France Papillon style Printer Tray

Hi there!

Celia here, with my first post on the Tando blog, and it's France Papillion week. I have decided to make a Printer Tray to showcase a few of France's stamps and stencils. I started off by choosing some small greyboard embellishments from the grab bags, minis and the new mini tags. I also chose some of the medium Steampunk Parts to add a bit of machinery. I drew around the top part of the printer tray onto the baseboard to help with positioning.

I covered some of the pieces with various embossing powders, using Versafine straight onto the greyboard. I love how this effect makes the greyboard look so expensive!

For the butterflies, I stamped directly onto the untreated greyboard to give a nice shabby effect, using France's Creepers and Crawlers stamp set. I used Di's method of putting the greyboard butterfly onto the inked stamp, so that you can position it perfectly. I decided to fray the edges by wetting them with a wet paintbrush then allowing it to soak in. After a few minutes, it separates easily and can be coaxed into place with a knife.

I stamped the bee onto grey card and cut him out. I painted the base of the steampunk parts in DecoArt black chalk paint and the grid in Decoart fluid acrylic silver. 

The cogs were given a quick rust treatment by stippling with fluid acrylics in black, raw umber, quinacridone gold and transparent yellow iron oxide.

I made some of France's trademark red hearts using Pyrole red and Raw Umber and added some one step crackle.

For the tray, I glued together all three layers and painted it in in Teal, with a coat of Crackle Paint, then some washes of Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Teal. 

I primed the base with a white chalk paint, then drew round the frame to see where the squares would be. I masked off a couple of them with post its and scraped through some Decoart modelling paste through two of France's stencils - Honeycomb and Driving me Circles.

I decided to paint the base purple, because you have to have some purple in your projects don't you! I used the new colour, Byzantium, from Paperartsy, and swished through some Teal and Magenta. Then I drew in the frame again and stamped in some of the squares with Watering Can and Cactus Flower Archival, using the post-it masking method and the Rock and Rust stamp set. Lastly, I stamped 'Little Things' from the Small Talk stamp  set, using Versamark and fine black embossing powder. (Hint - do this BEFORE you assemble the tray! 😬)

This was then assembled and all the tiny embellishments stuck in with Cosmic Shimmer glue. Here's the finished piece:

I hope you feel inspired to have a go at a Printer Tray!

Thanks for stopping by,

Celia  x 

Tando products used:

Mini Printer Tray 152x152mm

Long Tags: Arrows, Butterflies, Clocks, Hearts

Hearts grab bag

Cogs Grab Bag

Steampunk Parts medium

Tando minis keys

Tando minis butterflies

France Papillon products used:

Driving Me Circles stencil (large)

Honeycomb stencil (small)

Rusted Rivits stencil (small)

Rock n Rust stamp set

Creepers & Crawlers stamp set

Perfect Words stamp set