Steampunk Travellers Mixed Media Canvas with Powertex

Oh my goodness – I really enjoyed myself with this Steampunk canvas – I just love to get myself lost a bit of fantasy. I used lots of Chocolate Baroque stamps from my stash (Punky Expressions, Words of Inspiration, Steampunkery, Steampunk Travel, Punky Flowers, Steampunk SeaWorld) and two of the new stamps from Mark Gould (Sailor Jim and The Aviator).

As the theme on the Simon Says Stamp Blog Challenge (Wed) this week is ‘Layer It Up’ – I have entered this one.

I first cut 2 pieces of left over mount board and trimmed them to approx. 25 X 31cm and 31 X 41 cm. The back board was coated front and back with Bronze Powertex. The second board was coated with Ivory Powertex.

I used a page from an old atlas and glued it to the board using Easy Coat Mat decoupage medium. Note: There are some lovely map themed Rice Papers on the Powertex website.

I then applied some Easy Structure paste through stencils from my stash to create some wave and cloud textures.

Next I applied elements from decorative rice papers (sea themed and pocket watches) using Easy Coat medium. It looks like the pocket watches sheet I used is out of stock but there is a similar Victorian Steampunk sheet available. Tip: draw around the parts of the image that you desire using a water brush or pen, then gently pull away the image from the sheet. This avoids harsh cut edges and the images will blend better into the background.

I also applied a little of the new Golden Metallic Acrylic Ink through my stencils, and onto areas of the pocket watches.

I next stamped my images using Versafine Ink (Onyx Black) onto recycled tissue paper (packaging). I also stamped some onto white card using Versafine (Vintage Sepia), cut them into little sentiment strips and edged them with a dark brown alcohol marker. The images and text sentiments were applied to the canvas using Easy Coat decoupage medium.

I added a little colour over the decoupaged stamp images using Golden Metallic and Aqua Acrylic Inks. These inks have a lovely translucency so do not obliterate the image beneath. You don’t need to be super careful with colouring either.

My characters were stamped onto smooth stamping card using Versafine (Vintage Sepia), cut out and coloured with pencils. I applied Ivory Powertex to the backs to seal them, curving and doming them slightly. I coated the fronts with a layer of Powerwax to protect them. I chose this option as I was concerned that a slow drying wet medium might smudge some of the pencil colouring.

I used one of the MDF Heart Flowers (approx. 12.5cm across) to make an embellishment for the top. The moulded flower was from my stash. It had been made with Stone Art and Ivory Powertex mixed into a clay and used with one of my moulds. When dry it was painted with Easy Varnish tinted with Burgundy Powercolor, then dry brushed with more varnish tinted with Silver, Rich Gold and Copper Colortricx. The MDF flower was coated with Bronze Powertex and the moulded flower glued to the centre with a little Easy Structure paste. Easy Structure paste and Powertex were used to glue the embellishment to the top of the canvas.

Black cotton netting was treated with Bronze Powertex and applied to the canvas base and diagonally across the middle. The characters were then positioned and glued down with Easy Structure Paste (i.e. using it as a 3D glue). Care was taken not to smudge the images with paste or Powertex. Any slight mishaps were wiped away quickly with a damp sponge.

I gathered together lots of Steampunk and nautical embellishments from my stash including die cut ship wheels, anchors, gears, swirls etc. I also had a stash of shells created using paper clay and moulds (already coloured with ink sprays). The embellishments were all coated with Powertex (Transparent or Bronze) and glued in place, using Easy Structure paste where needed. I also dropped some 3D Sand and Balls into wet Powertex for added texture.

In addition I used some recycled gear cogs from the inside my finished double sided tape rollers. These are plastic so I used copper gilding wax (Pebeo) to colour the top surface (Powertex doesn’t stick to plastic) and embedded them well with Easy Structure paste and Powertex coated card pieces etc.

Finally I dry brushed Easy Varnish tinted with Bronze Gold Colortricx lightly over the embellishments to enhance them.

The canvas could be mounted into a 3D box frame to fully protect it from dust etc. It could also be hung directly – perhaps holes cut in the top edge and a string would look quite nautical? If hanging without framing I would advise that everything be fully sealed with Easy Varnish (the characters with more layers of Powerwax); particularly the areas coated with transparent Powertex (coloured Powertex is already weather resistant). It could then be cleaned with a damp cloth (or even rinsed under the tap).

I hope that you like my fantasy creation. I have included a few more pics for more close up views, Anne x.

Goldwork Lace Rose Card created with the Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut Best of 2016 USB

Today I am sharing some instructions, as promised, for my latest TV show samples created for Create & Craft TV and the Brother ScanNCut.

This one is another easy make using the Brother ScanNCut USB, Best of 2016 from Tattered Lace (cutting files in FCM format). A fabulous set of files that sold out very quickly. This has to be my favourite set yet. Well worth grabbing a copy when it returns.

Materials:

• Tattered Lace Brother ScanNCut USB 8 – Best of 2016, Floral Layers CD-ROM (Tattered Lace)
• Floral papers (from a Tattered Lace magazine)
• 8 X 8 inch white card blank, A4 sheet light gold holographic card (Create & Craft), A4 sheet smooth white printing paper
• PVA pearls (Cosmic Shimmer, gold) and glitter glue (clear)Large b
• all tool and embossing mat to shape flower

How to make it:

1. Trim the patterned paper to fit the card front leaving a small border. Glue down.
2. Load the Goldwork Lace Floral design from the USB and cut from gold card. Settings will depend on your card thickness and density (I used speed 5, pressure 1, standard blade depth 6). Glue to the card front with 3D glue or foam pads for added depth.
3. From the CD-ROM print the sheet to create the yellow rose. This is a really easy to use CD-ROM – just Click, Print and Go. Scan the printed sheet into the ScanNCut. Use a low tack mat for paper (or a well used mat with less stick).
4. Overlay and resize the Floral Layers Rose file elements over the scanned image. This is fairly easy as the bleed area around the printed images gives an allowance – so you don’t need to be super accurate. There will be four sets of petal elements printed on the sheet. Work on one set first and when happy with the placement and sizing of the cutting files, group them together and save the file. You will then not have to repeat the procedure if you want to cut out more sheets in the future. Then simply overlay 3 more sets of cutting file over the remaining images. Cut out (I used cut speed 5, pressure 0, standard blade depth 3).
5. Using an embossing mat and ball tool give some shape to the petals and make up the flower, layering larger petals to the outside, reducing size towards the middle, finishing with a folded up bud shape in the centre.
6. Finally glue on the rose, add PVA pearls, and finish with glitter glue for sparkle.

Style Boutique home decor sample created for Brother ScanNCut

Good morning – I am so excited to have been chosen to join the Brother ScanNCut Design Team. I still cannot believe it. I am so looking forward to creating and sharing my new creative journey with you all.

This is one of my first projects using the lovely set of images and cutting files from the Cutting Craftorium Style Boutique Collection (CD images and SVG files on a USB) recently launched from Tattered Lace on Create & Craft TV.

I printed images from the CD and used the ScanNCut to cut out decoupage elements for layering. I hope that you like my mini canvas. I particularly like the sentiment – describes my craft room perfectly! Tee hee.

Anne x

A bit about the Style Boutique Collection:

The CD is packed with wonderful background papers, scenes, ready made toppers, and all the separate images for dressing up some lovely ‘dolls’. Think paper dress up dolls (I used to love playing with those in the 60’s and 70’s). Images include lovely ladies with a range of gorgeous dresses, hair styles, hats, shoes and handbags etc. There is also a young boy and girl doll. There are also templates for A 3D wardrobe and dressing table. Fabulous CD with images designed by Nikki Hall from Polkadoodles.

My Craft Studio Elite software is also included on the CD which enables you to build scenes, resize, recolour etc. This is a great stand alone CD. You can dress the dolls digitally and create projects for printing. Alternatively you could print a sheet of elements to cut out by hand for decoupage or dressing the printed dolls. No need to have a cutting machine.

The USB contains SVG files to cut out the dolls and all the elements which can be directly read by the ScanNCut machine – just insert the USB. SVG files can also be used with many other cutting machines including the Silhouette (with Silhouette Studio Designer Edition software). I also have a Silhouette Cameo and had no problem importing the files into my software. Again this could be used as a stand alone set of images for drawing or cutting – e.g. used pretty patterned papers to cut out the dresses etc. There is also a free SVG download available for drawing the faces on the dolls if you are not confident with drawing them yourself.

Note about My Craft Studio Elite:

I am a complete newbie to My Craft Studio (MCS) software. I generally use Serif Craft Artist for all my digital crafting, importing images and creating digikits as I need. However, as this CD is designed to use alongside that MCS software I simply had to get to grips with it – especially as I wanted to provide project instructions for you all.

Due to the tight deadline for TV show samples I only had one evening to get to grips with the basics! If you have never used it before, don’t be scared. The software really is easy to use and has lots of versatility for advancing and growing with it’s capabilities.

Materials:

• Style Boutique CD (image files) and Cutting Craftorium Style Boutique Brother ScanNCut USB (SVG files)
• My Craft Studio Elite software (included on the CD)
• Photo frame (aperture approx. 11.7 X 16.7cm, to fit 12.7 X 17.7cm mat)
• Fine tipped pink glitter pen
• Super smooth paper for colour printing (approx. 120gsm)
• Card for backing and scrap black card
• Standard A4 Colour printer
• Brother ScanNCut machine

Summary of how it was done:

Using MCS I loaded a new A4 page and dropped on the Hessian (47) background image. I reduced the opacity to make it paler.

I then dropped on the ready made scene from Lil May’s Wardrobe, centred it and resized it to approx. 15cm high (to fit my frame). I then added a rectangle vignette in pink around the image (to give the effect of inking the edges). Printed the image as shown in the pic below.

I trimmed the printed image and glued to backing card to fit my frame (12.7 X 17.7cm). Note: there is capability of adding shadows in the software and I would add these if I made another. This would give more depth and 3D effect to the image.

Next I added another blank page to my project. I then added individual images from Lily May’s Wardrobe – dropping them onto the scene and resizing them to fit over the elements in the scene. (dresses, shoes, bows, skirt, cat and, T-shirt). Once resized I copied and pasted them to the blank page so that they could be printed out for decoupage.

I copied the dress images (i.e. 2 copies of each for printing). I also added the chair and an extra cat, flipped (tip: right click and select flip – took me ages to work that one out – tee hee) and resized so that they could be used to glue onto the outer frame. I changed the colour of the chair to fit my colour scheme better (green). Finally I added some hearts and flowers in various sizes. See pic below.

As the sentiment was quite small on my project I cropped it from the main image and enlarged it for printing. I trimmed it out and layered onto white card and drew a faux stitched border with pink glitter pen. I glued to the frame (covering the smaller printed sentiment) using 3D glue gel (see pic above).

The cut elements were shaped and glued to the image and frame with 3D glue gel – et voila!