Starshine Salon: August 2013

Vintage Seed Catalog Card

The Rosette Hearts stamp set from Sin City Stamps is perfect for a vintage, romantic look. I used the large background image for my Vintage Seed Catalog Card.

I am a complete sucker for anyone holding up a beautiful object and saying, “This makes me think of you!” So when a very sweet fellow dealer at my local antique store held up a roll of stickers and said just that, I had to buy them! They reminded me of the fabrics and fibers I’ve been using to make pumpkins, and I decided to use them as my inspiration for today’s project.

I put some of the stickers on cardstock and coated them with Crystal Lacquer. I don’t know whether an 1895 seed catalog would really have had a glossy cover, but I wanted some texture in my piece. Although I originally left a border of cardstock around the stickers and rounded the corners, I eventually decided to trim away the excess cardstock.

I had envisioned stamping my image in violet on natural cardstock, which I did, but I also stamped the image in two different shades of violet on several different types of paper. I have found this to be a really good way of experimenting with inks and papers. While I have the stamp inked up, I make several different samples. Sometimes I get amazing results. Other times I just get multiple images to use later. And sometimes I don’t like the results. I keep most of what I stamp, though, if only for backgrounds and layering. This time it turned out that the seed catalog sticker looked really good with the background image in ColorBox Chalk Ink in Wisteria on a piece of green scrapbook paper.

I used my paper trimmer to trim around the edges of my stamped image on green. Then I cut a
piece of natural cardstock so that it would be about half an inch larger than the green piece on all sides. I folded the cardstock in half. Then I inked the edges of both pieces with Distress Inks in Peeled Paint, Dusty Concord, Antique Linen and Vintage Photo. I added some ink to the seed catalog sticker, too, but the Crystal Lacquer resisted most of it.

I wanted to add some pretty, vintage-looking fiber to the card. Sitting on my table was a sample flower I had made earlier with a piece of purple taffeta. It looked almost like the pansies in the picture! I added some gold-colored silk sari ribbon to the center and some Distress Ink to the edges. I wanted the flower to look like it might have been around since 1895, too.

To assemble the card, I used double-sided tape to adhere the green rectangle with my stamped image and the seed catalog sticker to the card. Then I adhered the flower to the card with a piece of adhesive foam.

See how pretty the lacy background is?

Sin City Stamps is having a fun sale right now. Go here to get a Scratch 'n' Save discount on your entire purchase!

Starshine Wishes,

Karen

Posted at 09:01 PM in Art, Handcrafted, Mixed Media, Paper Crafting, Sin City Scraps, Starshine Salon | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fabric Pumpkins

The first batch of new pumpkins is ready! This early harvest is going on the road with Tricia Samsal's Vintage Bliss, but more will be ready soon!

Here are some of the beautiful velvets:

They look great with these other yummy fabrics:

I'm headed back to the pumpkin patch now!

Starshine Wishes,

Karen

Posted at 09:23 AM in Art, Handcrafted, Holidays, Starshine Salon | Permalink | Comments (0)

Crystal Lacquer Treasure Chest

I got a cute treasure chest charm on a chain and thought it would be fun to put some Crystal Lacquer treasure into it.

Here’s the charm:

It opens up like this:

I partially filled the chest with clear Crystal Lacquer. I added some gold Crystal Lacquer with one of Sakura’s Pen Style Applicators.

Then I sprinkled gold glitter over that.

When the Crystal Lacquer started to set up, I shook off the extra glitter, then added some “jewels” with the other Pen Style Applicators. Finally, I added some crystal clear glitter while the “jewels” were still wet.

Won’t this be fun for a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean to wear? Or for Barbie on a hunt for buried
treasure?

I hope this will inspire you to transform plain objects into something special!

For the month of August, you can get 20% off your Sakura order with the coupon code aug08!

Starshine Wishes,

Karen

Posted at 09:01 PM in Art, Handcrafted, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Sakura Hobby Craft, Starshine Salon | Permalink | Comments (0)

Velvet Pumpkins

I'm working on a new design for this year's pumpkin patch. These are made from velvet, with vintage wooden thread spools for stems and hand dyed seam binding for a finishing touch. I'll have some in my Etsy shop and at Merchant Square in Chandler soon. You'll also be able to find them at The Market at Urban Restoration starting in September; Briar Patch Marketplace at Hamilton High School in Chandler on September 28th and 29th; Briar Patch Marketplace at Sequoya School in Scottsdale on October 12th and 13th; and Junk in the Trunk in Scottsdale on November 9th.

I have velvet in several colors and they look great with my other styles, too! I can't wait to harvest these!

Starshine Wishes,

Karen

Posted at 06:07 PM in Art, Handcrafted, Holidays, Recycled/Repurposed, Sewing, Starshine Salon | Permalink | Comments (1)

Halloween Trivet with Sin City Stamps

One day I found some old iron trivets with tile inserts in an antique store. I didn’t like the pictures on the tiles, but I thought the bases would make great frames for small artwork. They did!

I just got the Halloween stamp sets from Sin City Stamps and they are perfect for my Halloween trivets! I really like simple designs that I can combine in different ways when I decorate. I chose one image from the Halloween Takes Flight stamp set and one image from the Halloween Bingo set. You can get the stamps individually, too.

I chose some paper:

I've been experimenting with stamping on different papers. Then I can choose the best one for my current project and I have extras all ready for future ideas! I cut the paper to fit the tile, then stamped my images using Stewart Superior Black India Ink. Stewart Superior sent us some inks to work with, and this one is perfect for Sin City Stamps! This ink makes a really crisp image, even with fine details.

I inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo. I started with the lightest color and ended with the darkest. Because the India Ink is permanent, it doesn’t run when the Distress Inks are added. If you want a soft look, you can apply the Distress Inks with a sponge or a blending tool. I like the sharp, linear look here. It contrasts with the curves of the frame and focuses the eye on the images in the center. I later added some Rusty Hinge around the bottom of the cauldron to suggest fire and a little Antique Linen above the cauldron to suggest steam rising.

Here's the original trivet.

I painted the tile with gesso so the picture wouldn’t show through my paper. This picture shows the tile with one coat of gesso; I added one more coat.

I inked the edges of the tile.

The tile has a glossy coating that won’t take the ink, so you need to wipe away the excess.

Then I adhered my picture to the tile with gel medium. Some of the tiles are glued securely to the
trivets. You just have to sort of work around the frame. But this tile had come loose, so it was easy to work with. One the gel medium dried, I sanded the edges of the paper and reinked them. Then I added a coat of gel medium on top and glued the tile back into the trivet. The trivet isn’t suitable for holding hot items any more, but you can easily hang it on a wall or incorporate it into a Halloween vignette.