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!

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.

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!

The 12 Tags of Christmas -- Day 4

The tag Tim created today is (like all the rest) full of doable techniques, and as usual, I wanted my tag to include them all, yet look different.  Tim's focal image was his snowman die, cut from grungeboard.  I couldn't find a Christmas themed die amongst my many that would also take a movers and shapers die cut into it, but then I remembered my package of seasonal grunge shapes.  The two large ornaments seemed a good substitution.

Other than changing up the images and colors, I followed Tim's instructions for all the techniques.  I used the following distress stains on the background:  picket fence, peeled paint, bundled sage, and forest moss.

The ornaments were covered with white paint, a thick coat of rock candy distress crackle paint, and then several stains in the red family:  barn door, fired brick, and aged mahogany.  Instead of using the tulle buttons as an accent, I incorporated them into the decoration of the ornaments.  The larger of the two had enough space to cut one of the movers and shapers snowflakes from the center; I just left the smaller ornament whole.

This tag, though not complicated, took the longest to finish because there was so much drying time involved.  Thick crackle paint takes a long time to dry, as does the layer of glossy accents that fills the opening in the ornament made by the snowflake die. 

I'm more than ready now for tag #5!



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.



OMG, A Non-Cruise Post!!

Grungy Monday #22 - A Tim Inspired Halloween

and

Simon Says Stamp and Show Something With Wings

I was so happy to see Grungy Monday reappear, and lucky for me, I was able to create something that also works for the Simon Says challenge this week.

I'm not much of a Halloween person, but I know plenty of people who are, so this tag will be headin' out sometime soon.

The base is a black Ranger tag which was embossed with Cuttlebug's spiderweb folder.  Embossing ink was swiped over the raised parts and then brushed with copper and grape Perfect Pearls.  The top of the tag (where there was no embossing, is covered with some of Tim's Halloween tissue tape.

The bird is from Tim's Raven/Scaredy Cat die.  It was cut from grungeboard, inked with black embossing ink and covered with black embossing powder.  Then it got a coat of rock candy crackle paint.  When I went to finish drying it with my heat tool it did some crazy bubbling, but I'm going to say it was deliberate because I like the texture.  (But it really was a happy accident).

Behind the bird are both sizes of the mini rosette die. They were cut from some Cosmo Cricket Halloween paper that I've had for about two years.  The Happy Halloween ticket is hanging from a bit of ribbon behind the raven.

OK, I think I'm done with spiders and black cats and ravens and witches.  Bring on Santa!

More Steampunk And A Gift

I have two more steampunk tags to share with you; one came out of an Inspiration Showcase technique, the other was just me messing around.

This one used Jennifer's stamping on canvas technique for the background.  The man with the birdcage hat is from Tim's Pen and Pencil set, and he was heat embossed with black powder.  The tiny lightbulb was in my stash and I can't remember where I got it, but it's a size that has come in handy for several projects, so I hope I can recall the source and get some more.  The gears on the right are from Tim's on the edge die.  After cutting them from grungepaper, I ran them through the Cracked embossing folder, then inked them with several brown distress inks (but mostly walnut stain).  The words are rub-ons, found some time ago in Michael's dollar bin.

I admit, I love this one.  I used one of Ranger's new tags....the black one, and it is a great addition to their tag collection.  It went through Tim's Pocketwatch embossing folder, and the raised areas were highlighted with some copper paint.  The bird, standing on an idea-ology timepiece is from Oxford Impressions, as is the hat he's wearing.  Both were stamped with black archival ink, then colored slightly with old paper distress ink.  The bird was completely covered with glossy accents and the hat got the rock candy distress crackle paint treatment.  The words on the bottom are also from Oxford Impressions.  The tiny clocks are 7 Gypsys rub-ons.

As for the gift referred to in the title.  I'm in a yahoo group that has a monthly lottery, and the way it works, the winner (picked from those who participated in the prior month's lottery) gets to choose the theme for the gifts she'll receive.  My friend Angie was the winner for September, and being Angie, all she wanted was for us to "make art."  So, I did a small (5x7) altered canvas, using all of the layering techniques I love so much, and came up with this.

Lots of layers, lots of texture from tissue paper, paint, modeling paste, stencils, and random bits from my scrap pile.  The one really recognizable image, the woman on the right is from Graphic45's Steampunk Debutante set.  The piece on the left is one of Pink Paislee's artisan elements, white rubbery ornamental designs that can be altered in many ways, with ink, paint, stain, etc.  The canvas is already on its way to Angie and I do hope she likes it.

I don't know if I'll have any more blog posts until I return from the cruise.....and then I'll have plenty.  My plan for today is to clean up the studio and put everything away and begin the packing process.  We'll see how that works out.  Yesterday I received the three new limited edition seasonal distress inks, and I'm itching to play with them.  

More Inspiration, A Wonderful Guest Teacher, And Another Steampunk Tag

Today's in depth review of some of yesterday's techniques from Jennifer McGuire's online class was fun, and I'm already thinking about how to use a few of them on this year's holiday cards. 

But, I have to tell you, (no surprise here), the biggest thrill was a bonus technique from Tim Holtz.  It involves grungepaper, distress stains and distress crackle paint, and it got me so excited I started cutting shapes at 5:00am!

I hope you can see the awesome texture on these pieces....click on the photo for a closer view.  BTW, if you have a base tray you can fit an awful lot of the mini movers and shapers on it to cut at one time with very little waste of the grungepaper.  I just had the most fun all morning, making these, and now I'll have plenty of embellishments on hand for future projects.

Yesterday I did another steampunk tag for the upcoming swap on ATT.

The background paper is from a stack my friend (and ATT list mom) Gloria sent me a while back.  I believe it is DCWV.  I punched some holes along the right side so that's another paper peeking through.  The lovely lady is one of Graphic45's Steampunk Debutantes....at least from the waist up.  I combined her with the bottom part of Tim's dressform stamp. 

The gears are a mix of idea-ology pieces and die cuts (those mini movers and shapers again), which were colored with black paint and then dabbed with copper.  Recognize that bird on her mechanical arm?  Yes, it's one from today's online class, and I couldn't resist adding it to this tag.

Oh, and I just have to say......one week from today I'll be winging it to Florida for the Tim Holtz cruise to the Caribbean.  Can't wait to take the classes and see all my crafty friends.  ONE WEEK!!!!





Steampunk, Wendified

I can picture anyone new to this blog going, "huh?"  Well, in my world, Wendifying a theme just means using Wendy Vecchi's stamps to execute it.  It took me almost a week to create something for the current Making Art! challenge at EWV, but as it turns out, the delay worked in my favor, because the piece I did works perfectly with the new Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.

The challenges:  at EWV, Lori says, make a tag and use stamps from no more than two of Wendy's sets; and Simon Says, show us some steampunk.

And here is my piece:

For the background, I ran one of Ranger's new (and fabulous) kraft tags through my Vagabond in Tim's steampunk embossing folder, and hit the high points with several distress inks....rusty hinge, vintage photo, and black soot.

The gears on the side were cut with Tim's on-the-edge die from grungepaper.  I painted it black, and when that was dry I dabbed it with brown and copper acrylic paint, very randomly so it looked like bits of rust.  And when that was dry, I covered the whole thing with a thick coat of rock candy crackle paint.  It is attached to the tag with glossy accents, applied only to the edge, so the gears sort of stand away from the tag and have a lot of dimension. (Especially since impatiently blasting the poor sucker with my heat gun made it kind of wonky.....sort of adds to the vintage charm, I think.  Well, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.)

The steampunkish man and the words are all from Wendy's set Seriously Art, stamped on plain old white cardstock with black archival ink, then lightly colored with distress inks.  Mr. Serious got some enhancement (the shiny parts) with a black Sakura glaze pen....one of my most favorite art supplies, by the way.

The pointing hand (stamped on grungepaper with clear ink and embossed with black powder) is from another Wendy set, Mail Art.

By the way, the word seriously is actually part of the stamp of the man.....it appears right below the image.  I cut it off so it would fit on the brim of his hat instead.  It's always good to find variations when it comes to using your stamps.

Marty's Masterpiece - A Sketch Challenge

Here is Marty's August sketch:

I interpreted this quite literally because I wanted to give it to a friend who won a monthly lottery in one of my groups.  The theme she selected was summer, so this sketch was perfect.  I made this wall hanging:

It was done on watercolor paper attached to chipboard and is pretty sturdy.  Here are the details:

• background:  denim Adirondack color wash.  That's all!  It formed the variations all by itself.
• fence:  cut from wood sheet using Tim's on the fence die, then dabbed with picket fence paint to create a worn out look.
• palm tree:  Sideshow stamp, colored with markers, and extra leaves hand cut and added for dimension.  Coconuts cut from a specialty paper I have that looks like.....the outside of a coconut, LOL!
• parrot:  also from Sideshow, colored with markers and attached with pop dot.
• beach sign:  cardstock inked with a few shades of distress ink in the brown family, then stamped with archival ink, then covered with rock candy crackle paint.
• sand:  the real deal, from last year's trip to the Dominican Republic.
• shells:  also real, origin unknown.
• shack:  pieced together from a variety of handmade papers and fibers found in my stash.

Check out my friend Heidi's blog to see what the rest of the Gotham City Stampers did with Marty's sketch.

Rock On

So, the challenge on Grungy Monday is rock candy, not the cavity inducing kind, but what you find in Ranger's Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and/or their Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  Both products are clear, but do very different things.  Check out Tim's video here to learn more.  To fulfill this challenge use one or both in a project.

Luckily enough, over at my other favorite challenge site, Simon Says Stamp and Show, this week is an "anything goes" week, so I'm good to go there too.  Thanks, universe, for cooperating.

I did this piece, though I'm unsure how I'll use it.  It may turn out to be part of a larger project,  or a masculine card front, or the cover for a travel journal. 

Yes, this is a rather dark piece, but in person not nearly as dark as this photo.  Sorry about that!  I cut Umbrella Man from the advertising that came with some Graphic45 tags.  If you click on the photo to get a closer look, you might be able to see the writing, especially on the umbrella.  I inked it after cutting with stained walnut and black soot distress inks,  then applied a fairly thick coat of the crackle paint and allowed it to air dry.  After it dried I applied some additional black soot and worked it into the cracks.

As for the old jalopy.  I made a stamp using fun foam and the jalopy die, just like Tim showed us last December.  Click here for more on that.  The fender (or is it a bumper?) was cut with the die from some scrap Ten Seconds Studio metal.  I used the silver side but toned down the shine with some coffee archival ink.

All of the background was done with distress inks and a blending tool to get some depth and shadows.  And Umbrella Man was attached with foam so he has some extra dimension as well.

The sentiment is, of course, one of Tim's.  I think I have that in several sizes, and I find I use it a lot.