & heat set with clear embossing powder. I backed the panels with black card & used a 7x7 kraft card for the base.

 

 

 

 

                               

 

That’s it for today see you next time. Don’t forget that, as well as the giveaway, the new blog challenge is up & running. Happy crafting.

 

Kirsten