Paper Pursuits: MFT February New Product Tour

Welcome to my stop on MFT’s February New Product Tour! What a fabulous release this is! But then, they all are ;-)

You might have guessed that I’m all about some home décor projects and you would be right. Inspired by Lighthouses was just too pretty to NOT frame, IMO, so that’s what I did :) My home office has a bit of a nautical theme into which this will fit just perfectly :)

I stamped the lovely light house on some cream paper and colored it with Copic markers. I decided to have a bit of beach on the shoreline with the sea in the background. After I colored everything, I masked off the foreground and lighthouse, airbrushed in the sky, and then sponged the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink. Before I put it in the frame, I cut a piece of acrylic cardstock to put in front of it for protection.

I made my flowers from canvas using the Pretty Posies Die-namics and I’m going to show you how I did that in just a minute. But first, I’ll tell you a few other things about this project.

My frame is an unfinished frame from the $1 bin at Michaels. Gotta love that ;-) I stained it with Weathered Wood Distress Stain, distressed it up with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink, and sanded the edges.

After I did that, I stamped my sentiment where I wanted it with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I tried several inks on the back of the frame to see which one would give me the best image without bleeding into the wood grain and Onyx Black won, hands down.

OK, so here’s the 411 on the canvas flowers. I cut them out with my Pretty Posies Die-namics dies from canvas duck that I got at Joanne Fabrics. A little tip: the natural canvas is more “dense” or tightly woven than the white or any other color so it may take several more back and forths to get a good clean cut. They all take several; the natural may take more.

Now, this stuff is a little floppy and I wanted to be able to “mold” my layers for dimension.

I had an “aha” moment when it occurred to me that I could

use spray starch for this. It worked like a charm! The only drawback is that you have to plan in advance—I let my flowers dry overnight and then put them together and it worked perfectly. Here’s what I did.

I laid each layer out on some paper and gave them a good soaking with the spray starch.

Then I started to “mold” them just like I do with paper only I worked with these a little longer.

Here’s what they looked like when I was done—they’re still pretty wet here. I set them aside to dry overnight.

In the meantime, I cut leaves out with my Upsy Daisy Die-namics dies. I was totally surprised that the score line showed up so well in the canvas. Just a happy bonus :)

So, here are all the layers, shaped and dry—see the dimension?

I wanted to distress them to go along with the frame. So, on the natural ones I gently sponged on some Frayed Burlap Distress ink…

…and I used Weathered Wood and Brushed Corduroy on the white ones.

Then I proceeded to assemble them as normal, with hot glue and a twine-tied button center. I also added a couple of “driftwood” branches using the branch from the Branches With Leaves Die-namics set. Before I adhered the flowers and leaves, I added a sailor’s knot for more of that nautical feel. Dare I say I love this project, too? Ahhh, yeah, I do :)

Thanks SO much for stopping by! I hope you were able to get a little inspiration from this project and will attempt some out-of-the-box projects of your own! MFT Die-namics Dies—not just for cards :)

~Supplies~
Stamps: Inspired By Lighthouses (MFT)
Paper: Cream Perfect Paper Panel; acrylic card stock (Flourishes)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Frayed Burlap, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen, Weathered Wood Distress Ink, Weathered Wood Distress Stain (Ranger)
Accessories/tools: Vagabond (Tim Holtz); Pretty Posies, Upsy Daisy, Branches With Leaves Die-namics dies (MFT); natural, light green, dark green, Khaki, and white canvas duck, twine, cotton yarn, hot glue/gun, spray starch, buttons, Copic markers, wooden frame, sanding block (Tim Holtz)