That's Crafty!: Faux Fossilised Amber by Anne Redfern

Hello Everyone

I thought I would try something a bit more grungy this week and I have created a little frame to hold a Faux Fossilised Amber bug.

I wanted it to look like it is an old museum piece.

The Process:

I used one of That's Crafty! Surfaces, ATC MDF Art Shrine (approx 3" x 4"), constructed it and painted all the outside surfaces with Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body paint in Black. I roughly painted the inside with Buff (again by Dina Wakley).

Next, I sanded the MDF to give a worn look. I decided later to add some patterned paper to the box but not the frame element which looked lovely with the sanding.

For the inside of the box, I watered down some That's Crafty! fabulous Walnut Crystals. I applied a wash very randomly to the inside walls of the box. At this point I didn't like how bare the back looked so I applied the same wash to a piece of cotton watercolour paper. I over-stamped the paper with the script element of Tim Holtz's Entomology Stamp set, again just using the watered down Walnut Crystals.

And now for the fun part! I can't really show a step by step for this bit because it all has to happen quite quickly. I took some of Seth Apter's Baked Textures in Vintage Beeswax and also Ancient Amber, mixed about 50/50 give or take. In terms of measure, I probably used about a rounded tablespoon of each powder, so it does take quite a bit to make a nice deep impression. I didn't want to get my Melt Pot out so I used a small foil pie tin, put the Baked Textures in together and heated them from underneath until they melted fully.

Whilst the powders are heating up, I inked up the bug stamp (again from Entomology), with Onyx Black Versafine, applying lots and lots of ink. I poured the hot melted powder onto my craft mat and very quickly stamped into it, holding it in firmly for around 30 seconds.

Tip: this technique works really well with red rubber stamps but be really careful with other non rubber stamps, they may not like the heat of the molten powder.

Lift the stamp off and you should have a lovely impressed image, as shown above. I did try applying more embossing powder over the top and heating it to try and encapsulate the bug but it didn't work, the bug image was distorted, so I don't recommend doing that.

Here is a bit of a close up of the bug, the detail is quite amazing! If your stamped image is not clear enough, you can ink up the stamp again and stamp over, the stamp should fit perfectly into the recess.

I finished off the piece by adding a Tim Holtz Word Band from my stash, to the frame.

The Products I used:

That's Crafty! Surfaces ATC MDF Shrine - 3 Pack

13Arts 6" x 6" Paper Pack, His & Hers Re-mastered (out of stock currently)

13 Arts 12" x 12" Paper Pack, His & Hers Re-mastered (in stock)

Dina Wakley Media, Heavy Body Acrylic - Black

Dina Wakley Media, Heavy Body Acrylic - Buff

Dina Wakley Cotton Watercolour paper

That's Crafty Walnut Crystals

Tim Holtz Entomology Stamp set

Seth Apter Baked Textures - Vintage Beeswax

Seth Apter Baked Textures - Ancient Amber