butterfly box step by step / WOYWW #112

I've been away for a while but now I am back. And what better way to come back than to join in with Julia's WOYWW

(what's on your workdesk wednesday )

I have a project that I have been working on sporadically since January

and

It's finally  ( almost)   finish !

I started working on this  while on vacation

and while cleaning my craft room yesterday I found, it and decided it was time to finish it.

So instead of clearing out old magazines and folding new fabric...

I picked up my little box and started to play.

Who needs clearing and folding anyway?

So to recap

In January I found a cute box

added a layer of glue and paint

more paint around the edges

I used paper and paint tio line the inside

Found a beautiful piece of paper to cover the front

I chose to use the butterfly portion

covered with a few layers of paint and ink

I used ink and colored pencil to "age" the edges

more pencil to add definition and shadow

now on to embellishment.

well.....I said I was ALMOST finished

I need to finish this by mid August because I have special plans for it.

shhhhh....it's a secret

Thanks for stopping by.

If you didn't come from Julia's WOYWW Link party.

Go there now to see all of the other contributors work spaces.

a little word about a bird on burlap

If you've been with me for the last month you know I am not in my home studio basement. I am enjoying some sunshine and uninterrupted playtime. Being away from home has been challenging because I brought minimal supplies with me and I refuse to go shop for more.

As you may have read.... I have this bottle of water soluble varnish that I want to use up.
So far I've shown you how to use it to  add elements to a collage   and  to reverse an image and how to use it to.
You might want to go read those posts first so you know what I am talking about.


Now I'd  like to show you how to add an image to a ruff surface... such as burlap.
.yes that's  how "I" spell ruff...so no comments about misspelled words please.

This technique is not my idea....or maybe it is.... it might be the result of playing with various other ideas...
who knows  ...  but I really don't remember where I read it...   if I read it...   or if it was in a dream....
I have been artsy and crafty for over fifty years.... probably even more than that if you count all my past lives..... there's a lot of stuff in the old noggin.   I read ALL the magazines.... and a lot of blogs... If I ever come across it, I will let you know....If you have seen it please let me know so I can post it. It's alot like paper fabric or fabric paper.....and I think I may have seen it used to make a votive holder... or was that a dream too?

Well on with the show....

I want the image of the bird on a piece of burlap....

 using lace paper or a very thin handmade paper and varnish

cover the burlap ...don't use a lot of varnish...just enough to moisten the paper.

use a gentle pouncing motion to work the paper into the burlap

 you can see the varnish is still wet.

Stamp image on thin tissue paper...

in this photo the lace paper is larger that my burlap....it gets torn off later 

 pounce the image onto the burlap...the tissue paper will become very transparent.

without the lace paper, the image world be very hard to see.
(If you use a lighter color fabric instead of the brown burlap you really don't need the white middle layer.)

 gently tear away the paper and tissue

 this is going to take a while to dry

Go shoe shopping.... or go to a movie
or if it's late...go to bed

I tried to dry one in the microwave once....don't do that.

 I love the texture here....

Now go forth and use this technique on all types of heavily textured fabrics

linen, aida , canvas,  burlap...lace

Instead of lace paper you can use very very thin muslin. As you would  in fabric paper techniques

You multi media artists out there .... are your wheels turning?   

This is cool....go experiment with this.

This varnish is cheepo and you get quite alot in the bottle, tissue paper is ....well I'll bet you have some left over from the holidays....try colored tissue....try napkins... so it's almost like free entertainment for a couple hours

Use the varnish to make fabric paper....there are tons of tutorials out there for fabric paper...

You card makers out there...
go make your own embellishments...
use your cute images too
use pretty inks and papers

go play

don't be afraid to "ruin" paper or ink....there's plenty of that out there.

Sit yourself down with some supplies and don't have a finished piece in mind...

just play

All you art quilters...this goes for you too...just remember it is NOT waterproof...so no washy washy.

like I said before....

 This  is not my idea....but I really don't remember where I read it....

I read ALL the magazines.... and a lot of blogs... When I come across it I will let you know....If you have seen it please let me know so I can post it.

If you do decide to play with varnish, please come tell me.
I'd like to see what you do with it.
  

 In the mean time I will be playing with my varnish...

                                      .....I have a little more than half a bottle left.......

                                                                                        

more fun with varnish

I know....I said  I would tell you about another use for water based varnish...the cheepo stuff you can buy at M's  and I do think the other big craft stores carry it too...  I didn't forget ....
I needed to make something so I could show you this cool technique.

You know how sometimes you have a rubber stamp image that goes one way....but you wanted it to go the other way?  .....And yes, I know all about mirror image stamps and many other ways to flip the image. But I don't have one of those with me .....and  besides....this technique is so cool...
   
For demonstration purposes I am working on a small notebook from 7Gypsies.  I guess I should mention that I am not affiliated with any company or product I show you here on this blog or any of my other blogs...I am just a consumer...a very active consumer...I use a lot of stuff.....I should probably add some type of disclaimer in the sidebar...   I am a consumer and an enabler... 

...Sorry I got off track didn't I?

ahem...anyway...........here is this cute little notebook after I covered it up with some decorative paper* and some of that lacy paper that I showed you last week.

 I even covered the cute little pockets on the inside

I need to put  that bird image* on the back of the book...but I want it to face

the other direction
 Here is where the varnish comes to the rescue....

but first I have to tell about this....

 here is another favorite product....acetate

some artists and  crafters call it window plastic

 No I am not going to use the acetate...

I am going to use the sheer tissue protective sheets that are in between the sheets of acetate

They put them in there to keep the acetate from sticking together.

I guess some people throw them away

But not us crafty types....

We use everything

 so... here I have my stamp, the tissue paper and the ink.

water based inks will run, so use a pigment or hybrid ink

 Stamp the image on the tissue

 Slather some varnish on your project where you want your image to end up.
~ see the shiny wet varnish...

 lay the tissue paper with the image

FACE DOWN

so the image is reversed

pat it down a bit and

gently tear away the excess tissue.

hard to see in the pic...but I am gently tearing...see

now gently use your brush to smooth it down

be careful ...it is wet and it will tear

so tap tap tap

gently 

 I folded the excess tissue on the edge around to the inside.

See......reversed image !

and it's transparent.... look....you can still see the script on the decorative paper

This technique is great for altered books and journals

as long as you have time to wait for it to dry.

And of course it's great for collage

edited to show you the completed book:



 I used a gold leafing pen on the edges

 page edges before:

 page edges after gold leaf

front

back

see you soon....

*the bird stamp is from Crafty Individuals and is made by Magenta in Canada

* the decorative paper is from Prima Marketing Pastiche Collection " Seaside"



Theme Thursday

I know I know.....I just posted a Theme Thursday yesterday.....But it seems I had the wrong Thursday.
This is this weeks Theme..... Autumn.

I love how the crackle turned out on this one. Crackle is so unpredictable. There are so many contributions on the Theme Thursday Challenge Blog....go take a look

Seven Steps

Just like most of you, I have a lot of projects in various stages of "finished". So why on earth would I join more challenges or swaps?

     Why? 

Because I love the thrill of a deadline. 
Yes I love a deadline. Sometimes that is the only way I can kick my butt into gear and actually "finish" something. Otherwise the projects pile up and ....well......you know......there's always just one more thing to make it perfect. So you stare at it for days and weeks until that one more thing shows up. By then you have already started several other projects that just couldn't wait to be born.

So in comes a challenge or a swap.....with a deadline and  my usual swap strategy:

1. Sign up
2. Gather materials.
3. Start the project.
4. Set the project aside. ( so I can work on other projects )
5. One week before swap is due.... frantically finish the project.
6. Mail swap items just in the nick of time.
7. Publish a Post on the blog about the swap, ( now that I am a blogger ) .....This step , of course, requires that I take photos of every step along the way, just so I have something to show my readers.

One of my favorite swap organizer is Lenna Andrews. She has a blog dedicated to her swaps.  I have a link posted below.

So this is step # 7....... a post about my contribution to her most recent Garden Variety Post Card Swap.

Now if I can get all these photos posted and in the right order, it will be a small technical miracle.

 I had punched  out 1 inch squares from the required product. In this case it was Garden Style images from Alpha Stamps.  Once the pieces were all punched out I stuck them to the back of a 4x6 piece of sticky back canvas in a random mosaic pattern. Then I adhered a layer of  gauze over the whole thing to hold it together and also tone it down a bit.

The next step was to  "ruff-ly"  trim the gauze to the edge of the canvas. I also added more texture but rubbing some gesso around the edge of the post cards.  I added more gesso in the corners.

 I like how the gesso laid between the threads of the gauze.

                                          You can really see the gauze and gesso in this photo

 love love love texture

No gesso here because I liked the look of this ruff edge

Then I added some color by rubbing Staz-On ink lightly over the edges and corners.

I used my finger to apply the ink.

( fingers are my favorite art tool )  

Now the only step left was to add some embellishments and mail them to Lenna.  I didn't  add too much because I want the background to be a major player in the design.
Why work that hard and then cover it all up?

 Here are the four finished postcards.            YES !           f i n i s h e d  !         yay!

I love how they turned out.

here are the backs

Here's the link to Lenna's creative swap site. You can see more postcards as well as art swaps she has hosted in the past.  Go on over and take a look.     

                                                     Creative Swaps

I'll be back with my contributions to week 2 and 3 in the Creative Color Challenge.
Oh and I have been working on the lovely pink lady found in the cornfield.  Yes I have been having fun.

See you soon,