Artist Trading Blocks Inspiration Team - I Made It

Hello everyone and thanks once again for stopping by the blog. I have a wonderful and exciting announcement to make. 

A couple of weeks ago I announced that Amy Bowerman over at Plucking Daisies was having a call for the Eileen Hull Inspiration Team. They recently announced the Team and what a wonderful group of such talent. 

Well, there is also an Artist Trading Block Inspiration Team that was assembled and guess what? I MADE IT!!! I'm so excited because ever since I made one for the CHA booth back in December/Jan I have been hooked. 

You can check out the team announcement on the website here:

Artist Trading Block Inspiration Team

We were asked to show some of our favorite Artist Trading Blocks that we have created, so here are some of my favorites:

The original post for this steampunk creation is here:

ATB Going Steampunk

The original post for this Beauty is here:

ATB Shoot for the Moon

and lastly, these is the very first Artist Trading Blocks or ATBs that I have ever made, this is what made me fall in love with them:

I am so thrilled and over the moon excited about being on this wonderful team of talented people. 

Make sure to go on over to the Eileen Hull site and check out the New Inspiration Team and the wonderful new Challenges, here is link:

Art With Heart Challenges

The Art with Heart Challenge is a monthly celebration of creativity!  Each month the Inspiration Team will be showcasing their Art with Heart created with Eileen Hull’s innovative Sizzix dies. They will be following a broad theme left entirely open to creative interpretation.  We invite you to play along with us and share YOUR art with heart!

We want this to be a place for everyone to create, inspire and share.  We would love to see what you can do with Eileen Hull’s fabulous products but this is not a requirement.  Use what ever products your artful “heart” desires.  Art is for everyone so come along and share your Art with Heart!

Also here are all the Artist Trading Block Links if you would care to check them out:

ATB FACEBOOK PAGE

ATB TWITTER PAGE

ATB PINTEREST PAGE


Thanks for coming by and sharing in my excitement!!

Cheers!!!

Artist Trading Blocks - Steampunk Style

So I have noticed that there are several artists out there doing some steampunk type Artist Trading Blocks (a Sizzix Die by Eileen Hull) and that has really inspired me to do one myself, I mean, I love Artist Trading Blocks or ATBs and I love Steampunk!! It's a match made in craft heaven!!

If you go to the artist trading block site you can see several ideas and get tons of inspiration there...

Artists On The Block

and make sure to check out Amy Bowerman's Site Plucking Daisies - She is doing a Eileen Hull Inspiration Team Call

For this ATB, I wanted to make something really special for my daughter for her 16th birthday. So this Artist Trading Block is going to be her 3D card from me... This one is going to be open and have flowers and butterflies coming out... I hope she likes it

This is going to be a photo heavy post - sorry 

I did this really cool riveting technique that I learned from the fabulous Tim Holtz. I took a class of his a little over a year ago in Maryland and this technique was awesome. I have loved it ever since...

I added a Soda Pop tab to the lid of the box to act as a opener

In this photo you can see some of the riveting and also the top

I colored them both with alcohol inks

I also added some Tim Holtz metal numbers to the lid and colored those as well

Here are some photos of my finished Artist Trading Block

I added watch pieces that a friend of mine sent to me, I used some metal mesh for the center of some of the flowers, I used gear dies (by Tim Holtz) and watch parts, old buttons, this was so fun to put together

Click the photos to enlarge so you can see the details better

I found this new challenge site called A Vintage Journey and the theme is "Tim Holtz" so I decided to link this one up for the challenge.

Thanks again for coming by, I hope you enjoyed my Steampunk ATB.

Stay warm and don't forget to set your clocks back this weekend!!! Ha!!

Artist Trading Blocks

I have something special to share with you today. I've got the "Block" buzz! 

I'm so excited that I have had a chance to create something with the new "Artist Trading Blocks" or ATBs for Sizzix by Eileen Hull.  These will get an official release at CHA in January and I'm honored that I got to play with them a little early thanks to the wonderful Amy Bowerman.

I knew I wanted to make a bold statement with these so I started by painting my pieces with Tim Holtz distress paint

(I'm showing all my steps with the green block but I used the same steps for the red one)

I also painted some letters of chipboard and grungeboard shapes that I will be using

I will be using Tim Holtz tissue paper but I wanted a crumpled effect so I just crunched it up into a big wad, I will be cutting this up to match the sides of the block

Next I added some shapes and letters to each side of the block

(forgot to take a photo of this step but I used glossy accents to adhere the shapes and letters)

Next I took some Claudine Hellmuth matte medium and used it to apply my tissue paper to each section of my block. I simply pushed the tissue around each shape to create crumples and giving each shape a 3D effect

Once that was dry, I used the paints again, I dabbed the paint here and there and used a paper towel to smooth it out. This gives the paint a bit of a transparent look so that you can still see the tissue paper underneath it but also makes the color more vibrant

Once that was all dry, I then took black paint and did the same thing but this time I only used it on the raised shapes under the tissue, this really made them pop

 I then used various stencils here and there on each block and also added a few more shapes, that I had previously painted,  over top the tissue

Lastly, I edged each section with black paint and added some white touches here and there. I went around numbers, shapes and letters with white paint for enhancement 

That's it, my ATB's are complete, take a look

On side 3 I added my name and blog and one of my favorite sayings, "Spread your wings and create", I have put it on several of my projects over the years and I just love it!

This is the view from the top of the boxes 

I hope you like the tutorial and I hope that you will grab up the die for these great ATBs once they are available. They are so fun to work with!! I am very excited about this adventure!

You can visit the Artist Trading Block website here:

Artisits On The Block

Make sure to follow them on social media
Twitter: @ArtTheBlock 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheArtistsOnTheBlock