NICKY'S MATCHBOX AND ATC

 MATCHBOX AND ATC'S BY NICKY ROUSSOU

Hello lovely people and welcome to my blog today. I'm going to share with you a fabulous product by Tando-Creative. I absolutely love these!! These Matchboxes great to work with, so many possibilities for designs. 

So for my project for Tando-Creative I have decided on this quite rustic rusty theme. I do like the dark rustic feel in my makes. 

I began with assembling my matchbox outer shell and then the inside box. Once assembled I gave the entire piece a coat of black gesso to give it a good seal to work on. 

I then used Stamperior Clear Crackle Paste with one on Tim Holtz stencils to create a rough rustic texture on the outsides of the box. I did the same for the draw fronts as that is the bit you will see once done. 

I do find that if you leave the crackle to dry naturally you will get a nicer crackle but I do sometimes give it a helping hand with a blast from a heat gun to speed things up a little.

Once ready to be painted, I picked 3 main colours to work with to achieve my rusty, aged look.

A yellow iron oxide, a brown and a teal. This time I decided to go with a Metallic Teal colour for a bit of shimmer. 

I start out with either the Team or Yellow generally first as the brown can cover if I think I've added too much of the lighter colours.

I randomly add sporadic coverage to the piece, no set patterns, just here and there over the crackle and around the box until I feel happy with it. 

Once I'm done with these two colours, I then start to fill in any gaps with the Brown I have chosen.

Then give the entire thing a good coat of ModgePodge to seal it. 

Once all dry I then used a mixture of Brown Oil Paint and some white spirts mixed to cover the piece to give a real aged look to it. Apply and then use a baby wipe to rub off the excess. leaving such a fabulous effect.

I then repeat this process for the ATC Cards and Circles to give a matching effect. On the back of some of the cards and tags i used some of Tando's substrates to add tot he texture and design. 

I then delicately edged some of the project with some gold gilding wax to bring out some beautiful highlights.

I finished this off by adding 2 butterflies I had in my stash. The colour of these was absolutely perfect to compliment the Matchbox's colour and feel. they suit it perfectly! 

PRODUCTS USED:

TANDO-CREATIVE LARGE MATCHBOX

TANDO-CRATIVE SUBSTRATES

STAMPERIOR CLEAR CRACKLE PASTE

TIM HOLTS STENCIL FROM MY STASH

DECOART YELLOW IRON OXIDE

DECOART BURNT SIENNA

COSMIC SHIMMER TEAL

COSMIC SHIMMER

Tando ATC matchbox - Arachnophobia by Kim

 Today we are using the Tando ATC Matchbox and Cards and Coins set. 

First, put your ATC box together and paint all surfaces. I used DecoArt Lamp Black on the matchbox, and DecoArt Black Gesso on the cards.

I wanted to create a spooky feel to this project and there are always spiders lurking in the woods. On the main surface of the matchbox I created a misty woods scene. I started by dry-brushing the mysterious distant light with DecoArt Indian Turquoise. 

To dry-brush you need a fairly firm bristle flat brush. Dip the brush in the paint and make sure the bristles are loaded, then wipe the brush on a paper towel until nearly all the paint has been removed - you really do need it to be dry! Lightly draw the brush across the surface so that the barest minimum of paint is left on the surface. It is better to apply more light coats than a single heavy application. Practice on a spare piece of greyboard if necessary.

The distant glow was created by choosing a centre point for the glow and dry brushing outwards from it so that I got 'rays' radiating. These rays got fainter the farther out they travelled. 

Next, I added some creepy, distant trees and bushes by dry-brushing the shapes lightly with Lamp Black over the turquoise. Then a little more turquoise 'rays' to push the trees back into the woods. 

Paint foreground trees with Lamp Black, with a few additional 'rays' in Whispering Turquoise. Finish with a small white dot in the centre of the light source.

To frame the picture I used one of Fiona's small ornate frames, chopped to make two 'L' shapes (sorry Fiona!) and painted gold.

I repeated the spooky turquoise rays on either side, but without the woods.

I used the small hanging web spider from the Grab bag of Spiders set for the main surface. It was painted Lamp Black with small white highlights and Zinc grey detail. One one side I used the large round spider, but had to trim the legs at the edge of the box. On the last side I used the small creeping spider.

I used white and creepy lettering to add text to the sides. I snuck the small round spider in the bottom of the drawer just for fun.

The ATC cards were painted with black gesso and, when dry, a very watery mix of Zinc was layered over the top giving a creepy look. I found some fear-relevant quotes and hand lettered the cards.

(Image inspired by the work of Jane Font (Painting with Jane)

Products:

Tando ATC Matchbox set: ATCMTCHBOX
Fiona's Ornate Frames set, small: FRORNTFRMMEDSML
Tando Grab bag of Spiders: GRBBGSPDERS
DecoArt Americana colours:
    Lamp Black
    Indian Turquoise
    Whispering Turquoise
    Zinc
    Titanium White
    Venetian Gold
    Black Gesso