Christmas Stencil Project

Hey, Peeps. I've been reflecting on Christmas, which got me in the mood to play today, even though I have an incredibly messy house and I'm hosting the neighborhood cookie party tomorrow night. EEK!!! I don't know about you, but that sounds like a perfect time to play in the Craft Room, huh?

So, I designed another stencil. I started with my tree stencil. I used some Iced Spruce Distress Paint. 

After the paint was dry, I shifted the stencil to the right, and then inked that free edge with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

 

Then I applied a few pieces of Washi Tape.

I was planning on inking over the tape, so I applied a little GlueNSeal on the tape to give the ink something to grab onto. Then I hit it with my heating gun.

This is my new Joy to the World stencil,, available here. I inked with a permanent ink (I think Adirondak Slate). 

I wanted to give it a little more definition, so I traced the letters with a black pen.

I then took my Scruffy Crosses stencil and applied some Distress Crackle Paint. 

While the crackle paint was wet, I sprinkled some Distress Glitter on it and shook off the excess.

Of course, very few projects are complete without a bow or flower.

A few brads for a pop of color.

And of course, some bling.

And here's the finished tag. 

It's pretty simple for me, but I like it. 

And, here's another variety for the holidays, available here.

But, I couldn't leave you without a picture of my labor-intensive-but-oh-so-delicious cookies.

If you drool, it's not my fault. 

Today, I'm praying that you all receive peace today as you go about your daily routines, adding the preparations for the holidays.

Fondly, Tami

Peeled Gesso

So, you know how when you discover mixed media, and then you never throw anything out?
And, if you do think about throwing anything out, you think twice.
And then, you don't throw it out?
And then, you discover a new technique because you're hoarding?
Yups. That happened to me today.
I was minding my own business in my Craft Room as I was using gesso on my non-stick craft sheet.
As I went to scrape the dried and partially dried gesso off, I thought, "Hey. This would be cool if I could use it."
So, I did.

As you can see, my "non-stick craft sheet", aka Teflon oven liner, was covered with gesso.

I made sure it was completely dry. Some of the thicker areas needed to be coaxed with my heat gun.

Then, I decided to color it with some Distress Paints and Distress Stain. 

I played with a little color mixing as well. Distress Paints are permanent when they're dry, so I made sure to mix them while wet.

I wanted to keep my peeling colors separated, so I ran my credit card on the sheet to divide them.

I scraped the gesso by pulling away at the edge. This way, it kept the peelings small.

Then, I pulled the thick parts up in sheets.

Here it is decopaged onto a book page which I will be using in a junk journal.

Close-up

Then I thought, "Why not stamp it before I pull it up?"

So, I did. 

This was stamped with Staz-On, because I knew I'd be using Mod Podge to adhere it to the book page, so the ink had to be permanent as well, otherwise it would smear.

Here's some blue and white stamped with dots.

Some more peelings.

Blue dots, decoupaged to another book page.

The texture and color variations are fun.

Tone on tone-ish.

And, here is my baggie of peelings, ready for another project.

Of course, I had to experiment with some more stamps. Here's my favorite crackle stamp.

I'll be sure to post more pics when I finish my journals. 

Thanks for reading!

Fondly, Tami