Saturday Showcase - Prima Marketing Paper Collections and Ranger Distress Mediums

 Hello and welcome to another Saturday Showcase where the Design Team gets to share creations and tutorials with you featuring products available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. It's Sara Emily here, and I'm sharing a Vignette Tray collage I created featuring one of Prima Marketing's beautiful paper collections and Ranger Distress mediums.

First, I'll share a few photos of my completed project, and then step by step photos, tips and instructions for creating your own tray.

*click on any photo to zoom in*

I've used Prima's Pretty Mosaic A4 paper pad, 6 x 6 paper pad and coordinating ephemera pack. As of the writing of this post the A4 pad and ephemera pack have already sold out, but don't worry, Linda has all of her in-stock Prima products on sale for 45% off MSRP while supplies last! You could  use any one of the other beautiful available collections to create something similar. You will want to hurry over for the best selection, because at these prices, they are bound to go fast.

I love the graphics on Prima's paper collections, and it's these flowers from the Pretty Mosaic papers that tugged at my blossom loving heart and inspired me to make this framed tea cup filled with blooms.

 I used lot's of different Ranger Distress mediums, pastes and colors to create an aged look to the papers. It really is so easy, and I'll explain further down.

Tip: Save leftover bits of foam and cardboard to vary the heights of the stems and blossoms to give dimension to your project.

So, now let's get started on the fun part--the making! To keep the post from getting too long, I've prepared collages of my step by step photos and bulleted instructions below the corresponding photo collage.

Prepare the tray.

1. Paint Idea-ology Vignette Tray with gesso. Allow to dry.

2. Trim papers from A4 pad to fit inner and outer walls and back of tray and cut out tiles from 6 x 6 paper pad that will line the inner back wall of the tray.

3. Adhere A4 papers with Distress Collage Medium Matte, and apply a coat of collage medium to all outer surfaces. Allow to dry until just a bit more than tacky. This is only a few minutes, because this stuff dries fast. Spritz with Frayed Burlap Oxide Spray and spritz lightly with water to activate. Dry with heat tool. Because the collage medium hasn't fully dried, the spray bakes into it as it dries and doesn't smear off.

4. Adhere brown patterned strips to inner walls and using a palette knife, spread with Distress Crazing medium about the thickness of mayonnaise on a sandwich. I find this makes for the best cracks--not too thick; not too thin. Allow to dry completely before smearing with Cracked Pistachio and Frayed Burlap Distress Crayons. I do this by scribbling crayon onto my craft mat and lifting the color with a dampened finger and rubbing it over the cracks.

5. Apply Distress Crackle Texture Paste to spines of tray and in random areas on inner and outer walls. Allow to dry completely. Apply Walnut Stain crayon to highlight the cracks as described above. 

Move onto making the tiled background.

6. Adhere the cut out tile squares to a piece of matboard with collage medium, leaving a small space between each tile. I had to trim a few along the edges after they all were adhered.

7. Using a palette knife, apply Distress Opaque Grit Paste in 'cracks' between tiles. Allow to dry.  

8. Apply a layer of Crazing medium to entire panel as on inner walls above and allow to dry.

9. Apply Distress crayon using same technique as previously described. I later used Walnut Stain crayon to edge the panel and splattered lightly with Black Soot Distress paint (not pictured). This panel is adhered to foam core and that is adhered to the inside of the tray.

Time to make the details!

10. I used an old Tim Holtz die to cut a tea cup from the brown pattered paper from the collection. (You could use Eileen Hull's 3D Teacup and Spoon which I've linked below.) I coated with Distress Embossing Dabber and heat embossed with a mixture of Speckled Egg and Cracked Pistachio Distress  Glazes.

11. After cooling then buffing the shine off with steel wool, I edged the die cuts with Gathered Twigs Distress ink and later scribbled with Walnut Stain crayon to make deeper shadows (not pictured). 

12. Fussy cut some flowers from this paper from the collection. I blended the edges with Gathered Twigs ink.

13. Die cut Wildflower stems from water color paper using Tim Holtz Wildflowers, Wildflowers #2 and his new Wildflower Stems #3 sets (pictured above). I colored them with a variety of Distress Oxide inks (see links below for the colors I used) smooshed onto my media mat and spritzed with water along with a waterpen. I seriously could do this all my waking hours!

14. Select some ephemera from the ephemera pack and fussy cut Beautiful Life from the cut apart page in the collection.

15. Blend edges with Gathered Twigs ink (not pictured). 

From there, it was just a matter of layering and assembling all my pieces! Here's one last look at my completed Vignette Tray.

Thanks for dropping by to see how you can use Prima Marketing's Paper Collections along with Ranger Distress Mediums to make a shabby Vignette Tray. I hope you've been inspired to make some art using a favorite Prima collection and adding a mixed media twist to make them your own.

There's still plenty of time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'Mostly Neutral' which runs through Tuesday, March 2nd at 11.55pm. We look forward to seeing all your creative makes! Happy crafting! Sara Emily

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Prima Marketing Pretty Mosaic - 6x6 Paper Pad

Prima Marketing Pretty Mosaic - A4 Paper Pad (Link to Prima sale)

Prima Marketing Pretty Mosaic Ephemera Pack (Link to Prima sale)

Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Cracked Pistachio, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Sprays  - Frayed Burlap

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads  - Gathered Twigs, Kitsch Flamingo

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pads  - Tattered Rose, Kitsch Flamingo, Worn Lipstick, Shaded Lilac, Squeezed Lemonade, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Rustic Wilderness, Shabby Shutters 

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze  - Speckled Egg, Cracked Pistachio

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Crazing

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste 3oz Opaque

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste 3oz Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Dabber

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Vignette Tray Structures

Sizzix Chapter 1 Thinlits Die Set - Floral Layers #2 by Jen Long

Eileen Hull Bigz L Die - 3D Teacup & Spoon

Tim Holtz Travel Glass Media Mat