Wednesday, December 3, 2008

12 Days of Gift Giving - Day 3

Day 3 of Gift Giving brought to you by Jules Eickmeier

These pretty gifts take about an hour and fifteen minutes to construct and make sweet presents for last minute exchanges or for that special person.

Step One: download a vintage image from on-line. I googled "free Vintage Christmas images" and found several I could not resist. Right click on the image and then click "save image as" from the menu that will appear. I generally make a desktop file for these and then select that file so the image will download there. I use Picasa (a free Google photo editing program) to sharpen the image. Then I print the image onto matte photo paper, cream colored card stock or artist's canvas paper, which is my personal favorite.

Step Two: I use a variety of inks and paints to enhance the image. In this case, I used Lumieres and Pearlescent paints to add sparkle and Stickles to add some glimmer and glow. If you do not have any of the Lumieres or Pearlescents, in my tech this month, I showed how to add Glimmer Mist to acrylic paints to get a shimmering paint. Apply this lightly to accent. I tore the edges of the image and used a gold Krylon ink to smudge and distress.

Step Three: I purchased a 'floating frame' at a craft store (and used a coupon so it cost less than 4.00) in the picture framing section. This one is 8x10 but they come in an assortment of sizes and frames. I wanted to antique the frames, which come in black. I dabbed gold acrylic paint and some copper onto the frame with my fingers. I allowed this to set up just a bit and then rubbed it in. If you get too much paint or do not like the appearance, merely use a blender (alcohol) to remove amounts until you are happy with it. You can also age it with Alcohol inks (Ranger) or with Krylon inks from the leafing pens.

Step Four: I crumpled and sanded a piece of the wonderful paper from the Dec. KnK kit after cutting it slightly larger than the image of the little girl. I placed it an an angle on the bottom part of the floating frame. I arranged other elements such as the ribbons, adhereing these from their backs to the bottom piece. Finally, I placed the image again securing it to the bottom piece and MAKING SURE THE HANGING ELEMENT ON THE BACK WAS COVERED. I placed the top glass over this and carefully slid the four frame pieces into place.

HINTS: 1. the hardest part is keeping the acrylic back and the glass topper clean during this. Try gloves or handle with tissue paper. Kleenex and paper towels leave a "dusting". 2. if there are smudges, try cleaning the glass with a glass cleaner and newspaper to avoid the "dusting". 3. different images produce different looks so you can make these cute or classy or even go retro!

3 comments:

Chris said...

these are gorgeous Jules!!!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic ~ I wonder if this line of free floating frame has made it to Australia yet.
R.

:Jayne said...

Very Awesome Jules!
:J