TFJ Challenge: April Showers

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Janna - The Funkie Junkie Challenge: Spring has sprung and flowers are blooming. Add flowers to this weeks creation. They can be your main focal point or hiding in the background. Let’s get into the swing of spring with flowers. Happy crafting!

For this week’s challenge I have been shopping my stash looking at a variety of elements that say spring. To start with I have pulled a variety of flower dies and chosen a bunch of bright spring colors. Most of the flowers in this piece were cut from leftover scraps. For video instruction click here.

Used: distress glaze twisted citron, wild honey, candied apple, salty ocean, and picked raspberry, dies brushstroke flowers 1 and 2, tiny tattered florals, bunny games, bird and egg die, paper cut chicks, tiny type die sets upper and lowercase, distress spray stain squeezed lemonade and distress mica spray stain flickering candle, distress paint weathered wood, speckled egg, picket fence, and stormy skies, foundry wax gilded, collage medium, botanical collage paper, and Idea-ology flowers, Idea-ology clipboard.

To start this project I took a look at some of the substrates I have had in my stash for a while. The first options I considered were thick bird tags, vignette boxes, and an Idea-ology clipboard.

Next I checked on my desk for some spring time color inspiration. Immediately I settled on the glazes and flickering candle distress mica spray stain.

Next I took a look at all of my flower dies and chose brushstroke flowers 1 and 2 paired with bunny games and tiny tattered florals.

For the base of my project I drizzled distress paint onto the clipboard and the spritzed it with water.

Paelrt way through moving the paint around I remember that I should take the hardware off. This was pretty simple and just involved unscrewing to small screws at the back of the clipboard.

Then I added more water and moved the paint around with a small paint brush. Here I was trying to achieve a streaky sort of look.

Next I decided to alter the hardware of the clipboard with some foundry wax. When working with foundry wax I poured a little bit on the kraft portion of the media mat. Next I waited until the foundry wax started to get a little bit stiff like butter before adding it to the metal fixture. Then I brushed on the foundry wax with a small paint brush.

Once the metal fixture was covered I heated the wax with an embossing gun. This could be heated with the Ranger heat tool, but it would take longer to melt.

Next I collaged the clip board with some collage paper botanical. I smoothed the collage paper onto the clip board with collage medium and smoothed it int the paper was semi transparent.

With our background in place it is now time to add some splashes of color. I decided to embellish the collage paper with some Distress glazes. The glazes I decided to work with are twisted citron, candied apple, salty ocean, wilted violet, wild honey, and picked raspberry.

To apply the glazes I used the Distress embossing pens, both the fine tip and the brush tip.

I colored one section at a time color by color to divide up the embossing process.

Below are the end results of the Distress glazes.

Next I reattached the hardware.

Now for some floral embellishments. I dig through my stash of floral dies and decided to create with brushstroke flowers 1 and 2.

For these die cuts I die cut with some random scraps. Below are the finished flowers.

For the main focal point I decided to use some of the paper cut chicks. To see the process of assembling these cute chicks click here and go to 00:31:50.

Here are the fully assembled paper cut chicks.

Next I created a sentiment using a scrap of worn wallpaper and tiny text letters.

This was my first layout for this piece. I love moving around parts and pieces and trying to come up with a completed composition idea. As you can see in the next photo I changed my mind about a few pieces.