Rock Candy Glitter Inspiration....

Hello friends...

Hope you're all having a great week!

I'm just popping by today with a little tutorial featuring some quick tips and tricks on how I use Rock Candy Glitter, Rock Candy Chunky Glitter, Snowflakes and Mica Flakes to create some magical sparkle to my Christmas projects.

So, whether it's trees, backgrounds or adding some twinkle to idea-ology products ~ come with me as I start to prepare for my holiday makes...

WOODLAND TREES AND GARLANDS

I chose to use a mixture of the Tim Holtz idea-ology Woodland Garlands, Alpine Trees and Woodland Trees and started by adding some white gesso to the tips of the trees. This is going to add that snowy effect to the tips, by resisting the colour we're going to apply. It will also help your glitter to not pick up the colour of your spray and in turn, go green when you add the sparkle. 

To apply the gesso, you can use a paint brush or if you're like me, I use my fingertip. You only need a light coverage and apply to the tips only.

Allow for the gesso to dry throughly before the next step of applying the colour.

For my trees, I used Distress Spray Stain in the following colours:

Iced Spruce, Rustic Wilderness and Speckled Egg and placed my trees and garlands in the Splatter Box before spritzing them to create an even coverage.

In the photo below, I've shared the trees with and without the gesso ~ you can see how the gesso resists the colour, creating snowy tips to the trees.

Dry the trees naturally, or if you're slightly inpatient like me, you can use a heat tool on a gentle setting and heat dry them.

Once the stain is dry, it's time to add the sparkle and after applying Glossy Accents to the tips, I sprinkled the glitters over the trees, tapping away the excess to reveal the magic.

On the individual trees, I used all the glitters to create different effects...

Once dry, the Rock Candy glitter creates a subtle shimmer, the Mica Flakes or Snowflakes will give a vintage sparkle and the Chunky Rock Candy will give a beautiful twinkle.

BACKGROUNDS

For my sparkly backgrounds, I used the fine Rock Candy Glitter and added a spoonful into a mixing cup.

I then added a couple of drops of the following Alcohol Inks to colour the glitter:

Green ~ Sage

Red ~ Cranberry

Dependent on how much glitter you have in your cup, you will need to add more alcohol ink, so just add another drop until you're happy with the colour but remember, you can always add, but never take away...

Mix the ink into the glitter with a spatula and then set aside.

Using a palette knife, apply Translucent Texture Paste through a Layering Stencil ~ I used the Mini Stencil Set 19 and the Christmas Element stencils in my examples.

Remove the stencil and wash immediately in warm soapy water.

Working quickly and whilst the medium is still wet, sprinkle the glitter over the paste and tap away the excess. Any glitter you have left over can be stored in these cute little storage jars.

Once dry, some of the glitter will shed, but don't worry the paste will have captured most of that sparkle and it's not going to go anywhere! The backgrounds are now ready to use for my tags...

You can also add the glitter over the top of Distress Grit Paste. On the tag below, I inked up the background using Distress Spray Stains and once dry, I applied the Grit Paste through the Nordic Stencil in the Mini Layering Stencil Set 2. Once again, working fast before the medium starts to dry out, I sprinkled Rock Candy Crystal Glitter over the top and left this to one side to dry to reveal a beautiful subtle sparkle to your background.

BAUBLES AND ICICLES

By now, if you're like me, you'll be hooked on adding some festive sparkle and I continued to add glitter to  some idea-ology Bauble Adornments.

I coloured the baubles with Alcohol Inks and also kept some white, as these can be used for "snowballs". I smeared all my baubles with Glossy Accents, and sprinkling the Rock Candy Glitter over the top.

For my final bit of sparkle for today, I added glitter to some idea-ology Icicles.

To show you the different effects, I used three types of glitter on each individual icicle....

From top to bottom:

Snowflakes

Rock Candy Crystal Clear Glitter

Rock Candy Chunky Glitter

For the icicle in the middle, I painted the back of the plastic with Picket Fence Distress Paint, this colours the icicle and adds more of a frosty finish to the piece.

I hope you've enjoyed some of these ideas and I hope it's going to inspire you with your Christmas makes...I warn you though, once you start, you won't stop!

Thanks for stopping by today and I can't wait to see how you'll be adding some of this magical vintage sparkle to your projects because this is only the tip of the iceberg ~ Rock Candy Glitter and Mica Flakes can be used on so many products, and not just for Christmas!

To all my friends and followers in the USA ~ Happy Thanksgiving and I'll see you soon...Emma xx

SHOP BELOW FOR ALL PRODUCTS

Hey, Little Bird...

Hello friends!

The brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is up, and running and this week our theme is all about FURRY FRIENDS and however you choose to show off your furry friends, we can't wait to see what you will be making when you join us for this week's fun challenge!

For my make, I chose to create a card using the Stampers Anonymous Halloween Snarky Cats set by Tim Holtz and nestled him on a branch covered in die cut leaves...but this little scaredy cat is slightly perplexed by something beside him and is wondering ~ if he plays dead, will his feathered friend decide to go away!?!?!

So let's get started and I'd like to introduce you to my furry friend, scaredy cat...

To begin with, and knowing that Tim was going to be launching some new alcohol inks, I felt inspired to get out some of the older colours, whilst I'm excitedly waiting for the new ones to arrive, and I would create a background for my card, using a panel of Yupo paper, measuring 10 x 13cm.

I then applied my alcohol inks to the paper, and used a combination of ~ Pitch Black, Gilded Alloy, Turquoise, Foundry Alloy, Monsoon and of course, Blending Solution to blend those colours together! I drop my inks onto the card, gradually building up the colour and this is how my finished panel looked.

I machine stitched a border around the edge of the panel and then layered it onto champagne metallic kraft stash, followed by a layer of slate card stock, which I then mounted with foam pads onto a black card blank.

I now have the base card ready to decorate and we'll start with the star of the show ~ scaredy cat!

SNARKY CAT

For this I stamped two images of my cat onto Mixed Media Heavystock card using Black Soot Archival Ink. I then coloured my cat by watercolouring with Distress ReInkers and adding highlights with Polychromos Pencils. I then fussy cut each of the images from the card. For the first image, I cut around the complete image, including the little lines around the edges of the outline. I then cut the second image but this time, I cut closed to the outline, cutting away the furry lines. I layered the second image over the top of the first with foam pads to complete scaredy cat.

BRANCH AND LEAVES

Moving onto the branch and for this I used the die from the Arthur Colorize Die Set and cut two separated layers of heavy stock mixed media card which I then sandwiched together to form one substantial, thick branch. For the final top layer, I used Woodgrain Watercolour card and after cutting this piece, I coloured the card with Gathered Twigs and then adhered it over the top of my chipboard branch. I inked the edges of the branch before attaching it to my background, placing it across the alcohol inked background using foam pads to add some height.

For the leaves, I inked some more of the mixed media heavystock card by spritzing Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Spray Stains. I used a couple of the leaf dies from the Funky Floral 3 Thinlits Die Set and cut a selection of foliage from the inked card.

After layering the pieces to form the textured leaves, I inked the edges with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then arranged and attached them to my branch, attaching scaredy cat in the centre using foam pads.

WOODPECKER

Now comes the final little detail, hiding amongst the foliage is Woody! Yes, that gorgeous little woodpecker from the Cozy Winter Thinlits die set by Tim has made his return from hibernation and is trying to make friends with scaredy, but to no avail because this particular cat is slightly intimidated by his feathered friend.

The woodpecker is die cut, inked and coloured with Distress Inks and paints and then layered before I attached him amongst the leaves!

We're nearly there and all that's left is the finishing touches...

...underneath my cat, where he's sitting on the branch, I added some Translucent Grit Paste. This just nestles him into position and makes him grounded, so he's not floating on the branch. I then just painted over the paste, using Gathered Twigs Distress Paint, so it would be the same colour as the branch.

On the side of the card, I added two Mini Paper clips, a button which I threaded with cotton, and a red Stitched Scrap.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment, "if I play dead, will you go away?", which is from the same Snarky Cats stamp set. I stamped this onto a piece of card that I had in my stash, which was already inked and after cutting the sentiment down to size, I layered it onto a scrap of linen, frayed the edge of the linen and then stuck this to my card, placing it just underneath the branch.

So that's my card finished and I hope you love what I've made...

...as always, I hope you love what I've made, and enjoyed all the techniques I've used. If you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today ~ stay safe and keep well.

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Stampers Anonymous: Halloween Snarky Cats

Sizzix/Tim Holtz: Cozy Winter, Arthur, Funky Floral 3

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint

Distress Spray Stain: Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage

Distress Paint: Candied Apple and Black Soot

Distress Re-inkers

Alcohol Inks: Pitch Black, Gilded Alloy, Turquoise, Foundry Alloy, Monsoon, Blending Solution

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Mini Clips, Stitched Scraps 

Mediums: Translucent Grit Paste, Matte Collage Medium, Black Soot Archival Ink

Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock, Heavystock Alcohol Ink Yupo

Glass Media Mat

Blending Tool

Polychromos Pencils

Alcohol Ink Applicator, Applicator Felt

Tim Holtz Detailer Waterbrush

Tim Holtz Paper Trimmer

Heat Gun

Linen and button from my own stash

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered....

Hello everyone...

Can you believe Halloween is nearly here?!? This month has flown by so quickly, though to be honest, this year has flown ~ where did 2021 go!?! So seeing as it is nearly Halloween at the end of the week, I have one more spooky make to share with you all before I break out the Michael Bublé Christmas album and begin to share all my Christmas makes and that make is one that I created for the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Halloween YouTube Live launch and features the fabulous Toil and Trouble dies, (which I love), combined with the gates from the Vault series die set, and the clouds and moon from Ghost Town 2 die set which all came together to create my little scene featuring the witch, the mouse and the pussy cat who are a little bewitched, bothered and bewildered by what is going on!!!

If you would like to catch up with the replay of the live, then head on over to Tim's blog or his YouTube Channel and see all the amazing makes for this release from all my talented friends and makers!

TOMBSTONE

To begin with I used the Stampers Anonymous Etcetera Mini Tombstone as my surface and base. This comes in 3 separate pieces which when assembled will form the tombstone and in your pack you will find a tag and two overlays and for this project, I assembled my tombstone before I painted it.

At this stage, I added the Bewitched wording across the bottom section of the tombstone and for this I used the Alphanumeric Label Thinlits Die set and cut each letter from black card. I then attached them along the base with Matte Collage Medium.

So with the tombstone ready, I primed it with a coat of black gesso and once that was dry, I moved onto adding some texture using Translucent Grit Paste. I applied the paste around the edges of the tag, drawing some into the centre to create a really gritty texture to the background of this project. After allowing the paste to dry, I started painting it by layering my Distress Paints over the surface, applying them one at a time and always drying them in between layers. If you don't ~ then you could end up with a muddy mess of colours and that's not what we're looking for!

For my first layer I used Hickory Smoke, and once dry, I used the dry brushing technique where you load a dry paintbrush with paint, remove the majority of paint onto a cloth or a piece of kitchen paper towel and then just apply the paint, just allowing it to kiss the surface and the first layer of paint that I used was Black Soot, followed by Pumice Stone. If you feel that any areas are too dark or too light, or you've overpainted them, don't panic ~ just go back with any of the paints and apply another layer.

Once my paint was dry, I then applied some Crackle Paste to random areas of the tag, and also some of the seasonal Halloween Texture pastes. In the photos, you can see that I concentrated on applying the majority of the texture around the edges of the tombstone, and also the areas along the bottom and around the top.

In the centre of the tombstone at the very top, I attached an idea-ology Deco Frame. To create the rusty finish to the frame, I used Rust and Pitch Black Alcohol Inks and then attached it to my tombstone with matte Collage Medium, placing it over the top of a small section of die cut web that I had on my desk, left over from a previous project. In the centre of the frame I attached a creepy eye, surrounding it with moss.

Now, I can set the tombstone to one side to dry and move onto the die cutting...

DIE CUTTING

To begin with I cut all my pieces from plain black card ~ the witch, bats, cauldron, mouse and cat from Toil and Trouble and the gates from the Halloween Vault 2021 dies. I also cut the clouds and moon from Mixed Media Heavystock using the dies from Ghost Town 2. With the exception of the gates, I cut each of the images three or four times, dependent on which piece so that this will create really substantial die cuts that resemble the thickness of chipboard.

GATES

We'll start with the gates first which I will be attaching on either side of the tombstone behind the witch, and I used Tim's Embossing Dabber over the surface before sprinkling them with black embossing powder. Tap away the excess powder and then heat emboss until molten. I repeated this a couple more times to create the enamelled look before I then applied the dabber to just the top spikes of the gates. I then sprinkled gold embossing powder over the top, tapped away the excess and heat embossed the powder.

I then attached my gates to my tombstone using Matte Collage Medium and placed them along the bottom section of the tombstone.

CLOUDS, MOON and BATS

For the moon and clouds, I took my die cuts ~ for these I cut each of them three times and then layered them over one another to make each separate piece. I used exactly the same technique of embossing as I used on the gates but this time I embossed them with Bone Mixed Media Embossing Powder. Once each piece was embossed, I adhered them onto the tag with collage medium.

Just around the moon, I added a glow using Fossilized Amber Distress Crayon. I just applied the crayon directly onto the surface where I was attaching the moon, blended it a little with my fingertip and then placed the moon over the top.

Around the moon, I attached the die cut bats, these were cut three times and layered over one another. I highlighted the bats with a touch of Antiqued Bronze Distress Crayon, blended with my fingertip.

WITCH, CAULDRON, CAT AND MOUSE

With all my die cuts cut four times and layered to create each piece, I glittered the witch, the cat and the cauldron by applying glossy accents over the surface of each die cut and sprinkling with Nightfall Glitter from the Halloween Sparkle Set.

To create a silvery shadow behind the dies, cut each image from silver metallic kraft stash and then placed the silver die cuts behind the glittery images, slightly offsetting the silver backing to create the shadow.

Set these aside to dry and whilst that is happening, I took a small piece of gold metallic kraft stash and applied the colours from the Alcohol Pearls Kit 1 over the surface before placing and attaching the card behind the glittered cauldron. This creates the fiery glow inside the cauldron.

With all my pieces ready, I attached them to the tombstone with foam pads to add dimension, placing the cat to sit on the gates...

...the witch in the centre and the cauldron in front of her. Around the base of the witch and the cauldron, I attached mummy cloth, dyed with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Spray Stains, and moss. These little details will help to ground each die cut piece, so they aren't floating in mid air.

To create the bubbles coming out of the cauldron, I used the Bauble Adornments and coloured these with a combination of Limeade and Envy Pearls Alcohol Ink. I then attached each bauble to spill out of the cauldron, using Glossy Accents to secure them into place.

Taking the tiny mouse die cut which I haven't glittered, I added whites to the eyes of the mouse and then placed this in the witches hand, so that it's hovering with trepidation over the cauldron.

We're nearly there and all that's left is to add some small touches of moss, and a few little twigs around the tombstone and some hardware heads on the base and the top section of the tomb...

...before the finishing piece, which is the Quote Chip, "The Dead of Night", from the Halloween Baseboards pack. I sanded the edges of the chip and then attached it directly beneath the scene, and above the Bewitched wording.

I hope you've enjoyed the stroll through my makand have felt inspired to try some of the techniques I've used to create texture, sparkle and dimension, which can be used for any project, not just for Halloween!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today ~ stay safe and keep well.

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz Sizzix: Toil & Trouble, Ghost Town 2, Halloween 2021 Vault Series, Alphanumeric Label Thinlits

Stampers Anonymous: Mini Tombstone

Distress Spray Stain: Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone

Distress Crayons

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Mummy Cloth Trimmings, Halloween Baseboards, Hardware Heads, Deco Frame, Baubles, Creepy Eyes

Alcohol Ink: Alcohol Pearls Kit 1, Envy, Limeade, Rust, Pitch Black

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Translucent Grit Paste, Crackle Paste, Halloween Texture Set, Halloween Sparkle Set, Black Embossing Powder, Gold Embossing Powder, Bone Mixed Media Embossing Powder, Embossing Dabber, Black Gesso

Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stash, Heavystock Card, Black Card

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun

Moss from my own stash