Sunday, August 31, 2008

Antique-y 'Flower-Topper' card (with Maria's gorgeous template)


The metal background on this is is the dark faux tin tile that I made in this tutorial with Tinfoil, a Scor-Pal & a Cuttlebug. It's coloured with black Stazon & Stream alcohol ink by Adirondack (Tim Holtz.) The neat thing is that it looks like metal but you can pierce it really easily for faux stitching or real stitching, or to accent the grid with brads.



The flower is made using Maria's gorgeous flower template (that she created in Illustrator; she's my hero! No exaggeration.) Here's how I made this version of it:


1) Printed the flowers out onto Tim Holtz patterned paper (Distressables 0733 "time")

2) Scored with the Scor-Pal along a few line to make it textured

3) Cut them out. Scored a tiny circle of a grid in the middle to mark where to stitch

4) Pierced at the ends of the grid lines & stitched

5) Touched up the circle with a black marker (a sneaky way to make it look evenly round)



The crotchet trim came off of one of a pair of doilies that I got at a thrift store for 49 cents. They were really stained, so I didn't feel too guilty about cutting 'em up. If you want to use lace/crotchet and you wanna shape it, you can use spray starch (laundry section at the grocery store) :o)



What are the odds that I've had this Baja Blue coloured tea cup since I was a kid??? My new favourite new in colour from SU!?! *GRIN* I flipped when it matched, LOL.


Antiquing embroidery thread:

Stick it in your tea! I have a fair amount of embroidery floss but no off-white, so I had to make some. I was drinking tea at the time & just stuck it in there. You can use coffee too. (Or onion skins even, but tea smells better! LOL) Of course you could always use reinkers for colours too...

1) Choose dye (coffee, tea, or reinkers...) Reinkers are great mixed with water or blended to make new colours

2) Put embroidery thread in the liquid

3) Let sit until dark enough (warm tea seems to soak in more readily) I nuked mine. :o)

4) Remove from the liquid & gently squeeze the extra moisture out

5) Dry it (You can use a paper towel and run the thread through it... the friction dries it. You can hang it to dry, or you can use a hairdryer or hair straightener...)




Homemade Antique Paper:


The sentiment is made by punching a square out of this scanned & printed page of a vintage dictionary:

Feel free to print this if you like :o)


Here's how I made the paper:


1)
Took a sheet of Naturals White cardstock

2) Antiqued it by rubbing a damp (used) tea bag over the sheet of cardstock.

3) Ironed it dry

4) Scanned & cropped the antique dictionary page

5) Printed the text onto the tea-stained paper


The sentiment was created by punching with a 1 1/4 inch square punch, edging it with a black marker, mounting it on two punched circles (one silver cardstock & one in Baja Blue.) The Baja Blue circle was fringed first. Then I put it on a Nestabilities scallop circle & stuck it on with Dimensionals.

Thanks so much for stopping by! :O)

23 comments:

Gwen said...

OMG!!! That is just stunning!!! going to have to try that background :)

Kim Etherington said...

Love the faux tin metal and I love that teacup. Beautiful! Missing you and take more days of from here. You deserve it!!

Erum Tasneem said...

I lurrrvee it Mel!
Looks fab! The tin foil is killing! Seriously! WOW

Janine said...

Just gorgeous!!! Hope you are enjoying your long weekend.

Margaret McDonald said...

love the tin stuff . wow wow wow

Erin said...

Fantastic Mel! You never cease to inspire me!

kathleenh said...

Mel, you make it look so easy! Your background with the faux metal, flower and printed sentiment are fabulous!

Beth Norman-Roberts said...

Goodness gracious, that tin foil is amazing. It looks just like real tin. Your card is adorable.

Anonymous said...

Mel, that is one beautiful card. Love the lace trim. What a great idea to buy old lacy things at the thrift shop and use on cards. You cracked me up when you told us where to find spray starch! I would only use it for crafting. Darlene

Tonniece said...

WOWZER. There is no end to your creativity, and this tin technique is kick a~*.

Very Beautiful card.
Thanks for the print out too.

Happy Labor Day Mel

Made by Mandy said...

I have had a blog award and I would like to pass it to you and it can be found here.

Blog Award

Thankyou for the constant inspiration you provide.

Robin said...

I just found your blog yesterday, and I am so impressed! I love your work and the step by step instructions on how you create your lovely items! Thanks for sharing! Take Care - Robin

Deb Neerman said...

ANOTHER winner!!! Gosh, Mel-a-Licious, everything you create is to-die-for gorgeous!

Gosh, that antique teacup is be-you-tea-full! And it IS tea-full!

Mel RULZ!

~Hugs, Deb

K Hutchinson said...

This is so stunning! I love the colors and the way you are so creative to age stuff! ROCK on!

Lori said...

Beautiful! I love how the flower extends beyond the top of the card.

Annapurna said...

Loving this color metal tile. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing your scan. You are one patient woman to be cutting up all that flower layers.

May be SU got inspired by your tea cup. Strange things are happening...(song) Do you think they have hidden cameras around our houses?

Etha said...

so neat! love that lace treatment and your tea cup looks wonderful!! I like old dishes, don't have any though, I think I may have crossed the big pond too many times ;)

Shirley said...

Every time I come to your blog, I not only get eye candy and learn, I get to grin too! Love your beautiful card!

Maria said...

Hey Mel! Wow, your card is fabulous. . .so beautiful. I love the tin foil idea. . .is tin foil the same as foil (Reynold's wrap?) Just wondering. If not, where can I get the tin foil? I really love the metallic look to it!

Thanks for the shout out on my template! You make a simple template look like a work of art! Thanks for sharing all your fabulous ideas! Like I've told you, there's so many of your stuff I want to try out. . .my head is spinning trying to figure which one I should do!!

Happy Labor Day!!

Maria

femminismo said...

Thank you for giving us the page to print. I can use this. Fun, fun, fun! You are a sweetie-heart

Catherine said...

Wow! Love it all! Thanks for all the great info!
PS-Lovely tea cup btw! You truly surround yourself with beauty!

Kathi said...

Wow. That's gorgeous! I love the tin tile and the flower!

I've used tea to stain ribbon and paper, but never would have thought of dying thread. Doh!

Instant coffee works great too!

PamH said...

Hi Mel!
I used the dictionary paper you had scanned in a Christmas card I'd love to sell....I hope that's okay? Feel free to shoot me an email and let me know!!
Thanks!
Pam
pamheggie@gmail.com
www.pamheggie.com