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So, today I decided to get some creative Tim Holtz vibes going. I grabbed a piece of alcohol ink paper (shiny surface) and cut it to 5.5 and 4.25. Then, I grabbed my green, purple and blue Tim alcohol inks. I squirted a little tiny drop of each color onto felt attached to my blending tool. I then added a little blending solution. I then began to pounce the color onto the paper. I loved the way it looked. I then folder embossed with the Cricut D'vine swirl embossing folder. I loved that too, but the color looked a little light so I added a little more blending solution to my felt and pounced more color onto the paper and low and behold, I got a surprise, The color darkened on the raised portion while the recessed areas stayed lighter. That was very cool!
Then, I got the Tim Holtz French Flight stamp set with framelet dies and cut The Eiffel tower in
black cardstock with the Big Shot. I covered the entire surface with VersaMark ink and then in Copper detail embossing powder and wet embossed with my heat tool. At that point, I decided to make a tag from this project, so I got a manila tag and once again added alcohol blending solution to my felt on the blending tool. I went all over just the entire edge of the tag to blend color and Matchy Match the folder embossed cardstock base of the project. I then cut the project cardstock to match the size of the tag.
Okay, here comes the fun part, and I had never done this before, but I've always wanted to...I got a sheet of Embossable Window Plastic. I then stamped three of the butterflies from the stamp set onto the Window plastic with Memento Ink. Then, I framelet die cut the butterflies with my Big Shot.
Okay, here's the weird part (I've seen Tim do this in a video). Get a pair of needle nose pliers and hold the cut butterfly with the pliers. I position my pliers to hold the body of the butterfly. Fire up that heat gun and direct the heat toward the top of the butterfly wings until they begin to curl. Once that happens, you can shape the butterfly anyway you like. If it needs more heat, blast it again until you get the shape you like. You can also use your fingernails to kind of curl the wings while the plastic is still hot. But, be careful not to burn your fingers. There, beautiful!
I stamped PARIS from the stamp set in Memento ink, cut it with the framelet through the Big Shot and once again, added a little blending solution to my felt to go over the PARIS for a little color. I just didn't want it to be stark white.
I grabbed one of the brass flowers from my Tim Holtz hardware stash and painted it with Pickled Raspberry Distress paint. Lastly, I got a little crinkle ribbon, added a little water to the paint on my craft mat and pulled my crinkle ribbon through to give it color.
Now, for assembly, I used Crystal Effects, but you can use any glue with good adherence and glued the Eiffel tower into the middle. Then, I placed the butterflies where I thought they may look good and glued them in place. So cool how the color from the background comes through the plastic!
I poked a hole at the base of the tower to affix the painted flower. Then I glued the PARIS cut on and tied on the dried crinkle ribbon. Voila!
That was the most fun I've had since I don't know when. It's been great to get back to crafting, starting the blog again, etc. Please feel free to comment or ask questions. And, have fun crafting.
