Saturday Step by Step - Dwell in Possibility

Hi everyone and welcome! It's Jenny here with a fun tutorial for a framed picture based on the new Distress Oxides and Sizzix Cityscape dies.

I started with a Tim Holtz Framed Panel and having given it a base coat of black gesso, moved on to cover it in a patchy dry-brushed fashion first with Ground Espresso Distress Paint, then Frayed Burlap Distress Paint using my Collage Brush.

The layers continued with a lighter coat of Iced Spruce Distress Paint and finally Antique Linen Distress Paint.

I have an absolute love affair with the new Tim Holtz Paper collection 'Memoranda' and selected a piece from the back to cover the frame base; I went to the trouble of stitching around the paper patchwork before adding it with the Crazing Distress Collage Medium.

Once dry I added some Ground Espresso Distress Crayon into the crazing to emphasise it before adding a little Evergreen Bough Distress Paint to the frame to coordinate it further.

Having put the frame together and created the scene inside I realised it looked a little too bright and clean, so added a layer of Vintage Collage Medium over the frame edge and base. In hindsight it would have been much more sensible to do that at this stage in the process rather than waiting to the end - hence my reason for including it here!

Now I got to play with those new Distress Oxides. I smooshed the Iced Spruce pad onto my craft mat, spritzed it with a little water, mopped it up with two thirds of a sheet of Mixed Media Heavy Cardstock and dried it with my heat gun. That process was repeated using the Vintage Photo pad, after which I spritzed and dried the card to get a beautiful mottled look.

The card was die cut with the two Cityscape Skyline dies (you need one and a half of each to fit the length of the frame) and the building portions of the Cityscape Suburbia dies. I edged each one with Walnut Stain Distress Oxide using a blending tool before covering them with Distress Glaze to fix the colour in place. Having applied the first Skyline towards the top of the frame (the one with the thinner bottom edge) I layered the second over it using Ranger Black Adhesive Foam to add dimension.

To add even further dimension (and fit with our current challenge theme of using folds) I folded a strip of the mottled card to create foam tape supported mounds onto which I added the Suburbia buildings.

Using the final third of the Heavy Cardstock I created smaller coloured pieces using a combination of Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink first with Fossilized Amber ink, then with Fired Brick ink, then with Faded Jeans ink and finally with Peeled Paint ink. As before I spritzed each with water to mottle them before adding a coat of Distress Micro Glaze.

With the main Suburbia building portions already cut I used these coloured pieces to cut the roofs, window frames, balconies, trees, washing etc, gluing them in place before adding the finished buildings to their mounts.

To finish I added words from the Metallic Quotations Stickers, supporting them with more of the Black Adhesive Foam. I also glued the new Mini Foundations on the corners of the frame. And with that my framed vintage scene was complete! Here are some close ups to show the details;

I hope you've enjoyed seeing one idea for using the new Distress Oxides and Cityscape dies. You'll find links to all the products used below, now available to order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique for a permanently discounted price.

Remember our current challenge 'You've Got to Know When to Fold 'em' runs for another week and we'd love to see your folded creations. I'll be back with the rest of the Funkie side of the Design Team next Wednesday to unveil our inspiration for you.

Until then have a great weekend, take care of yourselves and have fun!
Jenny xxx