Curiously Rubbed Butterfly Canvas

Good evening, everyone!  I've been having some fun with Tim Holtz' Remnant Rubs.  The "new" challenge at Linda Ledbetter's Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #24 is now almost the "old" one as I finish my project just under the deadline.  Some of my favorite work is done under pressure of deadlines.

Challenge 24, "Remnant Rub Resist" is a product-specific one which requires the use of Tim's Holtz' Remnant Rubs from Idea-ology.  They come in all sorts of designs, and I really would like to get my hands on the Botanicals, which would be great for my theme.  But I only have Numbers, Words, Elements and Life Quotes and not a Botanical in sight!  I went ahead with my plan anyway, and tried to redeem myself with coming up with something I haven't seen yet--using them on my focal image instead of the background.  I hope I'm compliant with the technique, which can be found on page 51 of Tim's book--A Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3, which you can purchase here, signed by the creative genius himself!  You must have your own copy of the book to enter the CC3 challenges, so why not get yours now!

The Funkie Junkie Boutique is back to sponsor this challenge and the always-wonderful and generous owner Linda Coughlin has a fabulous $25 shopping spree for one lucky CC3Cer.  If that's not enough, Tim and Mario have generously donated a ton of Tim's goodies for the Curiosity Crews Choice winner.  You gotta be in it to win it!  So visit Linda's blog and be sure to visit each of the Crew's blogs, too, to see how they make the most amazing Tim influenced designs!

A Vintage Journey is celebrating their first birthday, and the theme is "Anything Tim"--I think this fits the bill with lots of techniques from his Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 1 and 3, at least.

Well, lets get to the canvas...It seems Tim's tags would be the best way to approach this project--the surface is perfect for this technique, but I'm one to always look for the hard way to do things! I started to cut up 2 tags--one for each wing, but I only had one left (I've been making way too many March 12 Tags of 2015!) I ended up using a manila file folder.  I will tell you there is no substitute for the REAL TAG-these rubs will stick to anything, but the technique doesn't work the best on a file folder. I can't tell you Tim's technique out of respect to him, but I can tell you the colors and other products I've used.

My canvas started as this cheap stapled -on-the-edges canvas I probably picked up NIP from a yard sale.  I gave it some color at the edges with Distress paint in Antique Linen and Walnut Stain.  Then I took some jute that was tying up some bamboo poles I got at the hardware store and glued it around the edges to cover those not so lovely staples. I think it fit's the natural theme here.

I chose the background paper from Tim's Wallflower paper stash.  I inked it here and there and gave it just a little spritz and flick and crackle paste through Tim's Flourish Layering stencil. When the paste was dry, I took a little ink on my water brush and painted over the raised areas.  I fussy cut some of the flowers from the same sheet, painted them with Spiced Marmalade Distress marker and a water pen to suit my color scheme, and adhered them so my butterfly would have somewhere to land. I distressed a little and inked the edges with Walnut Stain ink to give that grungy time worn look I love.

Oh, how I love the spritz and flick technique! I used Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, and Gathered Twigs  inks on the background.

Peeled paint and Forest Moss

Butterfly inked in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo.   

I used the Remnant rub technique on Tim's Layered Butterfly, and colored him with Distress inks, stamped with some of Tim's script (Urban Grunge) and a few butterflies (Flights of Fancy), using Coffee and Jet Black Archival inks. I used all of my sets of rubs mentioned above and used them exactly as the instructions are outlined on page 51. I chose to use many smaller areas, because I was going for a monarch look. Wish now I had used several of the smaller butterfly stamped images instead of one of each large and small...oh, well, 20/20 hindsight and all of that! I toned down the starkness of the black and white rubs by wiping just a teensy bit of Antique Linen Distress paint over the entire thing before stamping. After stamping, I dabbed a tiny bit of the same on the stamped butterflies. I inked the edges of the butterfly with Vintage Photo and edged randomly with Picket Fence Crackle paint . When dry, I rubbed some ink in the cracks. I cut a second butterfly out of black paper and cut it to use as a shadow.

You can see some of the pffts here under the wing.

I filled one of Tim's vials with sand to use as the body. I painted the cork with Black Soot Distress paint, and gave the vial the Faux Cracked Glass technique found on page 54 of our books. I won't give the technicals on this. I used some Butterscotch alcohol ink to color it.  The cracks are hard to see in the photo, but FCG is not this challenge's theme, so please just take my word for it--it looks really cool in real life.  I curled up some copper wire for antennae and stuck them in the cork. I added some microbeads because real butterflies have microbeads on their thorax.

After attaching the butterfly, I added some microbeads to the background and used the Marker Spritzer and Walnut Stain Distress Marker to make pffts here and there. Does anyone know the proper word for the little marks you make with this fabulous fun tool? I purposely kept my embellishments to a minimum due to the busy nature of both the background and the butterfly.

Well, that's it for today!  I'm so happy you stopped in, and I love to read your lovely comments!  I appreciate them all and respond to each eventually! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

I would like to enter this into the following inspirational challenges:

Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge #24 Remnant Rub Resist

A Vintage Journey "Anything Tim"

Mixed Media World "Anything Goes"

The Mirror Crack'd #7 "Wings"

A Sprinkle of Imagination "Anything Goes"

Craft Hoarders Anonymous March Challenge "Go Green!"

Country View Challenges "Anything Goes"

Inspiration Journal "Spring Blooms"

Altered Eclectics "March Already-Anything Goes"