February Destination Inspiration - Pulling Into Terminal 4

Hello and thank you for stopping by, Deb here with you today for our fourth and final stop on February's Destination Inspiration journey.  If you missed the first three posts from Nikki, Annie and Amanda, our travel bags this month were filled with the following supplies:

Product - Paint

Technique - Crackle

Colour - Black

Substrate - Tag

This month's contents were all old friends to me and I was excited to play with them to see what I could create.  I have to admit I didn't start with a clear concept, I just pulled out my supplies and started to play and here is what I ended up with.

I have some pictures of how my Blackbird Fly tag came to be, read on for the how to.

I started with white cardstock that I cut into a #10 tag and painted the entire surface with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle paint.  After the cracks formed I covered the entire surface with Carbon Black DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic paint, wiping it back as it dried to reveal the crackle.

Next I stenciled Ranger Transparent Gloss Texture paste through StencilGirl Products 'Black Bird In Trees' stencil over the crackled tag.

A coat of Golden Titan Buff Fluid Acrylics paint was then added overtop the gloss texture paste stenciling and wiped back as it dried to reveal the stenciled pattern.

I wanted to add some more crackled elements so prepared two more #8 tags with a couple of different preparations.  The top tag had Weathered Wood Crackling medium applied overtop some Titan Buff acrylic paint with a top coat of Carbon Black.  The bottom tag was coated with Ranger Opaque Crackle Texture paste that was tinted with Black Soot Distress Reinker and then after it had dried and cracked the tag was inked with Black Soot Distress Archival ink.

In keeping with the avian theme of the stenciled background, a bird was die cut with Sizzix's Birds die from the DecoArt Crackling Medium tag and Tim Holtz's Bird Branch die was used to die cut a branch from the Ranger Crackle Paste tag.

The 'Field Notes' Quote Chips were inked with Antique Linen and Black Soot Distress ink.

And some of the wonderful lyrics from 'Blackbird' were typed out on the computer and adhered to a scrap of black cardstock for a bit more substance.

The song lyrics prompted the idea of stars in the 'dark black night' so I added dots of embossing ink with Ranger's Clear Embossing pen and then sprinkled on silver embossing powder.

And finally, I coloured a Charmed Adornments charm with Pitch Black alcohol ink, added a small Mirrored Heart to the bezel center and filled it in with Glossy Accents glue.

A few fibers from my stash were threaded through the punched hole in the tag and the heart charm attached with a jump ring and small black safety pin.  The song lyrics were cut out, inked and adhered at the top of the tag.

The blackbird and branch were adhered in the center of the tag;

and the 'field notes' Quote Chips added to the bottom left.

You can catch a glimpse of the silver embossed 'stars' below.

Love how the crackle on the tag background is still visible through the gloss texture paste stenciling.

Hope you've enjoyed seeing how my Destination Inspiration project came together and since this is our last stop this month, here's a recap of all of the projects, I always love how we all come up with such different creations given the same ingredients!

Nikki

Annie

Amanda

Deb

Thanks for stopping by today and hope that you will consider entering our current 'Melt It!' challenge, you have until March 1st to get your melt on!

Deb xo

February Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal #3

Hello Everyone and Welcome

Amanda (ink-a-pink) here today, greeting you at Terminal #3 of this months Destination Inspiration journey.
Lets begin with a quick recap of what's in our travel bag to create with:
Product: Paint
Technique: Crackle
Colour: Black
Substrate: Tag

That's what I would call a 'happy' bag of goodies!
It's time to get messy and create my textural, crackled tag.



The tag is covered with plaster moulding to create all that fabulous deep texture.
Warning: Though effective it is quite messy!!

The Tag
I roughly sketched out a circular area in the centre of the tag that would remain free of plaster as this would be the flat space in which I would position my focal feature later. I then applied the plaster moulding to the tag.

Here's how:
Prep a bowl of warm water and cut lengths off the plaster roll. Alternately you can cut as you go, like I did and just 'embrace the 'messy'.



Working with one length of plaster at a time place into the warm water for a few seconds and remove. Don't drench or soak or the plaster will just become a 'gungy' mess that's hard to work. You will see and feel the plaster sheet 'soften' and become more pliable.



See the difference: dry (to the left), wet (to the right)



Apply the wet plaster sheet to your substrate either by keeping it flat for an even texture or by laying it down unevenly with lots of lumps and bumps to create deeper texture - as I did with my tag . Repeat the process until you are happy with the depth of texture you have achieved.
The plaster will set hard almost immediately but will need to dry thoroughly as it will still hold moisture from the water.
I actually altered my tag with plaster mould and stained it up some time at the end of last year for another project I had in mind at that time so I was at all ready to re paint my tag and get crackling.
I re-painted with a couple of coats of black Acrylic paint. Once dry I applied a layer of matte medium to give added adhesion for the crackle paint that was coming next.



 Though the instructions say to apply the Crackle paint with a soft brush I applied it with both a spatula and my fingers as I find both easier to use with this type of medium. As with most crackle mediums crackle paint is no different - the size of the cracks varies based on the thickness of application .
I always leave crackle mediums to air dry as personally I think allowing the process to happen naturally creates better results .



Once the cracks formed they seemed to take on a creamy yellow hue- I guess some of the colours of the stain (oranges and yellows) I had used when I initially coloured the plastered tag last year had permeated through!



Not really a problem as after applying another coat of matte medium to seal the crackle I applied another coat of Black Acrylic paint to cover and then used silver gilding wax to enhance the cracks and texture.
Lets get you up close to see



all the peaks and troughs



and all those crevices and cracks!



The Focal Feature
I die cut a large circle, painted it with black Acrylic paint and stamped onto it using an Andy Skinner crackle stamp.



I die cut a few smaller circles adhered them together to give sturdiness and painted them black.
I used the same crackle technique as I had for the tag:
coat with matte medium,
apply crackle paint quite thickly with spatula, leave to dry,
seal crackle with matte medium.



I adhered the cracked circles on top of each other and topped with an Tim Holtz Ideology Ornate plate that I altered with black alcohol ink touched up with silver gilding wax.
 An Ideology Quote chip sits atop with silver brads to fasten.



This was then adhered into the centre of the tag with foam pads and 2 screw eyes were nestled into the top and bottom to finish off.



As for the tag tie, well, nothing I had in my stash seemed to look right (and it has to be right) so until I find that certain something it will remain as is.
I do hope you like my textural crackled tag -I had a great time creating it!



Thank you for accompanying me on the 3rd leg of this months Destination Inspiration. I hope I and my fellow Creative Guides, Nikki (Terminal 1) and Annie (Terminal 2) have offered you some creative inspiration. Be sure to pop back next Monday when a fellow Creative Guide will be ready to greet you at Terminal 4, the final stop of this months journey.  

Our latest challenge 'Melt It' is currently underway and we hope you will be able to join us . 
We  always look forward to seeing all your entries. 
Details and inspirational projects can be found here .
Wishing you all a great week 

Happy Crafting 

Amanda

x  

Destination Inspiration - Arriving at Terminal #2

Hi Everyone.....Hope you are all well and are looking forward to your journey. Annie  here as your hostess today and I am taking you on a  long journey so please grab a cuppa as there's lots to see before we reach the end of this post !!!  

The contents of February's Travel Bag are as follows:

Product -Paint

Technique - Crackle

Colour - Black

Substrate-Tag

Below is the finished project where you can see lots of crackles and painted layers of deliciousness :-)

I really was not sure where I was going with this project and although I did have some kind of idea...I did go totally off piste from my original thoughts !! 

 Hence I painted 3  #8 Manila Tags  in Black Soot Distress Paint !!! ( always handy for future creations)

 The three Pediments from Tim Holtz Sizzix Die were cut then painted in Black Soot Distress Paint

 Once the paint dried Decoart Crackle medium was applied

 Whilst the crackle medium was drying I applied Finnabair's 3D Matte Gel to an Idea-Ology Glass Bottle, using my fingers.

 When the Crackle medium was almost dry Decoart Chalk Paint was applied and you can see the amazing crackles appearing almost immediately.

 Similarly, Chalk Paint in Rustic was applied to the Pendants die cuts.

 Whilst the tags/pediments were drying I took a piece of cardboard from packaging, tearing it around the edges before placing a small square die on top. You can see below that the die did not cut right through, which was great as it gave me a lovely frame and backdrop for my UTEE heart.

 Some Decoart Vintage Wash Paint was applied to the cardboard, followed by a wash of Lace chalk paint and some splatters of the same paint

 Apologies that the photograph below is a bit fuzzy, but you can just make out that a layer of Tim Holtz Crazing Medium was applied over the 3D Matte Gel as I wanted to see if it would work on the glass.

 Once the crazing medium was dry Lace  Chalk paint was applied then some Decoart antiquing cream was applied using a brush.

 Once the Antiquing cream was dry I wiped with a slightly damp cloth it looked amazing and yes ...there are very subtle cracks...YAY!!!

Some of Tim Holtz Wild Flowers were die cut and coloured with various DI's using finger daubers.

 To go with my framed Heart I decided to create a very wee (small) journal of "Love"

after all it is Valentine's Day on the 14th February !!!  Where is time going.....it will soon be Christmas  again!!!  How many Weeks ???? Okay I'll stop!!

Taking a piece of Kraft card I rubbed in a mix of Glycerin and water  on both sides. This technique creates a faux leather appearance (details  of this technique can be found on You Tube) 

 I then placed the kraft piece in an embossing folder, which I ran through my Big Shot

 Once embossed the journal was inked with Vintage Photo DI and then sprayed with Crafter's Companion Spray & Shine...it really does look amazing :-)

 Taking a piece of card to fit inside my wee journal I folded it like you would a fan, creating mountain and valley folds. Scrap papers were adhered along with some die cut heart and stars/washi tape. I will write a personal message later. 

 Both sides of the journal pages

 Journal all tied up with Bakers Twine

 The edges of the tag were inked with Black Soot DI then the pediments were adhered with foam take to create dimension. UTEE heart taking centre stage within the frame ( I made this when creating my project for the current Melt It challenge, which can be found HERE)

 

Some lace from my stash, a chit chat sticker and a little button with twine now complete the piece, which is now ready for My Valentine x

Thank You so much for joining in with me on this amazing journey. I certainly had lots of fun and I hope you have  enjoyed this Destination post too x One of my fellow Creative Guides will be starting a new journey next Monday19th February and I hope you can join in x

I mentioned Julia's "Melt It" challenge earlier , which remains open until Thursday 1st March  (St Davids Day in the UK) there's still lots of time to join in and we always enjoy visiting your blogs to view your amazing entries. (Link is on the sidebar)

Take Care & Happy Crafting

Annie xx