Liquid Leaf Luciousness In More Detail

You guys may want to grab yourself a cuppa and a choccie biscuit for this one, we could be here a while. As promised, I have a little step by step tutorial on the background tags as per my previous post. I have also made three of them into finished pieces now and there are lots of photos to plough through....are you ready????

There are four different background tags to show you and for three of them I used some Ferro.

 Simply use a palette knife to scrape a layer through your chosen stencil.

And this is what you get.

Another option is to just scrape a layer over one corner of the tag, using the palette knife in a schlupping fashion, Those of you who know me will know that schlupping is patting your knife into the product to get texture, just like you would if you were trying to get peaks in a meringue!
Although you really can't see it in this photo, I have actually stamped some script into the Ferro as well, I suggested that you spritz the stamp with water first, that way it is easy to remove any excess product from your stamp. You will see the script better once the Ferro has been coloured.

You can dry Ferro with a heat gun. You may find that the product bubble a bit too, but as long as they are only small bubbles, they will add to the texture.

So here we have the four tags prepared. The one on the left has been embossed in an embossing folder. and the other three all have Ferro on them. The next step is to paint them all black. I used Paperartsy's Little Black Dress Fresco Finish paint.

Tag No.1 got a paint treatment which makes it look like leather.

Using a piece of Cut'n'dry foam, I sponged Claret and Brown Shed paint over the black tag, blending them together where the two colours meet.

They colours actually get darker when dried with a heat gun giving a lovely, rich, leather look to the tag.

Next step.....Brass Liquid Leaf!

Warning!!!! This product is very fluid! I found the best way to apply it was to use a small piece of cut'n'dry and dip into the product from the lid. You will need to shake this product very well before use which means that there will always be something in the lid to dip into.

Keep the cut'n'dry completely flat and VERY GENTLY tap on the embossed areas of the tag. This stuff is soooo gold, you have to see it to believe it!!!  I then took another piece of cut'n'dry and rubbed some Jet Black Archival ink over some of the letters and edges for a tarnished look.

This tag has Ferro scrapped through a Bingo stencil, followed by the black paint and then Claret, Brown Shed and South Pacific Fresco paint sponged over the top.

It really comes to life when the Liquid Leaf goes on.

I sprayed tag No.3 with some watered down Fresco paint. Using a mini spray bottle, add a small amount of water to the bottle followed by your choice of paint, then shake well. If you put the paint in first, it will be tricky to mix as the paint will sit at the bottom of the bottle. Once thoroughly mixed, add more water. Don't fill the bottle completely as you will need room in the bottle to agitate the liquid for a thorough mix. I normally use about 25% paint, 75% water. Here I used Mermaid and Brown Shed with a little bit of Pumpkin Soup mixed in for good measure!

You may be wondering why I painted the tag black when I've now covered it completely with others colours? I found that the opaque Fresco paints really pop over the dark background but also as the paint dries, you will get small areas of black peeking through.

I sponged some Black Archival ink on the raised areas so that the Liquid Leaf would really pop when applied.

This is where I have to show you a photo of the finished tag as I stupidly forgot a picture pf this step!!!!

The final tag, the one with the script stamped into the Ferro, had the same treatment as the previous tag and of course the script is now visible!

I spent a few hours this afternoon turning three of my tags into finished pieces. I hope you like them.

If you think you would like to have a little dabble with these techniques, all the Lynne Perrella stamps, Fresco Finish paint, Liquid Leaf and a lot of the embellishments are available from my friends, Mr & Mrs Paperartsy simply by clicking here.www.paperartsy.co.uk or if you are in the north of the country, Paperartsy will be exhibiting at the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza in Harrogate this weekend.