CC3C - Challenge 33

Hi all,

Well here we are just arrived back from a fabulous 2 week holiday on a Mediterranean Cruise.  Two weeks of sun, seas and new places, and a few cocktails!  The last few days I was thinking of what to do for this challenge and I think this one came after a few of my favourite Pear-Melon Martinis.

I made the Top Hat from some of the Fleather that I used in challenge 24, this time using an A4 embossing folder from X-cut called delicate flourishes.

I then prepared my altered surfaces as per page 45 of the Compendium of Curiosities:

Yes you may have noticed that I overheated the word on the right but I quite like it, its a little quirky, like me!

I then added some ribbon round the hat and added a nice red feather.  The rose and wording were added on top.

As its now Tuesday evening I have kept this post short and to the point, unlike usual.

Pop over to Linda Ledbetters' blog to see the stunning work of the Curiosity Crew, they really rocked this challenge.  Also many thanks to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 32

Hi all

Frosted film this time.  I have a small (?) stack of 'things' to alter including some mirrors from a certain Swedish superstore so this is what I chose for my project.

 To start the frame I sanded the whole thing and then wiped the dust off.  I then covered the frame with various tissue tapes and masked off the mirror.

I then gave the whole frame a coating of Fresco Finish chalk paint by PaperArtsy in buff, stone and haystack.  Once this was dry I liked the colour but it was too pale.  I forgot to photograph this, sorry.  I decided that distress ink was the way to go so went in with fossilised amber, twisted citron and shabby shutters.  A quick blast with a heat gun to dry this and then a small amount of walnut stain distress ink found the edges and round the mirror, again dried with a heat gun.

Then using the technique on page 59 of The Compendium of Curiosities I cut the elements for my lilies using the Tonic die Oriental Lily.  This die cuts the individual petals and leaves so I could shape them and then construct my flowers.  The butterfly is Tim's Layered butterfly die and embossing folder.

I coloured the petals with Sepia Ranger Archival ink and Sunshine yellow Ranger Adirondack pigment ink, the leaves with Archival ink in olive and aquamarine and the butterfly using archival ink in aquamarine and blue violet.  The markings of the butterfly were coloured with pro markers.

             

I stamped some scrolls onto the frame using second generation black archival ink with a Creative Expressions stamp set called Scrolls and added die cut scrolls in gold mirri card over the top.  These were cut with the Tonic Royal Fern set of dies.  Some of the die cuts had lovely spirals as part of the 'waste' so I used two of these for the antenna of the butterfly and the rest under the butterfly.

I then added some random stamping over the whole frame using a variety of my Tim Holtz stamp sets.  I used second or even third generation stamping for this as I didn't want it to be too dark.  I then placed the flowers and butterfly ion the frame and felt I needed a edge to them so I also gilded the edge of the frame to hide any parts I may have missed with the tissue tape, wonderful stuff gilding wax!

             

There are some wonderful, and patriotic, examples on Linda Lebetters' blog so pop on over for some great inspiration.  Many thanks to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 31

Hi all

During a visit to 'The Spirit of Christmas' last November, a craft fair specialising in Christmas themed items, I spotted a pair of metal wings about 8inches long and decided I had to have them.  I have several pairs of wings around the house and thought these would look good behind my bed side table.  However they sort of disappeared into the decor so I needed to mount them onto something.  There the tale stalled until challenge 31, I decided, mostly cos they fell off the shelf in the craft room onto my foot! that now was the time to make the background for them.  So here we go.....

The wings had a sort of 'old' finish so I rustyed them up a bit with a dirty wash of Deco Arts quinacridone gold and carbon black acrylic paints in lots of water and dried them with a heat gun.  I dry brushed them with some Pebeo Dyna paint in Iridescent Copper and added a little gold gilding wax round the edges to finish off and I then set them aside to work on the background.

Wow, paragraph three and I still haven't mentioned the technique to be used....opps!  Its Layering Stencil, paint resist, page 47 in the Compendium of Curiosities.  I decided to use an A4 size canvas board for the background.  I used a Sheena Douglas stencil, Clouds and Antique linen and  a combination of salty ocean, mermaid lagoon and tumbled glass distress ink for the technique background trying to make the canvas a little darker at the bottom.

I found I needed to add a little more distress ink at the bottom so I used faded jeans distress ink.  I then discovered just how mobile distress ink can be,  I had to hold the canvas while adding the extra ink and ended up with a lovely, LARGE, finger print right in the middle of my work!X@***  I just about managed to shade this out using mermaid lagoon but luckily I decided to do some extra stencilling on the canvas and hid it under one of the stencilled wings! (Breathe... there are no mistakes just happy accidents)

Having decided to stencil the wings I had to mask off quite a bit of the stencil as I only wanted the wing.  I stencilled the wings with faded jeans distress ink.  I used post-it notes to mask the stencil and just about managed it even though it was a humid day and they didn't seem as sticky as usual, yes I know the UK doesn't get that humid but we cannot cope with much anyway!

I added some stamped text for a bit more texture using black archival ink and the Sheena Douglas stamp set Aging Beautifully.  To finish the edges of the canvas I stamped some cracks from the same stamp set in walnut stain distress ink and edged with a little more walnut stain ink.

The bottom of the canvas looked a little empty so I used Tim's stencil, Rays to add a sunrise.  I first used white gesso as a base and then blended spiced marmalade, wild honey and scattered straw distress paint over the top for my sunrise.

Once the background was completely dry I attached the wings and was just deciding on the sentiment when my daughter wandered in to see what I was doing. When I told her what sentiment I was going to use, she said I should change it.  I was going to use 'If life gives you wings learn to fly' but she suggested 'If life gives you wings Flap'  I must admit this made me laugh soooo......

The words were printed onto kraft card and cut out individually and inked with walnut stain distress ink.  I then drew round them with a fine black pen and added a few white high lights, then added them to the canvas.

The Curiosity Crew have been hard at work as usual and their wonderful creations can be seen on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  A big thank you to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

One last thing I bet you cannot guess where this piece is going to end up?  Yep thats right at University with my daughter, I'll just have to find another pair of wings for beside my bed! LOL

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 30

Hi all

Faux cracked glass...hmmmm, I may have lost the plot completely but here goes!

I don't know why a light bulb sprang to mind but there you go.  I followed Tim's technique on page 54 of the Compendium of Curiosities on both the light bulb and the wings.  The wings are cut from acetate using Tims Sizzix die, Layered Dragonfly.  I tried the wings from the Layered Bee but they were a little too small, he is quite a rotund bee after all!

Once the cracking was dry I used Adirondak alcohol inks in aqua for the wings and sunshine yellow for the body.  The end of the bulb was coloured with pitch black alcohol ink.

       

To make the stripes I used some double sided adhesive sheet and cut a circle, using a punch, and then cut into the circle so I could make it into a cone.  I then covered the outside of the cone with black flock and attached it to the back of the bee.  The stripes were some thin double sided tape that I covered with the black flock and then wound round the bee.

To make the legs I wound three lengths of black wire together and formed them round the body of the bee and then glued them with hot glue.  When all three sets of legs were attached I was able to bend them so the bee could stand on his own legs.

The antenna were originally just wire which I bent into spirals at the ends and attached the the head of the bee, however I decided that this looked wrong so I cut off the spirals and added beads to the ends of the shorter antenna.

I love the way the crackle is shown up by the alcohol ink.  I just have to decide where to put my bee, I think I'll put him into my faux orchids, A Faux bee in a Faux Flower  LOL.

A visit to Linda Ledbetters blog will blow your minds with the gloriousness of the Curiosity Crews offerings for this challenge.  As usual a big thank you to The Funkie Junkie for sponsoring this challenge.

Ah well time I buzzed off, bye for now!

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 29

Hi All

So this is the challenge I've been dreading, when I did the Creative Chemistry 102 I just couldn't get this technique to work.  Having experimented with it I can get it to work maybe one time in four so there are lots of interesting background sheets waiting to be used.  Still you can never have too many backgrounds prepared!

So after getting to grips with the technique, page 44 of the Compendium of Curiosities, I set about altering the door hanger that is my chosen project for this challenge.

I used mermaid lagoon and cracked pistachio distress paint for the base colour and tarnished brass on the top and added a little walnut stain distress ink around the edges.  After painting the wooden door hanger with black gesso I stuck the altered card to the hanger and, when dry, trimmed round the edges.

I have a box of die cuts that I've cut to try new dies that I buy and found the musical score and as this is for Caitlin it was perfect.  The only problem is that it was cut from silver mirri card sooooo....  I dabbed black gesso and tarnished brass distress paint randomly onto the surface but it was still too shinny.  To try to get over the brightness I decided to try a 'dirty' wash and mixed a brown wash that I had in a little jar with a little black gesso and covered the music with it.  This not only dulled it down it also gave it a strange matt finish which I likes.  I glued it to the door hanger and trimmed the edges.

The cogs beneath the music were also dabbed with black gesso and tarnished brass distress paint and also a little graphite texture paste for that pitted look.

I used my new Tim Holtz die, Block Talk lowercase, to cut the name from black card stock and added it to the hanger.

To finish the edges, which were a little uneven where I had cut out the shape from the card stock I used Graphite texture paste.  This gives a lovely glittery edge and some fantastic texture too.  I then decided to add some rusty wire, love this stuff!, so I wound some round the door handle hole and added a little more texture paste.

There are some fantastic examples from the Curiosity Crew over on Linda Ledbetter's blog , click here to go visit.  Also thanks to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 28

Hi all

Well what a difference a fortnight makes, my hubby is out of hospital, eating anything that you put in front of him, pottering about and generally getting in my way.....and I love it!  Thanks for all the lovely messages and the thoughts and prayers, much appreciated.

So onto challenge 28.

I have had some of the Stampbord shapes in my stash for quite some time and they fell out of a cupboard when I was looking for something else and I decided to see if I could do the technique on one of these.  Well who'd have thunk....it worked really well.

The colours I used were indigo, sail boat blue and aqua adirondack alcohol ink and I coloured my stamp board using the technique on page 57 of the Compendium of Curiosities.  

I stamped the funky grasses from the JOFY11 stamp set from PaperArtsy and the taller flower from set JOFY12, I love these quirky grasses and flowers.  The ink I used was black archival ink.  I then masked off the wings of the butterfly stamp from set 11 and inked up the body and stamped it on the edge of the stampbord. 

I needed the butterfly to be the other way round so I inked the stamp and used my brayer to take the image and the rolled it onto some scrap card.  I painted the butterfly wings using some of the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish acrylic paints and then double heat embossed with clear embossing powder to give a nice shine.

Before I added the wings to the stampbord I used a scratch tool to add some white highlights to the grasses and made the bigger leaves white.

I then stamped the word Nature onto some kraft card stock with some black archival ink and added some white highlights with a gelly pen.  I then added this and the butterfly wings to the stampbord.

To finish the piece I die cut a fancy oval from embossed silver card and mounted the stampbord to give a small silver rim to the piece.  I will add a hanger to the back so it can be hung up.

The examples from the Curiosity Crew are simply fabulous and can be seen on Linda Ledbetter's blog here.  Also there are the usual thanks to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - challenge 27

Hi all,

The next few weeks are going to be a little stressful as my beloved husband is in hospital undergoing a major operation as I type.  I miss him!  He's grumpy, has a terrible sense of humour, and watches far too much football but its too quiet when he's not here.

Anywhoo thats enough of that!!  I decided that this challenge would be a get well card for him so that when I go to visit tomorrow he can scold me for having blue hands, and I have, and to remind him that I miss him.

I used a piece of craft card and the Tim Holtz embossing folder Patchwork and following the instructions on page 61 of The Compendium of Curiosities I started the background.  I used mermaid lagoon, cracked pistachio  and dusty concord distress to ink the background and splashed some of the distress stain in the same colours over the top.  Once I'd dried the background I added some silver gilding wax to highlight the embossing and finished off with walnut stain distress ink round the edges.

I cut an oval from white card and inked with the same colours as before.  I die cut the letters for the sentiment using the Tim Holtz strip die Untieled in black card and mounted them onto the oval.  You may have noticed the 'jaunty' angle of the letters, this is because I cannot do straight lines.  I think its against some law or another! (LOL) I added some of the Idea-ology mini cogs and mounted it onto the card.

To finish I sprayed some seam binding with distress stains in the same colours, thats why my hands are blue!,  and dried it with a heat gun.  This was wound round the bottom of the card and tried in a knot.  I found some dried twiggy bits to put behind the knot and added another cog.

As usual you can see some fantastic examples on Linda Ledbetters blog from the ever wonderful Curiosity Crew.  Also thanks to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn