Chunky ATC, Wendified

NOTE: I thought I had found a way to insert the photos after each description, but it seems that mobile blogger has outwitted me again. Sigh. Sorry to give you another Sunday puzzle.

I signed up for another chunky ATC swap, this one in the Wendy Vecchi yahoo group. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/everythingwendyvecchi)
I was assigned the very talented Anita Houston to receive mine, so I went over to her blog to get some inspiration. I was intrigued by her tutorial for perfect pearls faux leather and used it for the backgrounds on the two largest surfaces. It's wonderful!

Check out the tutorial: http://theartfulmaven.blogspot.com/2012/07/faux-leather-video-tutorial.html

Here are those two sides. Lots of Wendy's art parts, all inked with the spring and summer distress inks, and each stamped with a different Wendy background stamp.

Next, the two sides, covered with embossed copper.

The top (Wendy's flowers and leaves on grungepaper), the bottom, showing half pearls for feet, and some close ups.

The Accidental Project

It started out as a simple desire to better organize my big box of Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts, Clearly For Art, and Blossom Bucket Embellishments.  In the middle of doing so, my eyes kept darting between the spools Art Parts and the pile of tissue tape and washi tape on my work table.  Before I knew it, I was busy creating a simple, yet useful way to corral my tapes and keep them where I could see them.  Now, admittedly I have way more tapes than I need to keep out, but at least now I can have the tapes I most often use, or the tapes I need for a particular project at hand and all in one place.

The tubes that come with the spools set weren't long enough for my purposes, so I simply glued three together, reinforced the seams with tape (appropriate, huh?), then covered them totally with tape....this time tissue tape.  As you probably know, tissue tape does not stick to itself (duh! if it did how would we get it off the roll?), so to make sure it stayed put, and to give the whole thing some added strength, I covered it with Glue N Seal.  Wait!  Before I did that, I sprayed it with some Dylusions sprays.  I think it's time for some photos.

Above, the finished tape holder.  Like I said, simple.  To be useful, there just isn't much room for embellishments.

To finish off the top, I threaded some beads on a stick pin and just stuck it into the end cap of the tube (with a bit of glue to make sure it stays put).

The only place where I could do any stamping was on the disc on the bottom, and I used Wendy's polka dot stamp over the sprayed Art Part.

Ta da!  My tape holder in action.  Room for lots more, as you can see.

Now that I accidentally did something creative today, do you think I can also accidentally do some laundry?  Hah!  Sometimes I really crack myself up.



A New Challenge and A Sentimental Piece

Keeping my fingers crossed that google/blogger is finished messing with my photos.  I knew I enjoyed having a blog, but I had no idea how much it meant to me until I discovered all my photos gone and replaced with those hideous icons.  But enough about me and my technology woes.  This post is about a piece that means a lot to me.

Linda Ledbetter, the lovely lady behind the Compendium of Curiosities challenges directed us to page 35 of Tim's second book, and the pocket watch technique.  We did a pocket watch pendant on the last cruise, and I even taught a class on it last year.  I had several extra watches, and an idea I've had for some time.  After my mom moved back north to be closer to us, my brother and I went to her Florida condo to clear it out of personal stuff and ready it for rental or sale.  I wound up with lots and lots of photos and other memorabilia.  I've wanted to do a shrine project for the longest time, and with Father's Day approaching, decided to make my dad the focus.  He's been gone for going on 19 years, but hardly a day goes by that I'm not reminded of him by something I see or hear.

The shrine was created using pieces from two of Wendy Vecchi's art parts packs, artful shrines and scallop trim.  The pieces were colored with walnut stain distress stain, then covered with rock candy crackle paint.  Except for the scallop trim, which is barely visible.  That was covered with irregular dabs of old paper crackle paint. It's the second shelf that the hankerchief and belt buckle are resting on.  For the background I chose the vintage subway sign paper from one of Tim's paper stacks.  It has Brooklyn subway stops, and since my family is from Brooklyn I thought it appropriate. 

Inside the watch is a photo of my dad as a very happy 20-something.  In fact, the picture was taken on the Atlantic City boardwalk by my mom.  They were on their honeymoon, and the year was 1946. The ring inside is my dad's wedding ring.  Because the word 'memories' was raised up with foam, the ring is kind of trapped there and won't wander around the watch.  It's not glued down or altered in any way, and can easily be removed if I ever want to do that.  Beneath the watch is one of my dad's handkerchiefs.  I added the little car (a mini movers and shakers die) because I have fond memories of our early family cars.  The first I can recall was a Studebaker.  Am I dating myself or what?

Peeking behind the handkerchief is an Israeli coin.  I included it because that was a trip my parents very much enjoyed, and was probably the last big vacation they went on before my dad got too sick to stray very far from home.  The belt buckle with his initials was attached with a bit of wire, so it too was in no way damaged or altered.  The little NYS license plate is actually just paper, again from one of Tim's paper stacks.  It was covered with a bit of glossy accents and four tiny brads were added to look like the screws that attach plates to cars.

I attached Tim's easel die cut to the back so the piece would stand, but I was worried that because of the heaviness of some of the embellishements that it might tip over.  I thought about what I could add to the bottom of the easel to give it more stability, and came up with what I think is a pretty clever solution.

Can you guess what those two discs are?  Super strong (and weighty) magnets!  Their attraction to each other keeps them in place, and they really do a great job of preventing any toppling.  By the way, I cut the easel from very thick cardboard, reinforced all the folds with tape, then covered it all with gesso and then stain.  It was attached to the shrine with very strong adhesive, so I'm pretty confident about its durability.

If you're inclined to participate in this challenge, an extra bonus (besides just creating something) is that Simon Says Stamp will be given away a $25 gift certificate to a randomly chosen entrant.

Happy Father's Day, dad.  I miss you!

Two Projects, Three Challenges, and a Cool Technique

I know I said no more challenges or swaps until I finished some old projects, but I couldn't resist this month's tag in Tim's 12 Tags of 2012.  It features the beautiful faux porcelain technique, and it found me in the mood to haul out the melt pot.

I don't like copying Tim's tags exactly, so I just concentrate on the techniques, and my tag includes the faux porcelain flowers (I also used Primas, plus some others found in my stash), as well as the tissue paper background.  Instead of a spool, I placed my bouquet in one of Wendy Vecchi's art parts....the flower pot, which was gessoed, inked with the new peacock feathers distress ink, dusty concord and (also new) shaded lilac.  It was then stamped with one of Wendy's fab backgrounds with berry purple archival ink.

The sentiment is a Wendy stamp.  Next, a close up of the flowers.  The small ones started out purple, but the others were white, and I tinted them with two of the new distress inks.....shaded lilac and squeezed lemonade (which is a great yellow) before dipping them in the melted UTEE.  Please click on the link to Tim's blog (above) to see the step by step details for this technique.

Since digging out the melt pot and actually using it is not an everyday event around here, I wound up making way more flowers than I needed, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to participate in the current challenge over at the Wendy yahoo group.  The theme is ATCs and the only rule, other than sticking to the theme is to use at least one of Wendy's stamps.  I did that, and more, and also included more art parts than you'd think would fit on a 2 1/2 x 3 1/2" piece.

The scallops, leaves and vase are all art parts.  Actually the vase started out in life as the base for a lamp, but I easily sliced off the lampshade.  I used pretty much the same colors on it as I did on the flower pot and added a dusting of lemon sparkle perfect pearls (which goes so well with the touches of squeezed lemonade distress ink I used throughout the ATC. 

I tried faux porcelain flowers once before with less success.  The difference this time, I think, is that I really filled the melt pot with UTEE.  It works much better if you can actually submerge the flowers into the UTEE.  It still requires a little finesse, and Tim's blog has some helpful hints,.

As luck would have it, this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show is "anything goes."  So, I'm submitting the ATC there as well.

And now, back to working on some of my unfinished "masterpieces," LOL.

Painting The Town -- Creative Chemistry, Day 8

Today's lesson is all about paint.  Creative Chemistry starts off with a very interesting and informative video on Ranger's line of paint products, followed by tutorials in another video featuring the distress paint dabbers the distress stains, and the distress crackle paints. 

And once again, I learned something new.  Here are my three samples:

The first technique is dabber resist, and it was done on Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas.  I used Tim's large flourish stamp.

The next tag features crackle paint resist, and I used stamps from Tim's pen and pencil set.

The final technique is called shattered stains, and it is a very impressive one.  Tim did his samples on grungeboard; mine is done on one of Wendy Vecchi's art parts.  Click on the photo for a closer look....it really does look like glass.  I attached it to an old background I'd done on a tag so I could include it with my other class samples, but I think it would make a fantastic pin.  I'm sure I'll be making lots more using this technique.

My Attitude Is.....

.....Gratitude!   I have a lot on my plate lately (and unfortunately I'm not talking turkey here), so I do sometimes have to remind myself that there are still so many reasons to be grateful.  And those thoughts inspired this piece for the current Making Art challenge at the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group.

Lori asked us to use at least one of Wendy's art parts, at least one of her stamps, and to stay with the Thanksgiving/autumn theme.  I worked on and off all day today, and came up with this:

The base is from the Artful Shrines art parts package.  It is covered with some Prima paper over which I used the background stamp (burlap, I think) from Funky Flower Art, as well as the weeds from Well Worn Art.

Here's a closer look at the fence:

It comes from the Outdoor Art art parts set.  I have some distress crackle paint from a Ranger Warehouse sale that was unlabeled.  I think they are broken china and antique linen, and I globbed them on very heavily, allowed it to air dry, then went over the whole thing with vintage photo distress ink.  (The bird, by the way, is from a Sizzix decorative strip die called Birds and Branches.  The branches can be seen on the top of the piece).

The garland of leaves were cut from shrink plastic with Tim's Tattered Leaves die, colored with both plain and metallic markers, then strung on twine after shrinking.

I used the round flower from Lower Case Art to make the pumpkin, stamping and cutting it three times, and gluing parts down on top of each other to make it dimensional.   Then I gave it a good spray with some Perfect Pearls mist.



The sentiment was done on the computer, and it is how I feel.  Today.



A Tale of Two......

.....chunky ATCs.   Here's the background to this tale:  Susan at EWV (the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group) announced a chunky ATC swap.  She posted all the details, but I was so excited to get going I finished mine and THEN went back to look over her post.  Hah!  Seems in my eagerness to begin, it didn't register in my mind that there was a theme, and that the theme was winter/holiday colors.  I looked long and hard at my creation, and there was not one bit of it that said winter or Christmas or Hannukah or New Years.....you get the idea. 

What's a person to do?  Get out another block of wood and start again, that's what.  I had the notion to create a winter village and so I did.  I used lots of Wendy's stamps, of course, some of Tim's artful dwellings (cut down in size a bit to fit on the ATC), and some made from simple shapes cut from cardboard.  I call it "Home For The Holidays."

I used Wendy's gorgeous lace background stamp on the entire block of wood, embossed in white then inked with blues.  The icicles around the top are one of Tim's on the edge die cuts.  The snow on the roof tops was done with liquid pearls sprinkled with white glitter.

As for the first one I made, it's a bit quirky, maybe not to everyone's liking, but I think I know someone who will get a kick out of it, so it is packed and ready to go, an early Christmas present for a great friend.  So here it is....."It Started As An Ordinary Day."

Except for umbrella man (Tim's), this one is all Wendy, from the background stamps to the art parts. And don't you think that umbrella man and cane man go together perfectly?

Cruisin' The Caribbean With Tim

Tuesday, September 27th

Day At Sea

Workshop #2

and

Some Giveaways

We started our first full day at sea with an early class.  My group would be working from 9:00 to noon, and Group B would get their turn from 2:00 - 5:00.  If you're thinking that three hours learning from Tim sounds like a good thing, well, you would be right.

We assembled all the pieces to form a very cool travel journal that opens like a gatefold card.

Above, my work space, looking way neater than it usually did.  The base of the journal were Wendy's art parts and two of Tim's large binder ring pieces.  We had a good variety of paper to work with, and as usual, got to keep all the extras.  More on that later.

The two shots above were taken in the classroom and somehow came out very orange.  Next, some photos I took when I got home.

Our class kits had all the papers we needed for our pages, all cut and scored for us.  We just had to do some folding and closing openings with tissue tape to form some pockets.  We also got tags and little paper bags that we could put in the book.  The back cover (which I did not photograph) has the same paper as the front, and we added some idea-ology pieces to it, which meant the inside of the back cover had exposed brad prongs.  Which bothers some people....I confess, I'm one of them.....so I covered the offending hardware with a tag and the "journey" die cut.  We had a Vagabond and lots of dies available in the 24/7 studio, and that's when I did that.

We also had lots of tabs and a canvas page, perfect for attaching pins and charms.

Aside from lots of inking and spraying, I did not decorate any of the pages.  I brought a journal with me that I was using and think I'm going to save this one for a future trip, so no point filling it with cruise related stuff.

Before class started, I walked around and took some pictures of friends.

Nancy and Pam

                                    Gloria and Christine                                   

Andrea and Stephanie

And someone was nice enough to take this one of me and three of my best art pals.  We've been sharing and collaborating on projects from some great distances for years, and had a wonderful time working side by side on this trip.....and sharing some great meals together too.

Val and Elena

Me and Pat

At every class we'd walk in and our class kit would be waiting for us, which included a written description of the project and materials, and most of the elements we'd need to complete the piece.  I say most, because some were just too large to fit in the kit, and were distributed during class.  And then there would be other things that weren't necessary for the project, but could be an option.  Tim had some very generous sponsors.  In some cases we only used a small piece of paper, but received an entire 12x12 package.

Prepare to be dazzled with what we received during classes:

Paper packs from Graphic45, Tim, Core'dinations, Prima, and Cosmo Cricket

Yes, this is a Martha Stewart scoring board

At different times we received the glue glider and Tim's tissue tape

holder and two rolls of tissue tape.

Also in this photo, the custom stamp Tim has made up for each cruise

with the cruise logo.

Tons of tags, tickets, and other small paper

embellishments

Embellishments galore, all from the very

best companies.  We didn't get anyone's leftover junk!

More paper

Stamp sets

A variety of letters; chipboard, rub-ons, and Tim's own

plastic alpha parts

More bling

And more from Tim's own line

Now you know why we're advised to bring an extra suitcase on these trips.  I left NY with two half filled bags, and returned home with two stuffed to the max.  And I haven't even shown you my purchases and gifts yet.