Gilded Tiles

Hello Everyone!

Spring is popping everywhere and temps are finally warming up!  Things are turning green and flowers are coming up everywhere!  Color at last!

Today I'll be showing you how I created this exotic tile card.  It took a while to make, but I think the results are worth it!  Here are the supplies I used:

• Strathmore hot press watercolor paper cut to 4 x 5.25
• A2 size card base in Gina K Designs Ocean Mist
• Stencil/palette knife/squeegee
• Blue painters tape or purple tape or washi tape
• Dream Weaver Metallic Gold Embossing Paste (you could use Nuvo Mousse)
• Gansai Tambi Starry Colors - Red gold
• Navy Ribbon
• White die cut sentiment
• Distress Inks:  Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Peacock Feathers, Everygreen Bough
• Distress Markers: Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Peacock Feathers
• Perfect Pearls - Perfect Gold
• Glue or tape runner
• Paintbrush 
• Baby Bling

The first step to this card is the stenciling.  I laid my watercolor panel on my work surface and taped the stencil all the way around with blue painters tape.  I applied a good amount of the paste along the top of the panel with a palette knife (wiping it clean immediately after) and pulled the paste down with a mini squeegee (a credit card also works great for this).  I didn't want my layer too thick so I scraped it down quite a bit making sure there were no ridges and I had fairly even coverage with no gaps.  Once this was done, I peeled off the stencil and immediately washed it...this stuff hardens like a rock once it's dry...and it dries quite fast!  I cleaned up any edges on my panel by lightly scraping them and set it aside to dry.

Once it was completely dry I started with the painting.  I wet each tile area first with clean water, then smooshed the ink on my craft mat and picked it up on my brush from there.  I was going for a more mottled look so I let the color pool in places and in some areas didn't apply any color at all. In a few areas, like the darker blue and the green, once the tile was almost dry I dabbed the ink pad directly onto the paper...this really gave it a textured look.  This is how it looked after the painting was done:

Next I splattered it with the Perfect Pearls - Perfect Gold mixed with some water.  I gave it a fine splatter because I knew I wanted to do the marker work in some areas and didn't want to take a chance on any color bleeding.  Again I waited for this to dry and then did the line work - doodling really.  I chose not to doodle in every tile, but picked out a few and did more line work in some than others.  I did choose the corresponding marker color so each tile would keep that monochromatic look.  Once these were dry I edged the panel with more embossing paste applying it with my finger.  I wanted this to have a messy organic feel to it, so I have places that are thicker than others and it's not applied evenly.  Once again I let this dry.

The strip of ribbon was next.  I adhered the ends to the back of the panel.  For my sentiment I used stickers that I had.  If I were to do this again, I would die cut my sentiment and stack 3 or 4 together to give it some thickness.  I painted it with the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors in the red gold, as that was what matched my embossing paste.  If you are using Nuvo Embellishment Mousse you could easily water that down to a creamy consistency and paint with it.  I adhered my sentiment with liquid glue and let it dry.  I then glued my panel onto the card base.  I felt that the spaces between each tile were too empty so I glued on baby bling and that was perfect...not too big or over powering.  And that completed my card!

This card could have many different sentiments and the possibilities for color and embossing paste are vast!  Please tag me with any creations this post may inspire you to come up with!  I love to see people be creative and put their own spin on things!  Tag me on instagram with your makes: @betsybirgeart

Thanks for visiting my blog...

Happy papercrafitng and remember...it's only paper!

Betsy