Birthday Triptych with Stencils and Paints and so much more!

Hi Everyone!  It's Sue L. here today to show you a Birthday Triptych I made with three plain chipboard coasters:

This is the inside with all three coasters open.

This is the triptych all folded up and how I will put it in the envelope.

Left side closed - I made the leaves match the inside third coaster.

Left side open, right side closed - again I made the flower match.

Then I started adding Tim Holtz Remnant Rubs Life Quotes 

I LOVE the music notes - wish, wish make a wish

I used more remnant rubs on the front cover - hello friend, enjoy today, best day ever, and her birthdate.  You can also see the TCW Mini Specimen stencil with Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 metallic gold embossing paste - LOVE! and the TCW Chevron Tile Stencil I applied WV Studio 490 white embossing paste through and painted with Silks Acryllic Glaze Sky Blue.  I wanted it to look like book binding.  I made holes and tied it all together with seam binding that matched the inside art.

As much as I hated to because I hate my handwriting, I signed it for my friend with a Fude Ball Black pen.

 

Process photos:

I free hand drew a flower and leaves with a pencil.  I am no artist!  But this shows that YOU, too, can do this!  I went back in and erased the lines I didn't want.  NOTE:  These lines are just a guide and don't have to be perfect.

I closed the left coaster so I could match the leaves.

 

I closed the left coaster and matched the flower.

This is what the back looks like.

I painted the left with Tim Holtz Distress Paints, ( I own ALL of the colors!), Silks Acryllic Glazes, and added Inka-Gold for shine.  Everything was outlined with Adirondack Pitch Black paint.  On the right, I played with Gelatos just to see what they looked like on the coaster.

This shows how I scribbled the gelatos on and what happened when I added water with a wet brush.

Here I painted the leaves and BG with Tim Holtz Distress paint and then went over it with Silks Acryllic Glaze for a Beautiful shine!

This shows the TCW Chevron Stencil with WV white embossing paste.  When it dried, I went over it with Sky Blue Silks Acryllic Glaze.

In this last photo, you can see the butterflies and how pretty the specimens look in gold!

 

Well that's it!  I hope you like it!  My friend is going to swoon because she will KNOW how much time and Love I put into this triptych for her!  Sure beats my usual Birthday Card!

 

Also, DON'T FORGET!  There is still time to link YOUR beautiful creation using stencils to our eclectic Paperie ePlay Stencil Challenge!  It ends May 31st and YOU could win a shopping voucher to the eP Shop!  Come Play with us!

Poppy Tag

Hello everyone! It's Bonnie Irvine here with a tag to share today. We have had such lovely warm weather that my plants are finally starting to do exciting things in the garden. The Bachelor's Buttons are budding and almost ready to pop and since I love their beautiful blue flowers that makes me very happy. One of my other favourite flowers, the poppies, are gaining in height but will keep me waiting a while longer for the stunning blooms. So...I decided to create my own :)

I started out with a #10 manila tag (4.5 x 8.5") and applied dictionary text paper from the Authentique Renew Collection to the tag. Another piece of dotted paper from the same paper pad was torn and adhered across the bottom after being inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink. Interest was added to these backgrounds by applying Peacock Feathers DI over Christy Tomlinson's Vintage Lace stencil and Black Soot over TCW's Min Chevron stencil. The edges of the text paper were inked with Peacock Feathers DI and Vintage Photo DI was scuffed here and there to grunge up the middle.

Donna Downey's Wild Poppy Silhouette stamp from Unity was stamped twice with Tuxedo Black Memento ink: once on the tag itself and once on another piece of the Renew paper focusing on the flower heads only. The second set of flowers was fussy cut and then sculpted with a large ball stylus to create dimension and shape. The bottom of each flower was glued directly to the stamped tag but the middle and ends of the petals were popped up on several layers of foam dots. White gesso was pounced through the TCW Mini Punchinella stencil with a scruffy brush over the background and onto the poppy silhouettes. White Gelato was used to highlight the tips of the petals.

Now this was one of those mixed media pieces that had to go through Seven Stages of Ugly before I started to like it...you know the ones where you keep eyeing the garbage can and nudging it a little closer with your foot after each step :) A Bo Bunny letter cancellation stamp was applied using Tuxedo Black ink. Blueberry, Cotton Candy, and Grape Gelatos were scuffed here and there and then spread with a wet finger or a wet brush. Black and Brown Big Brush pens were used to outline the edges of the tag and doodling was added with a black Micron pen. Brown shading was applied next to the flowers and stems with an Inktense pencil and then spread with a wet brush.

Not there yet! Hmmm, three short lengths of black and white dotty ribbon were stapled to the sides of the tag with a Tiny Attacher. Maya Road canvas butterflies were sprayed with fresh Lime and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions inks, dotted with teal paint, and given key bodies. Glossy Accents was applied over each flower and allowed to dry. Getting closer... a black piece of cardstock was adhered to the back of the tag to frame it. A reinforcement was inked with Black Alcohol ink and applied around the hole. And finally, some wired turquoise ribbon was fed through the hole and tied with Idea-ology Tinsel Twine. Phew...I think I like it!

The final step was to add Idea-ology letters spelling out poppy. White paint pen dots were added to the letters both to continue the dot theme and to help them stand out. It also took away from the plain appearance. Cotton Candy Gelato was applied with a wet brush to the inside letter openings. This tag served as a good reminder to me to keep on going even when I wasn't thrilled with the results. Again, it's that ol' "Trust The Process" thing that often happens with mixed media.

Anyway, thanks for the company today. We love it when you visit!

Bonnie

To check out the products I used on this tag, click on the thumbnails below to arrive at the listing at the eclectic Paperie store.

Authentique - Renew Paper Pack	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Distress Ink Pad - Peacock Feathers
Idea-ology Tiny Attacher	Pink Paislee - She Art (Christy Tomlinson) - Stencil - Vintage Lace	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Chevron	Unity Stamp Company - Wild Poppy Silhouette (Donna Downey)
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Blue Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Black and White	Inkssesentials - Glossy Accents 2 oz.
Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Neutral	Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Tinsel Twine - Black	Idea-ology - Alpha Parts Signmaker

Distressed Hummingbird

Hello again eP friends!! Starla here again for project number 3 as a guest DT this month!!

This past week has been one of those weeks.  You know, kids having project boards due, games to attend and packing the oldest kids for music tour.

Yeah.  Pretty much the type of schedule that zaps thoughts of creating, LOL!!  So this week, I wanted  needed to keep things a bit more simple.  This week, I did a bit of sketching with distressed water coloring!

One of my creative goals for this year is to get back to my roots in art and include more sketching, drawing, and painting in my  projects.  I've so enjoyed the projects eP's own Micki  has been doing on her lunch hours.  I decided to pull out all those accumulated but unused (cough cough) Distress Stains  and the couple of new Distress Paints that I just happened to have jump into my cart!

I started with a pad of watercolor paper.  I used a Versa Mark stamp pad on top of TCW's  Maraposa stencil then covered the wet ink with clear embossing powder. 

After melting the embossing powder, I randomly applied Distress Stains to my paper and used a wet watercolor brush to blend the inks together.

I spritzed my hand with water and flicked the droplets onto the stains to create more texture. 

Note:  In hind sight, I would either sketch out my page first or emboss after I had the other elements on the page.  My hummingbird had to be placed a bit too far to the left so as not to cover my butterfly!!

Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Gesso was used to white out the basic hummingbird body.  A combination of Distress Stains and Distress Paints  were used to paint the body of the hummingbird. I used TCW's Mini Circle Explosion Stencil  with a combination of Distress Inks and Distress Stains to add some texture onto the belly.

This really became a mixed media project as I then used the Distress Stains, Paints, Inks with pastel pencils and charcoal pencils to add more depth and shading.  

Distress Stain was also used to create the "flowers".

I really liked how the Distress Stains  could mimic the characteristics of traditional watercolors.  I was also pleasantly surprised in that the Distress Paints  are different from "regular" acrylic paints.  I will be brushing up more on those rusty sketching and painting skills combining these mediums more in the future!!

FYI: Distress Stains used: Fired Brick, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Broken China.  Distress Inks used: Aged Mahogany, Faded Jeans, Fired Brick.  Distress Paints used: Peeled Paint, Broken China.

'Till next week..........