@erinmcrafts: May 2021

Friday, May 28, 2021

Let It Bee Tag

Hello friends! Today I’m sharing a tag with some grungy bees from the Funky Insects die set, one of my faves from Tim’s latest Chapter 2 release. Let’s get into some details about how this one came together, shall we?

The Background...

I cut a bunch of the Sizzix Tim Holtz Honeycomb Framework dies (retired) from chipboard and placed them randomly on top of a large Etcetera tag, adhering them with matte collage medium. I stacked some and added a few hexagon centers back in to create different levels and depth.

Next, I used my finger to add grit paste liberally over everything. Grit paste is UP there for me on my list of must have products… it helps cover any imperfections from unaligned dies and just makes it feel a little more organic, grungy, and hive-like. Don’t forget the edges!

Once the grit paste is dry, the real fun BEEgins (jk, it’s all fun). I used a brush to coat thoroughly with mustard seed distress paint, getting in all the little nooks and crannies and edges. Let it dry. The next layer of paint was Fossilized Amber, brushing on a little less thoroughly so some of the mustard seed was still visible. Then I used my finger to add some highlights of Antiqued bronze stain. Finally, using an ink dabber, I went over just the very top-most textured areas with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I’ll also use these same steps for the small frame, more on that ahead.

The Bees…

I cut a ton of the Funky Insects bees from Mixed Media Heavystock paper. I love how it’s designed with separate pieces, and decided to take that even further by cutting the wings off a few body pieces, and cutting the legs off a few body pieces. I glued 2 layers of heavystock together for each section for extra dimension. I cut the wings with holes from heat-resistant clear acetate. I also cut my own little stingers ✨

Once I had all of my sections cut and ready to color, enough for 5 bees, I added grit paste to the body+wing pieces and the striped body pieces. When the grit paste was dry, I painted the striped body pieces with Fossilized Amber then added Antiqued Bronze stain to the raised texture with my finger. All of the other pieces, except the wings with holes, I painted with Ground Espresso then used my finger to lightly add Antiqued Bronze stain to the top-most texture.

For the clear acetate wings, I covered with clear rock candy crackle paint and then added some Caramel alcohol ink to the edges to help bring out some of the cracks. I had to do a bit of trial and error here as the crackle kept wanting to chip off the acetate very easily (a little chipping is ok by me, but this was completely falling off), so I added Glossy accents over the top before the crackle was fully dry. Love this result! 😍

Finally, I shaped and contoured all of the individual pieces first before assembling and securing together with matte collage medium. Just. Obsessed.

The Small Frame + Phrase…

I used the largest frame from the Vignette Frames pack and flipped it over to work with the back/flat side this time. Then repeated all the same steps used to create my background tag.

Once my colors were dry, I added Caramel ink to four of the smaller machinery heads and added them to each corner of the frame with collage medium. Then added some grit paste around them, letting it dry fully before using my finger to apply Antiqued Bronze stain to the raised texture.

Then I cut a clear piece of acetate to fit the frame window and glued it underneath.

For the phrase, I cut 3 of each of my letters from the Alphanumeric Stretch font set on heavystock, and glued them together for extra thickness. These letters are pretty large and were exactly what I needed to balance out the bees.

I added grit paste, painted with fossilized Amber then highlighted the grit textured with Antiqued Bronze stain. I cut another set of the letters to use as shadows, painting with Ground Espresso, and gluing them slightly offset behind the thicker letters. Then I glued my finished letters to the clear acetate piece (decided to stagger the bottom edges slightly instead of making them perfectly straight).

The Finishing Touches...

Before gluing on the completed frame or bees, I colored some pieces of cheese cloth with Walnut Stain and placed randomly under where my frame would be and looped through the top tag hole. Then I glued the small frame and bees in place over the cheese cloth and… voila! Grungy bees buzzing around their hive 🐝

Thanks for looking and happy crafting!

x Erin

The Products…

Sizzix/Tim Holtz Dies: Honeycomb Framework (659430) (discontinued), Funky Insects (665364), Alphanumeric Stretch Lower (665207)

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Paint: Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Ground Espresso, Clear Rock Candy Crackle

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Stain: Antiqued Bronze, Walnut Stain

Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Ranger Alcohol ink: Caramel

Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz: Large Etcetera tag

Ideaology: machinery heads

Surfaces: chipboard, mixed media heavystock paper, heat-resistant clear acetate

Other mediums: Distress Collage Medium matte, Translucent Grit Paste, Glossy Accents

Other supplies: Big Shot, glass mat, cheese cloth

Thursday, May 6, 2021

Make the Days Count Framed Panel

Hello! And welcome to my first blog post! I love browsing other crafty blogs, and I've been toying with the idea of my own for a while now and this felt like a good project to kick it off with. I'm excited to use this space to give a little more explanation of my creative process and this was a fun one, so let's dive in to how I made it!

The Inspiration + Early Concept...

As spring is in full effect, I knew I wanted to make something that included a lot of greenery and wanted to use this phrase I saw in the Tiny Text stamp set, Don't Count the Days, Make the Days Count, which also inspired me to sprinkle in some little counting/numerical details (it's those little details that are always the most fun for me).

I snapped this photo when I was just playing around with the initial idea and trying to get a better feel for the layout.

The Frame + Hanger...

I started with the Framed Panel (decided to only use the frame and save the base panel for a future project) and applied some random grit paste. Once dry, I coated the frame entirely with Walnut Stain distress paint. Then I used my finger to add Antiqued Bronze Distress Stain to highlight the raised grit paste texture and frame details. Next, I added Ranger's Caramel alcohol ink to four of the smaller hardware heads and secured to each corner of the frame.

For the hanger, I used two screw eyes from the Vignette Hardware Findings pack, inked with Caramel and twisted into the top edge of the frame. Then I removed the 'swivels' from four swivel clasps (just wanted the chains) and used a few jump rings to connect them together before inking with Caramel and attaching to the screw eyes.

The Background...

I loved the idea of having a little transparency in the background of the frame, so I cut the Pattern Repeat thinlit die from Mixed Media Heavystock paper, making sure the pattern would entirely fill the frame (even though a lot of it ends up getting covered later). I added grit paste to the pattern cutout, and once it was dry, coated with Antiqued Bronze distress stain.

I wanted a little more of a border inside the frame, so I put some strips of design tape down on heavystock (I think this particular tape of Tim's is discontinued now), added a wash of Antiqued Bronze stain, and cut out the strips. (Love this part, but it ends up almost entirely covered and unnoticeable in the end... oh well, still so fun!)

You can see the strips a little better in the photo below... and this photo shows the grit paste covering my small frame and ledge before I added paint, more on that ahead. (I usually change my mind quite a bit throughout my projects, so you'll notice things (or colors) in early stage photos don't end up in the final piece!)

In the next photo, you can see how I glued the design tape + pattern cut out to my frame and clamped until dry (when my glass mat/counter is this messy, it usually means I'm really in the ZONE :)

Next, I wanted to create a few unique papers to add to the corners. I stamped a small piece of heavystock with the numbers stamp from the set Faded Type (CMS397) in Walnut Stain Distress ink and added a light wash of Vintage Photo distress paint to help grunge it up.

Then I found a piece from the Collector ephemera layers pack with numbers and days of the week, tore it to fit my corner, added a few splotches of Antiqued Bronze stain, and inked the edges. (Love the rough and random look of torn papers with raw edges combined with the crispness of the die cuts!)

For the darker piece on the left edge, I cut a little more of the pattern repeat die and stuck down on plain heavystock with matte medium. I used my finger to rub grit paste over the raised pattern and let dry, then painted the whole piece with Walnut Stain. I knew I wanted to add a color to the raised pattern to help contrast the Walnut Stain but after trying Evergreen Bough, I changed my mind and used Antiqued Bronze instead. I tore half of this piece for the background and used the other half to cut one of the larger Bottled Up bottles.

The Ledge...

For the ledge the bottles will sit on, I first used two plain bracket trim pieces to prop up the metal ruler from the Ideaology Findings set, securing all in place with Collage Medium.

As you can see in the photo below, I originally planned to only color one bracket trim piece for the bottles to sit on, but eventually added another to help give that extra 'pop' of Evergreen Bough to compliment the small frame. So I applied grit paste liberally over two of the longer, thinner bracket trim pieces and let dry. Then painted with Evergreen Bough, and rubbed Antiqued Bronze and Vintage Photo over the raised texture and edges with my finger. (I used these same steps to color/grunge up the lace baseboard frame.) Then I glued the trims together over the ruler and added a Caramel-inked hardware head to the center.

The Small Frame + Sentiment...

Using the same steps as the ledge pieces, I gussied up a small Ideaology lace baseboard frame. I cut a piece of clear acetate to fit behind the frame, splotched on some caramel alcohol ink and adhered with matte medium. I also stamped the first part of the phrase, Don’t count the Days, from the Tiny Text set (CMS394), along with the numbers dial stamp from The Professor set (CMS373), onto some clear acetate with Versamark clear emboss ink. Then sprinkled Ranger’s white embossing powder over the top and embossed with my heat tool. (While the acetate is heat-resistant, I still try to be quick or it will eventually start to twist up a bit.)

I knew I wanted to top edge to rest on the larger frame, so I needed a way to prop up the bottom, which gave me the idea to glue two hitch fasteners behind the bottom corners to help give it some lift.

Next, I cut out the acetate piece with my stamped phrase by hand. I positioned the smaller scalloped circle from the labels die set over my embossed dial stamp and cut out my shape. I added a small amount of Caramel ink over the white embossing on both the phrase and dial to give them a grungy wash.

I cut the larger label strip from the Labels (660060) die set and another of the smallest scalloped circle from heavystock paper. I added grit paste to both, let dry, and then colored with Antiqued Bronze stain before placing under my stamped pieces.

I added caramel alcohol ink to 6 hardware heads, placing two under my Don't Count the Days label to lift it off the frame a bit, then two more on the top corners of the label and two in the bottom corners of the frame.

Next, I added Caramel ink to an index clip fastener, the little clock from the mini flare set, a mini gear, and another hardware head, and nested together in the lower center with my stamped dial. I added the "Lesson 175" clipping from the Clippings Sticker Book above my phrase.

For my "Make the Days Count" letters in the center of my frame, I used Tim’s Alphanumeric Labels font set. I like them a little thicker, so I cut 3 of each letter and glued together (sometimes they aren't perfectly aligned, but that's ok with me! And I find adding an extra topcoat of Collage Medium helps hide most of the imperfections.) Once I was happy with the thickness, I coated them all with a light wash of Antiqued Bronze stain and let dry before gluing to the clear acetate.

The Bottles...

For the vertical ‘metal’ bottle, I first embossed a small piece of Mixed Media Heavystock paper with the Foundry 3D texture fade (be sure to dampen the paper a bit before embossing for the best imprint!). Then used this piece to cut one of the medium-sized bottles from the Bottled Up Bigz die. I went ahead and painted it but decided I wanted to create a little more depth so I embossed another small piece of heavystock and cut out a few of the sections that lined up with my bottle and glued them over the top. I then added some of the small hardware head brads (clipping the brad part off) and rubbed grit paste over the whole bottle. Next I coated with Antiqued Bronze stain, then used Caramel ink to go over my hardware and ‘rivets’ for extra depth.

For the bottle laying down, which I’ve already cut from my background paper, I just needed to add a few more details to finish off. I cut a couple strips off the bottom of my vertical bottle because I knew it would be hidden, and added them to my darker bottle, along with a couple more hardware head brads (snipping off the brad part) to help make them look more coordinated.

The Greenery...

So many green things! I glued the Typeset collage paper down on 3 half-pieces of heavy stock, and painted each with a different green base, forest moss, peeled paint and mowed lawn. Then used my emboss dabber to make some random swipes and sprinkled on my green glazes, in peeled paint and rustic wilderness, before using my heat tool to set. Then I went to town cutting my greenery from the Funky Florals 1 dies.

I wanted it to look like my greenery was coming out of my bottles, or behind them, so I glued most of the greenery first, before securing my bottles over the top.

The Flowers...

For the flowers, I glued strips of design tape on to a piece of heavystock, then I used Versamark to stamp a design from Tim's Tapestry set over the whole piece. I wanted a little variation, so on one half, I covered it with Ranger's white embossing powder and on the other half, Antique Linen embossing powder, then set all with a heat tool. I used the Funky Florals 1 die set to cut as many flowers as I could fit on the paper, then shaped, assembled and glued.

I also found a numbered piece from the Collector ephemera layers pack that inspired me to cut a few accent flowers and also add some numbered strips along the edges of my frame.

The Finishing Touches...

I added the number 2 from the Ideaology Odds and Ends Embellishments set, a few random number strips, calendar ephemera pieces, and bits of moss here and there (a great way to cover up any imperfections and just tie everything together). I also like to go back and add some extra alcohol ink around most of my hardware heads or metal bits.

And there you have it! Please feel free to leave a comment or email me if there's something you're curious about that I didn't cover, always happy to talk craftiness!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

x Erin