Monday, May 25, 2015

Decoupage Plate Filled with Flowers


Created for the ECD Susan Tierney Cockburn Design Team

Our local craft store was selling a bunch of grab bags for $2 each. I usually don't bother with them but in a moment of crafty weakness, I picked up three (!). They contained a variety of things, from bubble bath to stickers. The best surprise was several packages of enamel dots, in various colors - score! One bag contained a small black plate with some sort of saying on it. I decided to repurpose it into a decoration piece. You could use any small plate, e.g. one purchased at a thrift store.

Making the Project

1. Place plate face down on patterned paper, keeping in mind the design. Lightly trace around it in pencil. You will cut about a third to half of an inch out from the line so some paper will wrap around back of plate. Erase line. Apply decoupage medium both on back of paper and on plate, including around back where paper will wrap around edge. Center paper and stick down, rubbing out any bubbles. There may be some wrinkles, just work them out as best as possible. I put the majority of wrinkles on one side of the plate so I could cover them. Alternatively, you could tear the paper for both front and back of plate (see step 2). Coat paper with decoupage medium.

2. Flip plate. Tear pieces of patterned paper and apply to plate to cover bottom, coating both plate and paper with decoupage medium each time. I left the center uncovered but you could cover the entire bottom if you like. Cover entire back with decoupage medium.


3. Tear strips of washi tape (I used yellow-orange, red, and red with white dots); adhere to one side of plate - see photo. The washi tape may start to peel up; just rub it back down. Cover washi tape with decoupage medium (this should prevent it from coming up). Note: I covered the worst wrinkles this way.

4. Stamp Sunshine and Love in waterproof black ink on tissue paper (the regular semi-translucent white type); heat-set ink. Carefully tear around sentiment. Decoupage to plate where shown. The tissue should become almost transparent.

5. Flowers: I usually make extra flowers whenever I make them thus I had a few on hand.
  • To make vellum Mini Roses, Mini Chrysanthemums, and Mini Daisies, see Flower Tag Birthday Card. Similarly, make two additional Mini Roses plus leaves using red and dark green cardstock.
  • To make Hollyhock blossoms, cut four sets of petals and petal bases from light pink cardstock. Color centers with yellow pencil then watercolor Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, leaving the tips light pink (see photo). Cut four stamen from yellow cardstock; add glue to bases and tightly roll. Dip tips in glue then in Antique Linen Distress Powder to simulate pollen. Shape petals by rubbing stylus along back tips then in front center of each. Glue single petals between base petals, lining up Worn Lipstick in a ring on each flower. Glue stamen standing in center. Cut four leaves from green cardstock. Draw veins with light green pencil; add shading by watercoloring Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. Shape by rubbing stylus along backs then use leaf tool to draw lines down centers.
  • To make Mini Daffodils, cut three sets of parts from white paper: petals (six total for each flower), center, and stamen. Use Mustard Seed Distress Ink to color center and stamen (I used an ink blending tool to apply). Shape petals by drawing lines down front, then back, with point of leaf tool. Make centers into cylinders (you may have to trim off a little), glue, then gently roll tops down (see photo). Cut carefully down middle of stamen prongs to form six on each. Apply glue at bottom and roll. Gently separate tips, dip into glue, then into Mustard Seed Distress Powder to simulate pollen. Cut three calyx from green cardstock. Rub in centers until they slightly cup. For each flower, glue three largest petals, one each on every other calyx extension. Glue smaller petals in between. Glue center cylinder, then stamen as shown. Cut leaves from green cardstock, color with light green pencil and shade with watercolored Mowed Lawn Distress Ink. Shape by rubbing stylus down middle of each then draw a line down center with leaf tool.
6. Adhere flowers and leaves where shown.

7. Cut ladybug from black cardstock. Add red Pearl Pen to body. Add black Enamel Accents for head and bottom. Use toothpick or pointy tool to add dots.

8. Adhere ladybug and black half pearls as shown.


Supplies

Elizabeth Craft Designs
Other Supplies
  • Paper: K&Company Best of Brenda Walton Paper Pad 30-658202
  • Mod Podge Gloss (or other decoupage medium)
  • Tissue Paper
  • Waterproof Black Ink (e.g. VersaFine)
  • Heat Tool
  • Vellum: White, Pink, Red
  • Alcohol Markers: Yellow, Orange, Green
  • Colored Pencils: Yellow, Light Green
  • Paper: White
  • Cardstock: Red, White, Green, Dark Green, Yellow, Black
  • Distress Ink: Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Worn Lipstick
  • Embossing Powder: Yellow, Light Yellow (e.g. Distress Powder: Mustard Seed, Antique Linen)
  • Washi Tape: Red, Yellow-Orange, Red with White Dots
  • Stickles: Orange Peel, Yellow
  • Pearl Pen: Red
  • Enamel Accents: Black
  • Half Pearls: Black

Monday, May 11, 2015

Sunflower & Daisies Container



Here's a sunny sunflower project as well as a great way to recycle! This may be done to any container or jar with a wide circular lid (or even a box). I started with a former body butter container; this one was from The Body Shop, Coconut.

Decorating the Container

1. On patterned paper, trace a circle that is slightly smaller than the lid. Keep in mind the pattern you would like to see on top. Cut it out. (Optional: use a circle die to cut it out.) Adhere to lid.

2. Measure side of container base. Using a slightly smaller measurement, cut a strip from patterned paper. If it doesn't go all the way around, you will cover the place it doesn't meet. In my case I used the stitched oval and daisies to go over the gap. If this still doesn't cover it, just use another small strip to make up the difference. Adhere strip to base.

3. Die cut stitched oval from patterned paper; ink if desired. Adhere over gap. Die cut stems and daisies from Garden Notes - Backyard 1, using green and yellow cardstock respectively. Ink flowers with Wild Honey Distress Ink and stems with Peeled Paint. Shape leaves slightly so they stick up. Shape petals on mini molding pad by running small stylus down each petal. Add glue to centers of each and dip in dark brown embossing powder. Adhere stems then flowers as shown.


4. From the Garden Notes - Sunflower set, die cut 1 flower base and 3 sets of petals from yellow cardstock, 2 sets of stems/leaves and 1 single leaf from green cardstock, and 2 sets of seed pods from brown cardstock. Shape, color and assemble as shown in the video below. Optional: I cut the stem where the bow is located to change the angle slightly before adhering to lid; I also added dimensional tape under the flower head to pop it up a bit.


5. Using a combination of Mustard Seed and Wild Honey (sparingly) Distress Stains, dye a length of seam binding; spray with water to help colors mix. Crinkle and dry (use a heat tool to speed this up). Tie a bow. Add jump ring to "Wander" Philosophy Tag (I added alcohol ink to top to get it to match colors more closely) and hook through bow center. Adhere bow as shown.

6. Adhere enamel dots where shown.


Supplies

ECD Supplies
Other Supplies
  • Patterned Paper: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Wallflower
  • Cardstock: Yellow, Brown, Green
  • Distress Ink: Peeled Paint, Wild Honey
  • Colored Pencils or Pastels
  • Embossing Powder: Dark Brown
  • Dimensional Tape
  • Distress Stain: Mustard Seed, Wild Honey
  • Seam Binding (Ribbon)
  • Tim Holtz Idea-ology Philosophy Tags, Jump Ring
  • Alcohol Ink (Optional)
  • Enamel Dots

Thursday, May 7, 2015

A New Look for the Blog

I wanted a new, lighter, look to my blog but I still wanted to stay true to the theme: Awash with Color. Originally I chose a photo I shot of a cathedral in Germany. The stained glass windows provided the perfect wash of color across the columns and walls.

Former Background Photo
This time I wanted to use a floral background, partly because I'm on the Susan Tierney Cockburn design team (Susan designs a lot of flower dies for creating realistic looking flowers), and partly because flowers are a sign of spring: regrowth and renewal. Although my favorite season is actually fall (love the colors, plus a huge fan of Halloween), I really (really!) dislike winter - so spring is something I look forward to pretty much from the end of fall until the weather warms again and the flowers start to bloom.

I knew I had a lot of garden photos from visiting the Powerscourt Estate in Ireland a few years ago; I went through and found the one below to use as a model. I could have used the photo as is but decided to do a literal wash of color, with watercolor paint.


Keeping in mind that the painting was going to be cropped plus have the edges whitened to blend with backgrounds here and in my social media sites, I created the following watercolor.


As usual, I had to play around with sizing, placement of my copyright, and how much fading to do on the edges (sometimes different across sites). Here is one image showing a fade to white on the edges:


For the blog, I ended up using a fade at both the right side and the bottom to get it to look the best on different monitors/platforms. I changed the colors on the blog to match the colors in the watercolor. I hope you like the changes!