Have you been to Wendy’s Calendar Class? We started this class many years ago, and the class has changed teachers a few time, including me!!! It started out having a calendar grid on every layout. Wendy has changed the class up a bit, but one thing has never changed is the popularity of this class! We also try to make sure there is a different technique every month too.
This month was such a fun class! Wendy had a total of 4 classes with a total of 76 students! Because of her creativity and organization, she has taken this class to a new level! It’s really a fun class. Wendy has just as much fun creating this class as she does teaching it!!! I’m going to show you a really cool technique our students learned in the December Calendar class…enjoy!!
We’re going to learn how to make this wonderful fireplace!
First of all, you take grey cardstock and cut it 7″ x 8″. You are going to cut a 4″ square out of the middle of the fireplace at the bottom.
Next, you will take some light molding paste and mix Tim Holtz Distressed stains in it with a spoon. I used the colors Red Brick and Walnut. There wasn’t an exact measurement, you just keep adding until the color looks right. Now you are ready to make bricks!
You need the “Brick” stencil from Crafter’s workshop, a sponge brush and a surface to work on. You place the stencil down on your fireplace cut out. Make sure your bricks line up straight. Lightly brush the molding paste over your stencil. You want it to be semi-thick and to have some texture to it. You want to brush back and forth so that when it dries, it has the appearance of bricks.
You then carefully lift the stencil up, and see the magic of your bricks. You will need to let this dry for about an hour or two. It depends on how thick you put on your molding paste. Once dry you can ink them.
We inked our bricks with aged mahogany and Walnut stain ink pads. You can see how it brings out the texture and makes it look like real bricks!
We are almost done! We then took the same Crafter’s Workshop brick stencil and spray misted a 5″ x 5″ gray cardstock with Tattered angel’s spray mist. This piece goes on the back of the fireplace behind the fire. We used the Tattered Angel’s color “Brick”…a great color!
We used some chipboard pieces and popped up the fireplace. Because of the weight, you can’t use just pop dots. The whole layout was created using the paperline “St. Nick” by Fancypants. Here is the end result:
