Anything But Cute Challenge #13--Celebrate Your Style!

Hello crafty friends! It's time for our new challenge at Anything But Cute where the challenge theme is Celebrate Your Style! I'll give the challenge details in a minute, but first here's my mixed media make in my favorite grungy style.

As we celebrate our First Anniversary at Anything But Cute, we want you to celebrate what you do best...mixed media! This is your chance to do it your way, in your favourite style...so pull out those inks and paints and show us what you're made of! You can make anything you want, in any theme you want and any style you want, just as long as it has some mixed media products on it and no cute images. HAVE FUN!

We have some special treats for you this month at Anything But Cute! Along with all of our Design Team projects, we will also be featuring projects by several Favourite Artists from this passed year that we have invited back to celebrate our first anniversary with us. You will not want to miss the incredible line up of inspiration they have made just for you! We also have an amazing array of prizes from three wonderful and generous sponsors...Lots of chances to win some goodies, so don't miss out!

Well, I sure did have fun making this grungy steampunky card for my friend and teamie, Niki's birthday! I used 9 12 different mixed media products (not including different colors,) and that's just for the background panel! The colors look just a little different taken under the Ott light as opposed to outdoors on an overcast day.

Here are some close ups of the background panel, and I will list the steps  for making this below them. This is not my own recipe, but I read it somewhere on the internet at some point.  I did add some of my own steps to personalize it, however. Sorry, I didn't take an process shots for this, but if you scroll down I do have some step out photos of how I made the gears.

 Background panel
1. Apply Elmer's glue randomly and let dry.
2. Mix white acrylic paint with a few droppers of Antique Linen Distress ink refill and apply with a foam brush.  Let dry.
3. Swipe with Distress inks directly from the pad: Weathered Wood, Rusty Hinge, Walnut Stain. I do this vertically so it resembles wood grain or perhaps a copper roof. (Which do you think it should be?)
4. Wipe with dry paper towel to blend colors, again, vertically.
5. Turn panel over and score vertical lines; I did mine randomly.
6. Coat with watery gesso and heat dry.
7. Swipe on additional Distress ink: Rusty Hinge, Ground Expresso.
8. Wipe once more with a dry paper towel.
9. Add Distress Crazing medium thickly, like peanut butter, over entire panel and let dry.
10. Add DecoArt Crackle Glaze thickly around edges and let dry.
11. Apply DecoArt media paints (forgot what colors), Antiquing Creams and  Distress Crayons-neutrals on midsection until happy with color.
12. Add Glass bead gel at top and bottom where man will stand and let dry.
13. Add DecoArt Quinacridone Gold, Cadmium Orange paints and Distress paints: Rusty Hinge, Cracked Pistachio and Ground Expresso over dried bead gel.
14. Apply DecoArt Ultra Matte varnish over entire panel. Sit back and be amazed at how it finally turned out, because it looked terrible every step of the way!

I cut two of Tim Holtz' Umbrella Man  from grunge paper covered with foil tape. I cut the umbrella, hat and coat from one and embossed the pieces with Artful Muse (gears), Pocket Watches and Love (lace) embossing folders . I added alcohol inks in Mushroom, Ginger, and Caramel, drying between colors. Next, I added Copper Mixative and let dry. I painted with Ground Expresso and Black Soot Distress paints. I dried partially and buffed to get the grungy metal look. For the background man, I  sanded then painted with Rusty Hinge, Cracked Pistachio, Hickory Smoke, Ground Expresso and Black Soot Distress paints. As before, I partially dried and buffed between colors. I adhered the  pieces and edged with Black Soot Distress paint. I saw the Umbrella man with his jacket flapping in the wind somewhere in blogland, and I just had to borrow that! How fun!

Here's how I made the ticket: I embossed card with Tim Holtz' Playing Games embossing folder and fussy cut. I swiped with Walnut Stain Distress ink, added Glass Bead gel randomly and dried. I added DA media paints in Burnt Umber and Antiquing Cream in Patina Green. I punched a hole and used Tim Holtz' cracked glass technique for the gear's aperture. I backed it with white paper to show off the color.

The small tag was cut freehand and embossed with Tim Holtz Patchwork Texture Fade. I swiped it with Ground Expresso Distress ink and blended with Frayed Burlap. I used Glass Bead Gel and paints as per the ticket.

Small ticket: I stamped with Tim Holtz' Odds and Ends stamp and heat embossed with Ammo Camo  powder, blended with Vintage Photo DI and edged with Ground Expresso. I fussy cut, distressed and stamped the quote in Archival Potting Soil. I made it into a little interactive feature on the card.

Now it is time to make my gears; my favorite part! I made some of the gears with paper clay and a mold and some are chipboard.

I covered with Sand paste and dried.

I gave them a coat of black gesso.

And as if by magic they became rusty! I simply used all of the paints and alcohol inks listed above. I used alcohol inks and sand paste on the chain as well.

In the end, I added a tiny bit of Buttercup acrylic paint to the gears and umbrella man to add some light amongst all that dark.

I would like to add my grungy card to the following inspiring challenges:

SanDee and amelie's SteamPunk Challenges Anything Goes--Steampunk/Industrial

Mixed Media Place April Challenge Creative Gym #18 Be Patient. The Best Things Happen Unexpectedly I had to be patient to wait for the results of my 14 steps to make my background!What a pleasant surprise!

Emerald Creek Dares B's Buttons, Brads, Bears, Butterflies... Use a B thing. Ok, I'm getting silly here, but how about ball and chain? And Gears rhymes with Bears, doesn't it??

Mixed Media World MMW#13: Get in Gear

We Love to Create Challenge #9 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Fab and Funkie Challenge #303 We Want to See Three or More Layers

Die Cut Divas May Day Photo Inspiration I was inspired by the colors and shapes of the buttons.

Cards Und More Challenge #157 Focus on Die Cuts My stamping is on the ticket and the ticket itself, Die cut is Umbrella Man.

Word Art Wednesday Challenges #228-#229 Family Friendly/Anything Goes

WOW Embossing Powder May Challenge

Thank you for stopping by today and for all your wonderful comments! I do hope you will visit us at Anything But Cute for our birthday celebration!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE: I'm so honored!