Thursday, July 30, 2015

Getting Crazy with the Compendium of Curiosites Challenge #3 – Altered Surfaces

I can't believe there is only one more CC challenge after this one! What a fun time it has been. Thank you Linda (at the Studio L3 blog) and the Curiosity Crew for hosting and inspiring us with all these wonderful challenges. All techniques come from the Tim Holtz book, A Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3. This current challenge's technique is found on page 45 of the book. I can't share it, but I can tell you it's crazy fun! Speaking of crazy, have you seen all the fun new stamp sets that go with the popular Crazy Bird stamps? I got my hot little hands on them and the totally awesome Bird Crazy dies too and created a crazy fun birthday card for my youngest son:


His name is Jon (hence the "J") and he turned 9 (hence the "9"). These little crazy birds are all set to celebrate and wish him a happy birthday. ;-) This is what you call a loaded card. I'm glad I don't have to mail it – it is chunky and heavy! I altered the metal J, the foil tape covered scalloped border and the Alpha Parts 9.

Thanks to the Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the prize for this challenge. Be sure to hop on over to Studio L3 and see all the wonderful inspiration from the Crew and entrants.

Many of the supplies I used for this project (like the Crazy Bird products!! grab them quickly while they are still in stock!!) can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE. ;-)


Friday, July 24, 2015

Guest Post for AJVD

Hello, today I am happy to have a guest post up over at the A Jillian Vance Design blog. They are featuring "Christmas in July" projects this month. I know I always run out of time in December trying to get all the fun projects done that I want to accomplish. Start now and you'll be ahead of the game!



Cruise on over to the blog to find out the techniques I used to make this card. You can find out new ways to use your supplies!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

July Art With Heart Challenge – Make It 3-D!

http://www.eileenhull.com/2015/07/july-art-with-heart-challenge-make-it-3-d.html

Hello there! Our July Art With Heart challenge has been up and running and you won't want to miss out on this one! The design team is focusing on Eileen's Make It 3-D die. This die easily adds a whole new dimension (literally!) to all your regular flat dies. The possibilities are endless! One of my teammates said she just wants to run around making everything 3-D now. You'll see in my project that I used a Tim Holtz alarm clock die and made it into a little shadow box.

Note that you do not have to use this die in your challenge project. We just want to see your best 3-D projects. But if you enter, you will have a chance to win your own Make It 3-D die. Now that's a prize! So without further ado, here is my project with the newly dimensional Tick-Tock alarm clock:


Step 1 – I cut out all the shapes I needed from matboard. The Make It 3-D die has three different shapes you can use depending on your "flat" die shape and how you want to give it dimensionality. Since the clock shape is round I used the shape with the multiple close set scores to make a smooth curve. I cut two of them because one wasn't long enough. I needed about one and a half. It's easy to just piece them together to get the length you need.


The rim of the clock face was narrower than the tabs so I just trimmed one edge with my Tonic scissors (Best scissors ever! They easily cut heavy materials like matboard.)

Step 2 – I built the body of the clock. Fold on the score lines and bend into shape. I like to use a super strong, fast grabbing liquid glue – Api's Crafter's Pick The Ultimate! I just had to hold it in place for a moment with my hands and then I put a large stamp block on top with some weights to let it set up a bit. It only took about 10 minutes and then I was able to move on.


You can see I cut a circle to form the "back" of my clock and cover up the tabs. I covered it with a sheet of music, lightly gessoed over that, and then used a stencil with modeling paste to add some texture. I went ahead and glued that into position also.

Step 3 – I colored the inside of the clock before gluing on the clock face using various mists. I also misted the doily base while I was at it.


Step 4 – After the interior was dry, I glued the front of the clock on and then covered the whole exterior with a light coat of gesso. When that was dry I base coated the body of the clock with a mix of Dioxazine Purple and Quinacridone Magenta. I wanted a dark color to peek through the crackle paint I was planning on covering it with. Which I did next lol. I applied the DecoArt Media Crackle Paint more thickly on the body of the clock for larger crackles and more thinly on the bells and handles because I wanted a finer crackle look there.


After the Crackle Paint was dry I applied a wash of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide over it all and highlighted the feet, bells and handle with Metallic Gold. Over everything I applied Raw Umber Antiquing Cream. A final coat of Ultra Matte Varnish sealed everything up.

Step 5 – "Decorating" my clock was fun! I made the bird nest by first taking a lightweight sheet of brown paper and using a pad of Distress Ink (Walnut Stain) to add dark brown (direct to paper). A light misting of water gave it a mottled appearance. When dry, I cut sections of skinny paper strips that I wound around into a nest shape. Tip: leave a little section uncut at the end so you can manage the strips better and they don't fly all around.


The bird, flowers and leaves I cut from cardstock and "watercolored" with various colors of DecoArt Media fluid acrylics.

Whew! That was a long tutorial. If you are still with me, thanks. Be sure to go check out the challenge post and Eileen's design team will be sharing their inspiring projects all month long. Join in the fun!

Many of the supplies I used for this project can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE. ;-)

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics colors used: Metallic Gold, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Dioxazine Purple, Quinacridone Magenta, Yellow Oxide, Primary Yellow, Vermilion, Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Yellow Green Light, Green Gold