Saturday Showcase - Prima Finnabair Stencils and Waxes Backgrounds

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials featuring some of the products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you. Today I'm sharing an idea for using Prima Finnabair Stencils and some of the waxes from their Art Alchemy range to create backgrounds for cards.

The backgrounds start with a neutral background made using a layer of Dina Wakley Media 'Buff' Paint and White Gesso on a large sheet of mixed media card. When dry sand back the surface to give it an aged worn look. I then cut the card into smaller pieces that would fit onto A6 card blanks. 

Using one of the Prima Finnabair Stencils (in this case 'Ghostwriter') apply Dina Wakley Media 'Sand' Paint through it across one of the background pieces. Then when dry move the stencil a little diagonally and apply some dimensional paste through it. When dry this gives the effect of a drop shadow.

Leaving the stencil in place apply one of the Prima Finnabair waxes through it onto the dried paste. Below you can see where one has had the 'Old White' Matte Wax used and the other, the 'French Lavender' Matte Wax.

To make it easier to create the focal point of the card cut a tag from kraft card using one of the tags from Eileen Hull Designs 'Card, Waterfall & Tags' Die Set. Dry brush the tag with one of the Dina Wakley Media Paints.

When each of the backgrounds has been created mount them on coordinating Metallic Kraft Stock. You can also team them up with the matching tags.

Now it's time to pull out those scraps and offcuts from previous projects; team mate Suzz came up with a clever idea to organise them into colour groups so it makes it easier to choose what will work with each background. In amongst these are gel plate prints on thin paper and tissue.

You can draw attention to the focal point on your card by adding a piece of gel printed tissue or collage paper to your background using a soft gel medium.

Finally gather your die cuts, stamped images and card offcuts and add them to the tag; this will help you to create that focal point in a restricted space that can then be added on top of the background.

Here is the first of the finished cards; this one includes the 'Book of Numbers' Stencil with the 'White Pearl' Metallic Wax on the background with stamped/die cut flowers from Wendy Vecchi's 'Bravo' Stamp Die Stencils set.

The second card is the one from the 'Living Things' challenge; this one includes the 'Ghostwriter' Stencil with the 'Old White' Matte Wax on the background.

The third card has an Autumnal feel with the 'Victorian Tiles' Stencil used in conjunction with 'Rusty Red' Matte Wax and a bunch of different die cut leaves and Wendy Vecchi orange flower.

The fourth card includes the 'Machinery' Stencil in the background, teamed with 'Charcoal Black' Matte Wax. The spoon and teabag come from an older Eileen Hull Designs Die.

On the fifth card you can see how a different coloured wax can change the look of the 'Victorian Tiles' Stencil; this time it's been covered in 'Faded Denim' Matte Wax and has some simple red fabric hearts added to compliment it.

For the last of the cards we return to the 'Book of Numbers' Stencil which this time has the delicate 'French Lavender' Matte Wax on top. Stamps with small birthday sayings on them are included in Wendy Vecchi's 'Birthday Bash' Stamp, Die, Stencil set.

Thanks for stopping by to see today's showcase. I hope you've enjoyed seeing how to create these birthday cards using the Prima Finnabair Stencils and Art Alchemy Waxes for backgrounds.

There's still time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Tag It' which runs through Tuesday, November 30th at 11.55pm. We look forward to seeing your creations.

Jenny

Many of the products used to create these cards are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Prima Finnabair Stencil - Ghostwriter

Prima Finnabair Stencil - Book of Numbers

Prima Finnabair Stencil - Victorian Tiles

Prima Finnabair Stencil - Machinery
Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Matte Wax Paste - Old White

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Matte Wax Paste - Faded Denim

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Matte Wax Paste - French Lavender 

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Matte Wax Paste - Rusty Red

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Matte Wax Paste - Charcoal Black

Prima Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallic Wax Paste - White Pearl

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints and Gessos
Eileen Hull Designs Sizzix Thinlits 'Card, Waterfall & Tags' Die Set
Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART Stamp, Die, Stencil Set - Bravo
Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART Stamp, Die, Stencil Set - Birthday Bash
Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic 2 Kraft Stock - Rose Gold & Copper

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Confections Kraft Stock

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Kraft Stock

Saturday Showcase - Seth Apter Izink ICE and Pigment Inks by Aladine

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials and products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you. This time the focus falls on Seth Apter's Izink ICE and Pigment Inks by Aladine which can be purchased individually or handily in bundles.

Having recently obtained a set each of the Izink ICE gels and Pigment Inks I am having a lot of fun experimenting with them. Today I'm sharing a tutorial for creating four different 'backgrounds' that were made on A5 sized pieces of mixed media card (that's roughly 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches in the US).

On the first piece of card I applied Whiskey Frost Izink ICE through the Finnabair Prima 'Floral Net' stencil - I found using an old membership card worked well to do this. Allowing the ICE to air dry seems to work better than using a heat tool which can make the surface bubble a little.

On the second piece of card I spread more of the 'Whiskey Frost' ICE using a spatula this time, pulling away from the surface to create an uneven textured finish. Again I allowed this to air dry.

On the third piece of card I spread a thick layer of 'Cheddar' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. This can be dried with a heat tool but to be honest it dries that quickly anyway you probably won't need to.

I applied the same paint through another Finnabair Prima stencil, this time 'Oriental Wall', onto the fourth piece of card.

For the next stage I applied a little of the 'Whiskey Frost' Izink ICE onto the surface of the two painted backgrounds and some of the 'Cheddar' Paint onto the two ICE'd backgrounds.

From here on in I used the same Izink Pigment Inks onto all four backgrounds. To intensify the orange colour I added 'Roast Chestnut' Pigment Ink in patches to them. The method I've found best for this is to add a little to one area with the brush in the bottle, spread it around in lots of directions with a spatula and move on to the next area. Spreading with a spatula is not so easy on a more dimensional surface like the 'Floral Net' stencilled one so I opted for an old paint brush which was equally effective.

The next colour added in areas was 'Raspberry Beret' Pigment Ink. If you choose three places on each background and move out from those with each additional layer it seems to work well.

With all that warm colour I decided to contrast it with some 'Avalanche' Pigment Ink; yes, it is possible to layer white over all those darker shades! I also applied it through the 'Vintage Wallpaper' Finnabair Prima stencil using a small piece of sponge to dab the ink through the gaps.

With lighter areas now created I was able to add some other paler Pigment Ink shades,'Stratosphere' and 'Cotton Candy' (a favourite shade). I love how all these different ink colours layer beautifully over each other. It's key to allow each layer to dry before the next is applied but since the ink is so fast drying you don't even need a heat tool to help with this.

So now I had four backgrounds with subtle differences that needed enhancing individually. I started with the 'Floral Net' stencilled one, laying the stencil back over the existing pattern and applying a mix of 'Royal Gold' and 'Avalanche' Pigment Inks over the raised areas.

Next I tackled the piece which began with the 'Oriental Wall' stencilling. I'd made sure some of it remained visible as each of the ink layers were applied. Now it was time to re-enhance this by replacing the stencil over the card, applying a little 'Whiskey Frost' ICE with a sponge, then following it with some 'Avalanche' and 'Stratosphere' Pigment Inks.

Now for the piece that started with lots of 'Cheddar' paint and a little 'Whiskey Frost' over the top. With no real pattern to this one I went for 'Avalanche' and 'Royal Gold' Pigment Inks through the 'Vintage Wallpaper' stencil.

The final piece of card was the one more heavily textured with the 'Whiskey Frost' ICE. The paler inks had already started to highlight the texture and I enhanced this, first by warming up the colour with some more 'Whiskey Frost' ICE on a sponge and then with 'Avalanche' Pigment Ink. I splattered the 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink over the top to finish.

Here are the four completed pieces, all with the same colour palette but each one with a different look. Click on the image to see them more closely;

I used a couple of the pieces to create collage style cards. The first one has a Tim Holtz 'Large Stems' flower embossed with Pam Bray's 'Peppermint' Rock Candy Embossing Powder by Emerald Creek Crafts. There's a lot of inbuilt texture and shine in this powder which was further highlighted by a little 'Gilt' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint. The scrap of fabric was also dyed with the Pigment Inks (as shown in a previous tutorial HERE) and I used a little of the 'Stratosphere' and 'Royal Gold' Pigment Inks to enhance the smaller strip of paper. The words come from Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 stamp set 'Funky Flower Art'.

The second card was created in a similar way to the first with the Tim Holtz 'Large Stems' flower covered in a layer of 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink before being embossed with Pam Bray's 'Butterscotch' Rock Candy Embossing Powder - this shade of the powder has more of a translucent look so needed a boost of complimentary colour underneath. The piece of 'lace' underneath the flower was cut from card painted with 'Heather' Dina Wakley Media Paint and had a dash of the 'Royal Gold' Pigment Ink added to it to make it shimmer. Again the words came from Wendy Vecchi's 'Funky Flower Art' set.

Thanks for visiting to catch today's Saturday Showcase tutorial - I hope you've enjoyed seeing some ideas for using Seth Apter's Izink ICE and Pigment Inks.

There's still time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Christmas Cards in July' to be in with the chance of being a Guest Designer here. We look forward to seeing your amazing creations.

Jenny

Products used to create this junk journal are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Seth Apter Izink ICE and Pigment Inks
Prima Marketing Finnabair Stencils
Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz Large Die - Large Stems
Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits Die Set - Crochet
Pam Bray Rock Candy Embossing Powders by Emerald Creek Crafts
Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Stamp Set - Funky Flower Art