Share and Grow

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend and welcome to all my new followers - I am honoured to have you 'on board'. Reasons to be thankful: it has been a busy couple of days in Blogland with all sorts of fantastic tips and techniques being shared. Some to highlight (by no means an exhaustive list!) include Sue C at Frilly and Funkie, Anita Houston at The Artful Maven Haven, Amy Lynn at Sparkling Gnome Studios, and Hels Sheridan at Ink on my Fingers. Going to workshops and demos is fantastic if you are able to access them, but if not, there are so many wonderfully talented crafters/artists who freely share their ideas and inspirations with the crafty community - a HUGE THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

Another fellow crafter I have learned loads from is Julia S-W, who introduced me to the wonders of metal tape (I've banged on about her flowers before). Recently I posted a couple of examples using this medium and today's project is another of those. It is the next part of my OH's pressie (which is coming along nicely) and incorporates a TH CC2 technique called Faux Patina (page 58 - one of Linda Ledbetter's first challenges that I missed originally).

The recipe for the background is as follows; metal tape applied to card and embossed with an Indentz tree folder; patina created using White Mixative, Butterscotch and Stonewashed alcohol inks and a splash of Blending Solution; a bit of a scrub with steel wool; and 'fence' created using an old Anna Griffin wooden stamp with Pine Needles and Snowflake Embossing Tinsel.

The letters are grungeboard Alphas, coloured with a mix of Wild Honey, Pine Needles and Walnut Stain, and then covered with Crackle Glaze - I find this tends to blend the colours even more and gives them a slightly mottled look.

The leaves were punched from silver mirror card coloured on the reverse with teal ink. The pocket watch was stamped in Black Archival ink onto a spare bit of grungeboard using a Clarity stamp, coloured with Wild Honey and covered with Crackle Glaze. Finally the number was also stamped onto grungeboard using Pine Needles and had Crackle Glaze applied. The glaze is intended to make the grungeboard as 'husband at work proof' as I can manage!!

I decided to stop at this point as sometimes (OK, often!) I get carried away and add too much to a small project. One hint here though - after applying inks/solution to metal the surface can be a little sticky, even if it has been heated, so I gave it a quick wipe with an anti-static pad which solved the problem. OK, time to disappear for today - I have a date with some gesso, acrylic paint, Brilliance ink and bits of paper (thanks Hels! - see link above and you may become more enlightened!?) Hugs, Buttons x