Thursday, 19 February 2015

Bugs In A Jar


Hello

I am certainly late today, but at least I have made it before midnight which was my New Year Resolution – to post a card a day!

Not a card again today but a mini plaque, the plaque came as a set of 4 from ebay, in case you fancy having a go, this is the link....

I painted the plaque a few times and after the last coat dried I scuffed it with fine sandpaper especially along the edge where it went back to the mdf in places. As this was going to be a surprise gift for my friend Ann I knew she loved pinks and purples so I used Vintage Plum Metallic Gilding Wax by Creative Expressions, I simply used a cloth to pick up the colour and dabbed it here and there, and in some places I dragged the cloth to add more colour, when I was happy with the colouring I used another soft cloth to buff the wax and give a shine.


Free in a recent magazine were a set of stamps that I just loved, it had a small jar and lid, and lots of bugs, butterflies and flowers. I stamped the jar at an angle and the lid at the bottom so it looked as though the lid had just fallen off the jar. I randomly stamped the bugs around the top of the plaque; I also stamped a few inside the jar, and added the word Bug!!! Inside the jar and near the bottom right hand corner.

The jar was covered with Cosmic Shimmer clear varnish lacquer and set to a side to dry thoroughly.

Using my big alphabet letters I stamped out Ann onto white card then used a swirly stamp and bright orange ink and randomly stamped over the letters, cut them out, then dabbed a versamark ink pad over the letter covered with clear embossing powder, tapped away the excess and heated, I did this a further 2 times which gave me a very high gloss finish, the letters were set aside to cool down and set.


After a full day I picked up the plaque to finish it off and as I held it I was rather heavy handed and managed to put a thumb print in the middle of the jar, it wasn’t dry in the middle so I had a mess there...quick thinking, quick fix, I stamped another couple of bugs, and stuck then on the jar – it was ok...only ok!!!


On the back of the plaque I started by using a cube versamark ink pad and patted it all around the edges of the back of the plaque then covered with copper metal magic by Debbi Moore and tipped away the excess then heated up carefully so as not to blow off the grainy powder, once it was done I went around in places where the powder had blow off and repeated.


One of my favourite rubber stamp messages was stamped onto the left side of the plaque “one can never have too many hugs or laugh too often” it was stamped in Sepia Versafine and very slightly to the right of the sentiment I stamped an owlet which I love, this was bought from the Barn Owl Trust and was again stamped in Sepia ink.

I used Pinflare gel to hold the letters in place, and got so agitated with them that in the end I piled anything and everything heavy on top of it. It only took around 15 minutes to be set in place.

Butchers twine was threaded from the back at the right, and butterfly charms were added before threading the twine back through the hold at the left.
Before tying the holes at the back I added a Hope ribbon to one end and tied a knot then trimmed off the excess, at the other side I added a small heart inscribed with best friend.

The finishing touch was the date which I wrote in brown promarker so it blended in with everything else on the reverse side...

Had a message from Ann this afternoon to say the plaque had arrived and was now hung above her desk...I love to make and send things to Ann as she gets so excited with them, and I know she keeps everything

It’s just 6 minutes to midnight so see you again tomorrow
Angie
xx

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