Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Vintage Travel


The new challenge starts today at Frilly and Funkie and the lovely Zoe is our hostess this time.  She calls this challenge Oh the places you'll go! and describes it this way:

"Create a vintage or shabby chic project with travel as the central theme. Think planes, trains, automobiles, ships, maps, globes."

I rarely have enough masculine cards ready to go so I took this opportunity to create one.  I started with some Tim Holtz Color Core card stock for the blank and then layered some paper from Tim Holtz Dapper pad with some Maja Design Vintage Autumn Basics.

I made one tag from the Maja Designs paper, one from a piece of Recollections kraft card stock, which was embossed with a folder from The Paper Studio called Vintage Keys that I picked up from a sale bin at Hobby Lobby on one of my too infrequent trips to visit my super friend Patti (a trip is on the horizon and I am sooooo excited - she is a fabulous lady and a wonderful crafter) - but I digress.  Finally I used some scrap card stock to make a tag that was stamped with the vintage dirigible from an Indigo Blu set called Grand Tour 1 using Tree Branch Archival Ink.

The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Simple Saying set and also stamped with Tree Branch AI.  Everything was distressed with my scissors and then inked with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

I tucked some burlap ribbon under the image tag after darkening it up by dying it with some Walnut Stain DI, added burlap string to all the tags.  Finally some gears, a button and a trinket pin were added.

While this isn't as frilly as usual, it is somewhat shabby and I think it has a great masculine and very vintage feel.  I would definitely use this as a birthday card because guys should be having fun as they move from year to year and life is a journey.

I am going to enter this card in the following challenges:

Penny Black and More - Anything Goes (must include hand stamping - no digis)
Allsorts  - Vintage
Moving Along With The Times - Man or Boy
The Male Room - Transport
Die Traumfabrik Dream Factory - Fast and Furious

The following products used in the creation of this card came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Thinking Pink


It is time for the new challenge at Stamps and Stencils and Branka is our hostess this time.  She is calling the challenge Think Pink and describes it this way:

"For this challenge we would love to see a mixed media project that has some pink in it somewhere! The possibilities are endless! Don't forget to include some stamping or stenciling or both in your mixed media project! We can't wait to see what you create! "

I have a little stash of things in my studio that I have been collecting to alter and one of them was a oval wooden plaque with a chain that I picked up at Dollarama for $1.25, not a dollar - WUWT. The wooden things you get from there usually come from China and are made of pretty cheap wood, which is why they are being sold at the dollar (or more) store. That means that as soon as you try to paint them, the wood swells and under normal circumstances you would be sanding for ages to try to get them smooth. But they lend themselves very well to mixed media when you are adding texture because you don't have to sand them.

I have been helping my daughter pack to move so there aren't any process photos this time but I can explain how I created this hanging.

I started by covering the wood with a coat of Liquitex Gesso. Then I crumpled up some tissue paper, smoothed it back out and glued it to both side of the plaque using Mod Podge and added a coat on top with more Mod Podge.

Next I used some Golden Light Molding Paste with a Wendy Vecchi stencil called Checkmate and a Prima flourish stencil to add some texture.  I also used some Golden Clear Tar Gel to create some random drips.

Then I coated everything with Gesso again before I started adding paint.  First I coated it with Fresco Finish Blush and then with Fresco Finish Candy Floss.  After that coat barely started to dry I removed some of it with a baby wipe.  Then I dry brushed some Craftsmart Blush Pearl on in random spots.

Next I rubbed on some Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry distress ink and some Magenta Hue Archival Ink in various areas.  I added some stenciling with Magenta Hue Archival Ink and a TCW Mini Tiny Circles stencil along with Wendy Vecchi Watering Can Archival Ink and a criss cross stencil I made myself.  I also added some circles with the lid from a spray bottle and some DecoArt Crafter's White and Folk Art Medium Gray Acrylic Paint.

The butterflies were cut from card stock on the laser machine and coloured with Picked Raspberry DI.  Using some Watering Can Archival Ink I stamped the large butterfly with a script stamp from Recollections Haunted set and the little one at the bottom with a polka dot section from the Wendy Vecchi Large Collage background stamp.   The butterfly at the top was stenciled using a Jenni Bowlin stencil called Pointed Star.  I layered each patterned butterflies on top of a plain one for some dimension and then added some pearls stickers to the bodies.

Finally I created the sentiment on the computer, cut it into sections and inked the edges with Picked Raspberry DI before I adhered it to the hanging.

I hope you will join us for this challenge and share your pink projects.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Going to the Funkie Side


The new challenge is starting today at Frilly and Funkie and this time Kathy, our hostess is calling it Opposites Attract.  Here is what she has to say about it:

"For this challenge, the Frilly side of the team will be asked to create a project in Funkie Style, and the Funkie side of the team will create a Frilly style project. Dig deep and create any kind of project you choose, as long as it is not done in your usual style and color palette."

I saw a bunch of photos that Andy Skinner posted from the Ministry of Mixology retreat he recently held in England and was blown away by the projects made by the participants. I don't have any of the DecoArt Media line of products but that will be changing when I head to the US next month to visit a dear friend and she takes me shopping.  Sadly, I also don't have access to any of his classes but I was inspired to make my Funkie project for this challenge by some of the photos I saw.

Now, I had no idea how they made their project or what products they used so I just used the look as my starting point.  First I took an 8" x 10" flat canvas from the dollar store and gave it a coat of Gesso.  My husband cut a wooden frame for me on the laser cutter and I used it to draw a centre panel.  I painted the centre panel with Folk Art Pure Black Acrylic Paint, then added Folk Art Crackle Medium when it was dry.  Once the Crackle Medium was dry I added DecoArt Antique Gold Acrylic Paint and sat back and watched it crackle.

Then I marked off some sections on the outside of the centre panel and before I started painting I added a bit of texture using texture paste and some Wendy Vecchi's stencils - Checkmate, Dots and Stripes Borders and Polka Dotty.

I used Folk Art Terra Cotta, DecoArt Russet, Accent Village Green and Accent Chesapeake Blue Acrylic Paints to paint in the various sections leaving the pencil lines marking the sections exposed.  Once the paints were dry I used a fine brush to colour the lines with DecoArt Venetian Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint making sure that I wiggled the brush so the lines were not perfectly straight.  Next I dry brushed all over the sections with DecoArt Champagne Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint.

Next I added some stenciling with Picket Fence DI and a couple Tim Holtz Layering Stencils and a Plaid stencil.  I decided it needed to be dulled down so I took some Black Soot Distress Ink and a natural sea sponge and added random dabs all over being very, very careful to avoid my lovely white stenciling.

I covered the frame with texture paste, painted it with the Chesapeake Blue paint and a dry brushing of Champagne Gold and then a light inking of Black Soot DI.

I cut the heart by hand from a piece of heavy card stock and covered it with texture paste before I painted it with the Russet paint.  I wrapped it with some burlap string to which I added a Tim Holtz type token.  Finally I added some buttons that I picked up in the clearance section at Michaels.

This isn't the project that all the lucky people made when they spent the weekend with Andy but I like the way it turned out.

The following projects used to create this project came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique: