Shabby Monochromatic

Hello Friends!

Today I am sharing a card  I made to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  The super-talented Cec is hosting a monochromatic challenge at Frilly and Funkie, and as soon as I saw her marvelous monochromatic purple card, I knew just what I wanted to make for my Mom. You see, my Mom lives her life in purple, and has for years!  I'm sure if she knew how, she would dye her hair purple! So here is my card I made to honor her and her special day.

To say that I was inspired by the Frilly side of the Frilly and Funkie Design Team in my make is an understatement. Obviously, Cec inspired me with her color palette,   Pamellia inspired me with her homemade papers, Georgie inspired me with her textured background, and Linda's swirls and doilies inspired my use of those on my monochromatic Shabby (!!!) card.  I emphasized shabby, because that's just not something I do every day!

I was just so inspired, too, by  one of my favorite Tim Holtz' Distress colors: Shaded Lilac. Oh, how I just love that name!  My favorite place to be as a child was at the base of a lilac tree that grew just outside our living room window. And I love how this color can look so entirely different on a variety of surfaces and in the various mediums, from a soft lilac to almost a periwinkle blue. Here is my card in a different light, taken on a piece of statuary and with my hydrangeas in my yard (sorry for the messy nose--bird poop!). Can you spot what's missing? Yes, the hat pins!  It seems like I'm always forgetting something!

Another Tim inspiration comes from his love of all things vintage, and I feel I've given my card a little vintage vibe with my "vintage wallpaper" tag here.

The bottom layer started as a cereal box, which I covered with coffee filters and cheese cloth using gel medium to adhere. I added some purple micro beads at this point.  I gave the entire thing a coat of gesso and threw on some clear  micro beads.  When dry, I swiped some crackle texture paste through Tim Holtz' Flourish Layering stencil and allowed to dry.  I wiped on some Distress paints in Shaded Lilac, Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves and spritzed with water to blend.  Next up, Dylusions Concord Grape spray ink, followed by a little Bell Bottom Jeans Glimmer Mist. I'm not a purple kind of girl, but I just love how pretty this turned out!  It's almost a shame to cover it up!

 I added the home made paper clay rose from my bits box, painted it, and adhered it with some more clear micro beads and added a few more beads here and there.  The Glue and Seal brought the pink out of the Seedless Preserves from the background.  I hope that doesn't take off points! I distressed the edges which left a little brown from the cereal box, so I swiped on some texture paste just on the edges to cover the forbidden brown.

The lavender tiny floral layer is just DP from my stash, and I added some paints and inks to the reverse side. 

The debossed layer is purple card on which I laid down a leaf mask (Crafter's Workshop) and spritzed with Plain Jane Baseboard Matte Mist in Ivory.  Then I debossed with an inked (Distress Shaded Lilac) Darice embossing folder. Afterward, I painted the petals with a mix of Shaded Lilac Distress paint and Dylusions Concord Grape and highlighted them with Picket Fence DP. I distressed the edges and dabbed them with Violet Dauber Duo.

The tag is cut from the same purple card, which I heat embossed using a Tim Holtz stencil, embossing dabber, and clear embossing powder, then swiped with Shaded Lilac Distress paint.  I gave it a quick wipe with a damp baby wipe, making it appear to be vintage wallpaper. I distressed the edges and left them bare. I splattered both the purple card and tag with Picket Fence DP.

I used Tim's Tattered Florals die and white card  to make my flowers.  I used Shaded Lilac Distress Ink to color them. The fibers were dyed using Seedless Preserves ink. The foliage is a Tattered Lace die. Bow and ribbon are died with Shaded Lilac Distress ink. 

 The butterfly is a Martha Stuart punch. I made my purple paper using Concord Grape and Bell Bottom Jeans and a spritz of alcohol for a very cool blend.  My sentiment is on a hand cut banner using Royal Purple Staz-On ink and a Stampin' Up image.  I used my Distress spritzer with Dusty Concord Distress marker and edged with Shaded Lilac ink.

The heart doily was fussy cut from a much larger doily, and stamped with a Stampington and Company image and Shaded Lilac ink.  My stick pins were pearl, so I dipped them in Picket Fence DP for a white accent, and the cheesecloth was also painted so it would be cohesive (it looked a little off white).  I used a Sizzix curly Gate die to cut my swirls from white card.

I know my Mom is going to love her birthday card,and I'm so grateful to Cec and the Frilly side of the Frilly and Funkie Design team and Tim Holtz for their inspiration.  Monochromatic is not the easiest, but it sure was fun!

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

Frilly and Funkie "Monochromatic"

Country View Challenges "Shabby"

A Vintage Journey "Celebrations"

The Artistic Stamper "Summer Is On It's Way!"

 I used 2 stamped images on my project.  Butterflies and flowers and a June birthday all remind me of summer!

Mixed Media Card Challenge #12 "Collage"

 To be honest, I had to look the word up to be sure I was within guidelines.  Collage " an artistic composition made of various materials glued on a surface" I think this fits the bill!

Our Creative Corner "What Makes You Smile?" 

Well, you're going to think I never frown!  Celebrating special birthdays makes me smile.  Knowing my Mom will love my card makes me smile. Flowers and butterflies make me smile. "Shaded Lilac" makes me smile!

Mixed Media World MMW#3: "Vintage"

 Perhaps more of a vintage shabby; I thought my tag layer looked like vintage wallpaper.

Thank you so much for stopping in today, and as always, I love reading your inspiring and encouraging comments! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

Anything But Cute Mixed Media Challenge-#2-Make It Masculine

Hello everyone!

 Today marks the beginning of our second challenge over at  Anything But Cute. Thank you to all those who entered our last challenge, and for those who visited and left lovely comments!  I would call our first challenge a huge success, thanks to all of you! The wonderfully talented Cec is our hostess for this month's challenge, and she has chosen the theme "Make It Masculine".

For my project, I went with a steam-punk-ish/John Wayne-ish cigar box tranformation. I made this as a Father's Day gift for my husband, so he can store all those little notes the kids wrote him when they were little.

For this challenge, Cec would like you to make a mixed media card or other project for a fellow in your life. It could be for Father's Day, a birthday, an anniversary or just because you want him to know how special he is.

 I actually started this a couple of years ago.  I was trying out a wax paper resist technique on another project, and I loved the "waste" wax paper so much, I just had to use it! A friend of mine gave me a huge tub full of cigar boxes, and so I got right to work using the wax paper on one of the boxes.  But after doing two sides, I got bored and up on the shelf it went, until I heard about Cec's "Make It Masculine" challenge.

I love leather and rust, and both of these just smack of "masculine" to me. So you will see that I used a lot of both of these elements in my altered cigar box. More is MORE, I say!

My cigar box started out like this.

To get a tooled leather look, I papered four sides of the cigar box with wax paper, which was embossed using Tim Holtz'  Regal Texture Fade.   After using the embossed wax paper for a resist on another project, and therefore, rendered basically wax-less wax paper, I colored the "waste" wax paper with alcohol inks to get this tooled leather look.  After I glued it on, I added some grunge to it, using stencils, texture paste, crackle texture paste, micro beads, Cloisonne High Gloss Granules, embossing powders, Distress embossing powders, stains, inks and paints. Note to self: Open the Closet door before going at all these chemicals!

For the lid of the box, I decided to go with a different leather look.  This time I used a simple brown paper shopping bag as my substrate. I've used variations of this technique several times before; I've used Kraft Core HERE and  a water spritzed lunch bag HERE to make backgrounds similar to this.

I used Distress inks, a Tim Holtz Pocket Watch Texture Fade, a Darice Crackle embossing folder, Glossy Perfect Paper Adhesive,  Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and a touch of  metallic wax medium to make this leathery-looking lid. Fortunately, I took a photo in progress; otherwise, you would never get to see how textured it is! Ha! Ha!  A little bit of a wasted effort, but at least I know it's under there!

 I used a piece of a  Tim Holtz Weathered Clock die cut from my leftovers pile and added texture paste, distress paints, embossing powders and Cloisonne Granules. I found the metal hinge on  my work table, and I have no idea how it got there. But it was a perfect addition, so I painted it and grunged it up from it's original shiny brass finish.

The tag is  stamped with a  Paperbag Studio image inked in Archival. I added a watch button from my stash--aged with Crackle Accents and black texture paste-- and a Tim Holtz Remnant Rub. I aged the Spare Parts knob with alcohol inks and Distress embossing powder. The number plate is made from a Tim Holtz  Ticket Texture Fade and a pink metal label frame. The brads were given a coat of Tarnished Brass Distress paint.  Here's the "before" when I was working on my arrangement.  The hinge had only been painted with Black Soot at that point.

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Here's  how I made my rusty cogs: I used Tim Holtz'  Gadget Gear die to cut the cogs from Grunge paper and blotted them randomly with silver alcohol ink Mixative and a drop or two of Blending solution on a felt blending tool, leaving some areas unpainted.  After this was completely dry, I wiped on watered down Black Soot Distress paint with my finger and wiped it off with a paper towel.  The Mixative acts as a resist of sorts, and most of the black paint wiped off. Caution: you're going to think you need new glasses when you look at these blurry shots.  There's only so much I can do with an  iphone camera!

                   

Next I splattered on Distress paints, drying with a heat gun between each to build up the color.  I used Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo, Fired Brick and Antiqued Bronze. Before drying the last color, I sprinkled on a little Tea Dye Distress embossing powder and then heated to emboss. I then added a few more paint splatters, drying between colors. You can see the cog is really starting to curl up!

I dabbed on some Vintage Photo Distress stain, and sprinkled this with more Tea Dye Distress embossing powder, then heated.  A few more splatters of Distress paints, heated between layers to finish off the color.  To give it just a little more texture and to flatten the cogs out, I dry embossed them with a Sizzix embossing folder 2 times.  Here is what the folder looks like. I don't know the name;  I purchased it used at a yard sale. It's hard to see the texture in the second photo, but it really adds a lot in real life

I followed a similar routine for the rest of the cogs, but used other products, and different sequence of paint application, and omitting the alcohol ink on some. I used clay embossing powder, Tea Dye Distress embossing powder, and Cloisonne High Gloss Granules on some of the cogs and some were cut using Tim's Steampunk On the Edge die.  I had so much fun trying different combinations, and enjoy seeing the results. (Each one made me smile, Jan!) That is what I love so much about mixed media--there are no mistakes!

The smaller cogs are made with paper clay and a Mod Podge mold. I painted and heat embossed them added micro beads to some and high lighted some of them with metallic wax medium.

The corners on the front of the box and key  are also made with paper clay and a Mod Podge mold and painted and heat embossed in the same manner as the smaller cogs.

I used Tim's Hardware Findings die for the keyhole and hinges using waste packaging for the keyhole and Kraft Core for the hinges. I used black texture paste, distress paint and embossing powder to make the keyhole look like old iron, and 2 brads were rusted for the nails.  The phillips head screws securing the hinges are made from grunge paper-- an idea I got from our super talented and lovely Pamellia at My Little Craft Things.  I changed her technique up a bit by folding the die cuts in half, sanding and painting the ridge with Black Soot.  Then I painted and embossed with Tea Dye Distress embossing powder.

In each of the four corners, I added paper clay medallions, crackle texture paste, micro beads, embossing powder and Cloisonne Granules, to give it an old mildewed look. If you've ever spent time in a barn you know that even the nicest leather ends up looking like this.

Here's a view of one of the sides.  You might have noticed there's a black cord at the bottom.  It's just simple black cord that I dipped in Mod Podge and left to stiffen over night.  It's got a great leathery hand to it and attached around the bottom of my box like a dream.  I used Tim's Measured Layering stencil, texture paste and Peeled Paint and Tea Dye Distress embossing powders and clay embossing powder to make the design.  I wiped on some metallic wax medium to high light.

The opposite side; more of the same. The clock hands were done the same way the key hole was, and fastened with an altered brad. A couple more paper clay gears and cogs.

And finally, the back of the cigar box.  I had removed the label before adding my wax-less wax paper, and so I added it back and distressed it in keeping with the vintage look.  More cogs and gears and a steampunk clock made with the same mold but this time with Sculpy, because paper clay just wouldn't cut it for this shallow mold. I cut my "leather" (Kraft Core) using Tim's Ticket Movers and Shapers die and added some "nails" made out of grunge paper.

Here's another look at my steamy-leathery box.

That's it for today! Please let me know if you have any questions.Thank you so much for stopping by and leaving your lovely and encouraging comments!  I hope you will be inspired to join in with our "Make It Masculine" challenge at Anything But Cute. I can't wait to see what you make for the man in your life! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

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

Mixed Media World MMW # 3: "Vintage"

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #13 "A Year of Choices" I chose MMMC #2 Around the House.  I used wax paper as "tooled leather" and a paper shopping bag for "leather" in another background. If a cigar box counts, well, I used that, too!  It's just not commonly found around our house!

Our Creative Corner "What Makes You Smile?" Knowing I was making a special gift for my husband had me smiling the entire time I was creating this. Rust and grunge always make me smile.  Altering things and making something from junk makes me smile.  

A Sprinkle of Imagination "Anything Goes" I used lots of Distress products, which A Sprinkle of Imagination sells in their shop.

Sandee and amelie's Steampunk Challenges "The Ravages of Time" This is my first time entering this challenge, and so excited to find it. I may just have to enter more often, now that I've given steampunk a try!

Eroded Metallic

Hello crafty friends!  Today I have a wall hanging using Tim Holtz' technique "Eroded Metallic" from his book A Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3. I even photographed my piece on my old eroded metal file box here. It's raining here today; otherwise I would have taken this outdoors to photograph.  Sorry for the glare.

Linda Ledbetter's Studio L3 is up to their 29th Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge, and she is challenging us to make an original project using this technique.  You can find full instructions on how to do this on page 44 of Tim's book.  You can order your own copy here, if for some unfortunate reason you do not yet have this valuable resource.  Linda and the Crew have a few prizes:  Tim has generously donated a massive pile of goodies for the Crew's choice, and Joy and her family at Inspiration Emporium are offering a generous $50 gift certificate to the lucky winner.  And if that's not enough, you also get to learn and practice a new Tim technique!

This technique lends itself to just about any crafting style, but I wanted to go with a vintage look so I could join in the fun at Mixed Media World for their third challenge, "Vintage".  If you have not yet had a look at what this talented Design Team is up to, hurry over as fast as you can!  You will enjoy the view!

I wanted to use some of my new to me goodies, so I could join in with one of my favorite Mixed Media challenge blogs, Mixed Media Monthly whose challenge this month is "Year of Choices".  They are celebrating their one year anniversary, and to mark the occasion, Donna is allowing us to choose one of this past 12 month's challenge themes.  I am choosing "New to You", since I've recently picked up a few items I haven't used yet. I've also used my stain glass foil tape in a new way!  And of course, this technique is new to me, too!

Another reason I love this technique is that it allows me to play with my Distress paints.  A Sprinkle of Imagination is in the middle of an "Anything Goes" challenge, as long as you use at least one product available from their store. I think I have it covered!  Be sure to check out this challenge blog--you will get plenty of inspiration from the talented Design Team there!

What makes me smile? Jan over at Our Creative Corner wants us to answer this question in our artwork with her challenge "What Makes You Smile?".  For me, blue skies with white puffy clouds make me smile.  They remind me of simpler times when my kids were babes, and we would lay on a quilt in the backyard and while away the afternoon looking for dinosaurs, dogs, and any other animal in them. Of course, any one who knows me knows I love RUSTY things! I also smile when I've learned something new. So I've focused my wall hanging on these things.

I used the Eroded Metallic on each of my elements which are all mounted to a plain black metallic card adhered to cardboard. I went with a simple background, because I really wanted to showcase the technique.

Inspired by Hels Sheridan's gorgeous tag, I chose similar colors for my cloud filled sky. I was also inspired by Candy Colwell and her lovely vintage clipboard in making my frame.  She used embossed images coated with gesso prior to laying down her colors, and I followed suit. I used Tim's Distressed Frame Texture Fade to emboss my plain white card stock .  As Candy did, I gave it a coat of gesso, dried it, and applied my color.  When dry I stamped my cloud image (CI Stamping) in Jet Black Archival.  I wanted to give my clouds a silver lining, so I used Brushed Pewter for the Eroded Metallic technique on this section.  It's very difficult to photograph, but the Eroded Metallic is there.

For the "frame" portion, I laid down color, then stamped a wood grain image (Heidi Swapp) in Coffee Archival ink. This was kind of a wasted step, since it barely shows after doing the Eroded Metallic.  For the technique I used Antiqued Bronze and Tarnished Brass.

My sentiment comes from my new (to me) Tim Holtz Phrases 2 set, stamped in Jet Black Archival ink. I love this quote. Next, I embossed the complete card a second time to get nice raised texture.  I applied Ranger Embossing Dabber to the raised areas randomly and sprinkled with Ranger copper embossing powder.

I did the Eroded Metallic technique on some black card scraps, this time using only Antiqued Bronze for the technique, and made two die cuts using Sizzix Curly Gate. I also used a sponge to dab on a tiny bit of Chipped Sapphire Distress paint. I'm showing this shot of my work while I'm figuring out how I wanted to arrange my elements, because I think the true colors on the butterfly really show up quite nicely.

On a piece of thick glossy waste packaging, I used the Eroded Metallic technique using Tarnished Brass, Antiqued Bronze and Brushed Pewter. I felt like I had the best results using this type of card. I cut a butterfly and embossed it using my new Butterfly  Duo set.  I adore butterflies, and I've been saving my pennies to get this die!  I'm sure I will get a lot of use out of it!  Here are 3 more butterflies I used the technique on using various colors and card types. I decided to make little brooches out of them. I added some Chipped Sapphire Distress paint on the silver one after doing the technique, because it looked a little ho-hum.

Each butterfly got some body work.  The one on my wall hanging got some microbeads and curled up wire in two metallic tones, since I couldn't decide which one to use!  I added the teensiest bit of Cloisonne High Gloss Crystals for the head. I popped the butterfly up with several thicknesses of foam tape to give my otherwise flat piece some dimension and to make it look as if he were flying through a window. I used Cloisonne High Gloss Crystals on the butterfly brooch bodies (say that 5 times fast!) and various wires curled up for antenna.

My foil tape edging was inspired by Cheryl Grisgby and her wonderful altered phone box.  I tried using Tissue Tape, but the colors didn't quite look right.  So I reached deep into my stain glass supplies (I haven't even looked at them in years!), pulled out the foil tape, and Eroded Metallic'd it, too!  This was another surface that this technique worked very well on. I used Antiqued Bronze and Tarnished Brass for the technique here.

So there you have it!  Each one of my elements on my wall hanging got the Eroded Metallic treatment!  I want to thank the Curiosity Crew--each one inspired me, through their lovely artwork and by encouraging us to practice this technique.  That was very good advice!

Thank you for stopping in, and for all your lovely, encouraging and inspiring comments!  I read and appreciate every single one of them! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

I would like to enter this into the following inspiring  challenges which also happen to be five of my favorites:

Studio L3 Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 29

Mixed Media World MMW#3: "Vintage"

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #13 "A Year of Choices" I chose Challenge #8 "New to You" because I wanted to use some of my newest Tim Holtz buys: Butterfly Duo die and Phrase 2 stamps and try a new Tim Holtz technique.  I also wanted to try using one of my old crafty items in a new way!

Our Creative Corner "What Makes You Smile?" White puffy clouds in a blue sky and rust...and trying new things!

A Sprinkle of Imagination "Anything Goes"

Distress products used:  Paint: black soot, antique linen, walnut stain, peeled paint, tumbled glass, faded jeans shaded lilac, chipped sapphire, antiqued bronze, tarnished brass and brushed pewter. Inks: vintage photo, shaded lilac, chipped sapphire, and tumble glass (I think)

Other products are mentioned in the text.