Good Wednesday morning and welcome to the CLASSroom. I was first introduced to paper crafting years ago at a Stampin’ Up! stamp camp and the first project was made using gold embossing powder and a heat gun. Needless to say I was totally hooked and still love it to this day! We are focusing on embossing this week and I used the Faux Graniteware technique to create the flower pitcher using Hero Arts Unicorn White ink, Wow Opaque Bright Embossing Powder and Ranger Archival Cobalt ink. I used the coffee pot from the Impression Obsession Coffee Set and Essentials by Ellen Craft-a-Board to make the pitcher.
The coffee pot is the perfect image to create an old-fashioned pitcher for a flower arrangement. I cut the lid portion off the pot to create the opening.
I used an ink blending tool to apply ink to the pot to get full color coverage. I could have smooshed the pot down into the pad but I didn’t want to take a chance of bending the craft-a-board.
I applied embossing powder and heated with a heat gun.
The random dotted image from Julie’s Bokeh Dot set was the perfect stamp to use to apply the white pigment ink.
I didn’t want to use the full cluster of dots on the stamp so I only used a small corner portion. I applied the ink using a mini applicator and repeated the step over and over until the pot was covered.
The white powder was applied and heated with the heat gun.
I applied a little vintage photo ink over the pitcher to see if I could tone down the white spots to create a more aged look and then let it dry.
I cut several hollyhock stems and applied color to the centers of the flowers with a mini applicator to create a more natural appearance. Have I mentioned lately how much I love mini applicators!!!
The stems in between the flowers were colored with a green marker.
I began assembling the base of the arrangement from the back adding the taller stems of flowers and foliage and attaching them together with glossy accents.
As I worked forward I added shorter stems and foliage to create layers and attached with glossy accents.
As I assembled the arrangement I kept putting the pitcher in front of it to see how it was fitting and adding foliage or stems to get it the way I wanted before attaching it permanently.
I added a couple foliage pieces to the back of the pitcher and then attached mounting tape. The arrangement was attached to the back of the pitcher and held in place by mounting tape and then the pitcher and flowers were attached to the card base using glossy accents.
Once the arrangement was secured in place I added a few more stems and pieces of foliage to fill in and make a balanced floral arrangement. I finished the card adding a frame and the beautiful sentiment from Julie’s Lovely set. I love the full arrangement of hollyhock stems in the old pitcher.
I hope you have been inspired to create a project using the Faux Graniteware technique. You can see Wendy Vecchi’s post on the Ranger site using the technique on glass. It looks like lots of fun!
