Hello Friends! I’ve finally got myself organized and have a walk through of the brickwork backgrounds I’ve been using for my makes recently.
The Tim Holtz Sizzix Brickwork 3D embossing folder is incredibly detailed and does all of the heavy lifting when creating brickwork from paper. It’s the brick pitting detail that makes it look like it should be rough to the touch when it’s not.
Above are a few examples of brickwork used in my makes. For the walk through I haven’t listed specific colours, but if you scroll down there are some different brickwork combinations with colours listed to get you started, but first, let’s get into how to make your own…
Gather these supplies: distress watercolor cardstock, brickwork 3D embossing folder, jar of water, paper towel, white gesso, distress water sprayer bottle, large and detail paint brushes, distress crayons, distress paint and distress sprays.
Emboss distress watercolor cardstock with the 3D brickwork embossing folder. You only need your base platform and one cutting plate when running 3D embossing folders through your Sizzix machine. Lightly mist your cardstock and then roll your embossing folder through 3 times. Remember 3D – 3 passes.
Make a paint wash with distress paint and water and paint over the embossed brickwork background and set aside to dry.
Give the background a light mist and spray with distress spray and dry with a heat tool.
Give the background a light mist and spray with another distress spray and dry with a heat tool.
Rub distress crayon onto your finger and rub over portions of the brickwork. Dry with a heat tool.
Once the background is dry, really dry. Go ahead and dry it once more just to be sure and gather white gesso, water spray bottle, detail paint brush and paper towel. Put a little gesso onto your glass media mat or non stick craft mat and add a little water and mix.
Paint lines of gesso into the grooves of the brickwork and then gently rub with your finger. Between each line dip your brush in water to clean and dry with the paper towel. You are getting rid of any crayon or ink your brush picks up before dipping it back into your gesso puddle. If you don’t do this, you will end up with orange gesso. Dry the brush between each line so the gesso is not too wet as it will reduce the amount of ink and crayon you pick up. Don’t worry about going over the lines, it works for you here. Have a second pass if you need to, but dry first. A little practice goes a long way.
Once finished, dry dry dry and the use a finger to add distress crayon to random bricks to create the imperfection of real bricks.
Here are some other combinations for different brickwork…
COMBINATION #1: frayed burlap distress paint, rusty hinge + brushed corduroy distress spray stains, rusty hinge + walnut stain distress crayon, white gesso
COMBINATION #2: hickory smoke distress paint, ground espresso + black soot distress spray stains, ground espresso distress crayon, white gesso
COMBINATION #3: hickory smoke distress paint, rusty hinge + fired brick + vintage photo distress spray stains, rusty hinge + walnut stain distress crayons, white gesso
COMBINATION #4: frayed burlap + hickory smoke distress paint
This is the easiest combination and does not require gesso and works great behind flowers as a garden wall.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back soon to share a couple of makes using this brickwork. I encourage you to experiment with other combinations. Try embossing small strips of cardstock to make brickwork swatches…
Zoe