See Grungy Possibility with Distress, Ideaology, and Baked Texture For Frilly and Funkie

Welcome friends and visitors! Today is that day when the Funkie side of the Frilly and Funkie team get to display their inspiration for the current challenge, which is 'Neutral Point of View'. I'm super excited because it was my turn to choose the theme, and immediately my mind turned to grungy browns!

Here's the scoop on the challenge theme:  'We're seeing a lot of pastel and brighter colors this time of year. For this challenge we're inviting you to step away from all that color and play with your neutral art supplies. You can add a few pops or hints of color, but be sure we see mainly neutrals on your vintage or shabby chic design. (Think black, white, gray, brown, beige, cream, ivory; even gold and silver.)'

I was pretty excited to find this backing to an old frame unclaimed at an estate sale last Friday. With all the beautiful antiques being offered, my friend running the sale thought I was nuts to want this piece of wood. But he charged me $1 for it nevertheless. This set the stage for my inspiration, and I pulled out some Ideaology pieces and my brand new Funky Flowers #3 dies and got to work. I laid some groundwork of Distress paint sponged through a yet unused mini layering stencil. I thought this would make a wonderful backing for the Funky Flowers, but in the end it barely shows at all.

I removed the backing from Tim's Mini Framed Panel to save for another project, since I already had a backing panel. I had some old thick foam circles in my stash, and these work perfectly to add some dimension. I gave the frame a coat of black gesso, then randomly sponged on Distress inks and smeared random blobs of Prima's Texture paste - gold crackle . I got a little impatient and ended up heating to dry the paste, so there's not much in the line of crackling going on. But it adds some grungy texture. Lastly, I scribbled with Distress crayons and heat set. In addition to Vintage Photo shown here, I also used Walnut Stain and Antique Linen crayons.

I painted the Baroque frame with gesso and Distress paints like the wood frame, and while the paint was wet, sprinkled very lightly with Baked Texture in Chunky Rust and Patina Oxide. After heating, I wasn't thrilled with the gloss, nor the Rusty Hinge paint color, so sponged on Walnut Stain paint followed by Distress crayons as per the wooden frame.

Once I had the frames done, I decided what my subject would be. The Paper Dolls each have their own personalities, and as I was shuffling through them, I spotted this girl who reminded me a bit of me when I was younger--I always had a book in my hand. This is when my creative 'early' autobiography was born. I colored the doll with Distress crayons and markers. Notice the staring blue eyes. In my younger days, I always received comments on my bright blue eyes. The bow in the hair and the frilly dress is a bit of a stretch for me. Other ephemera and Design Tape was chosen for it's significance: the alphabet design tape from the Journey set because I have a distinct memory of my brother rewarding me with a dime if I could recite the ABC's correctly. I also remember my Mom making us all know our times tables up to 10 (I wasn't in school yet.) I'm afraid it didn't help me much in the higher levels of math. The 'graph paper' design tape added for my love of drawing detailed room plans when I was a youngster. It seems appropriate I should marry an architect!

I sort of have a ruler/yardstick fetish, so I had to include a piece of one of Tim's Ruler pieces. While I love to use my real rulers in my projects, these are the perfect scale for smaller projects like this. This one's perfect with it's reference to reading. When I was in second grade, I started my tutoring career helping the unteachable to read. (I still remember Ronnie Rush; he's probably a rocket scientist now!) 

Our family dog, Sparky, bore a close resemblance to one of Tim's paper dogs. I just had to have Tim's Milk Caps when I saw there was one with these words on it. While the cap is referring to a type of dairy cow- Jersey cows, I used it to mark where I was brought up--on a farm in New Jersey. We had about 60 head of Holstein dairy cows at any given time.

I hemmed and hawed about what background to use for my Mini Framed Panel, but in the end remembered I had saved this heat embossed panel I made especially for this topic. You can see how I made this in my tutorial HERE.

Once my collage and frame were in place, it was time to embellish the wood panel. I chose a couple of Quote Chips--probably my favorite Ideaology product ever, right up there with the Paper Dolls. I heat embossed 'miscellaneous' in white and smeared it with Vintage Photo Distress crayon to tone it down. While it was not a great impression, the distressed look of it is growing on me.

At first, I thought I could take a pass on the Funky Flowers, but oh, my WORD! These are such amazing little dies that have endless possibilities. Come on, these are NEUTRAL and they're pretty; can you imagine how beautiful they are in bright or pastel colors? Take a look at my talented teammate Jenny's card where she uses set #1 if you need some convincing that these MUST be added to the top of your wish list! I used unlined index cards to mop up some Frayed Burlap and Iced Spruce Distress Oxides and black paper to cut these little pretties from. I used Liquid Pearls for some contrast, and a single half pearl that I had previously colored pink. I just swiped it with Prima White Gold Wax to go with the neutral palette. Just a hint of pink peeks out.

Thank you for hanging in there with my exceptionally long post! Now it's over to you! Please take a minute to pop over to Frilly and Funkie to see what my lovely teammates are tempting you with, and then I hope you'll get out your neutral craft goodies and play along with my challenge. Please see details on the blog. As always, the Design Team will choose a winner who will earn the chance of being a Guest Designer at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And there are Top 3 Badges for three further outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. I cannot wait to see what YOU will create!

I'm sharing with these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Time Out I stepped back in time using an antique frame back and many vintage elements.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes

heARTful stamping challenge Anything Goes + a stamp April 29 – May 6

SumMore Fun Mood Board #27 I was inspired by the vintage theme and neutrals with just a hint of color in the first photo and the white flowers with just a tinge of pink.

Artistic Stamper May's Creative Challenge - Backgrounds

The Crafty Addicts Challenge 47 Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday Challenge Weeks #332-#333 Anything Goes

Dies R Us Challenge #96 - Flowers

Die Cut Divas Graciellie Design April Showers Bring May Flowers

Bastel-Traum # 64 Mother's Day Flowers

Thank you for stopping by today, and for all your inspiring comments!

Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily


The following products were used and are available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Structures - Mini Framed Panels	Prima Gold Crackle Texture Paste	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #3 TDBK47926 (February Pre-order)	(JULY PRE-ORDER) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Antique Linen	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Iced Spruce
(JULY PRE-ORDER) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Frayed Burlap	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Black Soot	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Antique Linen	PRE-ORDER Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Iced Spruce	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Walnut Stain
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Rusty Hinge	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Worn Lipstick	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Stormy Sky	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #5 TDBK51756	Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #4 TDBK51749
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDAK47933 (February Pre-Order)	Ranger Multi Medium Matte 4 oz.	(March Pre-order) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Layering Stencils - Set 26	(February Pre-order) Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair-Metallique Wax- White Gold
(February Pre-order) Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair-Metallique Wax - Old Silver	Ranger Embossing Powder - White	Ranger Embossing Powder - Clear	(EARLY FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Botanical & Batik	$17.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Purveyor
(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Botanical Layers	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collector Layers	TIm Holtz Distress Mixed Media Heavystock TDA53835	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips	(FEBRUARY PRE-ORDER) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Milk Caps
(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ruler Pieces	Tim Holtz Ideaology Paper Dolls TH93555	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Journey Design Tape	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Baroque Frames TH93267 (February Pre-Order)	(MID-JANUARY PRE-ORDER) Seth Apter Baked Texture - Chunky Rust
(MID-JANUARY PRE-ORDER) Seth Apter Baked Texture - Patina Oxide	(APRIL PRE-ORDER) Sizzix Thinlits Set - Funky Floral #3 by Tim Holtz