Liz Mathews: tutorial

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Tissue Paper Flower Video Tutorial

10:34 PM | | Edit Post

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to introduce a new blog feature- video tutorials!

It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but taking on the feature felt very intimidating. There were so many new things I needed to learn in order to upload a single video, but luckily it all turned out to be a little easier than I thought. More time consuming, but less complicated!

Anyway, there are a lot of details to be ironed out and lots more to learn but I'm on my way and I look forward to making more.

Please click the link below to view and enjoy the video tutorial on how I'm creating all of the tissue paper flowers that are included in our wedding centerpieces. I hope you like it!

The link will take you to my YouTube channel which will be the home of all my future videos :)

Tissue Paper Flower Tutorial by Liz Mathews

Labels: flowers, tutorial, video tutorial, wedding | 2 comments

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Key to My Heart, a Valentines Day collage

12:24 AM | | Edit Post

I have a fun, easy Valentines Day project for you!

This sweet collage is all about vintage ephemera, romantic lace, rusty antiques, and love- just look at all those hearts!!

Best of all, it's a very affordable project you can make for that special someone, all you have to do is follow the directions below :)

*Disclaimer*

All of the photos below were taken in the evening as I was working on the project. Please excuse the poor lighting!

Here is what you'll need to complete this project:

A collection of old paper and ephemera. I recommend using no less than 6 different kinds of paper with distinct patterns, shades and images.
Four cream colored photo corners.
Glue. I used decoupage glue as well as Zip Dry! paper glue.
One 11 x 14 inch canvas panel.
Rusty, old, large key. Mine measures approximately 6 inches long.
A piece of solid colored ephemera that is slightly bigger than the key.
Lace of your choice. One side should be straight/flat. The lace I chose is about 4 inches thick.
Glue. I used decoupage glue as well as Zip Dry! paper glue.
One 11 x 14 inch canvas panel.

Now that you have all of your supplies, lets get started :)

1. The first step is to paint or stain your canvas with a color that matches the ephemera you will be using. I didn't do this, and I wish I had. It will make your life a little easier when trying to cover the entire panel.

2. Next, you will want to cut out all the hearts that will be used to cover your entire canvas. It will take many more than you think, and variety in size and shape is good. Free-hand cutting is great, and the imperfections are charming! As I cut my hearts out I piled them according the the pattern/type of paper, and this proved to be helpful when it came time to glue.

Here is a glimpse at the ephemera I chose and the heart shapes and sizes I worked with. The smallest is approx. 1.5 inches long, and the largest is about 3 inches long.

3. Now, you'll begin to glue your hearts to the canvas. Using decoupage glue, you will completely cover the back of the paper hearts and begin placing them on the canvas. Start at the top and cover edge to edge, leaving no gaps. (I recommend NOT gluing one after another right down the row (like you read text), but rathe jumping around along that line.) Along the top and side edges of the canvas simply fold the hearts over the canvas and glue to back.

4. Continue to glue the hearts down in overlapping fashion, leaving no gaps in coverage. As you can see, I don't continue to glue row by row, but rather let it happen organically.

I had two general rules when choosing which patterned heart to choose to glue next. First, that the same pattern never be placed next to each other. That's why its a good idea to have at least 6 different patterns. It will make your life much easier, and make the coverage process go faster! Secondly, I didn't overlap the hearts too much. I wanted to cover as much space as possible with each heart, so the overlap of each heart wasn't too great. See the two photos below:

Once you have collaged half way down the canvas you will flip it and start to collage from the bottom up, until the hearts meet and overlap at the middle point of the canvas.

Please set aside to dry overnight. (decoupage glue often leaves the paper somewhat wrinkly, but don't worry, as it dries the paper becomes taught and flat)

5. Next, you will cut two pieces of lace approx. one inch longer than the canvas on each side. These pieces of lace will be butted up against each other along the straight edge, and with the seam at the half way point of the canvas.

6. Using glue, such as Zip Dry (which dries quickly) glue the lace onto the paper covered canvas. I found it helpful to use the end of a paintbrush to push the lace down onto the glue and spare my fingers from the glue-y mess :)

7. Using Zip Dry you will now glue the excess lace edge to the back of the canvas. Simply fold the lace onto the back of the canvas.

8. Next, repeat the same procedures using 1" thick cream colored grosgrain ribbon that covers the seam of the lace across the front. Secure by gluing in back, but resist the urge to glue across the front as the glue will show through the ribbon.

9. Use your key to measure the size of paper that you will be using in the center of the collage. I left approx. 3/4" border around the key on all sides, then used the fold then tear method to rip out my desired size rectangle.

10. Glue the photo corners on all four sides once the desired size has been achieved.

11. Using the decoupage glue, cover the entire back of the rectangle and photo corners and glue to the center of the ribbon and lace. Press firmly and allow to dry completely as the decoupage glue tends to moisten the paper and adding the key at this point may cause the paper to rip.

12. Once the center piece of paper has dried completely you can glue the key to the center. I used a hot glue gun, and it seemed to work very well.

Voila! Your Key to My Heart collage is complete!

P.S. I have a pile of paper hearts that I didn't need for my collage, and if anyone is interested in making this collage and would like the hearts I've used please comment and email me your mailing address. (mathews.liz(at)gmail(dot)com) I will get them out to you asap! They will go to the first commenter/emailer.

Labels: collage, ephemera, lace, tutorial, valentines day | 4 comments

Monday, November 7, 2011

52 card wall art tutorial

9:14 PM | | Edit Post

As promised, here is the full tutorial for the "52 Reasons I Love You" gift. I hope you like it as much as I loved creating it, and can find a way to adapt it to fit your needs. I highly recommend hiding the cards throughout the house for a day full of discovery!

I started with a brand new deck of playing cards- cheap, easy to find, and usually kept on-hand. One of the good things about using a brand new pack was that they are perfectly flat, and crease-free.

Next, I used Tim Holtz "distress ink" to add an aged look to the cards. The color "tea stained" is perfect, and I applied the ink inconsistently and liberally, which created a great vintage look. These inks, which are sold in pad-form and applied with a wood handled felt pad are super-easy to apply and help to create the perfect base to these little collages.

Once I allowed the ink to dry on the cards (approx. 15 minutes) I punched a small hole in the top of each card. I used the pattern on the back-side of the card as a guide to help keep consistency in the placement of each hold. Since I knew they would be hanging it was very important that the holes be in the very center of the card as well as the same distance from the top.

I gathered a variety of old paper ephemeral to layer on the face side of the card. My selections ranged from french book text to old ledger paper as well as old dictionary sheets. The more variety the better!

Using the card to get a rough measurement I tore each piece of paper into strips (shown above), then into squares that fill up the ideal amount of space on the face side. I chose the these proportions because I knew I would be adding several more layers and I wanted to be sure the paper would show through.

Next, affix the ephemera with glue and press flat. Be sure to pay attention to which end is "up"!

In order to create a clean and easy-to-read surface for my text I painted a small area of each card with a white/brown paint mixture.

Since I felt that straight white paint would be to harsh, I mixed the smallest amount of brown paint in with the white to give it an antique-y look.

As you can see, I created small blocks of paint on top of the ephemera in totally random formation. I tried to avoid painting over what I considered the most attractive part of the ephemera in all cases.

I highly recommend using a mat finish paint, and applying 2-3 thick layers of paint. As you will see, the acrylic paint I used was semi gloss and caused smudging of my ink even though I was using a Sharpie. Avoid this if you can :)

Once the paint is dry you can begin embellishing the face sides of the card. For the gift I was creating I wrote a different reasons I love Joe before adding the ribbon/charm/do-dad, but you can do it in whatever order you'd like.

Whenever possible I trying to chose a vintage item that corresponded to the trait I had written on the
card. Hot glue worked perfectly for affixing the old embellishments. Plus, I love the quick dry time!

When it occurred to me that I had 52 cards to embellish I decided to finish many of them off with a simple sticker, rub-on, or rubber stamp. I didn't want to feel overwhelmed, but wanted to add a special touch to each card so these quick fixes were life-savers!

Once I had finished with all of the playing cards it was time to move on to the frame. I knew all of the cards fit nicely in grid formation on a piece of 20"x 30" foam core. So while using one of those 40% off coupons that Michaels and AC Moore constantly offer I was able to buy a 20x30 frame for around $32. Not too bad.

I removed the glass from the frame and replaced it with a piece of foam core that I had already covered in a piece of vintage fabric. (I wrote about how to stretch and pin fabric in this tutorial) Then I re-inserted the foam core and secured it in place.

The last step was to use straight pins to even space each of the cards over the entire surface. (The 4 top rows have 11 cards each, and a bottom row has 8 cards.) Once the pins are in place you can hang the playing cards facing out, in, or a combination.

Here is a peek at a few of the other cards I created. I hope you can see the wide variety of items you can use to embellish the back of the cards. If you do decide to hang the cards, please be conscious of where you attach the embellishments as they can cause the cards to hang sideways.