Larger Than Life - Tando Creative

The only guidance for this week's challenge for the Tando Creative blog was bigger pieces rather than minis.  Well, this take on a dream catcher measures 30" from top to bottom!  Biggest thing I have ever done!

I started with 3 sheets of 12x12 Tando chipboard, and two metal rings, 12" and 7" diameter.  I used a couple of different star dies to cut the stars out of the card, and then painted them up to give them a good base coat.

Then I blinged them up, with mica (what else?!) and when that was dry, I used a star mask, with translucent embossing paste.  When that dries, it is amazing the effect it has on the paint and mica below.  It pulls the mica up into itself, and holds it in suspension, almost.

(the difference between the embossing paste when it's wet (white in the picture above) and dry - clear in the picture on the left is amazing!)

I had this silver furry ribbon in my stash, along with the beaded wire.  I glued the stars together, trapping the silver 'fur' in between the two layers, and then wound the excess round the rings.











I then wound the beaded wire over the top of the fur, which will hold the tinsel in place, and also used it to create a hanging loop at the top.

The smaller stars hanging from the bottom had the same treatment, but with slightly different colours.  When dry, they were glued together, trapping the end of the tinsel in between.

One (large) post-modern dream catcher!  (or a Christmas decoration, perhaps)

Hope you like!











Resources

Substrate
Tando Creative chipboard sheets
Metal rings

Dies
Sizzix Originals: Stars#2 654995
Sizzix Alterations Bigz: Star Bright 3D 658265
Sizzix Big Shot Pro

Paint and ink
IndigoBlu English Cottage Acrylic paint: Grandma's Teacup, Park Lane
Adirondack Paint Dabber: Silver

Bling and Other Stuff
Crafters Workshop Mask: 12x12 Punchinella
Dreamweavers embossing paste: Translucent
Luminarte Primary Elements: Majestic, Wisteria
Cosmic Shimmers Mica pigments: Silver
Perfect Pearls Mist: Interference Red

Free for all - Tando Creative

Hi all!  This week's topic was 'Free for all'. This made me think of 'free time' and I do love doing a clock!  The first time I 'noticed' Tando was on an Andy Skinner workshop, where we did a box, with cogs and things, then the next time was a clock.  I now have 3 Tando clocks around the house!


I started this time with a 12 x 12 sheet of board from Tando, and I pinched a mechanism out of one of my other clock kits, sat in the cupboard.  I had a bag of Tando cogs, and several cog dies.  I also used the large circular clock face.  I had in mind Andy's rust technique, but more blingy.

I sealed both sides of the board with matte medium, and punched a hole in the centre of the board with my crop-o-dile.  I cut several cogs and glued them down on the board, and some webby stuff from my stash, and used a clock face mask with modelling paste.  I then painted the lot with lamp black, three coats, to give it a good base.  When it was dry, I gave it two washes (allowing it to dry in between coats). 






 Then I got my new Stewart Gill paints out!  These are billed as jewel tones, and oh yes!  They are. The colours mix really well, and there are also some amazing iridescent mixers too.  I completely forgot to take a picture while I was painting, so this one is from when it was assembled (whoops).

I painted the clock face in shades of green and gold; I was thinking verdigris, but heavy on the gold.

The Tando cogs I painted separately, that is, straight in with the jewel paints.  The photographs really don't do it justice - the shimmer is amazing!

I wanted to add 'weights', so broke out the beads!  I cut some chain down, and created some embellishments using beads, and some more of the cogs, glued together.  I also had some nice time themed metal embellishments, which got rubbed with alcohol ink, to tie them in to the colour scheme.

Then I came to assemble to the clock - and realised (again - I did exactly the same thing last time!) that the mechanism needs two layers of board, not just one!  So, one of the spare circles I had over in my stash went through the big shot, to create another cog.

It got a similar treatment to the clock face, but with some embossing powder to give it a pitted look. 

The hands got alcohol inked, so they would stand out against the face - if I had left them black, I'd have never been able to read the time!

This has definitely been the most involved piece I have done to date.  Plenty of layers of paint, and then making all the bead drops for the weights! 















I finished the back off , swooshing around the edges with black paint, and then with a sheet of black card - using the big shot pro (ooh, new toy!) to cut a cog out of the centre, so I could put the mechanism through the central hole.

Now FOUR Tando clocks around the house....

Hope you like - I really do!

Resources

Substrate
Tando Creative:    12x12board, 12" round clock face, Cogs grab bag,

Paint and Ink
Stewart Gill Byzantia: Laurelius, Constantine, Seraphym
Stewart Gill Galactica: Holo Silver
Stewart Gill Alchemy: White Opal, White Mist,
Stewart Gill Meta Mica: Bright Gold
DecoArt Americana: Lamp Black
DecoArt Traditions: Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Quinacridone Gold

Dies
Spellbinders: Sprightly Sprockets S5-048
Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations: Mini gears set 657211, Gadget Gears 656636

Bling and glitz
Chain, beads, wire from stash
Embellishments from stash
Web ribbon stuff (!) from stash
DecoArt Modelling paste
Tando Creative Clock face mask
Claudine Helmuth Matte medium

Build me up Buttercup - Hels Sunday Stamper

Hi all!  This week, Hels' Challenge was Build Me Up Buttercup - all about layers.  I did the layers, but stuck with the buttercup idea as well.

Not sure it comes out well on the photo, but there is the main door hanger, which was covered with coated cardstock, and then acetate above that.

So a bit more detail:  I've got back into alcohol inks as a background, so on the glossy cardstock I created a meadow and sky sort of background.  I scraped translucent paste through a flower mask.  As the paste dried it pulled through a little of the ink behind (not much, as in this heat the alcohl ink dries REALLY quickly!!)




I stamped the buttercup twice onto cardstock, and then on to some dried out babywipes!  Someone at work decided to rip into the packet of babywipes, rather than go in through the top, the normal way.  They dried out and were about to be stuck in the bin, but no...  I think I had three stuck togther, and they were a bit like a piece of felt!  Dripped on gold and green alcohol ink and left it to dry.  The cardstock I used detail clear embossing powder over gold ink, then coloured them in with promarkers.

I cut the acetate to size, and dabbed a bit more gold (and pearl) alcohol ink mixative on the back side of it.  I mounted it up on foam squares, which I then had to cover (oh dear, more bling!) with some lovely prima flowers and butterflies.  I had a gilding flakes butterfly left over from the IndigoBlu challenge last week, and if THAT wasn't bling-y enough, a couple of squirts of mica sprays, just to tie it alltogether.  Suspect I may have been a bit heavy handed on that one, but hey, does it shimmer in the sunlight!  And that was the effect I was going for!!

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate - Stamps Away Door Hanger

Paint and Ink
Adirondack - Alchol inks, various colours
Brilliance ink - Pearlescent Ivy, Galaxy Gold
Promarkers - various

Stamps
PaperArty Hotpicks - HP1009 Happiness
IndigoBlu - Wild Meadow WM1

Bling and other stuff
Dreamweaver Embossing paste - translucent
Prima Sunrise Sunset flower stencil
Prima flowers and butterflies, mainly Engraver range, I think...
Stampendous embossing powder - detal clear
Acetate from stash
IndigoBlu Megaflakes - Lancashire tart
Cosmic Shimmer Shimmer mist - tarnished gold, bronze blush

Remarkable! - Wendy Vecchi Challenge

Hi all - yes, another one from me!  I am on a roll.  Apologies to my neighbours for the state of the lawn...

 

This is actually a birthday pressie for a friend and colleague, who is using the word REMARKABLE as our vision!  But as I was putting it together, I realised that it does also fit with this month's Everything Wendy Vecchi group challenge, which is Anything Goes.

This is another one of my lovely 8 x 8 canvas boards.  OMG, do they take paint nicely!  OMG, are they happy with heat guns!  I have now got some in 12 x 12 size waiting in the stash, so I have a feeling papers for scrapbook pages will soon be a thing of the past!

Anyway, having bought some IndigoBlu paint yesterday, I wanted to give it a trial.  This is REALLY pigment rich.  I mixed it with white gesso, and then a bit more, and then a bit more.  I suspect I may have wasted more than I used.  Note to self...less is more!!  I am amazed at how yellow my base coat became, considering the colours I used.

I dabbed some distress embossing ink through a stencil, and heat embossed in gold.  I stencilled (very faintly) two of the Andy Skinner faces in Vintage Photo, as there is no point being remarkable unless people notice!!

Then I hand stamped the very, very lovely honeycomb stamp from our Wend (how very presumptious of me!!), also in Vintage Photo, and dolloped some modelling paste (which was mixed with embossing powder, not that you'd know) through Wend's polka dot mask.  Set that aside to calm down!

I love Art Parts!  Such a cool idea, die-cut chipboard and a matching stamp!  Stamped and embossed the bee with gold embossing powder, and then dabbed her wings with a glue pen, which when the glue went tacky, I covered with holographic tape, to make her wings really shimmery.

Then, out came the Big Shot!  I cut the letters out of funky foam, using the Wordplay die. They have all been painted or daubed randomly with the same colours of paint.  When it had soaked in a bit, I liberally sprayed the whole lot with some dylusions and some cosmic shimmers.

Then I went and watched the last set of the Men's final!!  I snivvled a bit (I always do at other people's efforts!), then pulled myself together and came back and glued it all together.





I touched up the edges of the letters with a little inka gold (as you know, I do like my bling!) and went round the edges of the board with a little more.

Hope you like (and I hope my chum likes too!)



Resources

Substrate
Q Art Canvas board 8 x 8
Sizzix Time Holtz Alterations BigzXL die: Wordplay 657837

Ink and Paint
IndigoBlu Acrylic Paint: Burning Bonfire, Hot Cocoa
Distress Ink: Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Embossing ink
Dylusions: Marble Black, Pure Sunshine
Pebeo Gesso

Stamps and Stencils
Studio490: Art For You LCS093, Just Word Art SCS033
Studio490 Art Parts: Bugs and Butterflies
Studio490: Dots and Stripes borders
Andy Skinner: Baroque
Artist Cellar: Boy Genius

Bling and Glitz
Ranger Queen's Gold embossing powder
Cosmic Shimmer Dark Bronze lustre embossing powder
Dreamweaver embossing paste: Translucent
Cosmic Shimmer mists: Tarnished Gold, Bronze blush
Holographic tape
Fun foam from stash
Inka Gold: Lava Grun, Gold

Hatton Court - Just Scrapbooking Weekend

Well!  Linda Knight is A-MA- ZING!  Last weekend, she held a retreat in Gloucestershire, which was so much fun, using mostly stuff (apologies for the technical jargon!) I'd used before, but so so differently!

I'm not going to go through what we did for each layout, just post some photos.  Each of these is a 12 x 12 page, and I think the key thing for me is that the papers just aren't man enough!  Going to see if I can source some canvas boards to use next time...and sorry, Linda, there WILL be a next time! 

So here we go:

 
 Gelli plate printing, and a henna tattoo hand...

 with an Andy Skinner stencil, and some stamping in white...

This one was ripping fun!  Why don't PaperArtsy make this paper any  more??            That butterfly is super lightweight modelling clay, covered with embossing powder and heated - it went puffy!

I love this pic of my mum and dad...one of the few surviving ones of them together!

Linda introduced us to sari silk...wooooh, lovely...

Then we moved on to Stewart Gill Byzantium paint - why have I never seen this before?  OMG!  Made for me!!

To be honest, I hadn't really prepared well for this weekend. Despite have three large bags of stash, I realy didn't have enough embellishments. When I saw some of the others from the team, mine was distinctly light! But I have got the idea!

 

Dark card, black gesso stencilled on, then Fantasy film!  Again, who knew you could have such fun with an iron!?! 

The majority of the embellishments are metal.  but those wings are the modelling clay again, painted black, and touched up with Inka Gold in blue.

 

 

 

 

 A bit more fantasy film, some angelina fibres, punchinella, and a classy photo!

  No photo on this one!  Pure playing!  But the paper really gave up the ghost, hence the weights on the corners to try and keep it flat!

JOFY - workshops at the Stamp Attic

Last weekend, I was mostly at the Stamp Attic, hardly worth coming home really!!

Saturday was card making, and Sunday was a wall plaque, both with the JOFY stamps from Paper Artsy, and led by JOFY - Jo Firth-Young herself.  Two great days, really fun, really productive.

These are the cards from Saturday's sessions.  Jo's card were more pink than mine, as I really wanted to go down a blue route, not using Blood Orange quite as much as she did!! (Blood Orange is a lovely colour, honest, but I love love love the Pea Coat, which is a gorgeous translucent blue.  Of course, it found its way, with several friends, and some more of the JOFY stamps, into my basket...)











The wall plaque is an 8x8 canvas board.  This has loads of layers on it, and lots of sanding.  I killed a sanding block!  The Grunge Paste from Paper Artsy is extremely hard wearing!!  The flowers are predominantly Blood Orange (see, I CAN stick to the rules!).  Jo showed us a great way to use paints to create the base for her stamps, which we used both days.












HUGE thanks to Jo for putting up with me, and sharing her knowledge and insights (and providing us with a cool circle template!!), and to Wendy at the Stamp Attic for hosting these sessions.  Great fun!




 Materials

Inks and Paints
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish - I know I used these (but there were others, I think!):  Pea Coat, South Pacific, Toad Hall, Tinned Peas, Nougat, Blood Orange, Haystack
Distress Ink: Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade
Archival: Olive Green, Jet Black

Stamps
PaperArtsy JOFY, the full range!

Bling and other stuff
Andy Skinnner Baroque Stencil
TCW (I think!) Clocks Stencil, Agapanthus stencil
PaperArtsy Grunge Paste
Sakura Gelly Roll Pen
Spellbinders die cuts
Stickles