Tiny Houses, Made of Grungeboard.....

I've had to steal a moment here and there, and it took me three days, but I do have a piece that fits the themes of both Grungy Monday (grungeboard/grungepaper) and Simon Says Stamp and Show (embossing). 

Using plenty of goodliness from Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi, I created a nameplate for my desk.  Not that I work any more (retired) and need to identify myself to anyone, but I thought it was cool and wanted one. 

First I cut up some grungeboard using Tim's Artful Dwellings die, then added a few of Wendy's Art Parts from her Residences set.  Let me tell you, the Dwellings and Residences play very nicely together.

Allow me to take you on a little guided tour of this grungy village.....

First of all, I wanted you to see that all the buildings are arranged and glued (Claudine Hellmuth's matte multi medium rocks!) onto an old Scrabble tray,  colored with peeled paint distress stain.

The first artful dwelling was embossed with Tim's burlap folder and inked with scattered straw and forest moss distress inks.  The opening was cut with a keyhole mover and shaper die, and I stuck Mona Lisa in that window, covered by a bit of mica.....just because.  The roof is topped with Tim's wings and some foliage.  Now, on to the next structure:

This one was embossed with Tim's bricked folder, and colored with fired brick and aged mahogany distress inks.  A bit of scrap paper from one of Tim's paper collections tops the roof.  As for the number......well, I love Tim's plaquettes and in fact have them, but you know, sometimes you just may want a number that is not in the set.  80 is my house number, and that's what I wanted.  So, I covered a plain metal disc with clear embossing ink and white embossing powder and heat set it until the surface was nice and smooth like porcelain.  BTW, I needed two coats to achieve that.  When cooled, I distressed the edges with some black archival ink and used it to stamp the numbers as well. Archival ink dries quickly and is permanent.

This house was embossed with Tim's checkerboard folder and inked with tea dye and vintage photo distress inks.  The large keyhole opening is also a mover and shaper die and behind it, a bit of text from the scrap pile.  Defining the roof is an Art Part....painted with snowcap, then colored with peeled paint distress stain, which gives it a softer more pastel look.  Over top, some random dots from an old SU! stamp, inked with sepia archival ink.  You can't see it in this picture, but if you look again at the shot of the full village, you'll see I used a hitch fastener as the doorknob of this building.  I love the versatality of the idea-ology line.

This little house is an Art Part, colored with monarch orange archival ink, then stamped with one of Wendy's background stamps with coffee archival ink.  The opening was covered with one of Tim's keyhole idea-ology pieces.  A teeny light bulb I had in my stash fit perfectly in the opening.

Lastly, this tall skinny Artful Dwelling had the three squares cut into it with a Sizzix mover and shaper die.  Behind the openings, some leftover paper from the dryer sheet background I showed you the other day.  Held in place with staples and Tim's tiny attacher. The grungeboard was inked with saffron archival ink and stamped with another of Wendy's background stamps with sepia.  Yet another idea-ology keyhole decorates the peak of the roof.

As for my name.....I used a variety of letters from my stash.

















Grungeapalooza

Ah, once again the ink gods smiled upon me, and made it possible for one project to fulfill two challenges.  

Compendium of Curiosities

Week 15

Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge 

(Click on the above link to get the scoop from Linda, grand host and creator of this wonderful challenge)

Simon Says Stamp and Show....
Your Grunge 

(Click on this link to get the deets on this challenge)

The word grunge appears in both challenges, and though that can mean different things, for me, it means grungeboard and grungepaper.....lots of each.

 

I decided to do a wall hanging, perfect for the resident artist (that would be me, though I may just gift this one).

Just about everything is grunge...paper or board.  The base is GB cut with Tim's ornamental die.

I did the alcohol ink agate technique on GP cut from Tim's regal crest die (the banner and leaves).  BTW, this technique calls for a specific paint dabber which I do not own, but found that a liquid pearls that I do have to be a good substitute.  Just sayin'.....

The large flower is GP cut from Tim's tattered florals; the small flower, also GP was done with some of Wendy's stamps.  The phrase "resident artist" is also a Wendy stamp. 
What are you waiting for.....show your grunge!

Compendium of Curiosities, Week 13

Grungepaper Flowers

This week's CCC.....making Tim's fabulous grungepaper flowers.  Click on the link above to see Linda's wonderful entry, to read all about the challenge, the AMAZING prize this week (courtesy of Tim and Mario!), and links to those entries already posted.

I used a few different techniques to make my flowers.  Some were covered with old dictionary paper, some were inked then stamped, some were inked and embossed and inked again, some were inked, covered with clear embossing powder and heat set, and some were even covered with fabric.   And, I confess, a couple were actually made from grungeboard instead of paper.

OK, flowers made....what to do with them?  I tried a few ideas, but wanting to include all the flowers I made led me to the conclusion that all the projects I had in mind looked too busy with all those florals.....and yet, I didn't want to exclude any.

So, I wound up doing this:

I covered some floral wire I've had lying around for years, doing nothing but taking up space.  Not a lot of space, but space just the same.  What did I cover them with?  Tim's tissue tape.....fab use for it, I must say.   All the flowers have brad centers, and I used the brad's legs to hold the wire in place.  I arranged my bouquet in a jar and anchored the wires with a handful of sea glass.

Don't know if this exactly qualifies as a project, but IMO, it makes for a pretty cool centerpiece.

The Compendium of Curiosities Challenge - Week Nine

Distress Crackle

By now I'm sure you know all the details of this wonderful ongoing challenge, but just in case....click on the link above to go to Linda's blog and read all about it.

As it turns out, I only have some Rock Candy (clear) distress crackle at the moment (methinks there's a shopping trip in my near future), so that is what I used.  Here's my tag:

I used the technique on the background paper (from Tim's Vintage Shabby paper stack) and on the large tattered floral (from Tim's Lost and Found paper stack).  The small flower and leaves on the top are grungepaper stamped with Wendy's stamps.

The bottom of the tag was cut with Tim's Ornate die, and the sentiment is a Stampin' Up stamp. 

Four Tags, Six Canvases and Two Journal Pages

Had to do some tags with a wedding theme, and decided to use the Graphic 45 Romantique papers I've been hoarding saving.  Except for the bride image in the scallop circles, they're all the same, and here's a closer look at one:

I ran some Core'dinations paper (dark brown with a coral core) through my Big Kick, using a new SU! embossing folder called Vintage Wallpaper.  Very pretty.  Sanded the raised areas.  The bow on top is one of those bright brassy cheapo charms, and I toned them down with some shell pink and espresso alcohol inks,  The little bride and groom image inside the oval charm blank is from the Graphic 45 pad, and I covered it with glossy accents. 

I punched the bride image using the SU! scallop circle punch, and layered it with foam dots on top of two more scallops, these punched with the new SU 2 3/8" scallop circle punch.

The sentiment is from Wendy Vecchi's Homemade Art set, and I stamped it on the coral side of some Core'dinations scraps.

One of the swaps I recently joined is a 5x7" canvas swap at ATT.  I have to make 6, and Sharona, the host, will assemble collages for all participants, similar to the chaos swap.....except that all the canvases are the same size and done in landscape orientation.  I started working on this a while ago, and finished this past weekend.  

I love these collaborative projects, and tried to include many techniques and products in my creations.

The background is a collage of dictionary pages, lightly inked.  The large label was cut from grungepaper, using Tim's Styled Labels die.  There are two designs on the die, and I used them both.  I inked the labels with vintage photo distress ink, covered them with vintage photo embossing powder, and heat set.  Then, to add a little patina, I dabbed the pieces randomly with the distress embossing ink pad, drizzled some Ranger verdigris embossing powder from the Antiquities line over top, tapped off the excess, and re-heated the piece.

I topped it with a keyhole (with a tiny picture under the hole).  The label isn't really attached to the canvas with those tiny staples (I used sticky tape); they're just there for effect.

Over to the right....grungepaper border cut with Tim's Brackets on the edge die, embossed with Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug embossing folder, and inked with wild honey  and vintage photo distress inks. Next to it, a strip from one of Tim's Lost and Found papers.

Other embellishments:  two tiny bottles wrapped together with wire and decorated with a resistor, attached with sticky tape.  A key given a rust treatment with distress ink and distress embossing powder, and another key from my stash.

The leaves are cut from Tim's Regal Crest die....I just cut them apart into different lengths.

Under the four fragments on the bottom are elements from Lost and Found again, except for the largest fragment, which covers the eye from Tim's Oddities stamp set.

Finished it off with a corner in the upper left hand......well, corner!

Oh, and I attached a bit of chain underneath the large label.  I thought I'd have a charm dangling from it, but I think I'm going to just leave it as is.

My Frida Kahlo journal group got off to an on-time start, and the first one I received was Elena's.  I have a month to complete her pages and send it on, but as sometimes happens, I had an idea, and ran with it.  I've found when I don't do that, I usually just lose the whole thing.

I was thinking about the haphazard way we sometimes save the little bits and pieces that we call memorabilia. Some are stuck into a picture frame or around the edges of a mirror.  Some are in a box, maybe a vintage cigar box, and we open it up, we see a collage of photos, ticket stubs, dried flowers, postcards, documents.  I wanted the pages I did for Elena to have that look.  Here is my two page spread:

And each page separately:

I'm A Glutton For Chaos

Creative chaos, that is.  Everyone involved was so in love with the Chaos project at ATT, that it didn't take long for someone to suggest doing it at EWV, this time using mostly Wendy's stamps and her style.  So, of course, I signed up.
This time I was assigned a small tag...only 2 3/4" x 1 3/8".  I love a good challenge, and this was one in the sense that though I do own many Wendy stamp sets, most have images way too large to use on such a small tag.  Ultimately I wound up using one of her background stamps and a border stamp.  Everything else I did falls under the Wendy style category.

Above, my pile of 12 finished tags.  I'm very happy with the way they turned out.  Here are the deets for the tag:

• tag inked with wild honey distress ink, then run through my big kick in the victoria cuttlebug folder.
• hit the raised areas with stormy sky distress ink, which came out looking green instead of blue.  duh!  yellow(wild honey) + blue(stormy sky) = green.
• stamped the left side with the flower border from Wendy's art rules set, and the right side with one of the tiny design elements from Tim's mini cirque alphabet, both with black archival ink.
• filled in the center of the flowers with broken china distress stickles.
• drew some dashes next to the floral border with a dark blue glaze pen.

As for the star of the tag, the cheerful little birdie:

• he was cut with a stampin' up punch from some of the manila paper left over after cutting the tag down to size; believe it or not, no grungepaper was used in this project.
• the birds were stamped with the herringbone background stamp from Wendy's well worn art set, using black archival ink, then inked all over with broken china distress ink.
• the wing was inked with faded jeans distress ink, and both the body and wing were edged with black soot distress ink.
• the wing was attached to the body with a Tim snap, and the eye is one of Tim's mini fasteners (AKA, a brad).

OK...drumroll please.....what tickles me most, what I am most proud of....what sits atop said birdie's head.  I really wanted him to have a crown, but alas, none of my blingy crowns, grungeboard crowns, chipboard crowns, die cut crowns, or rubber stamp crowns were small enough.  Even the maya road mini crowns weren't mini enough.  Can you guess what I used?  Take a look:

That tacky little sun charm sitting next to the penny to show scale became my bird's top feathers.  First I flattened the charms in my big kick, then I cut them in half (with a plain old scissors -- they are cheap and thin in addition to being tacky).  I put a little bit of wadded up super sticky tape on the face part of the charm half and positioned it behind the bird's head.  It's OK if you're not as impressed with this as I am.  Cause I am impressed enough for all of us.

Tags, A Button Fairy, A Cool Technique, And More

I just got back from the optham opthomol opthamol oh, crap, the eye doctor, and had my pupils dilated, so I'm writing this with sunglasses on, squinting madly and looking generally deranged.  Well, I don't care how I look; you can't see me, but I am a little concerned about what I'm writing, basically through one half shut eye.  I'm just warning you that I'm not responsible for typos today.
First, some tags I did.  On Saturday I went to a rubber stamp expo and scored some very cool Frida Kahlo stamps and used one on the tags.

A couple of close ups:

I did two variations on the chalkboard technique.  On the tag itself, I inked it thoroughly with chipped sapphire distress ink and let it dry. Then I stamped it with white ink and a flourish stamp.  I dabbed some pastels over the white ink.  That's variation #1, and though much of it is hidden, you can see some of it on the left side of the tags.

For the second variation, I stamped the Frida Kahlo stamp with versamark on dark blue cardstock, then dabbed all the stamped areas with perfect pearls.

Frida has a necklace made from a resistor.  She's attached to the tag with Tim's tiny attacher staples.  Peeking out on the right side are a couple of strips of tim's tissue tape (which I LOVE).  Other details include some rub ons, a little sparkle in the form of flat crystals on the top left corner, and the word "artist" spelled out in tiny letters that are under little domes.

Over at PID, our weekly challenge theme is "In the Garden," and my contribution is a garden button fairy.  How I got it to fit the theme, was by attaching some little flowers to the buttons.  Pretty clever, aren't I?  (Yes, right now I really am LOL).

Those wings that really do resemble stained glass, will be fully explained tomorrow on the PID blog (Technique Tuesday, my weekly contribution).

And that isn't even the cool technique in the title of this post.  A few days ago I posted a picture of a beach themed canvas I did, and asked that the creator of the grungepaper fish I used identify herself.

Well, she did, and I am happy to give you a link to her tutorial on how to use GP and glue to make this amazing little critter.  Look to your left and check out that fish!

 Thank you Linda!  Even if you aren't interested in GP and glue (and why wouldn't you be?), go to Linda's blog anyway.  She is talented and a hoot besides.

As a designer for PID, I create projects for specified themes a few times a year.  For our June newsletter, my topic was shrines, boxes, tins...things that can be opened and closed.  A couple of these projects have just gone up on the PID blog.  Check the out if you care to.

And last of all, for those of you following along with my altered book journey, there's a short update on that blog re: making your own glazes.

Now, stop reading and go make something.

More Marie, A Day At The Shore, And A Gorgeous Giveaway

I just finished the pages for my friend Lill's Marie Antoinette journal.
(check out her blog....she does some awesome stuff)   Page 1:

I started out with some watercolor paper, which I covered with gesso, then added some torn up bits of paper doilies, then more gesso.  Added color with portfolio pastels and perfect pearls.  After that, I took some paper from one of Tim Holtz's new paper stacks, distressed it, tore it, inked it, put some rub-ons on it, and glued that down.  Oh! I almost forgot....before that I had sewed some gold tulle onto the background, but wasn't crazy about how that looked, so  it is mostly covered by the TH paper.  You can see some tattered strands of it showing at the edges, and that's OK with me.

As for Marie, she started out as an image from a PID collage sheet.  I added lots of ribbon and other blingy stuff to make her skirt and painted over her blouse.  Lots of gel and glaze pens on the hair and hat, plus a real feather.

 Page 2:

The background is the same as for page 1.  I stamped the bird cage lightly, then stamped over that with Marie on a swing, lining up the ropes so it looks like the swing is suspended inside the cage.  Marie is colored with pencils, glaze pens and gel pens.   After I took the photo I added a little journaling, but packed it all away before I could take another picture.

Lill asked for a tag from everyone, and I made this little shoe:

So much for Marie.  Now, as for the day at the shore....that's the theme of this month's PID jackpot, and this is the 4x4 canvas I did:

The background is lots of texture done with tissue paper and gel medium, colored with acrylics.  Some text, partially hidden by the gauze I used as a net.  Real shells.  The fish is something I received months and months ago in a grungepaper swap.  Yep, it's made of grungepaper, don't have a clue how, and it is fabulous!  Sadly, I have no idea who sent it to me, but if someone out there knows, please tell me so I can give credit where it is certainly due.  The bathing beauty is from a PID pin-up sheet.
Now, the gorgeous giveaway.....my friend Val is a super talented artist in many media, as well as a very generous blogger (free graphic downloads there daily).  Right now she has been churning out beautiful and eclectic charms and turning them into stunning necklaces.  One such beauty is on her blog as a giveaway, so if you want a chance to win it, hurry on over to The Sum of All Crafts NOW!!
I think that's it for today.  I really have got to do some laundry, but I guess you didn't need to know that.

A Grungy Book and Ribbons Tamed

Over at ATT, there’s a swap going on (that of course I had to join), where an experienced user of all things Tim (that would be me) is paired up with a newbie.  I’m to create something using my Tim stuff for my partner, and she will do the same for me.  I wanted to use a lot of techniques but also make something that could be done even more simply, should my partner want to give it a try.
So, I decided on a little notebook.
                                                   
The covers are made of grungeboard, which was inked with wild honey distress ink, embossed with a cuttlebug folder, and reinked with forest moss distress ink to highlight the embossing.  On the side near the coils, two of Tim’s on the edge border dies.  The brown one was inked with walnut stain distress ink and embossed with the same color of distress embossing powder.  The green border was inked with peeled paint distress ink, over stamped with a flourish then embossed with clear embossing powder.
The little bird is from Tim’s caged bird die, and it was inked and embossed, though I can’t remember what color I used.  I added some peeled paint stickles to its wings.  His crown of feathers is a piece of foliage idealogy that I cut up and rearranged, and attached with a brad (which cleverly forms the eye).
The charm hanging off the book is one of Tim’s, and I inked it and embossed it with peeled paint.
Inside the book are pages cut from Tim’s retro grunge paper stack:

And the back cover:

I’ve been working on a project to bring some order to my ribbon collection.  They were all on their original rolls, took up a lot of space, and were also scattered all over the studio.  They are going from this:

to this:

I’m making my own little bobbins from cardboard from cereal boxes, tissue boxes, even some random playing cards.  I’m not finished, but I’m getting there.  Now all my ribbon, fibers and threads fit in one drawer:

By the way, the plastic containers the various color groups are in are also something recycled.  My beloved  biscotti come in them, and I’ve been saving them not knowing what I’d use them for.

Speaking of bobbins, many of my ribbons had this plastic at the core.  It is two parts that snap together.  I saved them because they look like something I can use, but I have no idea for what.  If any of you have any thoughts on this, please let me know:

How Do I Distress? And A Giveaway in My Future.....

It seems that most everything I create is done because a swap is due, I have journal pages to get out, or a design team project has a deadline.  Very seldom do I just sit down and make something with no particular goal in mind.  This weekend I found myself all caught up, and decided to just play with some techniques.

Is it serendipity or what?   Just this morning I saw that Tim has a great giveaway on his blog.  He wants to know how we all distress (use the distress inks), and one way to win is to create something and send him a photo.  I used distress inks all over my piece, so sent him this photo in a hurry:

It's a 4x" canvas, which was first inked with rusty hinge and crushed olive.  Some flourishes were added (some die cut, some stenciled on), and some perfect pearls brushed on in spots.

The flower was cut from Tim's tattered floral die (it's grungepaper), inked with wild honey and forest moss, then overstamped with french script in black soot.  A Maya Road stick pin is in the center.

I attached the rose to the canvas by nestling it in the niche on the back of an even smaller canvas then gluing that onto the larger canvas.

The flourishes around the rose were also cut from the flourish die....for these I glued silk fabric onto grungepaper.  I added a bit of gold tulle around the flower.

I made a little crystal and pearl danglie and hung it from the bottom of the smaller canvas with a tiny eye screw.

Here is a side view, so you can see the dimensionality (and the ruler ribbon I wrapped all around the canvas -- and further distressed with some forest moss distress ink).

And speaking of giveaways......I just noticed that I have 94 followers.  Amazing!  Well, just need six more to have a nice neat even 100.  If I should reach that magic number any time soon, I have a really cool giveaway in mind.  Do you read this blog but are not a follower?  No pressure, but.....giveaway....really cool one....I only need SIX more victims  followers.....I'm just sayin'....... 

Twinchies!

So, I signed up for a twinchie swap at Everything Wendy Vecchi, figuring how much trouble could making 6 two inch squares be?  Hah!  It is amazing how much more difficult I find it to design for a small piece than a large one.  Also amazing is just how much junk artistic elements can fit on such a space.
My twinchies are in celebration of my new-found interest in my former nemesis, the sewing machine.

The base is a 2" square grungeboard piece, that I embossed with a cuttlebug folder, then dragged through a puddle of ink and water, then brushed with some perfect pearls.   On the left I attached a bit of paper tape measure and Graphic 45 paper with a zig zag stitch.  I did a zig zag stitch!  Check out the cool multi colored thread.  It has a sheen too.  Soon I'll give up my paperqueen crown and be the threadqueen.  

I stamped Wendy's little stamp on a 1" square stampbord (great product!) in coffee archival ink, then put some rusty hinge distress ink over top.  I hate naked buttons (buttons without thread) so sat and threaded and knotted all 18 buttons by hand.  

I thought I was finished, but it seemed to want more.  So I punched some little rounds (standard size hole punch) of grungepaper, glued together a double thickness of those, then attached the tiny Jenni Bowlin letters to write "sew."  I really wanted to write "stitch," but after thinking about doing all that for a three letter word vrs. a six letter word, "sew" won out.

And here's a closer view of one of the twinchies.

Grungepaper Wallets, Rusty Keys, and.....

Yesterday I had the most fun teaching some of my best art pals how to make little grungepaper wallets.  It's always a pleasure to work with Heidi, Laurel, and Corris, and we really had a wonderful time.

This is the one I made as a class sample.  The GP was embossed and inked with two of the new shades of distress inks....Bundled Sage and Forest Moss.   Because these women are very experienced crafters, I notched my original design up and added some bead danglies.

Heidi looks happy (as she should) with her lovely creation.

Laurel, who loves all things French, chose the fleur de lis embossing folder and some lovely delicate beads.

I'd forgotten my camera, and these photos are courtesy of Corris' iphone.  So of course, the photographer didn't take a picture of her own wallet, but trust me, it was beautiful.

Yep, they had fun......and Heidi conquered wire wrapping!

Now, on to rusty keys.  I love key images and use them a lot in my creations.  I have and adore Tim Holtz's idea-ology keys, I think grungeboard keys are wonderful and their lightness and flexibility makes them very versatile.  But.....I think that real old rusty keys are just the best.  Problem is, they're not so easy to find.  This is what I usually come across (and buy) in flea markets and online shops:

Not exactly new, but also not exactly rusted and vintage either.  I was reading Tim's wonderful new book, "A Compendium of Curiosities," and there were two techniques that caught my eye.  "Chipped Enamel" showed me that distress ink and distress embossing powder work on metal, and "Rusted Grunge" pointed me in the direction of color choice.   So I inked up the keys with Vintage Photo distress ink and then embossed them using Vintage Photo embossing powder.  Check out the transformation:

They look even more authentic in person, and I can't wait to start using them in my art.

I've been really into tags lately, and did this one for a travel theme.  All images are PID.  The Eiffel Tower is a Sizzix die.  The little black decorative strip was cut with Tim's Ornate "On the Edge" border die.

Chaos Project

A while back Tim Holtz wrote in his blog about a class he did called Creative Chaos. (If you click on that link you'll be taken to Tim's blog post on the class, and see the completed projects).   He was team teaching with Jennifer McGuire,  there was a tag-making, technique-learning frenzy going on, and the resulting tags were put together on a canvas.  Very cool, yes, and it inspired my friend Pam (who I know from ATT and the Mexico cruise) to put together the very ambitious Chaos Project.

So many ATTers signed up, there are three groups doing this.  Pam created a template of the finished canvas. All the tags are of different sizes, and some are arranged vertically, some horizontally.  We each signed up for a specific tag, and will create enough for everyone in our group.  Pam is going to put together the tag collages for us and send them to us.  Awesome!

My completed tags, shown above, were sent to Pam in California on Tuesday, and they're already in her hands!   Can't wait until everyone else finishes and mails so Pam can get started.  I know this will be an art piece I'll love having.

Here's a closer look:

The background was done on glossy magazine paper.  I stamped a bird with clear ink, covered with clear embossing powder, heat set.  Then applied several colors of distress inks over top with a blending tool.  Of course, the embossed areas resist the ink.  You can see the birds kind of walking across the tags.

The little border on the top is just inked grungepaper with holes punched for the type charms that spell out "fly."

As for the butterfly....a sizzix die...embellished with KAT's "drunken scotch" technique in various blue alcohol inks.  The antennae are done with resistors I curled with pliers.  I attached the butterfly with an "x" of mini staples using Tim's Tiny Attacher, and ended it all with a trail of bling.