faux finishes

Imagine That: Faux Metal Stamping

In The Studio

Lately I’ve had puzzle pieces on my mind. Not so much the desire to put together an actual puzzle, but more their use as a metaphor for life.

  • Picking up the pieces
  • Missing piece
  • Piece of my heart

And so on…

Puzzles make fairly inexpensive crafting materials, since you can usually find some at the thrift or dollar stores. It doesn’t matter what’s on them, because you’re going to transform them into something else.

I have a whole list of projects planned for puzzle pieces (watch the blog and, more often, my Instagram feed for works in progress), but today I’m sharing a fun faux finish project over on the Imagine Blog–faux metal stamping. The metallic silver Creative Medium is pretty much perfect for this technique, and I hope you’ll give it a try!

Imagine That: October Projects

In The Studio

Okay, another month has zoomed by, and I have three more Imagine projects to share with you!

Just like last year, our Halloween prep is still pretty low-key (though I do have a perfectly ridiculous dress to wear on Halloween day that I’m incredibly excited for) with Duncan the Destroyer around. No inside decorations have been dragged out but we did get our witches put up for the trick-or-treaters to enjoy.

10/11: Custom Candy Wrappers on the Imagine Blog

On the Imagine blog I created some Halloween candy wrappers that are very quick to put together and would be great as coworker or lunchbox surprises tomorrow, if you’re in need of a last-minute idea. Of course, the same technique would totally work for any other event or holiday, so take a look and run with it in whatever direction your heart desires.

10/16: Faux Bois Box on the Imagine Blog

My love for faux finishes has been well-documented over the past two years with Imagine (what can I say, their products make it so very easy), and this month I managed another. A pretty good (if I do say so myself) facsimile of woodgrain (faux bois) on a folded paper box. The trick is to pay attention tot he direction of the wood grain as it pertains to the piece of the box you’re stamping.

10/30: Pretty in Purple card on the Imagine Blog

And to finish out the month I created a textured card with a faux watercolor background and some word beads I’ve had in my stash a looooong time. This industry comes out with new and notable things all the freaking time, but don’t neglect what you already have on hand. There’s still value in it, after all.

Have a crafty month, folks!

Faux Finish: Stained Glass Window Effect

In The Studio

I do love my faux finishes, although I cannot take full credit for this one. I first saw this effect on the My Froggy Stuff YouTube channel where she used washable markers and Mod Podge to do this same thing.

Mod Podge never seems to fully dry in the South Georgia/North Florida humidity, so I wanted to find another way to get this same result using Imagine products.

Memento markers were the obvious choice, but it took a few trials to find out whether Creative Medium (on its own or with another product added) would work for the adhesive. It had a bit too much tooth on it’s own or even diluted a bit, but when I tried On Point Glue, it worked like a charm!

To get the wavy, pebbly look of old leaded glass I needed to heat the glue to set it before it could settle. Leaving it to dry on its own would be a great way to create a streaky marbled look (which would be great laminated onto a white background).

Check out the video of creating this look over on the Imagine blog.

I’ll Make a Home For Christmas

In The Studio

Or three…

jvanderbeek_imaginecrafts_fauxmetal_papermache_houses_detail

I’m fairly certain I’ve mentioned the metal house “lanterns” that we saw last November in a shop in Disney Springs and how amazing they were and how sad I was that they weren’t for sale. Turns out they are available from the Acorn catalog, and aren’t terribly expensive at about $30 a pop. But by the time I’d found them there, I’d already purchased a trio of papier mache houses to make my own Christmas village with.

Sadly, it took a full year before I got around to painting the houses, but I’m glad I waited! The Delicata inks I used to add the metallic sheen to these houses really made the project! You can see the step-by-step over on the Imagine blog!

Excuse Me While I Make a Scene

In The Studio

Over at the Imagine Crafts blog, that is!

My latest project involved stamping on the pages of a Clear Scraps album that I’ve been holding onto for absolutely ages, just waiting for the right project to come along. Inspired by my renewed interest in stamping and the memory of seeing the multipane camera in the One Man’s Dream exhibit at Disney World (it’s a shame that’s closing at Disney Studios), I combined different styles of stamps to create this scene in a book.

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The display at One Man’s Dream, Disney Studios (2013)

My much-smaller interpretation!

My much-smaller interpretation!

You can find the step-by-step play-by-play right here: Making a Scene on Imagine Crafts

And don’t forget to check out my other Imagine Crafts project where I turned some papier mache boxes into faux stone lidded beauties.

Black and white marble treatments and a little lapis lazuli for good measure!

Black and white marble treatments and a little lapis lazuli for good measure!

For the how to, see this post: Faux Stone Finished at Imagine Crafts

That lapis lid is, by far, my favorite one of the three. The little flecks of gold Creative Medium peeking through the dark blue paint… swoon!

* * *

This weekend is the annual Rose Festival in Thomasville with the parade tonight and Art in the Park tomorrow. Of course, it’s currently wet and rainy in these parts, and I’m not sure if there is a rain plan as the Tallahassee news shows were boasting about how it’s never rained on the Rose Parade in it’s 94 previous years… And the street dance afterwards might be a bit sparse if it’s still actively raining.

Guess we’ll just have to wait an see.

The good news is that the rest of the weekend is supposed to be dry so, hopefully, we’ll be able to see the artists at Art in the Park–last year it rained that morning so no one set up (or the couple that did tore down right after. We went by mid-afternoon and there was only the zip-line set up and that’s not really our cup of tea.

If the parade and all goes as scheduled I plan to have some video to show you next week of it. You can see how much like Stars Hollow our little town really is on days like this! And if not, well, it’s not like I don’t have projects to work on, complete, and otherwise dream about.

Hope you have a great weekend!

~Jenn