Tuesday 25 June 2013

Faux printing block tutorial

Good afternoon,

I have put this tutorial together to show you how I made the faux wooden printers blocks that I have attached to the wooden candle holder pictured below, I hope it will give you more ideas in which to use some of the translucent colours in Decoart's Traditions range.





Using 2.25mm Tando Creative Chipboard the letters and numbers were die cut with the Tim Holtz Word Play die on my Big Shot.



Rectangles were then cut with scissors for the letters to be mounted onto.




The letters were given a coat of Decoart Gesso and once dry sanded
 for a more level surface.




Once sanded they were given a second goat of gesso and sanded again very lightly.


The mounting blocks were given a coat of Traditions Raw umber and left to dry.




With a round brush, Traditions Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide was applied using horizontal strokes, it's important to see the brush strokes and not blend the colour too much as this will give the illusion of wood grain once other transparent colours have been layered on top.



I wanted each letter to be individual, these two have been spattered with thinned Napthol Red and Carbon Black using a tooth brush.




The letter n had one coat of Traditions Sap Green applied and when just touch dry was wiped back in areas using a baby wipe.






The translucency of these colours allow every layer below to shine through, the letter a below was given one coat of Quinacridone Burnt Orange and the spattering is still highly visible.


The letter b was given a coat of Phthalo green (blue shade), you can see the Yellow iron oxide and Napthol Red beaming through.



Archival ink in Coffee was then used to shade the edges of the letters.



Here are all the letters with the Coffee archival ink shading.
Notice that on the Letters, especially visible on the b that the brush strokes from the Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide are now really starting to look like wood grain.


All the letters were then aged further, the letter k was first covered with Black archival ink.



It was then wiped back to reveal the colours underneath with a baby wipe.




Here are all the letters now antiqued with Black archival ink.


The mounting blocks were then shaded with Black archival ink around the edges.




The letters were then stuck onto the blocks with Matte Decoupage glue and given a protective coat of Duraclear Matte Varnish.
Here are the finished printing blocks, they can be used in so many projects as embellishments or as in the case of the candle holder to cover an object. 





Thanks for reading,

Andy



24 comments:

  1. BRILLIANT!!! I absolutely LOVE it!
    Nancy xx :D

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  2. A great idea Andy and very effective. Would be lovely to do with a kids name for their bedroom wall.

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  3. Fantastic!!! Great tute Andy! TFS x

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  4. great tutorial Andy hugs kath xxx

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  5. I love this idea. I am going to make Tim Holtz table with it!

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  6. Fabulous, I can see a project coming on..... love it, thanks for sharing Andy x

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  7. Yeh! Cool, I love that! Thanks

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  8. Fabulous creation Andy... Love it!! Hugs May x x x

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  9. ....fabulous Andy, superb step by step, the finished result is awesome...Mel:)xx

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  10. Oooh me likey this one Andy. But then again I like everything you do :)xx

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  11. Thank you for this great tutorial, I love your Tando letters, wonderful finishing !!! Coco x

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  12. Andy, thank you so much for the tutorial, as always your photos and words are so easy to follow and I am now itching to make me some letters!!

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  13. Great tutorial for an amazing creation! Love those letters!

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  14. Love this Andy, such a great idea.
    hugs {brenda} x0x

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  15. Thanks Andy for making a tutorial to share. I love it!

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  16. This is brilliant Andy and a great idea and tutorial.
    xxx Hazel.

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  17. Fabulous make and great tutorial Andy. Love how the letters take on a totally different look.

    TFS

    Annie

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  18. These look really cool - as my daughter would say! I love how you layer things and still keep the integrity of the individual colours. Your tutorial photos are really clear too.
    Juliax

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  19. I really like this. I am so grateful that you posted how to do it. A friend's birthday is coming up and when I asked her what she would like for her birthday she asked me to make her something - I was really running on empty in the idea tank - this post just helped inspired an idea for a gift!

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Your comments are always read and very much appreciated.