Create a Flower Tutorials - Part 2: Mixed media

Hello lovely crafters,

I hope you are all well. As promised I said I would be back with how I made my other Create a flower samples, so here we go... I'll try not to waffle too much ( that would be a first! lol.) There are lots of photos.

So this was the Water Lilly box I created. First I took the Cool Corrosion die and cut it out to use as a stencil. So you can also use it this way. :)  As soon as I saw it, it reminded me of waves and ripples in water. You will have to throw it after afterwards but it's great to add pattern. 

Cut out medium and small petals. Stamped and embossed with clear powder. Painted with white and lilac pearl Pebeo paints. The pink shade on the edge, highlighted with gold gilding wax.

Took one of the circles (a cut out from the middle of the Time Traveller goggles) I'd saved to use as a base and began layering the petals into the centre.

I also used the small Sheena petals that came with the Crafter's Inspiration magazine as I realized I needed some smaller ones too. It's great to have these as well. And you don't have to use the full stamp you can also put a pattern on the small ones by just positioning them in the centre. I also added small buds around the box as you can see from a previous post as the sides needed something to complement the top.

Earlier, I applied modelling paste through the die stencil, to all four sides and left it to dry, along with texture paste on the bottom to signify the stoney pond base.  When it was ready, I began to paint my underwater scene with the Pebeo paints. The modelling paste gave the impression of ripples in the water. 

Added some leaves with Sara Davies heart dies as wanted a realistic shape for them.

I had some stamens and rubbed over them with gold gilding wax.

Took one of the Sensational Centres and another goggle circle, covered them with gilding wax and folded the stamens in half, securing them just slightly up from the fold.

Cut out the boingy thing, spiral, manipulated into a cone, sticking it to a goggle circle base again. It was then painted gold.

I fed the stamen stalks through the hole I'd made in the goggle circle. I trimmed the ends shorter after it was glued fast. 

Then glued them into the cone I'd created to make a raised flower centre.

 Don't forget you can also make a full stamen centre with paper and the die centres, multi- layered and scrunched. You could then glue these into a cone. :) For some reason I did not think of this at the time..lol... my brain was obviously full of too many other crafty ideas! But that's why we have a design team, lots of fabulous different ideas from everyone :) 

The flower was added to the top.

But before I did that I flicked droplets of Pebeo foil glue on to the box and added silver highlights when it was dry. I painted the waves with the transfer gel, which can also be used as a varnish to add shine, to enhance them.

Canvas...

For this I added some canvas paper to a canvas as I wanted a shabby chic look and to add more interest and texture. It's hard to tear this because of the weave, so you have to do it with scissors, just don't do it straight and it will look more natural. :)

The Create a Flower stencils were then used with modelling paste to add pattern and texture. I applied texture paste into the torn gaps as I wanted it to look like the earth, that gives life to flowers, peaking through. Modelling paste was also added around the edges.

I'd added some paper cogs to the background, for more interest too, and painted these gold and also used the pebeo paints to colour the foliage.

I began to arrange my flowers and other bits. I had an idea of where I wanted them but it is always good to have a play before you add glue in case you wish to change something, or come up with another idea. I ran gilding wax over the edges of the canvas and the 'soil.'

Various different materials were used, faux leather, a tapestry style fabric, paper and more..

Hope you have enjoyed this post. Back soon with more tutorials. :)

T.T.F.N peeps

Adele

x

Temptingly Tropical with Sheena Douglass

Hello fellow crafters!

I hope you are all well out there. We've been feeling a warm breeze moving in from the tropics at Sheena HQ. Their was a heatwave in the Hochanda studio! This weekend Sheena launched her stunning new stamp collection, Temptingly Tropical and it works perfectly with her previous Laguna surf stamps.  If you love pretty birds, these are just your thing. The team have loved playing with these and for me it's been heavenly as I do love gorgeous, colourful birds.  So here are my samples I made for the shows. And no surprise it was another sell out again :D We had a feeling people would love them as much as we do!

I was so pleased Sheena drew another hummingbird, I do adore them and still wish to see one in real life, but for now, I will create my own with some help from Sheena. :)

This was an 8" card. I also used the Create Flower stencils from the previous launch to make the leaf background.

This was a container I decorated. 

And now for pretty flamingos...

Amongst the collection is also a lovely kingfisher, well two to be exact, one larger sat on a branch and a smaller one in flight.

I love how Sheena captured this kingfisher hunting. This is such a beautiful image, I did not want to do much with it, just observe the stillness before the plunge. So, I created a background to represent the water splashing up when he dives and left him as the focus. I also decoupaged the wing to add depth.

People seem to have fallen in love with these little cuties! And I can't blame them. Again I kept this simple, so the main focus is on the birds. These lovebirds would be perfect for an engagement, wedding or anniversary card. 

This 6" card was made using a Sara Davies heart die and the Sheena Create a flower small dies, which came free with the recent Crafter's Companion magazine. I wanted to surround them with a heart. 

Ooh and then we have a beautiful peacock feather to play with. The background was made with the Pebeo paints and after also painting the feather with these, I then added coloured foil highlights for extra elegance.  If a peacock isn't a good excuse to use your foils, I don't know what is. :)

And the peacock himself, he likes to show off you know...again with foil accents and a Pebeo paint background. The feather is a Downton Abbey die from Crafter's and the flower Sheena's Create a flower, Sensational centres. 

And finally. I thought this scene was perfect for a calendar project. The image and sentiment lent itself well to this. Here, a tropical finch greets the new day. :)

I hope you have enjoyed this projects. I will be back with how I made these, and I haven't forgotten about the Create a Flower tutorials, bare with... ;) 

T.T.F.N peeps

Crafty hugs

x

Create a Flower tutorials - Part 1: Mixed media

Hello peeps!

So, thank you for all the lovely comments about my little black box. It really means a lot to me I'm so pleased lots of you loved it! I really had fun making this project and the brilliant thing is you don't need much to do it.  I was touched that people called it "classy", "sophisticated," "posh" and "elegant", that was the plan ;) . Thank you so much! :D who would have thought you could do this with black card? But I wouldn't have been able to do this without the stunning new stamps and dies from Sheena, she made it all possible!

I will talk you through it but I don't have step by step photos all the way through as camera needed charging in the midst of creating this..how rude! lol ..  ;)

So I painted small box with black gesso, two coats for strength. 

Then I decorated it with the texture stamps by stamping on to the box with Versa Mark and heat embossing with silver powder.

Both the natural petal and the fancy petal were stamped and embossed with either clear or black powder, one or the other, can't remember... I've made other things since then. ;) either will work fine though. Then when they were cool I went over them all with some silver gilding wax. And then added some silver foil highlights.

So that the middle was not bulky and remained fairly flat the circle on the end needs to be cut off and petals cut to a point. The circle in the middle that worked as a guide for me was the cut out from the Time Traveller goggles. They were positioned in a cross, then another layer of 'real' petals were added on top in another cross formation, in the gaps as you can see.  I then added two rows of patterned petals in the same way. The top was a smaller section of the large mandala stamps and then I put several Sensational centres in the middle followed by a gem to finish. Remember the petals needed to be shaped. Curling a paint brush underneath them works well. :)

This was the gold flower. I created this wanting it to look like those decorative brass bowls you see on the high street. So again this was just black card again to begin with.

The natural petals were stamped on to black Crafter's Companion card. I then took my very chunky Gold Pebeo pen and swept it across the surface. This will make the embossing super, super shiny.  (Not as shiny once wax added.) I used the pen underneath the gilding wax as I wanted a really strong gold base that was solid. It was a bit of an experiment too and it seems to work. The petals were doubled back to back to give strength. As you can see I coloured the reverse edges with the gold pen before sticking them together, didn't want any black bits peaking through anywhere. Once dry the gilding wax was then polished but I wanted a real contrast in the veins, hence the foil.

Pebeo relief was piped on to the veins so I could add foil. Petals were shaped again.  I did cut a circle base, cut off the end circles on the petals and then fanned them round. Sensational centres were added in the middle. 

I will be back with more techniques in another post, this one took so long due to technical gremlins! Pesky critters!

crafty hugs

Adele

x

Create a Flower with Sheena Douglass

Hello lovely crafters!

As some of you may already know, Sheena recently launched her Create a Flower dies and stamps. This is an amazing new collection, that allows to you to make 3 different sizes of flowers, both natural and patterned.  They are also accompanied by some fabulous stencils and texture dies and stamps. The flower dies are mixed media, so you are able to cut out a range of paper, card, fabric and much more...Ooh so many things to do with these! :D

So these are the samples I made for the shows...

Cards

The petals are great for more than just flowers. I was able to create this butterfly with them.

In this card above, the petals were die cut with canvas paper and painted with Pebeo paints. I wanted to go a bit shabby and grungy with this one, to show they can be more than just pretty flowers. 

I just couldn't resist making them also look industrial. They would work perfectly with your Time Traveller collection too, by giving them a different look, you get more versatility. And the texture dies can also lean towards this look. 

My final card was this pretty in pink bloom. I created this to grow up and out of the card as if it can be picked. You can make realistic flowers, if that is your thing, but there is nothing stopping you also making them arty and patterned by using the mandala style stamps that come with this collection.

And on to sewing...

You remember I said when I started this blog that I may in the future do some sewing? Well, this was the perfect opportunity. No zips were used in the making of this..phew! Shhhhh, I mentioned the dreaded word didn't I? ( Don't let my best friend hear, let's not mention it again - back away, nothing to see here..lol.) I've made an evening bag before and I thought these dies would lend themselves very well to this. So, as you can see, I multi-cut the petals and layered them up, adding a sensational centre, also cut from the new dies. The middle was then beaded. Some of the petals were also decorated by stamping them with the texture stamps, using Archival ink. 

This is a hand sewn brooch, created with the small petals. It was made with felt and cashmere. Again, I was able to stamp on to the fabric.

A second with cashmere, felt and faux leather.

Mixed Media projects

For this project, I wanted to design something that looked like pewter. I have a great love of the Arts and Crafts movement and these patterned petals reminded me of this, so I felt inspired and it resulted in this decorated box.  It was just black card, Silver Pebeo gilding wax and silver foil highlights.

This was a gold flower created as a bowl also with black card.

With this I hoped to show that you can create different types of flowers. So on top of this little box I made a Water Lilly. This was done by folding the petals back on themselves the other way. 

This was my canvas, using the different sizes and shapes of petals. A mixture of fabrics and papers were used and it was painted with Pebeo paints. 

So these are my projects. I'm sure you will think of many, many more, the possibilities are endless! And it's why I love these dies and stamps, still got lots of ideas myself, so who knows what else will turn up! :)

T.T.F.N

Adele

x