Make It Work

Sorry it's been a few days since my last post. I've been working on getting things ready for the move. I'm excited about it but it is a ton of work and I am sad that I won't get to craft and post on my blog for a bit while I'm "In Process". It shouldn't be long though, maybe a couple of weeks.

For now, I'm working on a project for my husband's boss as a going away gift. She is such an awesome person and she is so kind. My husband wanted to give her something nice as a gift. She loves Project Runway and since the motto of Tim Gunn is "Make it Work" we wanted to make sure to use that phrase in this project and we wanted to add a little Steampunk twist.

I am entering this project in the following challenge:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - This week it's all about the letter "S", I'm using it for "Steampunk" this week.

Frilly and Funky - Sunday Share - My item from Frilly is the Wanted Tim Holtz Strip Alphabet Die, I just got this die and I love it!! It's just the right size for this project.

For starters I took the glass and backing out of the frame and sanded down the entire frame. The was just a basic wood frame 

I used Tim Holtz tissue tape and Claudine Hellmuth's Matt Medium. I applied the tissue tape to the inside window of the frame.

I used a piece of Paper House Productions paper, I love this paper for this because my husband and his boss both work at the Pentagon and how fitting this paper is. I just tore it into pieces and adhered that to the rest of the frame. Layering it along the way.

I went around the paper with Adirondak Espresso ink. I wanted to use permanent ink here so that when I seal the paper it won't smudge.

I made some flowers from a Stampin Up paper punch. I used Tim Holtz glassine and dark blue paper. I stamped onto the paper with a Wedny Vecchi stamp and silver ink. I wanted to use dark blue paper because my husband is in the Air Force.

I added a mini Tim Holtz gears to the center of each flower.

I then just added lots of gears and other embellishments around the frame to decorate.

I also added The Words to the top and the letter "A" and the number "9".. my husband works in A9 at the Pentagon, so there is a meaning behind everything here. 

Here are a few more photos and the finished product

I just need another two Findings Corners (I ran out) and then  put the glass and backing on and it's done! I hope that she likes it, I just love how it turned out. Loads of Tim Holtz goodness here. 

Have a super day!! Thanks for stopping by.

Postcard Project

I have decided that I want to start making more postcards instead of so many tags. I want a good way to store my projects that I don't plan on giving away or using in some other way. I have this 7 Gypsies recipe card tray that I'm using to hold all my 4x6 cards. I put feet on it too, using Tim Holtz Idea-ology foundations feet. I've decorated all the tabs and have added a few Journal prompts from a swap I was in on my AllThingsTim yahoo group. That front card was made with some awesome Graphic 45 paper.

For this project I had to join a few challenges (of course) here is a list of the challenges I'm joining with this one...

Hobby Cutz - This week they are challenging us to add some flowers and or roses to our projects.

Octopode Factory - Their challenge this week is "Lovely Ladies", I really like this theme. 

613 Avenue Create - This week is Anything Goes! Woot!

This is going to be a bit of a rushed post, so here we go....

To start I used Coordination's Craft Core dark brown paper and ran it through the Big Shot inside a Tim Holtz gear embossing folder, then used my handy dandy sander and sanded it up.

I then used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and went over the raised parts in order to highlight them more

I then did something I haven't done in awhile and got out my perfect pearls, I dusted the background with Heirloom Gold and spritzed and heated to set

Tore printed paper, edged with gathered twigs

Cut flowers with tattered flowers strip die, went around edges with marker and then stamped with Archival and Wendy Vecchi numbers. Made more and layered them.

(got this technique from Clare Lloyd over at Unruly PaperArts)

Ran ribbon through antiqued bronze distress paint, dried to set

made a bow

Colored my Octopode Factory Audrey Gal with a combo of distress markers, gel pen, colored pencils and copic markers

Here is alink to Lilly's shop if you want to check out her digi stamps 

Lilly Chivers

Added some Tim Holtz Film strip with the mini stapler

Put everything together and here is how it turned out....

These flowers are so cool, I added buttons to the center

I also edged the entire card with my metallic marker

I also added some of Tim's Metal ide-ology gears

Thanks again for stopping by, I hope you are a designer of your own dream!! 

Happy Day to you!!!

Altered Playing Card Steampunk Tag

Live The Life You've Imagined!

This is one of my favorite sayings and it's on a few Tim Holtz Stamps, I decided this was the saying that I wanted to go with for this tag.

For the project today, I entering the following challenges:

SanDee & Amelia's Steampunk Challenge - The challenge over there is "Altered Playing Cards", this is my first time playing with them and I am really having fun with it. I will have to play more often with SanDee and Amelia

Fun With ATCs - Texture is the theme there and I created texture with the embossed metal and my playing card is ATC size.

To start with this tag I sanded a little bit onto my playing card to give it some tooth and prep it for the Distress Paint.

I then went over the entire card with some peeled paint - Distress Paint, I wanted to card to show through and it worked perfectly. I also went around the edges of the card with black soot distress ink.

For my tag I dabbed several colors of Distress paint onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water and then ran my tag through.

I also stamped with Archival ink and a Tim Holtz word stamp

I used more paint dabbers in several colors for my cardboard pieces that I used. These turned out so cool, I just love how the colors run together.

I used metal tape and several alcohol inks and a Tim Holtz clockworks embossing folder to create my piece of metal. I also went over the top after it had been embossed with Black Soot distress ink.

In order to create a pocket (so that the playing card can be pulled out) I only tore off the paper backing of the tape in the areas I wanted to stick to the tag and left the rest of the brown paper.

I used a piece of card stock with writing on it and colored it with distress inks. I stamped my sentiment with Archival black ink. The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz stamp set called "Odds and Ends"

Lastly I used apiece of Tim's tape measure ribbon and stained it with a combo of distress paints and alcohol inks to colorize it. I'm sorry, forgot to photograph that part.

I added some other elements and lots of Tim's Findings

This is how it all came together... (notice the measuring tape on the right side here)

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial for today, please feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have questions. I really try to answer all question and usually reply to all comments. 

The First Time

When was the last time you did something for the first time? I really love this quote from Tim Holtz's stamp set "Way With Words". I decided that I wanted to use it in this project and I also want to enter this into the Frilly and Funky challenge this week. Their theme is "There's No Time To Waste" and it's all about time.

I chose to alter a book cover that I had laying around. It's been sitting on one of my table for a bit now and I have done nothing with it. I want to make some sort of journal out of it but for now I will settle for altering the cover.

The cover is just really thick cardboard so I decided to try out a gesso resist with it. I applied a bit of gesso, let dry and then brushed distress stain over it.

I randomly stamped the background with archival inks pads and misc Tim stamps. I also added some embossing powder here and there.

I then used grungepaper and Tim's weathered clock and gadget gears Sizzix dies. I used acrylic paints in various colors and also distress paint in the metallic colors to paint these. Mostly I just painted with my fingers, no paintbrushes needed.

I also used this Stampendous aged copper enamel embossing powder for the clock parts. This stuff is awesome.

I grabbed some corrugated cardboard and used distress stains and inks to ink them up in various colors.

I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of scratch paper and distressed it using inks. Same with the bird, mostly distress inks. 

I added some metal and flowers and corrugated butterfly (which I colored with distress ink and added embossing powder too) and put it all together and this is how it turned out, what do you think?

Thanks again for coming by, I will be doing product review in my next post for the Genius Ultimate Platform System by Lifestyle crafts. You have to see it!