Tuesday, May 20, 2014

DIY Retro Fresh Kitchen Tile Style

Hi Everyone,

Can you believe that Summer is just around the corner?!  I told my son the other day that we don't really have Spring months up here because as soon as it gets warm enough for the snow to melt we seem to skip Spring and fast forward to Summer clothing, Summer BBQ's and Summer thoughts.  I said that the true indicator of Summer would be after we have one more good rainfall, because then the leaves on the trees will truly sprout and we'll see green trees everywhere.  Last night it rained by our house..not a torrential downpour but apparently enough for my predictions to come true.  The trees around our house are a lovely shade of budding green!  I know I should expect at least one more frost before its safe to plant or enjoy the outdoors as summer weather, but it's so hard when you experience Winter for 6-8 months out of the year.

My wish for everything warm and sunny was the start of where my inspiration came from for this neat technique for making your very own Scrapbook tiles, that and a little bit of home decor searching online. Stampin' UP! has this great Designer Series Paper (DSP) called 'Retro Fresh' from the Spring Occasions Catalogue (Item # 132993).  I love the colours in the paper but I'm not really a retro kind of gal, at least not for the 50-60s era, but if the 80s and 90s could be considered retro than I am all over it LOL. Anyhow, as I was looking through the papers, one of the patterns caught my eye.  It was these teeny tiny bi-colour tiles that look a little bit like paint swatches.  What they actually made me think of is the tiles that go on kitchen or bathroom backsplashes a la the 1960s, and then I thought to myself, 'wouldn't these look just like those kinds of tiles if I could figure out some way to make them all shiny like actual backsplash tiles?!'.  I immediately went through my inventory of adhesives and liquids to see if anything could produce the desired effect and sure enough, I found my Stampin' UP! Crystal Effects (Item #101055).

Now it was just a matter of putting the two together to see if this technique actually played out in real life the way it had come together in my mind..the result:

What do you think?!  Doesn't it look just like ceramic kitchen tiles!

The technique is simple enough, but it is time consuming to 'paint' each tile so I only did half of the sheet.
I thought it turned out pretty amazing actually, exactly like what I had pictured in my mind and the technique is simple enough..Just 'paint' each tile with one coat of Crystal Effects and let dry.  In order to get an authentic tile look, I coated each square individually rather than painting the whole sheet so that each square is shiny and looks bubbled, like real tile.  I only coated half of the 12x12 sheet as I just want to use the finished product for a border so I won't need to use up the whole sheet this way and I didn't want to waste it, but I know it is simple enough to do if I need to create more.

So that is my share for today, a simple technique for creating your very own retro fresh kitchen tile style embellishment!

Cheers

1 comment:

  1. That looks really amazing! Can't wait to see your finished project..:)

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