Blue Fern Frame and Color

My project began with the selection of a Blue Fern Frame and the idea of using color. Here's a peek at my finished project then I show you the steps.

I selected the Blue Fern frame which is an approximate 10" square frame and is all one piece. The frame has beautiful details which you can see in the picture. 

I was so excited to start applying color to the frame and nothing better than using Tim Holtz Distress Paints and Adirondack Acrylic Paint. I plan to use Brushed Pewter, Cloudy Blue and Pearl. We'll come back to the frame in a minute. 

As I took the frame out of 

the package I saw that the package included a piece of printed paper that had a beautiful lattice background. I liked it and again thought I could apply some dabs of paint here and there and give it a little different look. My pictures shows the paper after I dabbed Brushed Pewter Distress Paint, Mustard Seed Distress Paint and the Cloudy Blue Paint. I dried the paint with a heat tool.

Next I started working on the frame with the Brushed Pewter, Cloudy Blue and the Pearl paints. I dabbed the Pewter right on the chipboard frame then dried it a little. Next I dabbed the Cloudy Blue and finally the Pearl with a little drying between each color. I hope you can see the effect of the three paints in the picture.



I used Glue Dots 
to adhere the frame to the paper and only on the sides and bottom. I knew I wanted to add a picture in the frame later. 







Now let's talk about the flowers:

 

I used Prima flowers that were bright purple and lime green colors and toned them down with the Tim Holtz and Adirondack paints. 

They hardly look like the same flowers, it's fascinating to see what the paint can do. Endless possibilities with the paint combos.

The butterfly pieces are Tim Holtz chipboard. 

I applied Mustard Seed Paint, wiped a little off and let it dry plus used the heat tool just a little. Then dabbed a little of the same color on a tissue swiped over the butterfly lightly and hoping the raised swirls on the butterfly would be highlighted. I used a couple pieces of bling for the butterfly body. I made some antennas for the butterfly out of wire but didn't get a picture of them. 

Time to add the flowers and bling to the paper and the frame. 
I just love the look of the flowers with the extra dabs of Pearl paint on the edges.

After I used the Mustard Seed Paint on the butterflies, I dabbed a little more of it on the background paper for a little more emphasis. 

Now you have it all, step-by-step and I can't tell you how happy I am with the finished product. I plan to add a picture and use it in a frame and oh what fun it was to play with color.

I took a pic of the top portion of the project and made a new header with it in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by - Judy.

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp & Show: Color Challenge

Spring Tag

I've been working on a Spring tag to share with you.

Because of my love for pastels, I mostly stayed in that color palette. Although I had used Ranger's Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers, it was my first opportunity to work with the Tim Holtz Distress Paints.

I did find that working the paints I wanted to spritz water on my craft sheet before I applied the color to the tag. The Mustard Seed Distress Paint was a little bright for my project so I diluted it with water and applied to the tag again. Next I blotted some additional Ranger Adirondack Cloudy Blue and added a little Dusty Concord Distress Ink to the tag in the spots I knew my stamped background would need.


The background stamp I used is by Inkadinkado and needed the soft colors I was working with. 

I used Ranger Archival Coffee ink to stamp with.





To ensure the details of 
the stamp were visible, I stamped on tissue paper and glued the tissue paper to my tag with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Multi-medium Matte. I used the glue on the bottom of the tissue paper and again on the top of the tissue paper. 

After the tag was dry, I used a tissue to dab on a little more of the Dusty Concord.
The Tim Holtz idea-ology Chitchat Verbiages were inked very lightly with Vintage Photo Distress Stain. 

The butterfly was from a Hero Arts background stamp. I stamped and embossed it, colored with markers and stain, added a gem, cut it out and used foam pads to pop it up on the tag. 

Working with the Distress Paint was so much fun. My flowers were Prima Purple and Prima Lime but with several layers of paint, their bold colors  were soon the pastel shades I was imagining.

It was amazing what a few layers of paint could do to the bright colors of purple and lime. 

I distressed the edges of the tag with the Paper Distresser and painted the edges with Antiqued Bronze Distress Paint. 

This was such a fun project to create and share with you. I can't wait to use the paints again. 

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Backgrounds

Fashionable Stamping Challenge: Sentimental