Guest Artist Tutorial by Hels Sheridan

Today I'm excited to share a tutorial by the talented Hels Sheridan! She joins us this week as our special guest, and to help inspire you for this week's challenge (info here- be sure to enter!) she is sharing a tutorial with us.

Use Cut & Dry foam to apply Adirondack Paint Dabbers to a wooden photo frame. Using Cut & Dry foam means that you will achieve a lovely blended effect and the paint will be nice and smooth to then pop the Tissue Tape onto. Either dry the frame naturally, or speed up with a heat tool, taking care not to overheat the paint.
Note: The colours I have used are Cloudy Blue and Juniper.

Use a liquid adhesive to help Tim Holtz Tissue Tape stick to the painted frame. Tissue Tape is tacky but adding a bit of extra wet glue to it helps it stick completely. Start by applying the butterfly tape, from the Sketchbook set of tape, all over the frame, wrapping it around the edges too. Burnish the tape using your finger so it is nice and smooth.

Next, still using the same technique, apply smaller pieces of the subway tape, from the Journeyman set, randomly over the frame in a collage style. Tear the Tissue Tape to make rougher edges to add that extra bit of detail to your design.  Apply washi tape in the same way – I have used a black and white stripy one.

Using the same piece of Cut & Dry foam you used to apply the paint, spritz lightly with water to refresh the paint and lightly pat over the frame. This will help blend the collaged tapes together to give them a uniform look. Use your finger to smudge away patches of the paint so the details on the tapes show through.

Isn't that a great tutorial? I'll definitely be trying this! Now, Hels is also sharing her 'how-to' for the beautiful embellishing that she's done on this piece...

Finishing accents:
Cut card to fit inside the frame. Paint this using the same piece of Cut & Dry foam, applying the paint in a pouncy fashion so it all blends together nicely.

Cut out a free form heart from two pieces of card and glue them together. This makes the heart embellishment stronger for applying the paint. Layer punched strips of card and more Tissue Tape onto the heart. Paint all over it in the same way as the insert.

When dry, apply shading around the punched layers and tape to add definition. Edge the heart and frame with gold embossing powder. Collect together Prima Flowers and make into a large floral embellishment. Place the insert into the frame and attach the heart to the insert using 3d foam. Glue the large floral embellishment to the heart using strong glue. Add some metal embellishments to the piece.

Finally, spray the flowers with a mica (or glimmer) spray to add some bling to them and pop little pearls into the flowers for that finishing bit of glamour.

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A bit about our guest, Hels Sheridan:

I have been crafting in one form or another ever since I was a little girl when I used to cover myself, my Grandma, and anything that didn’t move in glitter and sticky stuff. My true passion for crafting really started about 10 years ago though. I began making cards for a hobby, branched into scrapbooking and then found rubber stamping. The rest, as they say, is history. There aren’t many days that I don’t create something and I like nothing better than to be in my Room of Stash, playing with ink and paint and generally making a mess. I am honoured to be on several UK design teams as well as designing for Craft Stamper magazine. I also appear on Create & Craft TV channel, demonstrating stamping and ink techniques and sharing my enthusiasm for all things altered and grungy. I teach workshops regularly and also demonstrate at craft shows and do in-store shop demo’s too. I guess you could say that I am completely addicted to all things crafty and I am very honoured to be a Guest Designer for Simon Says Stamp & Show.

To see more creative projects by Hels, visit her blog.