Lucy Edmondson: Faux Modelling Film Tutorial

A cheap and cheerful tutorial today! This came about through experimenting after seeing the Ranger Clearly for Art Modelling Film in my local craft shop. I wondered if it would be possible to use clear packaging material in the same way to make flowers and butterflies and give them some dimension. These are the ones I made:-

The packaging material I used was the clam-shell kind you get Idea-ology products in. Cut off the edges so you have flat pieces to work with.

Glue the packaging material to your chosen papers with gel medium or PVA.

Burnish it with your fingers and let it dry very thoroughly as you don't want to cut it when it is soggy.

Put it through your Cuttlebug with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. If you don't have a die cutting machine or a suitable die (I don't think thin dies would cut through the plastic and cardstock layers), you can rubber stamp with StazOn and cut out your images.

As I don't like waste, I cut some extra ones of the smaller flowers using the left over pieces, partly because I find small flowers more useful for most projects. This is what they will look like now. (I used some Crafty Individuals' Spring background papers, and Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage).

Apply the heat gun to the petals just for a few seconds and bend into your preferred shape with your fingers.

Assemble your flowers in layers. I used a hot melt glue gun as it needs a strong glue to adhere plastic.

I used some Making Memories metal flower charms rubbed with a little gesso, and also some metal bead caps of different sizes for the centres, again using the glue gun.

For the butterflies, I cut the images out roughly from a sheet of Kaisercraft Bonjour 12 x 12 paper and glued to the packaging material. Use any butterfly collage images you have. Add some Stickles if you like! Fussy cut when the glue has dried.

Bend the wings as for the petals.

You can also rubber stamp on your card stock or on your plastic with StazOn, to give your flowers an extra pattern. Here I used the netting background stamp, a good sized one, from the Rogue Redhead Designs Just Sayin' plate. It's just the right size for a piece to go through your Cuttlebug!

And look at this! I love this one, although I maybe should have used a softer StazOn colour but at least it stands out for the purposes of you seeing it clearly in this tute! In the flesh, the plastic side gives the flowers quite an enamel look.

Great discovery - how about fabric! You know how it normally goes floppy, but the plastic makes it sturdy and easy to shape. I have gone for the fabric side uppermost, to show the texture.

This is a card I made using a butterfly and flowers made with the above method. The gorgeous image is from the Relish Reading plate from Rogue Redhead Designs, coloured with Distress Inks.

There are lots more things you can try. You can use the packaging material on its own, without paper, maybe with stamping or with alcohol inks?

I do hope you will have fun with this technique. I would be thrilled to see what you make - go on, humour me!