with a joyful spirit

A happy hello to you!

I hope that you all are hanging in there, and that this post finds you safe and healthy… what an interesting and strange time we are living in. Through the chaos of it all, finding the good is such a huge part of this. We have more time to spend with family at home, hobbies and self reflection..and all of it being SO important!

I’ve been slowly creating things and keeping my hands and head busy, but up until this weekend, hadn’t created any projects. Like many of you, my creativity, has been running a little hot and cold. But I decided this weekend I was going to try and zone-out, turn off any distractions and try and make a “feel-good” project. I’m happy to say, it worked and I’m back today with a tutorial to share with you. 🙂

This project was created with the new Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glazes! There are 12 distress colors in the collection.. and for this project I used 7 of the colors!!

I know I say this a lot, but they truly are one of my new favorite things..

Yes, you know that I love all things Tim…but these really appeal to my heat emboss loving heart, and are super awesome because when they melt, they blend together.

So, I for one, am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that Ranger will see how much we all love them, they smile on us, and release a few more colors.

Well… a girl can dream anyways! 😉

Besides using the glazes, I chose to stitch on a variety of vintage buttons to the project. Stitching buttons onto paper always brings back happy memories of when I was a little girl and would spend time with my Grandma. She was a seamstress for many years and had a large collection of buttons that I loved to look through. She’d keep my sister and I occupied by having us stitch them to pieces of chipboard. I’m sure it was a way for her to keep our little hands busy, but we always loved doing it, and is one of the reasons why I’m so drawn to buttons.

Let’s begin…

The Mini Etcetera Tag…

I started by trimming a piece of Distress Watercolor Paper to fit the front of a Mini Size Etcetera Tag. Using the new Doodle Art 2 Layering Stencil THS142, and a palette knife, I spread on a layer of Distress Crackle Texture Paste through the stencil and added a variety of the glazes over the texture paste while it was still wet.

To do this, simply pinch a little of the color out of the jar and drop it over the desired area. After you have little pinches of the colors, tap the bottom of your paper to move and blend the colors. Then set the paper aside to dry and crackle. When the texture paste is dry, emboss the glaze with an embossing tool.

To see a step-by-step process of this technique you can jump over to Tim’s Blog HERE and check out the Facebook Live that he did, it’s right around the 47:00 minute mark. It’s super helpful to see him explain it and he shows how to do it with both distress texture paste and the crackle! 😉

Here’s a look at it after it’s embossed…

..and a close-up.. OH MY CRAZE GLAZE…SO GOOD! I love it!

So, after it was all craze glazed and cool, I spritzed the paper with a few mists of water and then spritzed it with Weathered Wood and Pumice Stone Distress Sprays. I dried it with my heat tool and smooshed the paper into some of the drips leftover from the sprays, then dried it with my heat tool again.

I blended the edges with a bit of Pumice Stone Distress Ink,

and stitched around the outside of it with my sewing machine and red thread.

I applied the tag directly to a Mini Etcetera tag with Distress Collage Matte Medium. The Etcetera tag (although not pictured) had been prepped with a light was of Antique Linen Distress Paint. The edges were rubbed with the Distress Embossing Dauber and a small amount of Hickory Smoke Embossing Glaze was applied. After the embossing powder had cooled down, the edges were rubbed with a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

The same treatment was done to the Etcetera washer..then it was applied with collage medium and set aside to dry.

The #8 Etcetera Tag…

The small #8 tag was made by rubbing a distress mixed media tag with the Distress Embossing Dabber very randomly. (this technique was shared by Tim during his Distress Crayon Demo… you can check that video out HERE it’s around the 1:27:00 time mark).

After the ink was applied, I sprinkled the Fired Brick Glaze over top of the ink, brushed off a little of the powder and embossed it with my heat gun. I rubbed the tag with a steel wool blending tool and my sanding block and then scribbled Walnut Stain Distress Crayon onto the tag. Then, with my finger, rubbed the color around. I spritzed the tag with some Gathered Twigs Spray Stain and a couple drips of Cracked Pistachio Oxide Spray. This gives the tag a “pitted enamel” look..and is how Tim described it in the video.

Here’s a bit closer look…grungy goodness, no matter what you call it.

I then stitched around the outside using some mustard colored thread and my sewing machine and then began arranging the layout. This process was all done BEFORE adhering the tag to the #8 Etcetera tag so that I could easily stitch the buttons and items into place.

The Photobooth photo…

I found the cute little girl in the idea-ology photobooth pack and scratched it up a bit with my steel wool blending tool and sanding block..you’ll notice that the scratches are strategically placed around the background and not on the little girl. I was inspired by Paula, to color the photo by using a technique that she is famous for…she is the photo coloring queen. You can check out how she beautifully colors her photos HERE on her blog, One Lucky Day. The tutorial goes into all the details on how she colors them with Distress Crayons. She is truly AMAZING at it..and although I am no Paula Cheney, I gave it my best shot.

I added some watered down distress paint into the photo background and onto her dress to brighten up the colors a little bit.

The photo was stitched to a piece of lace, quilt batting and scrap of a vintage postcard.

I stitched on a couple buttons and added the “with a joyous spirit” which I found in the new idea-ology Clippings Sticker Book.

I dug through my scrap of vintage fabric and added a piece of lace and the fabric to the tag. Then stitched on a few more buttons.

I spritzed a ruler with Gathered Twigs Spray Stain, dried it with my heat tool. Then with my finger, applied some clear rock candy crackle paint very randomly to the ruler and set it aside to dry. When it was dry I added some specks of Candied Apple paint to it and rubbed the ruler with a Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

I trimmed the ruler with Tonic scissors and then punched two holes into the ends of both the ruler and a piece of Pinked Etcetera Trim then I stitched them together with some thread and a needle.

The crop-a-dile is a tool that I’ve had in my tool box FOREVER…and it punched right through the wood and trim like nothing!

Then I adhered it to the tag with collage medium.

Then, I added a couple painted idea-ology Hardware Heads to each end of the ruler.

The flower…

I cut two flowers from the Bigz Large Stems out of Distress Watercolor paper and applied a small amount of Distress Crackle Texture Pasteto one of them, then sprinkled it with some of the distress glazes, then I set it aside to dry and crackle. When it was crackled, I heat embossed the glaze and spritzed it with Gathered Twigs Spray Stain. The 2nd flower was spritzed with the same stain and dried with a heat tool, then I adhered the two flowers together to create more stability.

I cut apart the “to dream of happy days” phrase from the Clippings sticker pack, then adhered them to the leaves of the flower.

I painted the edges of the #8 Etcetera Tag with Anitque Linen Distress Paint, let it dry, then rubbed the edges with the Embossing Dabber. Then I dipped the edges of the tag into Fired Brick Glaze and embossed it with my heat tool.

Then I applied the tag to the Etcetera base and rubbed the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Crayon.

I wound thread around both the flower and the stick in order for them to become one piece. I know, not another stick..sorry, it called to me, so this project just had to have one! 🙂

I painted a bird charm (the bluebird of happiness) from the idea-ology Milagros pack with Distress Paint and attached it to the stick with some thread. The charm was attached to a small piece of an assemblage chain, and then tied to the stick.

I punched a few small holes into the Etcetera tag and stitched the stick to the tag.

Here’s a look at the backside of the tag where the holes had been punched and the stick is stitched on. Not pretty, but you get the idea…

Then, the two tags were adhered together using foam adhesive.

I then topped the tag with a bow using a piece of ribbon I found in my stash.

…and with that, my project was complete.

Thanks so much for stopping by, be safe and see you soon!

Creatively yours,

Stacy

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Gather Your Supplies-

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous- #8 Etcetera Tag, Mini Etcetera Tag, Pinked Trims, Doodle Art 2 Layering Stencil

Tim Holtz/Sizzix-  Large Stems Bigz

Tim Holtz/Tonic- Tonic Guillotine Paper Trimmer, Tonic Shears

Tim Holtz/Idea-ology- Hardware Heads, Ruler Pieces, Adornments Milagros, Photobooth, Clippings Sticker Book

Tim Holtz/Ranger- Distress Glazes, Distress Crackle Texture Paste, Distress Watercolor Paper, Embossing Dabber, Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint

Distress Sprays-Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone, Gathered Twigs, Cracked Pistachio Oxide

Distress Ink- Pumice Stone

Distress Crayons- Walnut Stain

Distress Paint- Antique Linen, Cracked Pistachio, Candied Apple

Distress Tools/Mediums- Distress Sprayer, Media Mat, Heat it Heat Tool, Blending Tools, Distress Collage Matte Medium, Distress Crackle Paste, Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint, Mushroom Alcohol Ink

Other- Crop-A-Dile, buttons, lace, quilt batting, postcard, stick, ribbon, thread, sewing machine