MIA - Happy Easter

Hey Bloggies,

 Just wanted to stop by and let you know that I will be MIA for a few days due to Spring Break. We are having some company for a week and will be site seeing in DC and surrounding area. I like to try and post everyday so I didn't want anyone to think that I'm gone. hehe! 

Have a wonderful Easter Everyone!!! God Bless.

Claudine

Your Late For Tea!

For those of you that know me well know that I collect tea cups. The more antique and old the better. So for today's project I really wanted to make one myself. 

I decided to use some of my Gelli Prints again. I'm bad, because I forgot to take a photo of my print prior to cutting it down. Luckily I have a photo of all my prints from a prior post. 

For the first photo I used the print with the large black dots 

For this second photo I used the print int he upper righthand corner with the octagons and lots of black and red. 

I found this great tutorial on pinterest for making a paper mache teacup. Mrs. Ann Wood posted a tutorial and printout for the pattern. I printed out the pattern and cut it out in cardboard and put it all together using her instructions.

I then tore up my gelli plate patterns and adhered those with modge podge. It was tough and I had to do a lot of holding the paper down.

It would probably be easier to use something more flexible than card stock but at this point I was committed.

I'm SO sorry but I didn't take any of pictures as I was doing this. I just forget and get carried away sometimes. Sorry!

Anyway, I did the same with the handle, paper and modge podge. I also wanted my cup to have a plate so I used cardboard  to cut a circle and my gelli prints to modge podge on there as well.

I have this great collection of Octopode Factory Alice In Wonderland characters by artist Lilly Chivers. I wanted to use those so i printed out a sheet and cut a few of them out for my cup. I used popsicle sticks and glued my Alice and Mad Hatter characters to them in order to stick them inside the cup so they were standing up.

I also put some pink heart tissue paper inside my cup to fill the inside. 

I used one of my leftover flower petals from my the previous creation Here and added a heart shaped brad.

Everything was glue gunned to the cup and I also glued the cup to the plate. 

I made a little sign for the Cheshire Cat with that famous Quote "Your Late For Tea!"  I glues that onto a popsicle stick that I cut smaller and glued it behind the cat so it would look like he is holding it. 

I have to say this was SO fun to make. I really had a great time putting it together. I love Lilly Chiver's whimsy and fun characters, they really add personality to this project.

I am entering this project into the following challenges:

Anything But A Card - Their challenge this week is to create something Springy or Alice In Wonderland Themed.

613 Avenue Create - This Week Is Anything Goes over there

Simon Says Stamp and Show - This week they are doing "Quotes" and I used the Famous Quote from Alice In Wonderland "Your Late For Tea" haha! That is my #1 Favorite movie of all time. I love it!!

Thanks for stopping by, next time I will be careful to take pictures of my process. SMILES!!

Dare To Dream Pocket Watch

For my project today I am going to be using the Tim Holtz Pocket Watch Die. I got this the other day from The Funky Junkie Botique and I was just itching to use it. I could not wait!!
I am going to enter this project into the Sunday Share over at Filly and Funkie. 

Also: Over at Hels Sheridan's Blog she is challenging us this week to do something Shiny and use a stamp and I have done both here so I might just link this up for her to see.

I will also be adding this one to Inspiration Journal - their challenge is to add a little POP to your creation. This is a new challenge blog for me (a suggestion from a follower) they give a random winner a 50.00 voucher YAY!

I wanted to make something that would go on top of my daughter's Bday card and also be something she could display in her room. Alot of times I start with an idea and it becomes something totally different as I go through the process. I started off by cutting about 4 of the pocket watches out of card stock. The last one that I cut I left the circle inside, this will be my base piece.
I used this really cool thick metallic embossing powder (almost like UTEE) to cover the base.

I then took a couple of stamps from Tim's stamp sets Mini Blueprints 3 and the clock from a Visual Artistry set I bought at Michael's and heated up the embossing powder and stamped these into the base. I LOVE how the background came out using these two stamps.

I also heat embossed the "top" portion of my pocket watch and the insert piece.

I took distress inks in Walnut Stain and Black Soot and went over all three pieces of my watch to give it a more aged look and dull it down a bit.

After that was done I created a butterfly out of one of Tim's movers and shapers and some grunge board. I used two different embossing powder colors and another one of Tim's stamp sets called Warehouse District. I again stamped the stamp into the embossing powder while it was heated in order to make an impression.

Love the way the butterfly looks industrial here. 

I took the "Dare To Dream" stamp from the Simple Sayings set and used it to stamp onto this piece of paper I had laying around. I also used Ranger's black fine embossing powder.

I layed everything out onto my craft sheet and figured out exactly how I wanted it to look before adhering it all with my heat gun. I used some idea-ology gears and I had this really cool piece of watch insides that I used as well. 

Once everything was in place I used Glossy accents to glue the other layers on top of each other. I took about 4 inner layers to cover the entire butterfly.

I also used glossy accents to glue a piece of packaging plastic to the top piece of the watch so it looked like a real watch and you can see through it. 

(sorry the pic was dark)

Once that was all done I used the same embossing powders and Tim's Tattered Flower Garland Die Strip to create these flowers for the outside of my watch. I also created a pin with some beads that matched the piece.

Lastly I painted the entire outside with Claudine Hellmuth's black gesso.

It's a lot of steps but it really comes together quickly and is so fun to do. I think I'm going to keep this one for myself and make a thinner one for my daughter's card. 

Happy Palm Sunday everyone, I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.

Think Spring Card With Distress Paints

For my project today I have decided to make a greeting card and when I think of Spring Or Easter, I think warm weather, flowers, green grass and Eggs!!!

I am really loving the Tim Holtz distress paints and have recently been able to buy some more of those yummy colors. I just love the brights so I decided to whip out my distress paints and play with those. I grabbed a piece of blue craft core paper and embossed it with an embossing folder for the base of my card.

I used Tim Holtz blueprint Easter egg stamp, I colored it with distress paint and a paintbrush and cut it out so that it would look like eggs sitting in the grass. I also cut the top off of one egg. I used Tim's metal foliage for the flowers and also painted those with the distress paints. I went over them twice so that they would be a bit brighter.

For the next photo I used Tim's alpha parts to spell the words "Think Spring" and I painted those blue with distress paint. I used the Tim Holtz picture wheel die (love, love this die) along with distress paint. For the water-ish effect of the paint I put some paint on my craft sheet and spritzed it with a little water, I then ran the picture wheel through the paint and the outcome is this beautiful watercolor effect. The paint runs together beautifully. Again, I added some more of the metal foliage and a metal game spinner and painted those.  

I cut my own grass by staining a white strip of paper with green distress stain and then just cut it up and curled it a bit.

Here is my final project, it's so bright and cheery, I love it!

I am entering this card into two challenges today. 

Simon Says Challenge Blog - Their challenge this week is Spring/Easter and I think this card fits in rather nicely with the theme. They are giving away a 50.00 Voucher to one lucky winner, YAY!
Hobby Cutz Challenge - Their challenge is Easter. They have two sponsors this week, themselves (giving away a 5.00 voucher to thier store) and also Fairy Dust Crafts who are giving 5 Digi stamps to one lucky winner. Double YAY!

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a Springy Day!!

A Gelli Print For My Sister

The other day I received a shipment of Dyan Reaveley's new "Couture" stamps from "The Funky Junkie Botique"

The one I ordered was called "A Walk in the Park". These are large stamps and I just love that they are too! My page here is 8x10 so hopefully that will give you an idea on how large the stamp is.

I am also obsessed with my Gelli Plate right now so I wanted to  use one of my prints again for this one.

I really like to show before and after pictures with the gelli print background because I want you to see how easy it is to do something cool with these prints once they are made. 

Here is a photo of what the print looked like before I started the page.

It's busy but I really like that the colors are so vibrant so I decided to use it.

To get started I wanted to break up some of the busy-ness of the print so I used Wendy Vecchi's diamond stencil with black embossing paste over parts of the background.

I also added pieces of black cardstock that I cut with Tim Holtz Washer Die

It needed a little more so I added a black cardstock cityscape to the bottom. The cityscape was actually perfect for the Walk In The Park Dylusions stamp.

I cut out some circles with another one of my Gelli Prints. Actually It wasn't a gelli print at all but a black piece of cardstock that I had used to wipe off my brayer while doing some gelli printing.  I added a little black paint and white gel pen swirls to them.

For the Girl, I used yet another gelli print, it looked like this before I stamped the girl

Since these Dylusions stamps are clear I was able to position it where I wanted, it was great!

I also used the same page for the hat. For the head and ponytail I had to free hand draw it and I used brown card stock since I wanted a brunette girl. I used my gelli print again for the ponytail holder in her hair. 

For the words, I used Dylusions Alphabet stamp set and white acrylic paint.

I used my white gel pen to create some dots and go around the cityscape (thanks to my friends at ATC_Fun yahoo group for this idea!!)

Here is my finished project

This page is special because it's going to my sister in Colorado. She wanted a piece from me to hang in her home. What an honor!! 

I am entering this page into the Frilly and Funky Sunday Share challenge. Linda is giving away a 25% off discount to the winner. Sweet! 

Thanks for stopping by, have an art filled day :)

Stenciling with Chicken Wire

This journal page started out with me cutting up some chicken wire and trying to use it as a stencil. (I know, I'm kind of a dork) I honestly just wanted to see if I tried to stencil with real chicken wire, what would happen. HAHA! On this page I used mostly Tim Holtz Distress inks and stamps and some stencils from crafters workshop and Balzer Designs. I really love how this came out. The colors are beautiful together and I love how the black is faded.  The Black Soot is where I used the chicken wire and what ya know, it worked!!

I didn't do a tutorial for this page, it's mostly just stenciling, stamping and embossing.

I am entering this page into a challenge over at Our Creative Corner - This week they are challenging us to a color wheel Analogous challenge, which means colors that are close together on the color wheel. You can also add black or white.

Hope you enjoyed today's page, take care and thanks for stopping by. 

Items Used: 

Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Black Soot, Seedless Preserves and Rusty Hinge

Tim Holtz Stamps - Way With Words, Numeric

The Moth is a stamp from Recollections and Micheal's

Crafters Workshop Stencils & Balzer Designs

Breathe Gelli Plate Journal Page

For today's post, I am talking Gelli Plate journal page. teehee!

I made this print awhile back and I just really love it. It doesn't look like much yet but it's always fun to just mess around with these prints and create something without any rules!

There is no upside down for this print. I like it either way.

But since I have to choose I chose to use it with the two up and the arrow down. Like this picture. 

To start I added some brick stenciling with various different distress ink in browns and green shades. I then went around some of the brick with pitt pens. 

I used a couple of Tim Holtz items on this page... one being a hand stamp in his Oddities and Ultimate Grunge Stamp Sets, another being his Word Play Large Die (for the word) and lastly his washer border strip die cut.

To create the hand and the flower I used some of my other Gelli Prints. For the Hand, I simply stamped on a gelli print. For the flowers I used this really cool stencil from a company called 3 Way Stencils (got this at Queen's Ink) and simply used the template portion to cut them out from a gelli print. I cut the stems off and made some of my own with washi tape.

I also used a bit of black washi tape here and there and also for the flower stems. 

This was a super fun page to create and using my gelli prints makes it more fun and imaginative. 

Thanks for coming by and having a look.

Have a great day!!

Sunshine

For today's post, I have done a journal page featuring a character from The Octopode Factory (Lilly Chivers). This one is called The Strawberry Girl. She is super cute, love her!
I will be entering this page into two challenges this week:
Octopode Factory Challenge Blog - This week's challenge is "Going Green"
Simon Says Stamp and Show - This weeks challenge is "Water"
I used water on my page with the Dylusions Sprays and also to create the Ghost technique and also on the umbrella.

I started this page with Dylusions Sprays in the colors Lemon Zest, Dirty Martini and London Blue.. I also used water to make them run together. I then used the "ghosting" technique and a stencil in some areas. Once dry, I used stencils and Adirondak Inks in various matching colors to do more stenciling here and there. 

To create the sun I used Dina Wakley's sun stencil and the new Tim Holtz Distress Paint in the color Mustard Seed. Once it was dry I went over it with white gel pen. 

The Umbrella is a piece in Dylusions stamp set called Ruby Rainbow and is painted with Dyan's sprays. I used goosebumps spray over the top to create a "wet" look to it. I then drew drops dripping with white gel pen.

It's sort of hard to see the "wetness" of the umbrella but I tried to capture it here.

I love how the stenciling looks behind the Strawberry girl.

I used the Dylusions Alphabet stamp set for the words. Love this set, the letters are large and so cute.

Last but not least I added some clouds (just freehand cut those and edged with black), white gel pen doodles here and there and also added the black circle border with Distress ink, black soot. 

I'm pretty happy with my finished page. I love the character and the theme. 

Thanks for stopping by once again.