Liz Borer Project #2 Ornate Case ....

"Good evening everyone, Elizabeth here with tonight's project.This case has been sitting around waiting for some decoration and so I finally took pity on it! Some years ago I decorated a similar case using metal embossing, stencils and stamps but I wasn’t very good at stamping then and so there was little stamping. This time I decided to use the same idea but in quite different colours and using stamps for the main decoration".

Both the sides of the case are treated similarly but are not exactly the same. I started by making two metal panels that will be attached to the sides of the case. I drew two simple designs for the two sides so that the spread of the flowers and leaves would be the same as the depth of the side. I transferred the design to the metal and drew over it with a stylus so that the design could be seen on the back (use any colour metal as it will be painted). I don’t want to give a tutorial on metal embossing when it has already been done and probably better than I could do it. I’ll just show a few pictures of how I got what I wanted.

Turn the metal over and emboss it on a foam mat so that it puffs up on the right side .

Turn the metal to the right side – it looks untidy at this point. 

Draw around the design again with the stylus (on a firm surface ) to reinstate the design.

Smooth the metal around the design with a paper stump. You may have to repeat these steps to get a good finish.

I then embossed the remaining part of the panel using Ten Second Studio metal moulds so that the whole panel of metal had some texture.

Finally I cut out the panel so that it would fit onto the case.

To stop the metal from squashing,  fill the whole of the back (I used Grunge Paste) and let it dry.
            

Back to the front again.

The whole case needs to be painted and I wanted to use a fairly muted colour. I mixed  Honeydew and Stone (mix B) and painted the case. I then started adding colours by splodging a bit of colour on and then spreading it about with a wet wipe. Think of a mixture of rubbing and sponging – I pounced the wet wipe up and down but also rubbed a little. The wipe picks up the colour and so it can be blended from a darker area to a paler area. To start with it looks very messy but as you add colours they start to blend together in a pleasing way.  Start with a mix of Irish Cream and Mocha Mousse– Mix A.

This shows the first colour all over the side of  the case. Repeat over all the panels of the case.

                   

This is how I ‘splodge’ the colour on, definitely not neat before spreading it. I repeated this technique with various colours. This colour is Bora Bora mixed with the base colour.

The next colour is a mixture of Green Olives and Beach Hut (I like this mix because, depending on how much of each colour is used, you can get such a lot of lovely greens).

The last colour is a mix of Bora Bora and Beach Hut. If the finish does not look well blended use some more of the colours to get the effect you want.

I then stencilled some diamond shapes on randomly. I mixed Green Olives and Beach Hut with some Matte Glaze to make it more transparent.

I stencilled some words with a mix of Mocha Mousse and Beach Hut.

And finally some flowers.

While I had all the colours mixed I painted the metal panels with the base colour and dried it. I then started adding some of the colours from the palette. I only added a little at a time and rubbed the colours in with my finger so that the overall look was paler than the painted background.

I added some green to the leaves (Green Olives and Beach Hut) and some orange, very lightly to the flowers (Autumn Fire).

The flowers were stamped using HP1009, both the spray and the single flower, using perfect medium and gold embossing powder. I then cut them all out and started colouring them. The first colour is a yellow mixed from Zesty Zing and Pumpkin Soup thinned with a little water. I only wanted a wash of colour. I’ve just washed this onto some of the petals.  

HP1009

I then added washes of other colours to the petals – not all over but a little of each colour on each flower. Firstly the yellow mix and Autumn Fire and then Autumn Fire alone.

Finally I washed on a layer of Blood Orange.
  

I found these two die cut columns in my stash and painted them with the base colour.

I then added a dark green around the edges (Green Olives and Beach Hut).

Rubbing on some Copper Treasure Gold seemed the right thing to do.  

Along the edge opposite to where the metal plaques will go I stamped and embossed the swirl MINI 96 using perfect medium and gold embossing powder. 

MINI 96

 

I then stuck the columns in place and stamped- using the green mix of Green Olives and Beach Hut – the ferns from HP1010 to make a background for the flowers.

HP1010

I stamped and embossed using gold powder the words from HP1204 and HP1102, one on each side before attaching the metal plates and flowers.

The small Tim Holtz frames were painted with the original mix of Bora Bora and the base coat and rubbed with Copper Treasure Gold. I stamped and embossed with a toning colour the words Art and Dreams from ELB01 and ELB04 (as you will see I just used one word from the saying). I used an orange wash from the flower colours to make the backgrounds tone in and then stuck the paper on the back of the frames and the frames onto the case.   

                                                                              

The raised edges or the case were painted using a turquoise from the palette and then dry brushed with Aquamarine treasure gold and then Copper treasure gold.

Palette of colours.

I tried to avoid making the decorations on the sides of the case too raised because they will be damaged if the case is laid down. Well that me finished for today and I will see you all again tomorrow with my finale project as GD.

Leandra Says: Ohhh, it's fantastic Liz, the colour combo is amazing, and the metal embossed and painted that way looks fabulous!! How well you manage to pull a project together. So inspirational!

Gillian Says:Oh I adore this, the colours are so delicate and the textures/dimension look wonderful.

If you can find 5 minutes at this very busy time of year to play along with Liz's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! 

Weeks whizzing by

Yesterday we had snow, and this afternoon and tonight it's going to snow heavily down here in Essex, and the East of England, so I think this morning is my last chance before school ends to get those last few presents sorted out. You  think you have it all done, and then you think of another 6 things you forgot about. So just thought I'd get a note out to you all before I hit the panic button.

My mother is here from New Zealand this year, she has just spent the last couple of weeks up in Lancashire for a family wedding, and catching up with some old school friends, then on Monday she will come down to us. We have lots of evening parties planned next week, so I think by the time Christmas eve arrives we will enjoy a day on the couches watching the tele!!

We launched a PaperArtsy Youtube channel last week and I have put a couple of videos up relevant to recent blog posts. 

Firstly stamping into texture. In this video I used Terra and Ferro, but you don't have to use both on the same project, you could use one or the other. I put a couple of dark colours into the dips, but you can put light in the dips, or leave as is and put darker colours on top. It really is a lot of fun, and great for onto wooden frames or surfaces as well as papier mache or chipboard.

I am expecting a delivery of Terra and Ferro today, so there will be plenty of choice in the shop, plus we have a whole lot of new wooden items to put online too, so get your orders in now ready for that wonderful week between Christmas and New year whihc is a great art-play time!


The second video is the technique of 'puffing' metal. For this you can stamp an image and puff out sections of it. The image might be a bird cage, the castle turrets, birds on a wire, or in the case of the video, a simple flower which makes a beautiful card or scrapbook embellishment. But I also added a simple frame to it.

We will continue to add more videos to the PaperArtsy channel so you can see first hand how to use products that we stock. If you have any specific request, then let us know.

Wishing you all a totally fabulous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Leandra & Mark.