Monday, April 30, 2012

Treasure Box

My son wanted a box to keep his tooth fairy money in and various other treasures that he has found and I had this plain wooden box in my stash (no pic, sorry). He loves blue, so I started out with Lindy's stain all over the box, adding in different shades as it suited me. Next I took a cut out of the mini gears die cut from the Tim Holtz Sizzix die and temporarily stuck it to the lid. I put a puddle of white acrylic paint on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water and dabbed my paint brush into it. I washed this mix over the gear shape, just to give a faint impression of the gear....and I love how it looks!
His name is created from some dollar store letters that I used faded burlap crackle paint on and washed over with the blue stain. The stamps are all stamped in archival black ink, from artistic outposts steampunk set. I used some (very) old rubons from CTMH for the inner lid, which I have been hoarding forever, lol. Lots of Tim Holtz hardware and I have a treasure box that my laddie loves!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Fabio goes Hiking - Lindy's Stamp Gang Post

Fabio went hiking with me for Lindy's latest product contest. I tucked him in my pocket and away we went. My puppy Pal was a little put out on the hike, as fabio got a little extra attention and Pal tangled with a porcupine (much against my advice, I may add). THAT took a few hours to get over! Lindy has this cool contest for her newest line of 'FLAT FABIO'S'. All the colour and no shine. Be still me heart...this sounds like something I will love and have to play with. AHHHH, for the guys in my life :) Thank you Lindy!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Rainbows, Clouds, Sunshine - Use it OR Lose it

This challenge was to use rainbows or a piece of that theme on your layout. I had been toying with an idea for a while, so this pushed me to put it to paper. I used a tutorial from splitcoaststampers for the triple layer popup card .

Can you see the dimension?

I used Sky Blue cardstock for the base and literally flipped through my scraps and pulled out the colours of a rainbow. All paper is CTMH, the stamp set is Splendid Day (a favourite that I look at and rarely use, lol).
I had to create a band to hold the card shut, so glued a tree cutout onto it to hide the glue. I know the inside of the card is unfinished, but I can't decide if I am sending a birthday card or using it as a sorry you are hurt card for a coworker....I will finish with 'a little birdie told me....you took a tumble or a little birdie told me, you are having a birthday"
the stamp for a little birdie told me is from ClearDollarStamps

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I went for a walk and this is what I found.....A trip down Nostalgia Lane

Haha, eat your heart out Tim Holtz...for inspiration nothing beats this.
Old wooden rims
Old Tractors parked and left
A pile of metal wagon wheels
An old tractor seat....hmmm, stools?
and gears,tons of gears, buckets of gears, sprockets, flywheels and cool steampunk STUFF! I was inspired by Tim Holtz collections as shown on the Creative Chemistry course and I knew my brother was a collector and I want a clock like this. So I went shopping :)

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Altered Paper - Use it or Lose It Challenge

Maybe that title should be Ugly Paper Use it or Lose it, lol. The challenge is to take paper that you aren't that fond of and use it up by altering it in some way to make it palatable. So, without further adieu

....Wings, how I struggled to like you and now.....you are done! Hooray! I used the Joseph's Coat Technique from Technique Junkies and White Daisy inked a butterfly over it. The stamp sets used are Find Your style and an unnamed promo set. The outer butterfly in turquoise is a leftover from my Creative Chemistry class....gold embossed on kraft paper with a musical background stamp and painted with LindysStarburst Spray in turquoise.
A close up of the paper....

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Creative Chemistry with Tim Holtz - Embossing Techniques

I love the rusty enamel technique. Truly my favourite so far and I see using it lots. I need to get some of the Distress Embossing Powder.

I also had a chance to play along with Tim Holtz's EAster tag. I love this little guy and thank you CanadianNickel for the easter bunny so I could play along.

I printed out the postcard from a site (I need to get back to you with the link :( ) Used MFT's grass die with kraft paper and pear ink direct to paper over top and sanded lightly off. I cut my own bow out freehand and used kids glitter glue to pretty it up. The damask embossing folder in the background and a kraft tag from the ARt philosophy cart. I think that sum's it up. i LOVE it :)