Hello!

Not long now until the first Hochanda show today where our Jo will be doing some fab demos with some gorgeous new goodies from That's Crafty! and I'm really excited to be able to share one of my samples with you today. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed making this one which was inspired by my favourite Abba song Thank You For The Music. Has it got you singing now!

Step by Step

There was a fair bit of serendipity involved in creating my block as after I glued all the sections together, I painted 4 sides with Black Multi Surface Paint and 2 with Christmas Red. I then stamped 2 opposite black sides with the letters texture stamp using Versafine Satin Red ink and the top and bottom black sides with the bubbly texture stamp and Versafine Deep Lagoon ink. The red sides were stamped with the numbers texture stamp and Versafine Crimson Red ink. In all cases I didn't use a block, just used my fingers to randomly press on the pattern.

I left the cube to dry completely and then found to my shock that the inks on the black sides had completely changed colour! The red ink had dried brown and the teal ink had gone purple - eek! As this wasn't what I wanted, I over painted just the top with Ocean Multi Surface Paint and the 2 Black sides with Purple.

As you'll see from the photo below, the pattern underneath showed through on the top, giving a totally unexpected effect which I really love - serendipity rules ok! The pattern also showed through on the purple sides but not quite as much as I think the paint is more opaque.

I then decorated up the top and sides using some of the fab new music greyboard Bits and Pieces which includes music notes and some rather funky guitars.

I chose to use Artist Trading Coins to showcase the embellishments and painted each one with Multi Surface Paint, then randomly stamped with the woven texture stamp in a stronger toning ink colour.

The top was decorated with a strip of piano keyboard (amazing what you can find on the internet!) and I painted the music note with Bronze Metallic paint and the guitar with Chestnut Brown and Orange on top whilst the paint was still wet. I used Posca pens to drawn on the detail and I hope really brought this to life. The sing text was created by stamping the woven texture image with red ink on white paper and drawing through the 7 x 7 alphabet stencil with a fine black pen. I then cut out the letters and also stamped the word live on a scrap of the stamped paper.

This side has guitars stencilled with White and Red Multi Surface Paints with the coin on top. The notes were painted with Black Metallic paint and the guitar with Green and Lime Multi Surface Paints with Chestnut Brown at the top. I then hit upon the idea of using the woven texture stamp to simulate the wires and stamped this on with blue ink without using an acrylic block. I added a little second and third generation stamping on the guitar body to pull it all together. The letters were formed as before.


This one was stamped in the same way as before for both the coin and the guitars which were all painted with Multi Surface Paints. The text is one of Lynne's fab Affirmations and I thought this one fit the theme of my cube rather well.


This side was made in the same way as the other Purple side, using the same stencil and techniques and the same colour paints too.


My final side was created with just music notes painted with Black and Bronze Metallic paints. Another of Lynne's Affirmations was used as it also went so well with my theme.

Supplies

That's Crafty! Surfaces 4in x 4in Artist Trading Block
That's Crafty! Surfaces - White/Greyboard Artist Trading Coins
That's Crafty! Bits & Pieces Greyboard Embellishments - Musical
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Sets - Textures Collection Sets 1, 2 and 4
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - ATCoins Set 11
That's Crafty! Clear Stamp Set - Lynne's Affirmations Set 10
That's Crafty! 7 x 7 Stencil - TC6008 Alphabet
That's Crafty! 7 x 7 Stencil - TC6017 Guitars
That's Crafty! Multi Surface Paints - I used lots of shades!
VersaFine Inks - Onyx Black, Deep Lagoon, Crimson Red, Satin Red
Posca Pens - Black and Silver