2019 #20 A Bit of Sparkle: Bling Wreath with JOFY {by Keren Baker}

2019 Topic 20: A Bit of Sparkle

What a blingy beauty from Keren...sparkles, lights, stars, red and green - the totally perfect Christmas combination! ~Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Keren Baker with you today, and I'd like to share with you a little wreath courtesy of some sparkly embossing powder plus some other sparkly details. I wanted to do something that was a little more subtle..although it didn't quite end up like that and is rather more 'blingy' than I ever would have chosen. Good job that Christmas often is a time of lights, sparkle and glitter, so this wreath might not appear quite so over the top! 

I'd wanted to try creating my own wrapped wreath using some greenery from my garden, so this project seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

I selected some long branches- the sort that are spindly with little foliage; exactly the ones that should have been pruned already (oops!). By joining a couple together and securing with some gardeners wrapped wire, it started to take shape. I worried that the circle would be misshapen, but the more branches I added, the better the shape became. I went a bit gung- ho with wrapping the branches but have ended up loving the textural effect.

I needed to stamp and heat emboss a lot of images. I used WOW! Metallic Gold Sparkle embossing powder with a combination of JOFY floral and Christmas Stamp sets- JOFY 75 and JOFY84.

 

To put the wreath together it involved a lot of wire. I used Heavyweight Smoothy as I knew I couldn't successfully glue the elements on and needed a substantial surface to support wire. I'd coloured the images with alcohol markers and then found little anchor points to place the wire on. With the large flowers, I poked a hole and used a bead to stop the wire from disappearing back down the hole.

Once the elements were all coloured and wire added, I just needed to add them in the order of the background ones first and work around the wreath.

Onto some more detailed shots. When you're using cardstock for a dimensional project, it really does need some added extras. These little wire berries were perfect for the job.

It really was quite 'sparkly' (quite hard to capture) but I wanted to add sparkle by way of reflective surfaces to make things sparkle. I had some rings of flat wire and created some spirals to help bring another dimension.

The lovely trees from the JOFY 84 are so perfect for trimming out separately. They made surprisingly good fillers and I added some beads on a wire wrapped around one of the trees. I love creating tiny details.

Truthfully, I didn't entirely love the end result. I wished I'd added sparkle using glitter or mica more sparingly but once I'd begun, I just had to continue. I thought one more type of sparkle might reduce the overall bling; it did! The tiny lights add a wonderful seasonal warmth and I just might put it up in my home now!

It's great to create something that's not just a card or journal page. I think that the topic title was completely right; a 'BIT' of sparkle! I loved creating my own wreath base and suspect my garden might look a bit more sparse by the end of the Christmas season! I definitely  recommend combining natural products from around you with your favourite PaperArtsy products! Thanks for joining me and I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas and peaceful New Year too!
Keren x

Blog: Kerenbaker's Blog
Twitter:@craftstampink
Instagram: @craftstampink
Pinterest: @craftstampink

2017 #13 Metallics: Christmas Wreath with EEV {by Ruth Mescall}

2017 Topic 13: Colour Study- Metallics

A spot of colour mixing, and gorgeous metallic splats, and Ruth is well on the way to creating another of her inspired projects!

Hi everyone, it's Ruth here with you today, and I'd like to share with you a little home decor project using metallics in a few of my favourite ways. I frequently use metallics in a project and quite often in a subtle way as I'm from the less is more school....most of the time!  
Christmas and metallics just go together so even if you have non Christmassy stamps you can still get the flavour of Christmas. I also like to show how verstaile stamps can be and I'm working with some favourite Ellen Vargo stamps both for the background and the centre piece. These are the stamps I've used to create my Christmas Wreath. 

This was a bit of a journey as I originally thought of making Christmas trees for a canvas or card out of the conical floral image (can you see snow capped metallic accented ones?) but that evolved into a wreath on a card using the current image and then I remembered I had a wicker wreath that could be altered and an accented poinsettia style layered bloom finally evolved. 

I knew I wanted a deep almost burgundy red effect and find using colours next to each other on the colour wheel can really add depth, so pink and blue were also used as well as archival inks. I used the following Fresco Chalk Paints, Cherry Red; London Bus; Bougainvillea; Blueberry and the first metallic I added in was Copper Fresco Chalk Paint. 

Aren't those gold splashes so rich and luscious? Gold Fresco Chalk Paint and yes it's slightly diluted, I've also added a sprinkle of gold embossing powder. 

This is such an easy stamp to trim and layer up and there are touches of gold on every flower. Not covering all the white card stock when brayering adds contrast.

Is it a flower or is it a 'petal'? Using a hot glue gun enabled me to get lift between the 'petals'. (I found out Poinsettias are made of bracts not petals...)

Dry brushing with Nougat and Snowflake Fresco Chalk Paint altered the frame before I 'tickled' it with White Fire Treasure Gold. I wanted to add a word to help balance the wreath so looking through my Christmas stamps thought the slightly squiggly one from the set below worked well. 

It had to have a dazzling flower centre so an old brown coat button was transformed with White Fire and Onyxite Treasure Gold.  

It was easy to assemble so would be quite a quick and fun project to involve children with and if you haven't used or rarely use metallics, splashes and hints can be a great way to start dabbling and the effect can be quite magical. I also hope you might try mixing similar paints to add depth. I quite like the idea of making leaves for another wreath, using green or autumnal shades or even the different metallic colours available could look stunning! Ruth x

Blog: a love to create
Twitter: @argeum1
Instagram:argeum1
Pinterest: Ruth Mescall

I totally forgot about that words stamp on the Lynne Perrella set!And I would never think to use Ellen's flower head to arrange a wreath either! See this is why we call you magnificent Ruth! You always come up with something unexpected! ~Leandra

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