Cracked and Bricked

I'm happy to report that yesterday I managed to create a birthday card that is also OK for Grungy Monday Challenge 34, and the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.
The lovely Linda Ledbetter of GM, asked us to do something that incorporates Tim's crackle resist technique.  And over at Simon Says, we're to do a piece inspired by a song title.

I know this is not a card for everyone, but I'm pretty sure its recipient will like it.  It's grungy and graffiti inspired.

It started with black cardstock, which I embossed with Tim's bricked embossing folder.  I then applied a coat of antique linen distress crackle paint, thick in some areas, thin in others, just like Tim demonstrated in the video.  While the paint was still wet I removed some around the bricks so they'd be more recognizable as bricks.  Then I just sat and waited for the paint to dry and the crackling to begin.

I added some shreds of 7 Gypsies tissue paper to look like the remnants of posters on the wall.  Adhered them with Ranger's Glue N Seal and being tissue paper, they really did kind of "melt" into the wall.

The writing, deliberately wonky (well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it), was done by dabbing black paint through Tim's stencil type.

The shadow of the woman staring at the wall is actually a Wendy Vecchi stamp, from her Regal Art set.

As for the song title.....are you old enough to guess, LOL?  Well, it's Another Brick in the Wall, by Pink Floyd, released in 1979.  And now you have a pretty good idea of just how old I am!

33 Is A Good Number

This week marks both the 33rd Grungy Monday challenge and the 33rd Making Art Wendy style challenge over at the Wendy Vecchi  yahoo group.

The GM challenge is to use the technique that Tim showed us on his blog back in August of 2008.  This particular technique has also appeared in this year's 12 Tags of Christmas, and if I'm not mistaken, in a past 12 Tags as well.  It involves fragments, alcohol inks, archival ink, and for most of us, a good deal of finger crossing.  A true challenge, but when it works, it rocks.

I used a large oval fragment and decided to use it as embellishment on a card.  Not sure yet what occasion the card will celebrate or who will receive it, but I think it turned out pretty good.

I used the script stamp from Tim's reflections set, so with this technique it shows up the right way, not backwards.  The oval fragment fits perfectly in the center of the fancy frame embossing folder, and I did that on glossy cardstock.  I don't think I've ever embossed on this paper before, and I love the way it looks.  It's important to use white paper with the fragment so that the technique really pops.  The embellishments on top of the fragment (attached with glossy accents) are from pink paislee.  Here's a sideways shot so you can see the dimensionality.

The Wendy challenge also involves a Tim technique....this one from tag #2 of this year's 12 Tags.  We're to use the kraft resist technique and some sticky back canvas and Wendy's stamps.  I created my own Wendy kraft resist paper by using her lace background stamp, clear ink and embossing powder on plain kraft paper.  For the canvas part, I stamped two of Wendy's flowers on the canvas, colored them, frayed the edges, and popped them on the background.  Quite a bit of perfect pearls mists were involved.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, I did this on 4x6 light chipboard, and it will be a postcard.









Journal Pages With An Asian Twist

One of my favorite collaborative journals is turning out to be the one with the Asian theme.  Something about it has made everyone in the group create the most beautiful books for us to work in.  Every one I've received so far has been hand made and they are all just lovely.  The other day I received two in the mail from my pal Lee in Australia.  Yesterday I was housebound and worked on them all day long (well, with a few breaks in between to watch a White Collar marathon on tv).

First up, Daisy's book.  All her pages have a white border and black to work on.  Very dramatic.  Daisy also requested that we use no bulky embellishements or dangly things, so for interest I turned to texture.

Above, the two facing pages.  I started out by embossing black cardstock with Provo's Asian set.  The first page has the bamboo, the second the cherry blossoms.

I then swiped the embossed parts with clear ink and sprinkled some of Ranger's antique gold powder over top.  Sure, some of the powder went to the unembossed areas, but I didn't let that worry me, as I knew I'd be adding other bits to the page.  The gold strips are from torn up joss paper, which you can find online or in many shops in any Chinatown.  The flowers and bird are from a decorative napkin.  The chinese characters are stamped with clear ink and embossed with black powder.

Now, I know I'm mixing up Chinese and Japanese images, but I claim artistic license, and I hope no one reading this blog belongs to the purist/factual police and certainly don't mean to offend anyone.  The kimono is a Judikins stamp which I colored with metallic mica paints.  The gold frame around it was done with sticky tape and gold microbeads.  BTW, I covered the beads with a layer of Ranger's matte Glue N Seal, so they will stay put forever.

The close up above is a little fuzzy, but I wanted you to see the flower....fussy cut from a napkin, and after it dried I outlined it with a fine black permanent ink pen.  You can also see the embossed bamboo on the background.

I'm not sure how much of the shimmer shows up, but the entire kimono does have a subtle metallic glow. 

Next up, Carla's pages.  I started out with red textured paper, over which I glued a decorative napkin which featured cherry blossoms, but in an unexpected color palette....the whole thing just black, white, and gray.  Some of the red peeks through as pink, and I really liked the look.

After the tissue paper tried I stamped over it with clear ink and embossed the images with plain (not antique) gold powder. 

The square above is a stamp from an unknown company, found in my stash, embossed with gold, and popped up on the page with a few foam dots.  A heart shaped "coin" dangles from it, and I added some gold German scrap....not exactly Asian, but it works.

On this page I did something I've been wanting to do for a while.  I acquired a few small brass latches a while back and wanted to use them on a "door" on a page.  I used grungeboard so it would withstand bending from opening and closing it.  And yes, there is something to see inside....some images I took from the catalog my friend Kyoko gave me on the cruise. 

I glued a few select images together and then added the gold embossed stamping of the dragon and the dragonfly.  The red paper you see on the inside of the doors is really just there to cover the prongs from the brads used to attach the latches to the doors.















The Writing's On The Wall

This year I am once again participating in The Sketchbook Project (for more information, click on the link on my sidebar).  A quick summary for those who don't like links:  When you sign up, for a small fee you are sent a sketchbook and a theme (which you can interpret as you like or even ignore....no sketchbook police lurking about).  There are some rules, but they are simple and are all about keeping the books a uniform size and free of embellishments that can fall off or hurt someone.  The books (last year 28,000 artists from around the world requested books and about 10,000 actually finished theirs) are sent back when completed and then they go on a road trip.  Last year we had fun visiting the tour in Brooklyn, NY where it originates and viewing the books of many of our online friends.  And some friends in far away places caught the tour in their home towns and got to see our books in person.  Click HERE to see my post on last year's sketchbook and HERE to see photos of my visit last year.

My theme this year is Writing on The Wall, and I had fun with it, being pretty literal and just making like a grafitti artist.  I actually sent my book back way ahead of the deadline, and look forward to the start of the tour this spring.



Grungy Monday 31 -- Happy Birthday Tim!

Linda Ledbetter, the brains behind Grungy Monday came up with a real winner this week....this Saturday is Tim's birthday, so Linda's challenge is for us to use whatever Tim products/techniques we'd like and create a birthday card for Tim.  I actually did mine on Monday, even popped it in the mail for Tim yesterday morning, but today is the first chance I've had to post about it.

While I was at it, I noticed that the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show is "something old, something new," and my card (and envelope) fit this challenge as well, so here we go with another twofer.

It's an easel card, and what you see peeking from beneath it is the envelope I made for it....which is what constitutes the "something old" part of the Simon Says challenge.  It was made from a sheet of vintage advertising, attached to some sturdy cardstock.  And it was part of a package of goodies sent to me by my good pal Nancy in Arizona.  (BTW, the "something new" is the distressed doily on the edge die I used to keep the easel open.....it was the very first time I used that die).

Here are some more shots of the card and some of the supplies I used.



The background paper, as well as the paper used on the triangles is from Tim's Lost and Found paper stack.  The letters that spell out FUN are Jenni Bowlin stickers, and they are attached to cardstock, placed inside blank brads (an old Stampin' Up product), and the whole thing covered with a layer of glossy accents.  I edged the triangles with some white paint so they'd show up better against the background, and they're glued to the string with glossy accents.



The filmstrip was cut from the filmstrip frames die.  Where did I get a stamp that says "Tim?"  Haha, I didn't.  It is actually a stamp from an Oxford Impressions set that says "Time."  I just covered the e with tape before inking, and voila!  A Tim stamp.   (As I take a bow for my cleverness, LOL).

And here is a better look at the envelope.  Although I used s a strong adhesive to seal everything, just to be on the safe side (and to add a bit of decoration) I used tissue tape around all the edges. 



Oh, and my message to Tim is above the doily where it can remain unseen while the easel card is displayed; one of the great benefits of this style of card. 

Only one last thing to say:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TIM!!!