Tando 6 inch Ring Binder - by Zoë Sanderson

 Today I'm sharing the steps and stages in transforming a bare Tando Kit to something both useful and to my mind attractive.

For me the start looking at the basic kit and thinking about what to use with it is the beginning of a journey that might go in any direction!  Having a good look at the kit and getting a feel for it is important in getting a feel for the direction to go in.  Once the ideas start to take shape you can start to stamp and colour.

Of course I had to experiment this time the first stage was to stamp and emboss the cover.  For the embossing both black and clear powders were used.  The result is a worn looking image, that was further aged and distressed with a blending of different coffee coloured inks.

The light must have changed for this picture because the camera settings were not changed nor were colours/light edited later.   Hay Ho at this point a gold ink pad had been run over the edges and hinges of the cover.  An application of Viva Maya gold had been brushed over the two stamped images.

The last element of the aged distressed process was a rough application of clear crackle glaze.  I spread this with a pallet knife leaving it in different thickness over the board.  As the glaze dries the cracks appear being bigger and more obvious on the thicker parts.

Time to start dressing the cover up.

From a bag of assorted Tando shapes four pieces had been selected for embellishments.  To get a good cream finish they were painted with Viva Ceramic effect.  This medium is a thicker finish which can be applied to any surface including glass, plastic and metal.   I'd also got some more stamps out used on card coloured and fussy cut.  

When fussy cutting you need to keep as close to the outside line as you can even cutting into it, unless you have embossed the image a cut into embossing will possibly lead it to start flaking off.   The art of cutting is also to move the card in the open scissors rather than opening and closing the blades while moving them along the card.

A variety of stamps from different manufacturers were used with Archival coffee coloured ink to stamp little sentiments, then the gold ink pad dragged round the edges.

The inside was painted with black gesso and then some very old printed paper cut down to fit over.  Gel Medium used to attach the papers both below and above it for a good secure hold.

Prior to working on the inside a slit was cut in the hinge on each side and ribbon threaded through.   A fussy cut stamped image attached to the right front  making a bridge there ribbon was passed under to meet up with the piece on the other side and tie the cover closed.

I'm really pleased with this it is wonderfully inky, messy and textured and was great fun to do.

Products used

Tando 150gram Offcuts these are great to have to hand and are useful for all sorts of projects.

Tando Ring Binder for 148x82mm stencils

DecoArt Clear Crackle Glaze

Stamps, ribbon and other mediums from my personal stash.

Anything Goes Week - Autum Artist Trading Coins by Nikki

Morning everyone,

Today I'm sharing with you some Artist Trading Coins I made for a swap with a lovely friend.  I had missed the deadline to enter and she offered to swap just with me, so it was really nice and personal to trade coins.

We made three coins each, using Tando Creatives Artist Trading Coins made from Greyboard, which takes practically anything you throw at it paint wise.

These were my gorgeous coins from my friend, I love the fact they are 3 similar coins, and I had a thought to put them on the front of some mini drawers or something as decoration at some stage.

I made three coins also, and had fun following the Autumn theme.

The Leaf coin was triple embossed and a fern leaf stamped into the hot embossing powder.  The other side was painted with a rust technique, and then I used crackle glaze.  I wasn't happy with the finish so painted the rust back over the crackle glaze, which added effect.  The word Autumn was added from stickers from my stash.

The bird coin was first painted in Crackle paint, and then given a coat of quinacridone gold.  The tree branch was painted in raw umber, and highlighted with Metallic Lustre.  I embossed the bird and wing in two colours, and then edged the coin with Quinacridone Magenta.

The final coin was painted with Tinting Base, and then given a coat of crackle paint.  When dry and cracked, I gave it a wash of Raw Umber, and then Quinacridone Gold.  I used a bookplate and embossed, and added the word Autumn.  I put Triple Thick Glaze over the word inside the bookplate.

Hope you like them, I enjoyed the process and swapping coins is great fun!

Best Wishes,

Nikki K
xxx

Items Used:

Tando Creative Artist Trading Coins
Trando Creative Book Plates

DecoArt Media Line: Crackle Paint, Crackle Glaze, Tinting Base, Triple Thick Glaze, Raw Umber, Quinacridone Gold, Metallic Lustre, Quinacridone Magenta,

Stampendous Embossing Enamels.

Andy Skinner Fossils Stamp set (Fern).

Crackle Paste/Glaze week - with Nikki

Morning everyone,

I kind of mis-read the brief for this week, and thought it was texture, but that's next week.  So my make has a mix, but there is crackle glaze there :)

I started by using a small Gothic mdf arch from Tando, and put some black gesso through a brick stencil for a little texture.  Next was Texture Sand Paste all around the edge with a palette knife. 

Paint over the whole arch with white Gesso:

Make a very watery wash of Pthalo Turquoise and Pthalo Green blue, and add the turquoise at the top, merging into the green blue towards the bottom.  Try and keep inside the arch.  The paint will pool nicely in areas.

Take Medium Grey Value 6, and paint your edges, and the brickwork carefully.  Water some Paynes grey slightly and use to deepen the edges of the bricks and highlight the arch texture.

Add a wash of Quinacridone Gold, in areas, and splatter some over the blue area, not fully covering the whole arch.  Mix a little Pthalo Green Blue with Quin Gold, and repeat the wash just on the right hand side, this gives a bit of depth to the colours.  Stamp and cut out images from the Spook set (Illusionary Artists).  Colour the Gargoyle with some of the green-gold wash you have left to tie in the colours.

I also stamped in Versafine Toffee ink some text across the background of the tag.

Emboss the crosses with Stampendous Aged Green Embossing Powder, and then give a Payne's grey wash over the top, to age further. 

Stamp some words onto card, and emboss with clear embossing powder.  Make a wash of Quin Gold and Payne's Grey, and coat the card.  Edge with neat Paynes Grey. Heat dry.

Glue the stamped elements on the Arch, adding some more Paynes Grey around the Gargoyles feet on the brickwork to ground him, just a shadow.  Add Crackle Glaze on top of the Gargoyle and leave to crack. 

Here are some close-ups and the finished piece:

Hope you like him :)  Remember to catch up with the rest of the team's makes this week too,

Thanks for stopping by,

Best Wishes,

Nikki K.
xxx

Door Hanger : Fabric week

 Hello my dear Tando friends and welcome to my new  post made for Tando Fabric week.
I almost never use fabric on my creations and this  " use fabric" thing was a bit challenging for me.
 But finally I found a couple of canvas piece that were die cut and then stencilled with Tando stencil and painted and used as my door hanger background.
So first I painted this Tando door hanger with DecoArt Media line acrylic paint. Then I added a thick layer of  DecoArt Clear crackle glaze  and added a layer of gold paint when it was dry.
The fabric flags were glued over the door hanger.
Next I painted the bird cage, the birds, the rose flower and the background.
Some of those piece were also covered with crackle and then painted with  gold paint over the cracks.
I think that this a  lovely door hanger to say " Good Morning"  to someone that you love!

Tando products used:
Goivanna- Hearts mask

Bird cage small



Mini pack of birds and branches


Grab pack of mini birds


Grid- Moroccan


Flowers with stems grab bag

DecoArt Media line

Tag week with Irit

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my first Tando post for 2017.
New year means new  word that we usually pick as our Word of the Year.
My word for 2017 is Journey. Yes, I am not yet sure what Journey it will be, but it should be new, unexplored and exiting.
So as you can see my altered Mixed Media tag is all about this journey.
I made it as a stone road and the sky with stars, as I don't really know  the right way  of this journey.
 And it says " Imagine your next journey"; so you can understand that I am totally not sure about the way.
I used Tando Crocodile stencil to make the stone effect with texture paste (DecoArt) and glitter embossing powders (WOW! Embossing Powders).
When it was dry (heat gun sure worked here extra ) I misted it with copper mist and added DecoArt Crackle paste over the edges. When it was dry I added DecoArt Acrylic paint over the paste.

Tando large chipboard stars were covered with gold and blue embossing powders and then with DecoArt Crackle Glaze and I love the effect a lot.
The arrow was heat embossed with gold powder and then misted with blue mist.
The round golden dots are the left overs from Tando Round. background chipboard and I love to embellish with them as you can paint then to any color to fit your project.

I hope that you like my tag and my word and see you soon again!
Tando products used:
 Tando minis Arrows


Grab bag of stars


Round chipboard


Crocodile stencil


DecoArt Media line

Dream Big!

Happy Sunday!

I am delighted to be sharing a project and step by step with you today. 

All this week the Design Team having been having fun with the 'Anything Goes' challenge theme.. I decided to decorate the inside front journal cover of the [Ministry of Mixology Kate Crane Journal] I've been working on.. you can see the front cover [HERE]

First of all I glued some random pieces of plan paper to the journal page using [Clear Matte Medium]

  

Next I added a layer of [White Gesso] and stamped various stamps around the edges to create a border.

Then I set about choosing the colour palette.. 

I chose [Titanium White], [Primary Yellow], [Green Gold] and [Cobalt Teal]

Once dry I added some stencilling to the journal cover using Andy Skinner's [Burning Rubber] stencil and also the [Sequin Waste] mask and some of the DecoArt fluid acrylic paint.

[Burning Rubber] 

[Sequin Waste] 

  

 While this layer was drying I picked out [Carbon Black] and [Pyrrole Red]

 to add a contrast to the page..

I also couldn't resist adding some [Clear Crackle Glaze] inside the black circles!!

I noticed the washi tape kept peeling so I gave it a coating of [Clear Matte Medium] et voila! 

close ups of the crackles ! I could hardly wait...

 The texture is lovely and so tactile..

 Last of all I added a central image to the page as a focal point..

 My finished inside cover..

Thank you for calling and leaving a comment if you get the chance.

  Happy creating, Gez ♥