Saturday Showcase at Frilly and Funkie

I am presenting the Saturday Showcase at Frilly and Funkie today.  Here is a sneak peek at what I have made but you will want to check out the post to see what it is made from.

Mostly Neutral

It is time for the newest challenge at Frilly and Funkie and this time, Sara Emily is our hostess and calls it Neutral Point of View and describes it this way:

We're seeing a lot of pastel and brighter colors this time of year. For this challenge we're inviting you to step away from all that color and play with your neutral art supplies. You can add a few pops or hints of color, but be sure we see mainly neutrals on your vintage or shabby chic design. (Think black, white, gray, brown, beige, cream, ivory; even gold and silver.)

I went with mostly grey, white and black for my neutrals but there is a tiny bit of pink added.

I started with some grey card stock for my card blank and used a number of papers from a pad called Rose Quartz (Prima).  First came a large panel for the background and then I added two smaller panels of different designs along with a couple of tiny fishtail elements.

Next I added a doily cut from a scrap of black card stock using the crochet doily die from Prima and then a sentiment that I fussy cut from one of the papers.  Some venise lace was added as a border at the bottom of the sentiment.

The big Prima flower came next with a beaded stick pin that I created from my stash along with a feather and some tulle and then a bit of pink crochet lace ribbon was tucked underneath the flower.  Tip:  Always keep even the smallest leftover bits of ribbon because they can make great added elements for your cards even if there isn't enough to create a bow.

Finally I altered a metal flower corner with some Snow Cap Mixative Alcohol Ink and added it.

I hope you will join us for this challenge. it runs until 11:55 pm EST on May 8th so you have lots of time to create.

Altered Bottle

I decided to play one day a while back and altered a bottle that I picked up from a charity shop for $2.00.  The bottle came with a glass and cork stopper so I think it was meant to be a wine decanter.

Sorry, there are no process photos because I was intending to use this for myself as decor in my great room.  I have a 15 foot ceiling so tall items look best but this turned out to be too short on its own even though it is 12" tall.  I guess I will alter a couple more bottles and make a grouping.  Lucky for me my Son-in-Law owns a restaurant and he has been giving me some cool whiskey bottles so I have lots to work with.

In the meantime, here is how this one came together:

1.  Painted it with white chalk paint (Americana) because that seems to stick very well to glass without any other prep.
2.  Coated it with a layer of Black Gesso (Finnabair).  Using black chalk paint would have saved me step #1 - live and learn.
3.  Covered it with Crackle Paste (Golden).
4.  Used Soft Gel Medium Matte (Golden) to adhere a variety of elements to the bottle - lace, flowers, buttons, metals, charms and wood bits.
5.  Painted everything with Black Gesso (Finnabair).
6.  Painted everything with Black Cherry Acrylic Paint (Folk Art).
7.  Sponged on some Aged Mahogany Distress Stain (Tim Holtz).
8.  Rubbed the highlights with Rose Quartz and Aquamarine Treasure Gold Wax Paste (Connoisseur Studio).

I am going to enter this in the following challenges:

Country View Challenges - Pimp it Up! (Reuse or alter something).
We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Crafter's Castle - Anything Goes - Optional Dimensional Projects
Creative Artiste - Anything Mixed Media Goes
Try it on Tuesday - Recycle Something

Jewel Tones

It is time for a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie and I am the hostess this time.  I am calling the challenge Elegant Jewels and here is how I describe it:

Let's make a vintage or shabby chic project in jewel tone colours such as deep purple, emerald green, jade green, burgundy, bright turquoise to name a few AND to make your project extra special, add some sort of jewel or gem, which can be anything from a dollar store find to a piece of broken jewelry.

I created a z-fold card for this challenge and used papers from the Graphic 45 Fairie Dust pad.  I made this the week I looked after my Grandchildren and since I was so scatter brained at the time, I totally forgot to take process photos.  Forgive my lapse but I will describe how it came together.

1.  Cut a purple card blank 6" x 12" (Recollections) and score on the long side at 3" and 6".  Fold in half at the 6" score line and then fold the 3" score line back toward the 6" fold making a z-fold.

2.  Finish the inside first.  The right side has a patterned paper panel topped by a sentiment that I created on the computer, inked with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and mounted on a purple card mat.  Fussy cut stamps from the paper pad and adhere on either side of the sentiment.
3.  The left side has a patterned paper panel topped with corners cut from a different paper and punched with a lace edge punch (Martha Stewart).

4.  Add a panel of patterned paper to the front.
5.  Cut a purple mat large enough to cover the sentiment panel.
6.  Die cut a doily from purple card stock using a Crochet Doily die (Prima), cut it in half and add to the right side of the purple mat.  Top with a fussy cut image from the paper pad.

7.  Cut leaves from the Garden Greens (Mini) die (Tim Holtz) using purple and blue card stock.  Adhere to the front panel.
8.  Dye seam binding with Dusty Concord Distress Ink (Tim Holtz) and create a loopy bow.  Create another loopy bow from burlap string and add with a button to the top of the seam binding bow.  Tuck a variety of purple toned flowers on both sides of the bow.

9.  Add a gem on top of the doily.

There you have it - a card in jewel tones. I hope you will join in on the challenge and show us your elegant jewels. You have until 11:55 pm on April 24th.

By the way, there is a story behind the gem.  I have a lot of my late Mother-in-Law's costume jewelry.  She wore clip-on earrings every day until her dementia got so bad that she was losing one or both - by then she was 92.  I figured there would be something in that pile that would work on this card so I dug through the bag and lo and behold I found this earring.  Now I was looking in the bag in a closet late at night and I thought I had a teal coloured earring and it would be fabulous.  

The next morning I realized it was royal blue so I had to balance it on the card, which is why there are some blue leaves.  I actually dyed some white flowers with Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink and put them on the card but after looking at it for a few days, I realized how much I despised blue flowers and replaced them, which made me much happier.  I come by my dislike of blue flowers and lots of other blue things honestly because my late Mother collected blue glass and I inherited over 800 pieces of it - needless to say, I have sold most of it and only kept a few sentimental pieces.

Broken Heart

A couple of months ago ago I created this steampunk inspired canvas with a large rusty gear and it has been sitting in my studio staring at me because I wasn't sure if I was happy with it - I wish I had put the gear on a smaller canvas.  Then yesterday, I saw the new challenge called Rusty and Crusty at A Vintage Journey and decided I would leave it as is and enter it in the challenge.  I started searching for the photos I took and couldn't find any.  I had a computer crash a while ago and I thought it recovered just fine but I guess not because I seem to be missing some folders. 😒

I took the photo of the finished canvas today and since Mother Nature is off her meds and can't decide if she wants it to snow or not and the sun can't decide whether to shine or not, I am getting shimmer from the metallic paint because I used my office lamps.  Next time I want shimmer to this extent, chances are good it won't happen.

Here is what I did:

1.  Stole a wooden heart from my husband's workshop.  It is 8" in diameter and was one of the first things he created and cut when he got the laser cutter.
2.  Conned him into cutting a wooden circle and three wooden hearts in various sizes and cutting a zigzag line down the length of the smallest one. (I know, I am so lucky to have him and the laser cutter available to me.)
3.  Glued the circle and then the largest heart to the gear using Soft Gel Medium Matte (Golden).
4.  Coated the gear and the circle with Coarse Pumice Gel (Golden).
5.  Glued a variety of hardware, electronic bits, buttons and small wooden gears to the circle around the heart.
6.  Covered everything in Black Gesso (Art Basics).
7.  Glued the next largest heart on and covered it in Black Gesso.
8.  Sponged randomly over everything with Espresso and Black Acrylic Paint as well as some Worn Penny Metallic Acrylic Paint (DecoArt).
9.  Painted the broken heart pieces with a mixture of Dark Scarlet Acrylic Paint (DecoArt) and Black Cherry Acrylic Paint (Folk Art).
10.  Joined the broken heart sections with copper wire and then sponged the edges with Worn Penny Metallic Acrylic Paint before I added it on top of the heart stack.
11.  Prepared the 12" x 12" canvas board (I wish I had used a 10" x 10" canvas) by coating it with White Gesso (Liquitex) and then gluing on some crumpled up tissue paper with Mod Podge.
12.  Stenciled clocks through a stencil called Mini Time Travel (TCW) using Light Molding Paste (Golden).
13.  Painted the canvas with Natural Tan Grout Acrylic Paint (DecoArt) and then sprayed with Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain (Tim Holtz).
14.  Adhered the gear using Soft Gel Medium Matte.
15.  Sponged more Worn Penny Metallic Acrylic Paint and more Black Cherry Acrylic randomly over the background.

This was fun to make and for a change there wasn't any deadline for it.  I need to play like this more often.

Lying In the Meadow

It is time for a new challenge at Stamps and Stencils.  Rachel is our hostess for this one and is calling it In the Meadow.  She describes it this way:

Meadows are such amazing places - lots of different grasses, wild flowers and wonderful wildlife. Let your imagination run wild ...and use stamps or stencils too! Enjoy!

I decided to make a page for my art journal this time and wanted it to depict what I would be feeling if I was lying in a meadow - and taking time to do nothing.

The first step was to stamp some grasses on the page using a set called Victorian Garden (IndigoBlu) and Olive Archival Ink (Ranger) and Fern Green Archival Ink (Wendy Vecchi).  Sorry about the glare on the photos but it was miserable out when I took the photos and I had to turn the overhead light on in my studio to get anything half decent.

Next I stenciled some wildflowers by putting Translucent Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi) through a stencil called Mini Wildflowers (TCW).

The next step was to ink the whole page using Twisted Citron and Peeled Paint Distress Oxide (Tim Holtz).  The embossing paste acts as a resist so I just took some paper towel and rubbed over the wildflowers to bring them to life again.

I stenciled some butterflies (Heidi Swapp) with Fern Green Archival Ink and then I left the stencil in place and stamped over the butterflies with a set called Ultimate Grunge (Tim Holtz) and Olive Archival Ink (Ranger).

I decided there would be lots of bees in the meadow, especially if there are wildflowers so I added some using Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) and bees from the Victorian Garden set (IndigoBlu) and a set called Random Thoughts (Tim Holtz).

I added some Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint Distress Spray Stain (Tim Holtz) randomly over the page.

Finally I created some text on the computer, distressed it and inked it with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink (Tim Holtz).

I hope you will join us for this challenge - you have until May 2nd to create.

Inspiration at Stamps and Stencils

I am presenting an inspiration post at Stamps and Stencils today.  Here is a sneak peek at one of the elements I was working on for my project but to get details and see the finished creation, just click HERE and you will be taken to the complete post.

Original

It is time for a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  Zoe is our hostess for this one and is calling it Bloomin' Marvelous!  She describes it this way:

As spring pokes it's head through the frozen ground, let's celebrate the season and create a vintage or shabby chic project with flowers as the focus and in vintage muted pastel tones, (no brights).

Rather than using baby pastel colours, I thought I would go for creams and peach tones.  To add to my vision, I also included a few papers from the pad called A Ladies Diary from Graphic 45, which is very vintage.

I cut a couple of rectangles of paper, the second a bit smaller than the first and once they were distressed and inked on the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, I added them to my card blank.  I also cut a half rectangle (a.k.a. a triangle 😃), distressed it, inked it and added it to the top right corner.

I had a wooden lattice in my stash and added it under the rectangle.

Next I grabbed some crinoline, cream tulle and cream lace and die cut some petals using the Shabby Posies die from Tammy Tutterow.  All the crinoline flowers were dyed with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  I layered the larger dyed petals with some tulle and lace petals and stitched them together.  A gem from my stash was added to the centre of the large flower.

I layered the smaller petals to make two flowers but once I saw the flowers together I decided to add some Tea Dye Distress Ink to the smaller petals so they would stand out a bit against the larger flower.  All the flowers were adhered to the triangle.

Using the Garden Greens (mini) die I cut leaves from Kraft Core Shattered Collection card stock and tucked them under the flowers.

I found some seam binding in my stash that had come from The Funkie Junkie Boutique holding little packages together and they were already dyed (I think with Tea Dye Distress Ink) and scrunched.  I ironed them to make them smooth again and then looped them together to create a bow.  I added a loopy twine bow on top along with a button from my stash.

Next I coated a metal butterfly with some white gesso and then coloured it with Copper Mixative Alcohol Ink before I added it to the card.

Finally I coloured a paper doll and a quote chip with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and added them to my card.  That little girl has no problem sitting on a lattice fence with a giant bow coming out of head - pretty original, I would say. 😃

I hope you will join us for this challenge.  You have two weeks to create and at the end, one randomly chosen winner will receive a gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique and the Design Team will choose their top picks with the overall top pick receiving an invitation to be a Guest Designer at a future date.

Saturday Showcase at Frilly and Funkie

Today I am presenting the Saturday Showcase at Frilly and Funkie.  Here is a peek at a tag that I made but you will need to pop over to Frilly and Funkie to find out what is special about it.

Heart Hanging

It is time for the next challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  This time Suzz, who is our hostess, is calling it Knock om Wood and here is what she has to say about it:

For this challenge you need to dig through your crafty stash and look for some type of wood to incorporate into your art. This can be any kind of wooden object like a wood spool, a wood button, a mini ruler or even a branch. Create a vintage or shabby chic project that incorporates some type of wood content.

I knew I had some wooden buttons from The Funkie Junkie Boutique in my stash so I decided to use them in my project and to take my colour palette from them.

The first step was to cut a heart from corrugated cardboard and punch two holes at the top where I could add a hanger.  Your heart can be hand cut by making a paper template first, tracing around it on the cardboard and then cutting it out.  Fortunately I am spoiled rotten because my husband has a laser cutter so I just got him to cut a 9" heart for me.

Next I stripped the top layer off the cardboard to expose the corrugations but leaving a strip to add some patterned paper.  Once I had the corrugations exposed, I dry brushed them with some white Gesso.

I inked the corrugations with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then added a hanger of jute through the holes.  I think next time I would make the holes a bit smaller because I had to do some serious knotting and run the jute around the top to keep the ends from sliding through the holes.

A combination of Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs Distress Ink was used to dye some lace and some seam binding.  The seam binding was crumpled up, dried like that and then formed into a loopy bow.

I used some Vintage Photo DI to ink a couple from the Paper Dolls pack, cut them down and adhered them just above the strip I left on the cardboard.  The lace was added next under the strip.  I tore some floral patterned paper from the St. Tropez paper pad inked the edges with Vintage Photo DI and added it on the strip.  Next I added three inked hearts made from old book paper that came in a little bag of goodies from The Funkie Junkie Boutique - a lovely surprise Linda tucks in each order.

Next I added the buttons and the bow along with a paper rose that I also inked with Vintage Photo DI.

Finally I inked a quote chip with More Vintage Photo DI and added it above the lace.

There you have it - a heart hanging in vintage tones with lots of fun elements, including some pretty cool wooden buttons.

Edit:  I thought my buttons were made from wood because they sure look like wood and are as hard as wood but when I was creating the links at the bottom of this post, I noticed that the description says they are Carved Coconut Shell buttons so I hope Suzz will forgive me.  I did look up coconut palms to see if the trees are considered to be wood and was happy to discover that they are and are considered a hardwood substitute in some countries - the six separations of coconut "wood".

I hope you will join us for this challenge.  It runs until 11:55 pm on Tuesday, March 27th and one randomly chosen winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique while the Design Team will choose their top picks and the overall top pick will be invited to be a Guest Designer at a future date.

Floating Flower

It is time for the next challenge at Stamps and Stencils and Sue is our hostess for this one.  She calls it Wax Lyrical and describes it this way:

I have long been fascinated with the subject of Encaustic Art, melting wax to create many layers and trapping pieces of fibres and papers between the layers of melted wax just seems magical to me. So for this challenge I want to see some wax on your projects, whether it's just dribbled, melted and then stamped into or a wax embellishment as long as you include some stamping or stenciling the choice is yours !

I really wanted to make an encaustic piece but when it came time to buy some supplies I discovered that Michaels doesn't carry anything and the two art supply stores that are close enough for me to drive to didn't have anything either.  I checked online but by the time I added the exchange rate and the obscene shipping cost, I realized it wasn't going to happen right now so I had to come up with plan B.

I decided to rekindle a technique I used a few months ago and colour a stamped image with crayons and not the way we did as children but rather by melting crayons onto the image.  Besides being easy, this is really inexpensive to achieve.

I started by using Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) to stamp some flowers and leaf branches from the Fancy Florals set (Dylusions) onto scraps of white card stock (Staples).

Next I used a couple shades of green crayons and roughly coloured my stamped leaf branches.  The image was placed between two pieces of wax paper and ironed with a hot dry iron (no steam).  The heat did not melt the limited amount of wax so I shaved some of the wax onto my stamped leaf branch images using an X-Acto blade.  Tip:  An old pencil sharpener would work nicely or next time I might even try a cheap box grater.

The image with the shavings was placed between two pieces of waxed paper and ironed again and this time there was great movement of melted wax.  You might want to put an old tea towel beneath your work if you are worried about wax getting onto your ironing board.  I didn't bother because I had used extra large pieces of waxed paper and my craft mat.  If the melted wax doesn't cover your image or you want to add an extra colour, just add more wax shavings and heat again - this time I added some yellow.

Once the coloured image is dry and cold, fussy cut and set aside.  Repeat the process by colouring the flowers - this time I used shades of pink and purple crayons.

I added some dots to the flowers with a white gel pen (Sakura).

This photo shows the back of the flower and you can see how waxy the card stock becomes - both from the wax in the crayon but also from the wax lifting off the waxed paper.

Next it was time to create the background canvas.  I started by adding some Light Molding Paste (Golden) through a Bubbles stencil (Tim Holtz) in random spots around the outside of a canvas board (Artist's Loft).  Once the stenciling was dry I gave it a coat of white Gesso (Liquitex).

Next I used a sponge to add some layers of paint starting with Blush Fresco Finish (Paper Artsy), followed by Candy Floss Fresco Finish, then Concord Grape Acrylic Paint (Apple Barrel) and finishing with a bit of white Gesso (Indigo Blu).

Some stamping with Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) and a couple of stamps from the Faded Fragments set (Seth Apter) came next.  Although you can't see it in the photo, I also added some circles of black and white paint with the lid from a little spray bottle.  They were too predominant so I sponged a bit more Concord Grape over them to tone them down.

I added more stenciling with some Course Pumice Gel (Golden) through a Mini Bricks stencil (TCW).

Then came the part I wish I hadn't done - I used a stipple brush to add some Pure Black, Dove Gray and Sterling Silver acrylic paint (Folk Art) to the bricks.  I don't like them now because I think they are too dark now but I decided anything more would have made them look worse so I left them alone.

I hope you will join us for this challenge and show us your waxy creations.

A Card with a Gift

It is time for a new challenge at Frilly and Funkie.  This time, Kathy is the hostess and is calling it Get in on the Action.  She describes it this way.

Adding an interactive element on a card, tag, layout or canvas adds a bit of fun to any project. For this challenge, create a vintage or shabby chic project that incorporates an interactive element of one sort or another in the design. You can add a pocket and tag, a hidden tag, a hinged page, a flap, a flip, a tuck spot, a special fold or any kind of interactive element that appeals to you. Be sure to tell us in your post what makes your project interactive, as it may or may not be apparent in a photo.

I have made a card and my interactive item is a little pocket that contains a wee gift for the recipient - a tea bag.

My card was created with cream card stock from Staples for the blank and has patterned papers from the Graphic 45 paper collection called A Ladies Diary all of which were distressed and the edges inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

First I added a background panel of the paper and then I added a doily that was cut from a Crochet Doily die and some of the cream card stock and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

The pocket came next and was simply constructed by scoring the bottom and sides of a rectangle of cream card stock.  Once I added double-sided adhesive to the narrow strips, I removed the tape from the bottom and folded it up first and then did the same with the sides.  At that point, I realized the narrow hinges weren't going to be strong enough to hold the pocket in place so I also added a rectangle of card stock to the back before I adhered it to the background panel.

To decorate the pocket I dyed some venise lace with a combination of Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

The tea bag holder was made by folding a rectangle of card stock and adding hinges to the pocket part inside.  To keep it closed I added a tiny Velcro pair that I dyed with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I did remember to ink the folded edges before I added the patterned paper even though the photo does not show that

The outside was decorated with a strip cut from the Graphic 45 paper and a strip with vintage tea pots from The Graphics Fairy that I added to a Word document and printed.

To close the tea bag holder I inked a tiny adhesive Velcro pair with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and added them to the inside as shown.

I turned a filigree medallion into a pull for the tea bag holder by first inking it with a mixture of  Salmon, Sunset Yellow and Snow Cap Mixative Alcohol Ink but it did not look like what I was hoping for so I ended up pressing the medallion into a Versamark pad and then coating it with Tree Branch Embossing Powder.

I found a little tea pot charm in my stash and changed it from silver to black by coating it with Pitch Black Alcohol Ink and then added it to the medallion.

Once the pocket was added with the insert, it was time to add more decoration.  First I used some green Kraft Core Shattered Collection and the Garden Greens die to make some leaves.  I added a loopy bow made from some checkered ribbon and then filled the space with a variety of paper flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.  A few teeny punched butterflies were added here and there.  I enhanced their bodies by adding dots with a black metallic gel pen.

I finished the inside of the card this time with a panel of black card stock, a panel of patterned paper and a verse about gifts of tea that I found online.

I hope you will Get in on the Action and join us for the challenge.  One randomly chosen winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to go shopping at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  The Design Team will choose their top picks with the overall top pick receiving an invitation to be a Guest Designer at a future date.