DIY Rust with Lindys Magical Shakers for Mixed Media Cards

Hi friends! Preeti Datta (Dutt Preety) on the Lindy’s blog today to show you step by step how to create Rusty Vintage Mixed Media Cards using Lindy’s Gang Magical Shakers and Embossing Powders.

Creating rusty, grungy, vintage mixed media pieces is one of my favourite crafting styles. I will share some simple tips and techniques on how to create these looks with relatively few supplies. We will create a pair of cards which make for great gifts for family and friends.

Basic Process

Apply Clear Gesso to a vintage design scrapbook paper. Any vintage pattern paper will do (since we will cover most of it) or you could even use plain watercolour paper

Cut the paper in half so that there are 2 equal pieces (these will be the bases for our cards). Apply heavy white gesso through a stencil onto the panels. You can even use modelling paste or 3D gel medium or impasto paste, any kind of texture paste which holds its shape once stencilled. 

While the heavy white gesso is still wet, sprinkle on Midnight Copper Embossing Powder and heat emboss it. This creates a great textured look that will resist any water-based mediums we add on top later.

Now to add colour, start by sprinkling Lindy’s Magical Shakers Time Travel Teal and Guten Tag Teal into a paint palette and dissolve these in a little water. This is my favourite method for using the Magicals and magical shakers because it gives a uniform colour and you have control over where the colour goes. Spray the paper panels with water and then using a brush, apply the dissolved colours to create the background. Move the panels around to create movement. Let the colours naturally flow and then let them air dry. 

Stamp the background using a text stamp and archival inks. Also, deckle and distress the edges of the panels with a paper distresser & brown archival ink (using a blending foam/makeup sponge). This gives a finished look to the cards later on. 

To add more of a grungy and vintage look to the card panels, create splatter. Dissolve Lindy’s Gang Magical Shakers- Time Travel Teal & Cowabunga Copper in water and using a fan brush create ink splatter all over the panels. Similarly, water down some white gesso and then create white splatter onto the panels. Very lightly spray the panels with water from a height. This will make the colours bleed into each other and create a worn-out, grungy look, just what we are looking for. 

Now we prepare the elements for layering. Start by coloring a piece of gauze or cheesecloth by using Lindy’s Magical Shakers- Cowabunga Copper, Oktoberfest Orange and Antique Bronze.

Create some die cuts with steampunk design dies and thick black cardstock, then heat emboss these using Versamark Watermark Ink and Lindy’s Magic Moon Pearls Embossing Powder. You can use chipboard here as well, whatever is available in your stash.  This embossing powder is truly magical because it looks different heat embossed on black and white. It gives a silver-grey metallic look on black and a cream shine on white cardstock, two for the price of one!  Here, I wanted a silver-grey metal look, so, I’ve used black die cuts.

Heat embossing the die cuts gives them a lovely metallic shine and later on when we splatter them with gesso/inks, the shine still remains visible due to the resist properties of EP. Using Lindy’s Gang Gripper while heat embossing makes it really easy to hold thin die-cuts without burning your fingers. 

Next, prepare some metallic embellishments. These are from mitform castings (you could use whichever metal charms you have in your stash). Cover them with clear gesso so that it is easier to paint on them.

To create a DIY rust look on the metal embellishments, color them using Lindy’s Magical Shakers Cowabunga Copper and Oktoberfest Orange. Like before, dissolve them in water and then use the liquid inks to color the metal pieces. These two magical shakers make the perfect rusty color and the best part is that there is no problem of dried out rust pastes. You can create your own rusty pastes and rusty projects. You only need to activate these powders with water and use them to color your project. (in an earlier post, I’ve shown you how to create a DIY textured rust look in a steampunk canvas, you can check it out HERE.)

Next, add some white highlights to the metal embellishments (take very little heavy white gesso on your finger and rub it on the raised surfaces of the metal pieces, this makes the details more visible). Also, highlight some parts of the heat embossed die cuts and metal pieces using metallic wax (this creates variation in colour & looks interesting). Create white splatter on these embellishments using watered down Heavy White Gesso.

To finish, layer all the elements (gauze, metal embellishments & heat embossed die cuts), create a visually pleasing composition, and adhere to the card panel using a strong glue. For the heavier elements, use 3D gel medium or heavy body gel. Use pieces of chipboard underneath some of the pieces to create dimension. Then, adhere the card panel to paper mats and then adhere these to the cream-colored card bases. 

Here are some photos of the finished Rusty Vintage Mixed Media Cards…

Lindy’s Products

• Magical Shakers- Cowabunga Copper, Oktoberfest Orange, Time Travel Teal, Guten Tag Teal and Antique Bronze Magical Shaker.
• Embossing Powders- Midnight Copper and Magic Moon Pearls EP.
• Gripper

Other Products 

• Mitform Castings; Fantasy Dies; 13 arts stencil; Prima Finnabair Heavy White Gesso, Heavy Body Gel, Clear Gesso, Metallic Wax & stamp; Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue; Versamark Watermark Inkpad, Ranger’s Heat Tool & Archival Inks; Tim Holtz Paper Distresser, 7 Dots Studio papers and Mudra Craft Stamps Cardstock.

Thanks a lot for your precious time
Stay Blessed!
Preeti