a little bit of everything

6

 So I always save all kinds of bits and pieces of things that I save because I think they might come in handy one day to craft with.  The fun part for I have to admit is re-imagining (upcycle if you will) things you would ordinarily chuck out.  So I have boxes of salvaged things like popsicle sticks and bits of wire, used plastic zip ties and gold paint that I scraped up off mats.  I found a book of latin verse that was published in the early 60's and I collected that too. 

But what do you do with the random collections of junk before your house starts to look like a an episode of Hoarders?  Make cards - that's what you do, make adorable cards for your loved ones.

Popsicle sticks can be turned into a little fence with a black pen and some brown stain or ink.  I mixed Dala Sepia Drawing Ink with a bit of their Black drawing ink and watered it down to get a weathered effect.

Old cereal boxes can take a crafty beating - I put a layer of modpodge on it to glue down some book pages - inked over with Dala Drawing Ink.  I love Dala drawing ink for vibrant but translucent colour.  The ink must have some kind of glaze or polymer in it because it dries to a matte gloss finish.  It's really cool

I then die cut the Hollyhocks out of the cereal boxes with the holly hock die. They went in front of the fence and that wrought iron strip was a piece of zip tie that got a treatment of super glue and fine beach sand that I dyed with Dala drawing ink.  I kinda did the same thing on the sentiment label plate thingie  bit with a rougher texture from big flake glitter that I had bought for my kid from Dala as well - over the top went some gold leaf size from Dala which I could swear is the same as Dala Stencil Glue which I have been obsessed with for years.  I let that dry out a bit to get super tacky.  The gold leaf flakes are actually the result of mixing Dala gold paint mixed with a bit gold edible mica (the kind you use in baking - think I originally got that from Barco moulds.  Anyhooooooo, I had painted something or the other and because I use those clear kitchen mats cutting boards as a palette - I had quite a bit of this beautiful dried gold paint - so I had the tincan head idea to scrape that off and collect them in a jar.  Like OH MY GUYS - it worked brilliantly as a knock-off diy of flake bits - seriously they work just as well as any other flake bits that you would buy.

Remember that old book of latin verse?  I have been wanting to try my version of the Japanese Mokugami paper. Mokugami is kind of like a rumpled texture paper.  I always loved how it adds a depth and texture to paper.  I thought a latin page would be cool to do this with. Anyway, I wanted a lighter pastel type of colour to this so instead of Dala, I went in with ink blending brushes.  I didnt even re-ink them - just went with the residue on the brush.  

I started squishing and squashing and then thought that I kinda wanted it to look more like waxed paper so then I got a solid body butter stick (for reals I am not even joking) - this butter stick smells so deliciously like citrus leaves. I swiped that all over the page, used my hairdryer to heat enough so that it saturates the paper. I then glued that down with Dala stencil glue onto an old offcut piece of canvas - this might have been out of one of Dala's painting pads  but I cant be sure - it was just a random piece that I found in those boxes of stuff that I save like a hoarder.  

I don't work for Dala by the way, even though this whole post is reading like an advert for them. I have to tell you about my most recent serendiptious moment with them - I had bought their liquid tempera for my 6 year old to paint with and guess what - I have stolen most of it from her supply.  I love it more than the regular craft acrylic I get from them - I think I love the tempera more - its like the perfect highly pigmented translucent paint that dries to an un-movable finish with insane pigmented translucency with a matte finish.  It is so light fast as well.  I dont think gets DALA gets enough credit in the crafting world for the kiff-ass stuff products that they make.  I am such a fan.

So that's this post.  I will keep posting my destashing attempts as I go along.