T shirt decor Tutorial

I am back at Sizzix EU after a rest doing monthly tutorials.

This month I am using the Union Jack and Block Talk to personalised a blank toddlers T shirt!

Happy Saint George's day

As I was born in Zaragoza, Aragon (Spain), St George is one highly regarded as it is the patron Saint of Aragon. The fact that he is also the patron of England where I have been living for over ten years is a plus! So I wanted to celebrate with a simple card.

I started by die cutting a Union Jack - using the Sizzix die from my everyday collection - out of acetate. I cover the non cross the Saint George bits using low tack tape. I kept the cross in the middle as I knew I would use it later on.

I place the template on my white card and secure it with low tack tape.

With the help with a finger dabber, I started to add colour by dabbing gently Treasure Gold in Ruby.

Continue until the colour is deep enough. 

This is how it would look like. However, I put the mask back own for the next step.

I place this Crafters Workshop mask over it and again secured it with low tack tape. then I applied White Fire Treasure Gold, a soft whitish gold.

Because I left the Union Jack mask, the brocade pattern is only on the Cross.

I removed the Union Jack Mask and place the Brocade mask directly on the card positioning it carefully exactly as it was before. Then I placed over the top the positive cross - the left over from the die cutting phase - to protect the work done so far. Then I applied Silver Tresure. through the mask.

And kept going until the whole are was covered.

And this is the result. I really like the two tone damask pattern which is much more visible in real life.

To add more detail, I spray over Perfect Pearls Mists in Heirloom Gold.

And to distress the edges I used a combo of Brushed Corduroy and Pumice Stone distress inks.

 I layered in with black card and mounted on to chipboard card.

Anyway, I hope you like it!

Having fun with a Union Jack DIY mask

As I posted about this week, I enjoyed a few demos at last Saturday at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking show and was incredibly inspired by both Lin Brown and Leandra to buy some goodies and play with them this week. So here is one of my play sessions I have been doing.

As part of my last year Everyday collection, I designed a Union Jack die that comes with a bones textured Impression folder. Although I am Spanish and feel very much the colours of my flag, I love the Union Jack, it is an iconic design that is extremely popular across Europe. I designed the die so that would not have an outer edge so that you could cut it as an aperture on a card like this one I did for the Sizzix blog a few months ago. But also not having cutting edges around means that you can easily make a mask or template with it and have a lot of protective area around.

I made a template using thin plasma or very thick translucent acetate. I placed the mask onto some book board, secured it with low tack tape and placed some Paperartsy Grunge Paste - one of the best texture pastes I have used - and smooth it out using one of my Catalyst by Princeton tools - I got them in Frankfurt, they are awesome!

I gently removed the mask gently and dried with the help of a heat gun. This paste dried fairly quickly, yet it is easy to remove any left overs from the masks. Once completely dry I put a few blobs of paint. I used Paperartsy's Limelight and Mermaid, both acrylic paints are translucent, meaning that they will give more of vivid wash of colour rather than a thick pigment coat, as you can see on the next photo.

Once the whole area was covered, I decided I wanted some metallic accents so I added some Treasure Gold through the mask to protect the lowered areas. to paint something I was just playing, so I had no plan in mind. Somethings worked, some didn't. This didn't.

So keeping the metallic look in mind I decided to use Silver Liquid Leaf all over it. This is the richest most beautiful silver paint I have ever used. It comes in different shades, but that Silver has completely stolen my crafty heart. Once dry, I sanded off some of it to create a distress look and reveal some of the paste and tint underneath.

I added some white paint to make the silver much more dull, I liked it. Then I finally added more colour by dabbing the Lime and Mermaid paint over the sanded areas. I quite like  the result, but more importantly I had a blast doing it! Which is what crafting is all about.