Saturday Step by Step - Golden Hearts

Hello! Suzz here with my first Saturday Step by Step! I created a journal page while playing around with embossing and inspired by the current "Love is in the Air" challenge!

As a few of you might know over time the little dabber paints did tend to get a bit dried out and you can revitalize them with a touch of water and mix it back in. I had this older paint dabber I wanted to use with my stencil as a resist.

It actually worked even better because of the thickness it went on like a colored embossing paste.

I used a foam brush and painted on the paint over the stencil on my card stock. I was creating my step by steps and didn't realize until I finished that I had picked up the other stencil. I went back and did it again with the Valentine's stencil.

You can see how thick the paint is in this photo which gave a nice texture as well as a resist. Here is the finished product.

Next I used gray ink and stamped a fine script over the surface.

I decided to pair the golden tones  with a soft lavender spray but was running out of my spray. It worked perfect for this as I wanted to pour it on and let it run over the surface by tilting the paper different directions. If you don't like the effect you can add more and you can spray it on.

Next up was to add my hearts over the background.

I die cut hearts form a scrap of paper to use as my template for my hearts in the background. I pulled out my watercolor pencil and traced hearts on the background. 

I used a waterbrush to soften the heart effect. The left side has been painted with water. I then added another layer of color with a gray watercolor pencil to add more shadows.

After the hearts were added to the background I moved onto my metallic hearts.

I started with a sheet of foil. I backed my foil with card stock by taping it to the back before I started to do all the steps. Adding the card stock makes it easier for the foil to hold the embossing effect. I embossed it with the typewriter letters. I then painted it with a coat of white acrylic paint.

I took the remaining lavender spray and painted it on over the dry surface of the white paint.

I cut a series of hearts from the painted foil and then smeared a layer of gold paint over the surface of each heart. 

I showed you the effect of the foil with and without the gold paint.

To finish it off I painted the cupid stamp with the gold paint and stamped him on white card stock. I cut him out and pop dotted him to the page. I then stamped the verse in gold ink on the background and added a sprinkling of glitter across the page.

Wishing you all an early Happy Valentine's Day!

Suzz

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Milled Lavender	Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Metallic Gold	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Valentine	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Watering Can	Prima Water Brush Pens - 3 Pack 585891 (March Pre-Order)
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Love Stuck	Ranger Surfaces Silver Foil Cardstock: 8.5" x 11", Pack of 3	Ranger Inkssentials Foil Tape Sheets 4.25x5.5"	Sizzix® Texture Fades™ Embossing Folders 2PK - Typewriter & Keyboard Set by Tim Holtz®	Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber - Snow Cap White
Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Pumice Stone

Saturday Step by Step - Stencils and Crackle and Journals, oh my!

Hi everyone and welcome to a (delayed) Saturday Step by Step with me, Jenny, as your host. This should have been with you last week, but deadlines piled up to breaking point it seemed sensible to take more time and give you a tutorial of the standard you deserve. So here goes...

Having resisted for a long time I've finally been bitten by the journalling bug!!! My great friend Brenda Brown has been encouraging everyone to give it a try (see her current link HERE) and when I discovered an old academic diary it seemed like the perfect place to start. I decorated the cover for a spotlight at Our Creative Corner way back in 2012 (see the post HERE) and didn't want to get rid when the year finished. So, I opened it to the centre (a less scary place to start) stuck a couple of the adjoining pages together to create a thicker surface, and...

(click on the photos for a closer look)

Start with some strips of old book paper and a coat or two of white gesso. Then add a layer of Picket Fence Distress Paint.

Add a medium layer of Rock Candy Crackle Paint.

Stencil White Embossing Paste on through the Tim Holtz Wildflower Layering Stencil (an uneven layer is good).

When dry drip lines of Alcohol Ink down the pages, then add some Alcohol Blending Solution and tip the book to make it run.

Continue to add complimentary colours in lines until the pages are covered.

To make the foliage stand out add Snow Cap Ink over the stencilled areas (you could also use Picket Fence Distress Paint/Stain for this). The colours will come through a little as it dries so the results won't be as stark.

Reapply the Picket Fence Distress Paint to the edges to create a border.

Add some definition and depth by using a Frayed Burlap Distress Marker along one side of each stem, blending out the lines with a detailer nib water brush. You can see I added die cut flowers at this stage too.

Finally add buttons to the centre of your flowers, brush them with a little Forest Moss Distress Ink, add some botanical Idea-Ology rub ons and stamp one of the sentiments from the Tim Holtz Life Quotes set.

Here are some close ups...

If you've not tried journalling why start now? You can try things out, you've got a portable way of showing others what you can do (without storage issues) you have a record of techniques tried for easy future reference, and if a page goes wrong you can cover it up with a coat of paint and start again! Go on, I dare you...

Whatever you're getting up to this weekend, have a great one and take care of yourselves.
Jenny xxx