12 Tags of 2013 October

Once again it's another Tuesday and as I was going over new posts from my favorite blogs I came across Tim Holtz.  I saw his October tag and he made it look really easy so I thought, why not?

All I had were his distress inks, distress glitter (Black Diamond & Clear Rock Candy) and nothing else.  As it's about technique not products I thought just this once I'll give it a go.  I can use something similar and try and get a similar look if nowhere near accurate!!  I needed Distress Ink (I had that) Distress Glitter (I had 2) Distress Paint (I substituted Acrylic paint), Archival Ink (I had that) Bigz Dies (No luck there. I had Spellbinders Halloween ones though), some  Ribbon and Rangers Clear Glossy Accents.

I started off well enough. I used the dies to cut out a graveyard scene, a flying witch and a spider which I covered in Glossy Accents and smooshed it with my finger and poured Black Diamond Dry Glitter all over it. I left them under the mountain  of glitter for a few minutes and resisted the urge to pat the glitter down and then cleaned up the mess and put those pieces to one side. Now I went a small bit off course (later I went off planet, never mind Off Course!!!!)  

I didn't want to use the Black Diamond Dry Glitter again because I wanted to have a stalagmite/stalactite calcified impression to the gravestone strip so it would give this part of the tag a decayed mouldy look that I think came out better than I thought it would.  I was quite shocked it turned out so well because I was absolutely convinced it was going to go in the bin.  I painted it in purple let it dry and covered it in purple fine glitter (accidental) and thought I'd try and save it so I covered it again in glossy accents and put Rock Candy dry glitter all over it.  I let it harden a little, I sprayed Glimmer Mist Blood Red (I think?) from Tattered  Angels generously and put it to one side all the while praying to the Divine Artist that I wouldn't have to do a do-over on that piece again LOL!! 

 

 

Next the tag itself. I didn't have a big big one so I cut out a Size 10 one myself from a 21cm x 10.5cm.  I poured a little Golden Flow Improver and Golden Fluid Acrylics Iridescent Gold, Ultramarine Violet, Hansa Yellow and Vat Orange. I spritzed them with water and swiped the tag through them in different directions. I dried it a little with the heat gun and spritzed the tag with water and soaked the excess with a kitchen towel. I dried it completely once I was happy with the marbelizing effect on the tag.

Dry, I inked a script stamp from IndigoBlu with black Archival (Ranger) and because I didn't want a uniform, perfect impression on the tag I placed the stamp down without an acrylic block lifting it off and down here and there on the tag.  

Dry, I saw that it really wasn't spooky or grungy enough so I thought, for a moment, about what to use to give it a worn and almost grimy appearance (brassy, just like I had always imagined the silver and cutlery in Ms Havisham's dining room from then fantastic book, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens).  I wanted a real worn foil effect to make the tag look old, decayed and tarnished.

  

So I applied some IndigoBlu Flake Adhesive on some cut'n'dry foam and pounced lightly all over the tag and put their Yorkshire Dales Flakes and scooched it off. Normally I gently rub the flakes off but to give it a really worn matte effect  I rubbed much more off and repeated the process with Sheffield Steel flakes.  

That done, I aged it more with drops of ink and let it run down the tag a little and dried it off until I was happy with the overall look.  

As I had a spider die-cut I wanted to give him a cobweb so I used the one from Spellbinders.  As it's detailed I put wax paper closest to the die and when I popped the 1st one out I loved the way the wax paper looked as well so I repeated the same process to more times and l glued the wax paper to each cobweb piece slightly off setting them.

 

 

Next came the putting it all together stage (my favorite part).  I glued the 1st cobweb and put it on the upper left corner. I threaded the spider body so that it would move on its own.  The next cobweb I put on the lower right side and then adhered the graveyard strip on top.  Once that was dry I put the last cobweb on the right of that so it looked like an uneven spooky web.  I used black foam pads to stick the flying witch off the tag and then aged a Happy Halloween Label to the middle of the tag and finished it off with ribbon that I coloured with ink and scrunched it up and it looked as if it had been soaked in real blood, and then dried it and threaded it through the eyelet of the tag.  

I had so much fun that, I've ordered lots of Tim Holtz products and bought his online Chemistry 102 course.  I think he is a visionary and a genius when it comes to all things artistic and crafty in this world.  Some day I'd love to meet him and learn from him in person, or at the very least see him in CHA (even though I don't have a shop!)

Hugs for now and I'll post again next week!!

Celina

PS : everything in this post I purchased from Cardz and Scraps, Create with Kate or ebay

Finnabair Inspired Journal Cover & Bookbinding!!!September Prima Challenge BAP

I know that it has been a very long time since I posted anything here so I aim to do weekly posts from now on.

Last Sunday I along with about 30 other crafty minded people had an amazing time learning new techniques from the fabulous Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.  This was my second year learning from her.  She really is gifted. 

CardznScrapz did an amazing job organizing and hosting the day so hats off to Rosary and Lia for all their hard work. I'm sure that everyone in their team were involved as it was a tremendous day and the shop was diverse and well stocked. Needless to say this hurt my credit card (I'm almost certain I saw tears in my husband's eyes when he left) as I picked up a staggering amount of Prima stock that I absolutely had to have!! (When I got home, I realised, that was not the case at all).

It was fantastic!!

Now, one of the classes involved was learning how to do a canvas collage which was something I had never done  before so, when I got home that night to Waterford, I couldn't wait to do another one.

I thought well, what can I do this technique on that was not wall art yet sturdy enough to be a similar project?  I know, I'll make a journal cover and I will make a Coptic bound book out of it.  Woo Hoo!!!   

That is exactly what I did.

I covered a piece of mountboard and chipboard with canvas and it measured 25cm x 25.5cm

I glued everything together and folded 40 A4 sheets to A5 and made 10 signatures and once the cover was complete I sewed it all together.


In respect of her wishes I won't tell you how to do it and how I did this but I will tell you about the little extra touches I did to make it more personal and more Me! LOL!!!

I added lots of molding paste to the lace and ribbon and created texture with lots of the new Elementals Stencils by Finnabair (naturally) from Prima Marketing.  I also used, almost exclusively their wooden Icons and Junkyard findings.





 
 

I had taught my 6 year old daughter, how to do the 'caught in crystal technique'  with tissue and acetate and then die cut the smaller Jewel Goddess from Spellbinders out of it.  I let the purples and reds guide me in the colors of Luminarte sprays and silks I used. 




The letters were done with the Martha Stewart White Clay and alphabet molds. I didn't want it to look all even and symmetrical so I glued the letters on  slightly wonky as I wanted it to look a little more grungy. Here in Ireland you can get it online in CardznScrapz(follow the link above).  If they run out they will source more for you if you request it. 

Finally I highlighted a few areas with different gilding wax colours from Cosmic Shimmer from Creative Studios UK I wasn't able to find waxed thread so I made my own with a lovely lilac skein of embroidery thread and bees wax I got from Grubbs Framing here in Waterford City.

  I love how all this turned out and it really challenged me to look at my projects in a completely different way.