The Story of the Peacock Card

I've definitely got a whole feather-obsession thing going on right now. My Instagram account is filled with different images of me making different versions of them. Some of them I have plans for... like when I posted all these peacock feathers in progress. Some of them (like this one) I don't know what I'm going to do with yet :-)

The photo above was merely step one in the great peacock-feather-adventure-card which ultimately ended up looking like this. 

 

I was super super excited to have my card and it's corresponding tutorial featured last week as a Guest Post on the blog of none-other than my long time crafty idol Julie Fei Fan Balzer!!



The feathers are actually made with a 6x6" stencil that Julie designed. It's a couple of years old now, but still remains one of my favourites, so when Julie asked for a tutorial using her stencils I knew just which one I was going to reach for. 

After much texture paste, watercolours and of course glitter (!) I had a whole flock of feathers that needed nothing anything else but a sentiment in order to create this fun card. Kinda looks like a firework explosion of peacock feathers don't you think?

If you're interested in checking out the whole tutorial of how this card came together from beginning to end then please go over and visit Julie's blog. Maybe you'll be inspired to create something feathery this weekend?

I'm a Kreator!!

I was over the moon when Keandra asked me to be a Kontributing Kreator this month at Kreatorville Krafts. You may have noticed I have mentioned her fantastic kits once or twice (!!!!) and of course, then there was Kreatorville Week (+1) here on my blog last month.

(firstly, let me say that Keandra had already asked me to be a Guest Designer long before I dedicated a week to her awesome kit klub) 

So my first order of business was to design an introduction page, a layout with my very own bobble-head. I was ecstatic!! I mean, how much fun is it to get your own personalised bobble-head! (You can order your own through Aptly Titled if you want). When Keandra told me it was going to be about 8 inches high I thought, "oh good, so it's life-sized" ('cos I'm only 5 foot 2" standing on my toes - lucky she gave me those platform heels!)

And I was allowed to say whatever I wanted about myself. Well it turns out I wanted to say a lot!
To create the base for my layout I first smeared on a thin layer of gesso all over my patterned paper (from the March kit). And I do mean smeared..... I used my hands :-) Then I took out my trusty stencil (that I showed you how to make here) and did lots of layers with Glimmermist. That gave me a good base to add all my journalling on.

I doodled in this vine with my black pen and painted it with some acrylic paint before adding the leaves (cut from the ribbon in the March kit) and the flowers (cut from a paper in the November kit) and blinging them up with some jewels (from the March kit).

I also used the same technique for the border all around the page.

I added a few titles with letter stickers (from the March and April kits) and interspersed my handwriting with some rub-on words (from the April and June kits). The main title was created with chipboard alphas on some patterned papers (all from the May kit).

I loved these lanterns from the paper in the June kit so I hung them up with the twine from the May kit.

You can surely see I've given my past kits a good work-out, but you'll have to wait a little longer to see what I've done with the amazing August kit. In the meantime, can you guess what the 'secret technique' is for August? I've used it a few times on this layout. Pop on over to Kreatorville for a few more hints.

Tutorial - Triple Stencilling

So today I'll show you how I created the background for the layout I showed you in the post below. This will make it mighty easy to scraplift this idea for your own creation, should you chose to take on the XOXO challenge.
I'll show you the techniques I used while making a card but it is essentially the same as the layout I created.
Ok, ready?

1. This is a process of multiple stencilling over the same spots.

So firstly, you'll need two colours of paint, your stencil (doesn't need to be a professional stencil - use whatever is on hand, this happens to be the negative piece from a sheet of round alpha stickers), and I use a baby wipe for applying the paint but you could use a sponge or some kind of dabber rather than a paintbrush.

2. It might help to dilute your paint with some water, or make sure you use only a very small amount because this is supposed to be a background image - you don't want it too dark :)

Lay your first colour down using the baby wipe and stencil. You should chose your lightest colour first. And we're going for a distressed look so you don't want all the circles coloured, and you don't want them perfectly coloured. There should be a lot of variation.

3. Wait for it to dry somewhat, but since it's a very thin layer it shouldn't take long.

Lay your stencil back over the same spots and lay your second colour in. Go over the top of some of the same spots, but also make sure you paint in new spots.

4. The third layer of stencilling is going to be your stamped image. Chose a stamp intended for backgrounds, or at least a small and repetitive image. I've used a script stamp.

Again, put your stencil back over the same spots and randomly stamp your image in sections. I run my stamp pad over the top of my stamp (rather than pressing the stamp into the stamp-pad) because it gives it a much lighter application of ink and I don't want my stamping too dark.

5. Next is the masking and misting. Cut a scrap piece of paper to fit inside the edges of the card with a good margin (say about 2cm from each edge).

This will be your mask so you might like to use some temporary adhesive to hold it down to make sure it doesn't move when you're misting.  Give all the edges a spray with your mist (this one is Glimmermist in Peach Delight).

6. Almost done. The last step is add some hand-stitching all around the inside edge of the border we just created with the Glimmermist. I've actually dyed my white embroidery thread with the same Peach Delight Glimmermist so that it matches perfectly.

I like to pre-punch all my holes first so I can try and make all the stitches approximately equal lengths. And I make sure I start and stop in an area that is likely to be covered up later because this gives you some room to move with those last couple of stitches (in case it didn't work out quite right and you're left with a really long, or really short stitch - you'll be able to cover up your mistakes!)

And that's the background done!!
Time to embellish.

I turned my card into a little mini-version of my layout. So I fussy-cut a flower out of the Kaisercraft Devonshire paper, added some Maya Road crystal pins, and brads in each corner. The title alphas are October Afternoon mini-market, and then I just handwrote the rest.

Can't wait to see if anyone gives this a try :)

Don't forget the May Madness Giveaway. I'm thinking I'll draw the first prize this week sometime (not necessarily prize #1) We'll see.