Artisan Wednesday Wow ~ Two Cute Chicks

Welcome back to our final February Artisan Wednesday Wow post! I’ve loved a lot of things in this box that we got to create with for you and am excited to dig into the next box.. be sure to come back next week to see a whole new round of products and projects!

When I was doing something with a frame filled with chicken wire (that I use for displays) I realized that the Hexagon Hive would make a great chicken wire cut out.. so I got to work creating this card to share with you.

Now that chicken wire wouldn’t be complete without some cute little animals to go with it!  I love creating punch art… there’s just something fun about how it turns out and it always seems to have such a wow factor with how cute the creations can be!  Add a little sponging and combine that with the Faux Suede technique and your punch art creations almost come to life! Since the Faux Suede technique reveals the soft inner layers of the cardstock, it’s a perfect addition to punch art creations as it gives a whole new layer of dimension that you can see and FEEL.  I hope you can see that soft layer in the photos but be sure to give it a try! I’ve included a tutorial below for you on how to achieve the Faux Suede effect (along with a tutorial on some of the pieces of the rooster and the chicken).

This one is a tad closer.  I just think these little guys (and gal) are so cute.. and they make me happy because them remind me of my friend Diana! You can see here where I stamped the Hardwood background on  a piece of Sahara Sand to put behind the chicken wire.  I also drew little lines to resemble the twists in the wire on real chicken wire.  The ‘nest’ is created with the fringe scissors and some Naturals Ivory cardstock.  The eggs are created with the small oval and then stamped on with the splotch from Gorgeous Grunge. There are plenty of little details in this card but once in a while a card with a lot of steps is worth the cuteness.. my boys LOVED this one!

I’ve created a tutorial for you on how to do some of the pieces of the rooster and the chicken.  I figured the rest was easily determined but if you have any questions at all, please ask.  The body of each the rooster and the chicken are upside down hearts (the rooster is the 3rd size up of the heart framelits and the chicken is from the heart punch).  Here is this little tutorial for you.

Here’s another tutorial for you on how to get the Faux Suede effect.  I did some faux suede with my technique club this month.  I’ll have to come back to share those projects with you later.

TIP: to make it easier to punch the shapes that you need for your creations out of this faux suede paper, first glue your sueded pieces down (sueded side up) to ‘whole’ cardstock of the same color.  It’s much easier to punch through and more stable to create with!

 Here’s a couple more tutorials for you on how to get that chicken wire look using the Hexagon Hive Framelit.

Here is the method I used to create the chicken wire.. did you know that if you flip the die cut piece over and run it through with the Hexagon Hive a 2nd time you can cut most of the hexagons (all but 3) out?! The hexagons that were left intact will match up with where the die cuts out the hexagons by flipping it over.  See here!  (*note: when I ran mine through it was offset just a TINY bit so that each of the hexagons was not perfectly even. In THIS picture they were cut evenly)

Well that’s a lot to take in for one night. I hope the tutorials are helpful and that at least one of them inspires you!  Now, let’s go see what Becky and the rest of the Artisans have to share!  I always love this part of my week.. getting to see what they’ve created!