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Thursday, October 31, 2013

I'm Back with Tim ... Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 -- October Tag

It has been some time since I last visited Crafty Blogland.  I haven't been feeling the best in the world and I have had more things to do at work than I could actually accomplish.  It's been a slight bump in the road of my life.  I hope to catch up with you all sometime soon via Pinterest and your wonderful blogs.

I'm back with my take on Tim's October Tag for 2013.  Check out all of the details of his really cool way to celebrate Halloween with gorgeous Distress Glitter!

I had such fun playing with these ideas that I made two tag contributions this month.  I didn't have the Ornate Frame die, so I thought it would be fun to make a wreath to create a focal area on the tag instead. I immediately thought of the Autumn Gatherings Sizzlit Die Strip and thought about making an Autumn leaf wreath.  But then I thought about Halloween and wanted to make a spooky "wreath".  I started thinking of this spooky wreath as the kind of wreath that Dr Frankenstein would make if he also liked scrapbooking; he would make it out of spare parts laying around the lab.  So I found a skeleton clipart online and the rest is history!

 Here are some close ups of each tag:

The Fall Wreath Tag



I used Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain Distress paint to create the background.  I then added some fall and script stamped images.  The edges were distressed with sand paper.  I added to Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the distressed edges.


All of the pieces that created the fall wreath were die cut out of cream card stock.  I then painted them with different colors of Distress paint.  Sometimes I spritzed the pieces with water to marbelized the colors.  After the paint dried, I added Glossy Accents and Rock Candy Distressed Glitter.  When that dried, I added some coordinating Distress Stain to provide and overall rich color for each piece.  I started off with stick pieces to form the base layer of the wreath. Then each of the leaves, wheat, and acorn pieces were added so that colors were distributed around the wreath.  I loved it!!


I attached the wreath with Glossy Accents to the tag.  Then I grabbed one of my Tim Holtz pumpkin die cuts.  I tried an orange pumpkin, but it got lost in all the colors of the wreath.  So I went with a white pumpkin and only glittered the white part (and not the lines that create the shadowed creases of the pumpkin).  Some alcohol colored jewelry wire create the vine spirals off of the pumpkin.


The tag was finished with part of a Tim Holtz Tattered Banners die cut that was cut out of some pattered paper.  I stamped the words Fall Fields and added some color with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I embellished this with a chunky staple and a flower charm. 


And one last shot of the complete tag.

 

Dr. Frankenstein's Spare Parts Wreath Tag:


I love the colors on the background of this tag.  I used Seedless Preserves, Walnut Stain, and Rusty Hinge Distress Paints as well as some regular Copper acrylic paint. I stamped some barbed wire, "skeleton" keys, and Happy Halloween on the back ground.  To add even more interest, I put some Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge and Black Soot Distress Paint on my craft mat, misted them with water, and laid my chicken wire stencil (from The Crafter's Workshop) on the paint.  I lifted it up and laid the paint-covered stencil on my tag.  I pressed it down with a paper towel and then lifted it off.  I really like the effect.  The edges were sanded and I distressed them with Black Soot Distress Ink.


Now to make my wreath, I started with a skull and crossbones die cut from Tim Holtz movers and shapers dies.  I cut off the "crossed bones" part because I want them to have a little more presence in the overall structure.  Next I took the skeleton clipart and printed it onto matte photo paper.  The bones were fussy cut and I added a few more bones for good measure.  I put Rock Candy Distress Glitter on the white parts of all the bones with Glossy Accents.


When they were dry, I started piecing them together with some Tim Holtz Idea-ology long fasteners and tiny fasteners.  It really does look like a Dr. Frankenstein construction project.


Before I attached the skeleton wreath to the card, I stamped the black chain so that it looks like the skull at the bottom and the armbones at the top are linked together.


As I constructed the wreath, I thought it might be fun to have the wreath hanging on the tag by one of the skeletal hands.  But then I realized it would cover the tag hole.  I tried several different ribbons in the hand to see if I could make a tag tie that way, but nothing really fit.  That's when the idea of a hangman's noose came to me.  It worked perfectly.  I had some black netting that I used as a back drop for the noose.  I think it turned out particularly creepy :)

I added a wonderful Distress Glittered bat, some alcohol ink colored stars, a 31 for today's big Halloween celebration, and a stamped "welcome" from Dr Frankenstein that says BEWARE (colored with some seasonal Distress Markers). 


I'm leaving you with one last pic of the entire tag.  Hope it inspires you have a spooky good time tonight!  Since Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge is "Anything Goes", I'm going to enter both of my October tags.  Drop by and see all the cool DT projects as well as all of the talented entries :)  -- Mary Elizabeth

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Finally ... Creative Chemistry 102 Day 5 – Embossing Effects

I am sooooo excited.  I finished all of the techniques before the end of the course.   It has been a blast and I cannot thank Tim enough for this opportunity to learn, play, explore, understand and create.

I'm currently polishing up my technique tags.  Here are two of my Day 5 -- Embossing Effects technique tags.  I'll add the others to the blog (updating previous Day X posts) as I finish the details.

Let's get started:




Embossing Technique: Sticky Powder with Glitter

(love...Love...LOVE the Distress Watercolor Paper!!!! )


Embossing Technique: Chalkboard

Embossing Technique: Rusting with Distress


Embossing Technique: Sticky Powder with Leafing


Embossing Technique: Tarnished Silver




Embossing Technique:  Shabby Chic


I think all of my samples are up now on the blog.  I now need to get them organized and put in a folder.  Oh ... and I need to put everything back in its place.  Honestly, my craftroom looks like a tornado ran through it.  Sigh.  Oh what a great week this has been.  I hope it has been so for you as well.  -- Mary Elizabeth

Friday, October 11, 2013

Creative Chemistry Day 4 – Alcohol Inks

I love the amazing colors of alcohol inks, but I find them more unpredictable than other media.  Although Tim warned us not to be so critical of our potential backgrounds until we stamped on them first, I found myself going thru several alcohol ink cardstock.  Sigh.  I still have some work to do in this area; but I promise you ... I had fun working on every attempt.  What a great week this has been!!!

So here are my technique sample for Day 4:


Creative Chemistry 102 Day 4 -- Alcohol Inks


Alcohol Ink Technique: Faux Patina


Alcohol Ink Technique: Tinted Tinsel

Alcohol Ink Technique: Ombré

Alcohol Ink Technique: Monoprint


Alcohol Ink Technique: Faded Layers

Slowly ... I'm catching up.  I hope to actually finish Day 5 of Creative Chemistry on Day 5!  -- Mary Elizabeth









Creative Chemistry 102 Day 3 – Distress Differently

I'm finally getting caught up with all of my Creative Chemistry techniques.  I hope I will have everything up on the blog by tonight.  Anyway, I'm going to start off with the first part of Day 3 Techniques on Day 3 focused on Distressing Differently.  Amazing techniques to use on upcoming projects :)  I am including everything for Day 3 except the techniques involving glitter.  My Distressed Glitter literally just arrived at my door as I was typing this.  My projects will have to wait until tonight to get blinged out!

Day 3 Techniques:



Distress Ink Technique: Smudge Stamping

Distress Stains Technique: Brayered Stains



Distress Markers Technique: Photo Tinting




Distress Crackle Technique: Faux Cracked Glass

(on glass)



Distress Crackle Technique: Faux Cracked Glass

(on shrink plastic with alcohol ink coloring)

 Wow!!  Seriously cool techniques.  Gotta get back downstairs to my craft room -- more photos to take and more techniques to try!!  Be back soon -- Mary Elizabeth


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Creative Chemistry 102 Day 2 – Layering Stencils

Okay ... so it is Day 4 in Creative Chemistry 102 and I am just now posting Day 2 samples.  It has been a very busy week at work.  Hopefully I will get caught up today.  Regardless of where I get to, I am looking forward to a day of crafting.  Such bliss :)

I must confess that I was picky with some of the stenciling tasks.  If I wasn't happy with the end result, I started over.  I really enjoyed working with placement and the different media I could use with the stencils.

So here we go ...




Layering Stencils Technique: Mixed-Media Layering

Layering Stencils Technique: Embossing With Stencils


Layering Stencils Technique: Embossing Through Stencils

Layering Stencils Technique: Stamping


Layering Stencils Technique: Sketching


Layering Stencils Technique: Ink Monoprint


Layering Stencils Technique: Paint Monoprint

I have to confess that the Sketching technique tag actually captures the theme of the Day 2 for me.  With all my paints, inks, markers, stains, reinkers, etc around me on my craft table, I managed to have more than one mishap.  And at least one of those mishaps was more than just a "splat".  Ah ... but that's art :)  -- Mary Elizabeth



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Creative Chemistry 102: Day 1

It is Day 2 in Creative Chemistry 102 and I'm just getting caught up on Day 1.  So here we have some examples of playing around with the techniques that we learned using Distress Paint.  Seriously loving this!!!

Distress Paint Technique: Marbling


Distress Paint Technique: Colored Crackle


Distress Paint Technique: Altered Surfaces

Distress Paint Technique: Eroded Metallic


Distress Paint Technique: Stamping Resist


Distress Paint Technique: Industrial


Would love to gush more about how great this course is, but I have to get back to work.   Sign up.  You have a lifetime access to material.  Fabulous course!!  -- Mary Elizabeth

Update:  Here are some completed samples that incorporate Day 1 techniques.

Distress Paint Marbling Background

Distress Rock Candy Glitter Butterfly Wings

Alcohol Ink Monoprint

 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Steam-Punkie Night Faire Poster

I've been trying to stretch my steampunk wings lately and here is my latest effort.  While  I was making a recent project (Celebrating Autumn), I got to tryout some of my newest Sizzix dies (Pumpkins #2 and Tim Holtz's Pumpkin Jack).  It just so happened that I was listening to a steampunk novel about air travel at the same time.  When I made my first die cut with Tim's Pumpkin Jack die, I laid it down sideways (horizontally) on my my craft table. I looked down at it and thought, "Wow!  That would make a really cool (yet not so aerodynamic) dirigible."   So, over the last couple of weeks, I've put on my creative engineer hat and tried to figure out how to create a pumpkin dirigible. Now on the eve of CC102 (Tim Holtz's online Creative Chemistry 102 class), I have finally finished this piece in time to post it in the what-have-I-been-working-on-lately class gallery. 





Before I get lost in trying to remember the details of creating this two-week project, I wanted to tell you a little about the theme of the poster.  There actually is Punkie Night.  It's a holiday, similar to Halloween, that is celebrated in North-East England where children parade from home to home, carrying a punkie lantern (similar to a jack-o-'lantern) and singing the Punkie Night Song.  And yes, I've even listened to a recording of the song from the British Library collection.  I was looking to see what sort of pumpkin festivals are out there and I found Punkie Night.  It must be noted that the punkie lantern is traditionally fashioned out of a wurzel, which is a large yellow-orange skinned root vegetable.  Today, you will also find pumpkins in the Punkie Night mix as well.  Anyway, I thought it might be a great idea to have a Punkie Night festival featuring an air machine show -- thus a Steam-Punkie Night Faire.



As I said earlier, it took a little time to figure out how to put such a air machine together.  I began by recycling some Tim Holtz cardboard packaging by die cutting the Pumpkin Jack pumpkin base out of it.  If you look at some of the old dirigibles, you will see that the "skin" was made out of fabric panels.  My panels are made out of various vintage-patterned papers.  I used the "pumpkin" shaped hole that was cut out of the cardboard packaging as a template.  I created five different "panels" for my pumpkin airship.  I then took some heavy jewelry wire and tightly wrapped a Spellbinders Media MiXage foil sheet (that I painted with Rangers Sunset Orange alcohol ink) around it.  I then outlined each of my panels with these foil-covered pieces of wire (the wires were glued on with Glossy Accents).  Next I used Distress Markers in Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Gathered Twigs, Walnut Stain, and Black Soot to add some color to the patterned paper.  I arranged the five panels into three layers (two panels on bottom, two panels in middle layer, and one panel on top) and adhered them together with foam tape (to give a 3-dimensional effect. 





I wanted to make sure my airship's panels did not fall apart, so I made some "ribbing" out of pieces of grungeboard that was covered in the orange-colored foil.  I glued then ends of each "rib" on the back of the back of the bottom layer of panels.  I made the cables that attach the balloon to the car are made out of Tim Holtz bakers twine.  The framework on the pumpkin balloon to which the cables were attached is made out of black jewelry wire.  The pumpkins stem was cut twice out of grungeboard and a patterned paper.  I glued the two layers together and used Ranger's Black Enamel Accents to outline the patterned paper.  I used Distress Markers to add color to the stem.  I curved the stem a little so that it would attach to the three dimensional paneled pumpkin base.  If you look in the above image, you can see a piece of foam (painted black) supports the stem underneath.


The car was made out of some Tim Holtz paper (an entire sheet of rulers) that I die cut with Artful Dwellings die.  I folded up the edges around one of the rulers to make a little "artful dwellings box".  I distressed the edges and added some tiny fasteners that look like little screws.  At the end of my airship, I added some grungeboard wings (stamped with Tim's wings in black archival ink) that I colored with Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey Distress Ink.  I added some sparkle with some detailing with a couple of glitter ink pens and then covered it all with a nice coat of Glossy Accents.  I also used a spare piece of grunge board to attach a propeller embellishment.

I used a piece of Mixed Media paper for my background.  I started by covering with different layers of paper and tape.  I originally thought I would cover them with distress ink (transparent color) to create sky and clouds with the paper pattern showing through, but I decided to add some other airships in the background.  So I covered almost all the paper with a layer of gesso, added more tape, stamped some leaves and other images, then used Broken China to paint over everything.  I misted the paint and let it disperse.  I then brushed the thinned paint over the entire piece (darker at bottom and lighter at top).  I added some Picket Fence paint for my clouds.  Then I took Broken China and Iced Spruce Distress Ink to around the clouds to give them a little more definition.   I let this dry and then came back to stamp some balloons and other airships in the background.  I mixed Matte Multi-medium with Distress Markers on my craft sheet and used this to color my balloons.  The balloons color ended up too intense and competed with my main images, so I used Picket Fence stain to wash over the balloons (heavier on some) to put them in the background. 



I created a little hot air balloon with one of the Sizzix Pumpkin #2 die cuts.  I cut this out of another vintage print paper.  I colored it with the multi-medium /distress marker mixture.  I used the bottom half of a Tim Holtz bird cage die cut to make the basket for the balloon.  Baker's twine was again used for the cable system. A pointing hand and some gears were stamped on a piece of lined vintage print paper to draw the eye to the poster's information.  This little sign was adhered with foam adhesive squares.


Several artists lately have been stamping on patterned paper and I loved it!  So to create my Punkie Night Fair Sign, I started with a piece of vintage newsprint pattern paper, stamped it with some autumn leaves in brown archival ink  and gave a watered-down gesso wash. I then stamped my steampunk gents with some archival ink (but not very juicy).  I used some of alphabet stamps to created my "Punkie Night Faire" info in heavier black archival ink and highlighted it with Distress Markers.  I then came back in red archival ink and stamped the added "STEAM" to the sign.  The sign was then decorated with a stamped Admit One stamp.    To complete the piece, I added my very own Punkie Lantern made from another Sizzix Pumpkin #2 die cut.  If you look carefully, you will see he is cut out of more Tim Holtz cardboard packaging.  I sent the pumpkin back through and cut out the eyes, nose and mouth.  He is backed with some Mustard Seed-Distres Inked paper to give the impression of a candle inside.  I stamped him a gent's hat (which I fussy cut) and that's the end of this project.  WHEW!

For all this work, I am going to enter it into two challenges:

SanDee & amelie's Steampunk Challenge:  Tic-Tac-Toe October
and
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Say It with Stamps

Okay -- too tired to proof-read this right now.  Sorry for the typos and incoherent ramblings!  Hope to see you all in Tim's CC102 class tomorrow!!

Time to get the workspace cleaned up just in time for more fun!!  -- Mary Elizabeth