Thursday, August 14, 2014

Time Flies

I will apologize up front for the very long post.  I think the later it gets, the wordier I get.  Enjoy the pictures! 

The Funkie Junkie is sponsoring Compendium of Curiosities 3, Challenge 8, and Tim Holtz himself, along with his business manager, Mario are giving away a goodie package as well, so be sure to play along.There's some great inspiration at CC3 at Studio L3 to help you get your creative juices flowing. For this challenge,  you must try Tim's technique found on page 58 in his Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3 and include it on your project.

A Vintage Journey  is hosting a challenge, and the theme is Time Flies.  They would like to see a strong Tim Holtz influence in our work. (I think it goes without saying I was very much influenced and inspired by Tim; his work, his products, and even his prizes.)  Country View Crafts is generously offering a voucher from their store as a prize. There is a tremendous amount of inspiration at A Vintage Journey by the talented team of Creative Guides.

Speaking of  inspiration, Country View Challenges inspires us to use words on our make this month, and they, too will be giving away a prize from the generous Country View Crafts on-line store. Be sure to check out all the great design team inspiration.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Scratched Up invites us to get grungy and embrace imperfection. The design team has provided us with some great inspiration to get grungy and Simon Says Stamp is offering a very generous prize to a lucky winner.

So I gave Tim's Faded Layers technique (on page 58 of his book) a try, and after many attempts to get it just right, I realized to just embrace imperfection. This is the one I chose to use on my project.  Even though other attempts had better results, the colors on this one worked the best for my piece in the long run. (This is why it's called a "challenge", after all.) I mustn't tell what products I used, because that would give his technique away.  The rules at CC3 state we should work from our own books, and not give away the technique out of respect to Tim. Let's just say I followed his directions and products to the letter.


You can really see the faded layers before I added my poem.

I decided to make a canvas, and gave quite a bit of thought as to how to interpret time flying besides the obvious.  So many great ideas had already been used, and I wanted something a little different for my canvas.  One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of how fast time goes by is, of course, how quickly my kids mature.  But then I thought how fast the calendar pages seem to be flying off the calendar, and I knew that's what I wanted to go with.  But how to portray that on canvas?  So I had a look around the Internet, and found this great poem by Dr. Suess, whose writing style I adore.  This speaks volumes!  I printed this out on my computer, glued it on chip board for stability, distressed  (used Distress Inks) and cut each word out.  I adhered the words to the Faded Layers background I made and cut using one of Tim's dies.


Looks a little busy with the words!
I applied gesso to the blank (ugh!) canvas and let that dry. I tried to get a little wood grain texture look with the gesso, but it didn't look much like wood, so I gave another of Tim's Vol. 3 techniques a try.  I used Distress Inks, embossing powder, stencils (some are Tim's) and  Distress paint for my background. I added bits of Tissue tape and deli paper and tissue which I stamped using Tim's stamps (Stamper's Anonymous).




I stamped some images randomly directly on the background.  Some I had to doctor a little with Sharpie pen, because even though I used Archival Ink, some ink did not show well, because of the textured/embossed areas.




Please make special note of the Tissue Wrap defining "time" to the right of the Faded Layers piece. I was a lucky winner of some of Tim's  goodies on his blog earlier this summer, and Mario wrapped my prize in this paper. (Save and USE everything!) (Stamps credits: Stamper's Anonymous, Nature's Blessings, Stampa Rosa, and Sandy Lion.)


I mounted the Faded Layers panel on thick chipboard before adhering to make it pop off the background.

I used Tim's clock face and calendar pages from his  Lost and Found Paper Stash.  I used my Distressing Tool on two of the calendar pages, then inked them with Distress Ink to grunge them up.  I spritzed the two "used" calendar pages, crumpled them, then smoothed and rolled them before gluing them on my piece.  I used Tim's Tiny Attacher to staple the "un-used"calendar which was then glued to the background.
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I also used Tim's weathered clock die and grunge board to make the large clock and  painted it with Distress Paints and a dab of metallic green acrylic paint from my stash. I added a lot of bits from my stash as well as Tim's Idea-ology pieces.  I have a tin full of  tiny clock parts (I save everything!!!) and  I glued  some on shown in the photo above
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 I didn't have any decent wings for my Sands of Time thingy (can't recall what that is called right now-timer????), so I stamped Tim's bat wings (symbolic for me) on heavy card stock, cut them out, edged in black and glued them to the (?) timer which I had altered with some alcohol ink.



There are a few tongue in cheek symbolism's used here that I feel I need to explain other than the obvious birds, clocks and wings.  The major one is having the calendar pages "flying off",  and the December calendar page between May and June.  Like Dr. Suess says "December is here before it's June".  Another is the little day/nighttime watch face I found in my junk, referencing "It's night before it's afternoon".  The Suess-meister had such a way with WORDS!!!




The wood grain technique I did showed up well here.


 Then there's the rabbit  holding a pocket watch (Alice in Wonderland; "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!". Since I didn't get a good ink impression, I used a  shiny pocket watch charm I had in my junk drawer. I tried distressing it with alcohol inks, but then added Tim's  Rock Candy Crackle Paint which ate the inks away. Learned a BUNCH from making this canvas! I think I need to attend Creative Chemistry!). I'm still trying to figure out what that white thing in the photo is (below). I'm thinking it is the underside of one of the links, and the light caught it . It does not show up in person.



One use of symbolism that is personal  to me is the use of a standard clock face within one using Roman numerals, since I always have trouble reading Roman numerals.  The bat wings are symbolic to me--I seem to mark my time by the coming and going of Halloween, much like others do with Christmas-- "Wow, only 3 more months 'til Halloween;  can you believe how time flies?".

I continued my design around the edges of the canvas as well.   

I'm quite pleased with how my little salute to the passage of time turned out. There's much I would do differently, and I learned a lot. Here's the whole 8 x 10 canvas. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it . My how time flies when I'm playing with my stamps and inks in the closet!! It seems it's night before it's afternoon. 


Taken in Ott light


Taken in two kinds of light--Ott light and incandescent light.

Thank you for taking a look.  I really appreciate all your comments--it encourages me to try new things in my creative journey.   

I would like to enter this in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Scratched Up
A vintage Journey #12 Time Flies
Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 8 Faded Layers
Country View Challenges Word Play
Update:  oops!  It was a couple of late nights/early morning under my belt when I posted this; I meant to also enter this in (if I'm allowed to do that) Simply Create Too #67 Old/Vintage and Inspiration Journal Everything Goes.

36 comments:

  1. Such a fantastic project Sara! Love your attention to detail You really rocked so many techniques! Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. Thank you for your sweet comment, Mona. I'll take this opportunity to again tell you how much I enjoy all of your work. Talk about attention to detail. Your style is one that is certainly identifiable and lovely. I always look forward to seeing what you are up to in the crafting/art world. Sara Emily

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  2. So much to see and love here! Love all the details you added, and your background on the poem is gorgeous! LOVE the clock too! Thank you so much for joining on on this Faded Layers challenge at CC3Challenge!

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    1. Thank you for your encouraging comments. Fun and challenging "challenge". I've had a look at the next challenge, and I want to tell you how much I love that little snowman card you made. ADORABLE!!!

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  3. Hi Sara. Very cute project! I like how you've incorporated so many elements into such a cute time oriented piece. The words made into sentences across your faded layers background are very cool. Love the weathered clock and the mini calendar! This is a wonderful expression of how time really DOES fly! :) Thanks so much for sharing your art with us at CC3C. <3 Candy

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    1. Thank you for taking your time to write this comment. It means so much to me when someone "gets" what I'm trying to express in my work.

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  4. What a marvelous project for all of the challenges you entered! love that Dr. Seuse Poem - and the lovely faded background you created - lots of fun things to notice on this!

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    1. Hello! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and your inspirational comments. This gave me an opportunity to visit your blog and have a look at what you've been doing. I love your Time Flew journal page. You made a statement that you have to know when to stop when adding things to your work; that seems to be a real problem for me!!!! I think that's what I love most about creating...I can do what is pleasing to me, and I learn from it. I've learned I just love a lot of stuff:)!!

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  5. Sara: Great canvas! Thank you for entering our Simply Create Too "Old/Vintage Challenge #67", and hope you come back this Friday, 15 August, for our new challenge.

    Diane
    Simply Create Too Design Team Member
    http://DianesDigitalDesigns.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. I'll be sure to check out the new challenge!

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  6. What a fab canvas, I haven't seen that poem before, so thanks for sharing that! The background looks fabulous, the use of the black alcohol ink really pulls the whole technique together... Thanks for playing along with the CC3 Challenge, hope to see you again soon x

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    1. Your comment means a lot to me. I'm happy to hear the positive remark about the black alcohol ink--I was concerned that it made it too dark, and the darker inks,I found by much trial and error, are more resistant to fading.

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  7. What a superb canvas Sara! I can see how much time and effort you've put into creating it and it's wonderful to see. Thank you so much for joining us at A Vintage Journey. Jenny x

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    1. Thank you for your comment. There was so much wonderful inspiration by the team and the other entrants!

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  8. Hi Sara! This was a real labour of love, it really shows. Your project is gorgeous, so many pretty elements. Well done on winning some of Tim's goodies. How cool!
    Ingrid xx

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    1. Thank you for visiting and for your comment. I especially loved your butterfly jar project. Talk about cool..now that's cool.

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    2. Thank you, Sara! And now we are fellow pinworthies! NOW THAT'S COOL! :) congratulations!xxx

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  9. What a wonderful project. My children's book loving heart just loves what you've done here. Thanks for linking this beauty up at Simply Create Too!

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    1. You are so sweet to visit and comment on my blog. I love children's books, too, but had never heard this quote before making this project.

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  10. This is an amazing piece with so many great elements to look at! I kept staring at all of the different pictures saying "WOW!" every time I saw something new! It really turned out very well and was worth all of the hard work! It's always tricky to try and master new techniques, but I love your decision to "embrace imperfection" (even though this piece looks perfect to me)! I especially liked how even the calendars reflected the words in Seuss's fabulous poem. Great attention to detail and I am always a fan of good literature being incorporated into art pieces! Thanks so much for sharing this inspiring creation with us here at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog!

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    1. Andrea,
      Thank you for ALL of your kind words; it means so much to me to read such positive and genuine feedback from a talented artist like you. These inspiring comments are what makes this all worth the work and time that goes into a piece..

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  11. The world (especially for children) is a better place thanks to the wonderful and brilliant works of Dr. Seuss. Your canvas is a wonderful tribute and I admire the amount of detail you put in to it.

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    1. Thank you for visiting. I agree with your comment about Dr. Seuss--my kids grew up on his work. (you would think I would know how to spell his name by now!)

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  12. I adore this canvas. I'm blown away by all the time references (and I loved the birds flying away and your bat wings). Seuss is such fun!!! Thanks for dropping by my blog and the encouraging words. It gave me the opportunity to come by and see your wonderful creations. Thanks again!! -- Mary Elizabeth

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    1. Thank you for dropping in and for your kind comment!

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  13. Great Canvas Sara... love all the details you have on it... and also the explanation for each and every piece... love the rabbit... use to be on the DT of Altered Alice... love Alice stuff... so very much fun...

    Where do you live... in this country, USA or else where ..??? Our farm is fun... and I love my studio.... play in it all the time... going to go create now... until dinner... not much time... but enough to get messy... Love, Light and Peace...Bonnie

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    1. Thank you for stopping in to visit. Yes, I guess I was a little wordy!! We live in North Carolina, but I grew up on a dairy farm in New Jersey. So beautiful! Have fun in that studio!

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  14. I love all the details you included on this canvas! So cool! Thank you for joining us this month at Inspiration Journal. =)

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  15. Thank you so much! It was a fun challenge!

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  16. What a gorgeous canvas, wonderful to see this poem included as part of your interpretation, great creativity throughout. Delighted you joined in with our 'Time flies' challenge at A Vintage Journey. Chris xxxx

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  17. Thank you so much! Your comment means so much to me:)!

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  18. I love that Dr Seuss quote - and your canvas is just fabulous! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Country View Challenges, and for joining us on A Vintage Journey.
    Alison x

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  19. Thank you, Alison! Your comment means so much to me. I love all of Dr. Seuss' work, but I had never heard this one before. It was perfect for what I wanted to convey.

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  20. Hi Sara, sorry I've not been across to congratulate on your win. Congratulations, thought it was a fab interpretation of 'time flies'! Also wanted to say thanks for stopping by and leaving such lovely comments on my blog, really appreciate it.....btw re faded layers, I found I needed to use a few pieces of felt to get the best effect! Hope you get the result you like. Ruth xx

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  21. Thank you, Ruth, for stopping by and the congratulations. A huge thank you for the tip...I will give it a try. I also find that different colors respond better than others to this. I've had one good result using the colors Tim used in his book. I have to apologize for flooding your postings with comments, but your work is stunning, and I just can't help telling you that. Sara Emily

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  22. I would say that you are on a roll too! Congrats on your win at A Vintage Journey! Well done, such a cool project!

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Thank you for leaving your comments...they mean so much to me.