The Red Thread

Hello!! Happy Friday, Jennalee here today with a quick tutorial for this assemblage piece featuring rusty Altoid Insert Fairy Frames.

This piece was inspired by a Chinese Proverb I recently read. It says "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of the time, the place or the circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break."

This proverb resonated with me so much because my husband and I worked at the same place for a few months back in 2010. Somehow we never noticed each other. And that's quite surprising considering he's 6'3 and red-headed. He moved cross country and came back in 2011 when we met and the rest is history. Our red thread led us to each other. 

I began by rusting up the frames from the Altoid Inserts. Paint all the frames with Burnt Umber while the paint is still wet apply ground cinnamon. Build layers and heat set until the desired effect is achieved. Add accents with Prima Metallic Waxes. 

Apply same rust technique to a couple keyholes from the Key and Plates Shape Set. 

Attach key plate to frame with gold brads. 

Adhere frame to postcard. 

Make copies of vintage photos. Apply 3 layers of Vintage Beeswax. 

The thicker you apply the Vintage Beeswax the more transparent your photo becomes. And look at all that amazing crazing. 

Attach photo with a simple hand stitched X in all four corners. 

Attach a vintage key beneath the Altoid Frame. I used glue dots to help hold it in place due to the weight. Add handstitched details. 

To connect the two postcards stitch on a set of hook and eyes.

For the hanger at the top of the assemblage stitch on just the eye portion and tie on a red string hanger. 

Complete the bottom card the same as the top. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today. I really enjoyed this project. How can you go wrong with faux rust and some hand stitching? Happy Creating ~ Jennalee 

Mine Tags Taste like Honey

I have always been drawn to encaustic art, yet I have never quite managed to begin the process for using it in my own crafting. For quite awhile I had been planning on using Gypsy Soul's Honeycomb & Bees in an encaustic project--because shouldn't every honeycomb project be created with beeswax?

That is why I was delighted when Seth Apter developed his Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powder. I combined the Honeycomb & Bees with the Embossing Powder to create a faux encaustic look on  three golden honey-colored tags.

To make the tags, I began by collaging vintage dictionary pages about bees onto manilla tags.

Next I cut the Honeycomb into sections and painted them and two of the bees 

with yellow paint. When dry, I added flecks of white paint and inked the edges with brown ink.

I hope you forgive me, but I had so much fun creating these tags that I forgot to take photos of the next few steps.

I spritzed the tags with Tattered Leather Spray and dried them with a heat gun. I then flicked droplets of High Impact and Glimmer Glam Paint onto the tags. After drying with a heat gun, I inked the edges of the tags with brown ink. 

Next I dabbed tiny drops of glue randomly on the tags and added gold flakes to the tags. I also covered one of the bees with gold flakes.  

After adhering the honeycomb and bees to the tags, I covered each of the tags in embossing ink and coated with Vintage Beeswax embossing powder. I set the powder with a heat gun and repeated this process four more times to give the tags the encaustic look. 

Finally, I painted each tag with matte medium to remove the glossiness. After the tags were dry, I threaded ivory ribbons through the holes. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I hope that this project inspires you to BEE creative. Have a fantastic week. - Betsy

Great Stuff

Honeycomb & Bees- Small
Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax Embossing Powder
Acrylic paint
Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Tattered Angels Glitter Glam Paint
Tattered Angels High Impact White Paint
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Tattered Leather Spray
Embossing Ink
Gold flakes
Matte medium
Ribbons

Free to Fly Folding House Shrine

Hello and happy Friday!! It's Jennalee here today with a variation on the Folding House Shrine. I had pulled out the house shrine a couple weeks ago to make but at the time my vision for the piece was not working the way I had envisioned. For some reason, I thought it was supposed to be a box. So my original plan was out. So there sat the Folding House Shrine. Then inspiration struck!! Instead of using the original chipboard "hinges" I decided to use ruler pieces.

I started by coloring the 3 house pieces with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I colored both front and back. 

While I had my ink out I added a bit of color to Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler Pieces. I cut one Ruler Piece down to size to fit the shrine pieces. 

I covered the front of the house pieces with vintage shorthand text. I cut to size and ran thru my Xyron. I applied the collage elements to my background pieces at this point. 

Once the backgrounds are adhered to the house pieces. I heat embossed all 3 pieces using Seth Apter's new Baked Texture in Vintage Beeswax. I used a Versamark pad to coat the background and then apply the powder. I did one layer. This picture shows the before (on bottom) and after of the paper. Once the piece has cooled add some depth and detail using Tim Holtz Distress Crayons. 

The wings are printed on dictionary text with a layer of Distress Crazing Medium. Once the Crazing Medium air dried I added some depth to the crazing with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and Tarnished Brass Distress Crayon. Not shown here I added a gold heat embossed edge all the way around each wing. 

The center panel of my shrine features an Idea-ology key that I colored with Vintage Photo Distress Crayon. I added a few drops of Seth Apter's Baked Texture Patina Oxide. I wrapped the key with a length of Tim Holtz Craft Thread dyed with Twisted Citron Distress Oxide. 

I then measured out my holes on each of my house pieces and punched the holes with a drill punch. 

To attach the Ruler Pieces to the Folding House Shrine pieces I cut a 16 inch length of  20 gauge craft wire in Antique Brass. Start on the left and work across. Begin by threading wire up from back about 3-4 inches and wrapping a messy spiral. Once knot is desired size wrap around Ruler Piece making sure your wrap is tight enough to hold the Ruler Piece. Be sure to leave 3-4 inches for a messy knot on the next panel. Wrap wire the same way for the remaining holes. 

Attach the key to the middle panel using a strong hold glue. 

I adhered the wings at the base leaving them loose enough to have a flutter effect. I then cut a length of black sewing thread and rolled between my hands to get a messy look. Using an embossing dabber add a random bit of embossing ink and sprinkle on some gold embossing powder and heat set. While the powder was still hot I used  tweezers to apply the thread in the powder. I then added a bit more embossing ink and another sprinkle of gold powder and heat set. 

To finish off the back of my piece I tried out a new technique Eileen Hull shared a couple weeks ago. Using a sponge apply matte medium to an embossing folder and insert paper. I used a brayer to roll the folder to transfer the medium to my paper. I then applied my foiling. Set aside to dry. Once dry peel away foil sheet. 

 

I really love all the different textures and mediums I was able to incorporate into this piece. The finished project is a perfect size for displaying on a shelf. Thanks for stopping by and spending a few minutes with me today. I hope you have a weekend full of creative inspiration!! Happy Creating ~ Jennalee