Hello! It sure has been a while since I've posted anything here on my blog, and truth be told, a long time since I've had the guilty pleasure of making anything. Life takes precedence sometime. But I was offered the opportunity to Guest Design at The Funkie Junkie Boutique blog, and it was just the push I needed to get in the Closet again. Thank you to Jenny and the team for inviting me to play along with them this week! I hope you'll swing over to the blog!
Laura is the host of the current challenge, Chalk It Up!, and the Design Team has made some wonderful projects to inspire you with. I chose to use a tin for my take on the chalky challenge. I love fiddling with Tim Holtz' Trinket Tins, and HERE is a rustier version I made when I was actually on The Funkie Junkie Boutique's Design Team.
Here's how Laura describes her challenge: "September is normally when kids head back to school, it is when the learning begins again....Create a project about learning, does not have to be a school themed project, learning is not just about books and school, sometimes it learning a new scrapbooking technique, or a cool fact and you must include chalk IE - chalk paint, chalk board, actual chalk....". Additional challenge details can be found on the blog.
I find that a good part of learning comes from experimenting, so I spent the morning playing with a box of cheap chalk sticks I had in my stash. I initially played with Tim's chalkboard technique using one of my latest purchases from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, but I wanted to do something a little different with my chalk. I'll save these for another project.
I made a few backgrounds from black card using my new Foliage 3D Embossing Folder and played with different papers/cards with the Oak Leaf 3D Impresslit. For one of the backgrounds, I simply embossed a black panel, and swiped over the raised areas with the side of my chalk stick and smoothed it with my finger. I added some color with Rustic Wilderness and Cracking Campfire Distress Crayons to a few of the leaves. Love how it changes the tone of the colors!
The panel I used as the background on the other side was made by rubbing the chalk stick over the raised areas of the back side of the embossing folder (the slightly narrower side that doesn't have the black on it) before inserting the card, spritzing it with water and embossing, using three passes through the machine. This causes the chalk to get into the cracks. After removing the card I dusted off the excess dust and lightly sprayed with water and heat dried to fix the remaining chalk. Then I sprayed with Lucky Clover (I thought I had chosen Rustic Wilderness from my rack, but turns out I don't have that color in oxide spray.) and Cracking Campfire Distress Oxide spray. I wasn't very impressed (no pun intended) with the results, but in such a small area, it makes a nice textural backdrop.
I embossed and cut the two Oak Leaves with the Impresslit from black and kraft card. I smeared a couple with Antiqued Bronze crayon and the others with the side of the chalk stick. Then I reversed that, and the ones I smeared first with chalk, I applied crayon to, and the ones I applied crayon to, I applied chalk. It really gives them different looks in the end, but I honestly cannot remember which got what treatment. Just play, and see what you like. I ended up using only the smaller kraft leaf, and added some leaves I had in my stash made in previous crafty sessions.
I didn't stop there with my chalk play. I experimented with a technique where I floated chalk dust on water and then floated different black substrates on it so as not to push the chalk dust into the water--plain cheap black card stock, chalkboard cardstock and a black plastic substrate. After each was dipped, carefully removed and left to dry, I sprayed with 3 coats of acrylic sealer used for pastels to prevent the chalk from smearing. I used my cheese grater to make the dust-LOL.
I ended up using the chalkboard cardstock panel for the front of my tin after spraying with Crackling Campfire Oxide spray and later smearing on Rustic Wilderness paint thinned with water with my finger and dipping it into the remainder of paint left on my craft mat. You can see I've used a couple Field Notes ephemera pieces on the front, too.
Here's how I prepared the tin: Drawing from the subtle colors in my mainly black and white backgrounds, I prepped my tin with gesso, Opaque Crackle Paste, paints (Peeled Paint, Rustic Wilderness and Rustic Wilderness) and finally Walnut Stain crayon making sure each layer was dry before adding the next. I cut the prepared panels to size to fit in and on my tin and adhered. Before adhering the two inner ones, I added layers of corrugated cardboard to bring them forward in the tin.
Finally, I gathered and prepared my embellishments. The Ideaology Toadstools were smeared with crackle paste. When dried and crackled, I smeared the caps with Ground Espresso and Cracking Campfire crayons and the stems with just Ground Espresso.
I learn so much from nature, and this Quote Token speaks of that. The token is smeared with Cracking Campfire paint and wiped off, then tied with some leftover dyed Mummy Cloth threads. I arranged and adhered all my pieces within the tin, including some natural things from my yard, additional foliage as noted before, scraps of die cuts and more of the dyed Mummy Cloth.
