It's About Time.....

That's what it says on the front of this birthday card I made.  Well, it's not actually a card; it's a 4x4" coaster.  Why?  Well, I'm in a birthday card club and one of my very clever friends suggested that instead of making cards, (which although lovely, tend to eventually be discarded or misplaced or damaged) we each make 4x4 greetings on sturdy material so that at the end of the birthday month, each recipient will be able to put them together to form a mini birthday book.....which will surely stand the test of time better than a bunch of random cards.  I do have very smart friends.

Anyway.....whenever possible, I try to do challenge pieces that serve double or even triple duty, and I turned this week's Making Art! challenge at the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group into a birthday 4x4.  Who will get it, I don't know, but I am accumulating a nice collection of these for future use.

The challenge (#20 already!), according to list mom (and my good friend) Lori,  is to do something with a divided background......4 separate designs/colors, etc. as shown on page 12 of Wendy's first book.  Beyond that direction, just make sure you've used at least one of Wendy's stamps.  And if you're still not a member of this lively group, now is a good time to join.  Next week Wendy will be giving some cool NEW things away to list members.  I'm just sayin'........

The background was done on Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas.  I first stamped four different images (Wendy's, natch) on the canvas with coffee archival ink.  When it was dry I colored each image with Tim's distress stains.....scattered straw,  bundled sage, frayed burlap, and dried marigold.....I think.  There are now so many colors of these fabulous stains it's a little hard to keep track.  Anyway, I cut them into squares slightly less than 2x2", attached them to my previously painted black coaster and then enhanced the edges with some black from a sharpie.

The clock form is an Art Part by Wendy from the Watch Parts set.  I added the winder, which is from a different Art Part set (For The Guys),  and cut the handle down a bit so it would all fit on the coaster.   Oh, and I used black distress stain to color both art parts.  When dry I dabbed the tiniest amount of autumn gold and then green patina Rub-N-Buff on them to give a nicely aged look.

When the art parts were securely attached to the background (I used Claudine's matte multi medium for that), I filled the well of the watch with Glossy Accents and just sprinkled mini watch innards from my stash inside.  BTW, I didn't mention before, but before attaching the watch form I glued some black paper behind the opening, and that is why the area behind the watch innards looks so nice and black and shiny, like patent leather.

I added a few larger watch pieces and then finished it off with some copper colored ball chain.  The sentiment, "It's About Time....." was done on the computer and printed right on some sticky back canvas.  On the back I'll finish that thought with, ".....to celebrate your birthday!" or something like that.