Bohemian Masculinity

 

Would you send this card to a guy? Do guy cards have to be bland coloured and boring - why cant they have loads of texture and colour and why cant like leaves be a masculine thing?  I would totally send this card to a guy, this guy identifies Bohemian okay? - this is our next entry into the Masculine challenge over at Simon Says Stamp.  

 A tree on the other side of the wall shed a whole bunch of leaves.  I liked them.  I really didnt want to put them the in garden refuse.  I know I am a bit on the oddball side but stay with me. I bust out the Dala Drawing Inks (from now on referred to as DDI) again and had an idea brewing in my head - I knew painting the leaves in the rich and vibrant jewel tones that DDI comes in would be just luscious!  I wasn't wrong!  Look at the saturation of the pigment in the inks - its so deep and but transparent at the same time.  I love it - well done Dala, you have nailed the drawing ink.  Its so much more than a drawing ink - its a whole craft experience.  Dala Suncolour used to be go to for dying anything - paper or cloth - but I have been converted.  I now exclusively use DDI for paper and card when I want deep, rich transparent colour on paper and card and keep the suncolour for dying fabric. 

Anyway, about the card.  The background is a paperscrap from my bag of scrap.  I went with what I would consider a Masculine Bohemian type colour palette to zhoosh up the leaves.  Oh I like the bottles that the DDI comes in now - they have a pointy nozzle, much more user-friendly than the flip tops.  I used DDI in Magenta, Golden Yellow, Orange, Violet Process Cyan, Scarlet and Olive. 

 Initially I wanted to line them up in 3 leaves sort of deal, standard, dependable layout but somewhat cliched - so then I decided I'd rather layer the multi-coloured leaves on top of each other like a forest of trees.  I loved that.  I put a strip of 2-side tape on a thin strip of dark brown card and stuck a raggedy piece of gauze on the back.  I had a big brown rounded square button that I thought looked like a masculine button, I added more of the Sand craft paint to the button to make it look a little more rustic, threaded it with some thin paper rope to tie into a shoelace knot. 

We had a few runes left over from the "Enter the Dragon" card, and like I said in the last post - this was made with Dala Clever Clay.  You can get crazy clay in different colours.  I would suggest that you get a standard set and then get twice the amount of white.  With your drawing ink you can colour customise the clay to your preference.  

I add a drop or two of Black DDI  to white clay to make the stone grey.  I overstuffed the clay it into a mold.  I used a dough scraper to scrape off the excess on the top so that it is fairly level on the bottom.  It

takes about 24 hours to completely dry or you can be like me and try and get it out of the mold 12 hours later - these were thin so it worked out well for me.  

Here is my trick to get the textured effect of weathered stone. Don't get too finicky about getting the clay into the mold too well - if it has a few airbubbles - it makes it look more stonelike.  When your grey pieces are dry put a thin layer of craft paint on the dry clay, let it sit for about a minute or two.  Then with a wet brush, lightly water-wash the pieces so that the paint doesnt wash off completely - just let it be not perfect and not uniform.  That way you get this really mottled effect that looks like it is stone that has been painted and weathered over time.

I used these left over rune pieces to give it a little more manly Bohemian Viking interest.  Anyway I am so happy with how this turned out.

I am already dreaming up new ideas for more craft projects with my collection of Dala supplies.  Stay tuned for more ways to use these versatile products in crazy ways.

I am not associated by any affiliate relation to DALA nor am I sponsored to write posts about them - I just really, really, really enjoy their brand.  I think they are very well priced and have a great selection  and variety of craft supplies.  I also like the quality of their products.

Dala has a store on Takealot - click this  Dala  to link to it. They dont have their entire catalogue on it - which is sad because they now also have polymer clay and alcohol ink and it is not on the site.  Or you can also get a fairly decent selection at Crazy Plastics if you're in South Africa.

I got the Runes mold from Temu, - they have different kinds of silicone molds for resin, baking and crafting, I am super happy with the quality of the molds as well - I put them through all kinds of trauma in my crafting experiments and they are still alive.

I do have a discount code for TEMU to pass down - that will get you 30% off if you search the code acp636712 on the app,  if you are new to TEMU - you can ⭐️Click the link https://temu.to/m/ulqdrhgg4l0 to get 💰R2,000 (+/- U$D50) coupon bundle or ⭐️ Search  acp636712 on the Temu App to get 💰30% off discount !!