Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Two for Tuesday Blog Hop with Altered Pages & Pink Persimmon

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Two for Tuesday Blog Hop.  This month, we are teaming up with a wonderful stamp company, Pink Persimmon.  I selected this wonderful sewing themed stamp because I love collecting vintage sewing tools and sewing themed ephemera.  It is about the size of an ATC, so it is perfect for my project today.  So, I decided to make a sewing themed matchbook style mini book, using Altered Pages collage images and this stamp.






After stamping the image directly onto various collage images, I then adhered them to stronger card stock, cut them out, and inserted them into the bottom of the matchbook  Here is a close-up of each page inside the book.



Inside matchbook
To finish off, I added a tiny dress form, some bling, and distress inked the edges.  Then I 
tied Sunflower ribbon around top and pinned sewing machine charm to ribbon knot.


Supplies used:

Altered Pages Collage SheetsAP-649 Vintage Sewing Trade Cards (roses, girl & pup, mother & daughter sewing, frowning girl, toddler); AP-468 Antique Sewing (ladies sewing, sewing machine, scissors)  (printed on Astroparche paper)
Burgundy/tan card stock (Nostalgiques-EK Success)
Lasercut doilies (Gina's Designs)
Archival black ink pad
Sunflower rumple ribbon

Hope you enjoyed my vintage matchbook project today.  Wouldn't this make an awesome ATC holder?  And thanks to Pink Persimmon for sponsoring us this month.  I absolutely love this particular stamp image.  It lends itself to so many possibilities.  So be sure to go on over to both Altered Pages and  Pink Persimmon for all of your art needs.

Don't go anywhere though, there are more projects for you to enjoy from the rest of the team.  Here are the links to help you find your way.
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Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative week.

Hugs,
Barbara

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Sin City Stamps DT Tryout - Treasures in the Attic


Hello everyone!  Today, I am trying out for the Sin City Stamps design team again.  So, I want to share my "Treasures in the Attic" altered art piece for consideration.  Once again, I am going to use a technique I learned from Finnabair.  I have truly enjoyed my first two terms here with Sin City Stamps, and I hope I can continue for another term.  Wish me luck, everyone, and please leave me a little love (comment) and let me know what you think of my piece.


Supplies Used:

Sin City Stamps:  Bingo (Bingo Collage, Chair); Gear die cuts
7" x 9" Mat board (2)
Corrugated card board packaging
DCWV Timeless Type 8x8 paper pad
White gesso
Glacier Blue Texture Crackle (DecoArt)
G45 tags from packaging
Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans distress ink (Tim Holtz)
Leather Mix'd Media ink (Colorbox)
Vintage Sepia ink (VersaFine)
Vintage text paper (Altered Pages)
Mini Rosettes die (Sizzix)
Ink Sprays:  Squeezed Orange, Melted Chocolate (Dylusions); Lemon Metallic, Blue Hawaiian (Maya Road); Chocolate Covered Cherries, Jazz Blue (Tattered Angels)
Chipboard shapes: tree branch, flourishes (Maya Road)
Bling (various sources)
Paper flowers (Michaels)

Directions:

Cut a piece of mat board and corrugated card board to 7" x 9".  Adhere both pieces together for stability.  Cut up scraps of corrugated cardboard to 3/4" x 5", 1-1/4" x 4-1/2", and 1-1/4" x 6", varying the directions of the corrugations.
Paint all corrugate pieces with white gesso.  Allow to dry.  Spritz all corrugate pieces with melted chocolate, orange, chocolate covered cherries, and lemon metallic mists.  Use a spatula to randomly spread Glacier Blue Texture Crackle over entire base.  Allow to dry.
Use damp paint brush to blend colors a bit.  Allow to dry.
Attach drawer handle to 1-1/4" x 4-1/2" corrugated strip with brads, 3 decorative brads to the 3/4" x 5" strip, then glue all pieces to base.  Set aside.
Stamp Bingo Collage onto a piece of print paper with leather ink.
Heavily distress and ink edges with scattered straw.  Curl corners a bit.  Add a gear and spinner over clock image.
Stamp chair onto a different print paper with vintage sepia ink, fussy cut.

Cut a mulberry paper flower and a gear die cut in half.
Since my gear was cut from pink card stock, I needed to change the color to match my piece.  So, I spritzed it with lemon metallic and chocolate covered cherries ink sprays.  Amazing how easy it is to transform your paper colors.
Layer one half of the gear on top of the flower. The other will be placed behind the Bingo Collage image.  See photos for placement.

Finish adhering all of the embellishments using glue or foam dots, as needed, for dimension.  See photos for placement.

Adhere cream lace around the edges.

Glue metal corners down to each corner over the lace.

Lightly gesso over all pieces just added, i.e., the metal parts, lace, paper flowers and leaves.


Trim two G45 packaging tags to 2-1/4", then paint with white gesso.  Allow to dry.
Add both tags to back of mat board for hangers.
Add circle paper clips to each tag for interest.
Lightly cover any paper images that you don't want to spritz with color with paper towel, and use all of the spray inks listed above to add color to the gessoed pieces, this time adding the Jazz Blue and Blue Hawaiian mists.  Dry inks between coats so you do not muddy your colors.
Here are a few close-ups.




Scrunch up a piece of cream rayon ribbon, spritz with water, then spritz with orange, lemon, browns, and a touch of the blue ink sprays.  Leave to dry in the scrunched up position to get a crumpled, vintage look.  Allow to dry.

Thread and twist ribbon through holes in each tag hanger, knotting ends to keep ribbon from pulling back through the holes.  Wrap ribbons with decorative chain and add two rusted stars. See photo above.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my "Treasures in the Attic" piece today and will give some of these techniques a try.  Sin City Stamps are the perfect accompaniment to all of your paper craft and altered art projects.  Best of all, they have some amazing new product to go with their stamps, such as matching chipboard shapes, books, stencils, and masks.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

Hugs,
Barbara

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Dressmaker's Parfumerie Shoppe

Hello everyone.  I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's holiday.  But the celebrations are over and it is back to the old grindstone.  But the Sin City Stamps design team is still at it and have some wonderful projects to share with you in the new year.

Today I have a fun altered art project to share, using all sorts of mixed media, dies, stamped images, and collage images.  We are sponsored this month by another fabulous company, Altered Pages, who have provided us with some wonderful collage sheets to share with you in our projects this month.

Supplies used:
Sin City Stamps:  Romance (banner); Dressforms (wire dressform)(lace border); Rosette Hearts (three rosettes); Art Journaling with Terri Sproul 2 (bricks)(flourish)
Altered Pages AP-785 Brown ATC collage sheet
Eileen Hull's Window Box die (Sizzix)
Ink pads:  Adirondack Espresso, Colorbox Frost White pigment ink; Memento Art Print Brown; Distress inks in Frayed Burlap, Evergreen Bough, Dried Marigold, clear embossing
Embossing powders: detail white, clear
Astroparche paper; 60lb Mottled Parchment Paper, Prima print paper scraps,
Grunge paste (Paper Artsy)  (modeling paste or spackle will also work)
Gesso (any brand)
Acrylic paints:  Vintage Lace and Nougat Fresco (Paper Artsy)
1/4" Scor-Tape
Mini button brads

Directions:

Cut window box from mat board and put window box together following directions on die.  Do not attach the box to the window frame just yet.  Spread grunge paste all over window frame and box front.  Allow to dry.

Paint window box and frame with white gesso.
After painting with gesso, my first thought was to use my various ink sprays, but I was inspired by a recent post of another one of Sin City's very talented designers, Astrid McClean, to use my Fresco acrylic paints instead.  So I next painted both the box and window frame with the Vintage Lace, then hit the high spots with Nougat for shading  to bring out the dimension made by the grunge paste.

Stamp bricks randomly onto window frame with Art Print Brown ink.  Smear and wipe off with paper towel.  Remember, this is a very old shoppe, so we don't want perfect bricks.  Distress window frame with Frayed Burlap distress ink.
Resize Parfumerie lady image from the Altered Pages AP-785 Brown ATC collage sheet  to 3-1/2" x 5" and print to fit inside the shadow box behind window frame.  This determined how large to make my shadow box, as follows.

To make the shadow box, cut a piece of cereal box weight chipboard to 5-3/8" x 6-7/8".  
Score along all four sides, first at 3/8" from outer edge, then again at 1" from outer edge.  Paint edges with the same color paint as on the window frame.

Trim off each corner, as shown in photo.  I only removed two corners so you can see the score lines at the corners before they are removed.
Add scor-tape to outer edges only, and fold sides up as shown.  
Adhere Parfumerie lady image to center of shadow box and glue tabs down along each corner to form box.  (I used hot glue for speed, but a good, quick grab glue, held with clamps, would also work well.)  Also, I placed the tabs on the outside of the box, which will not be seen.
Adhere window frame to shadow box.
Here is what it looks like on the back.
To finish off the back, I simply painted it with the same Fresco colors.

Stamp three different rosette images each onto three different Prima print paper scraps, one wire dress form, and Love Potion No. 9 bottle onto one Prima print paper scrap with Espresso ink.

Fussy cut images and ink each with Frayed Burlap, Evergreen Bough, and Dried Marigold distress inks.  Set aside.
Layer each smaller rosette piece consecutively with foam dots for dimension.  Glue fancy toothpicks to the back of each rosette flower.  Set aside.
Add clear embossing ink over bottle image and heat emboss two or three times with clear embossing powder to obtain the glass look.  Set aside.

Stamp and emboss lace border onto mottled parchment paper.  
Fussy cut image and place over bottom of window box, pierce holes through image and box and attach with mini button brads.  Add Frayed Burlap distress ink over lace image.
Adhere window box to bottom of window frame.  Adhere wire dress form and bottle, as shown.  Add some paper shreds and rosette flowers into window box.  See photo for placement.
Die cut photo wheel, cut in half, paint with Vintage Lace and Nougat, let dry.  Randomly stamp large flourish over photo wheel with clear embossing ink and heat emboss with clear powder.
Rub Frayed Burlap distress ink over wheel, wipe excess ink from embossing.
Adhere photo wheel to top of frame.

Stamp banner portion only onto Astroparche paper, coloring only the outside image with a Vintage Photo distress marker.  Using a marker makes it simple to stamp just a portion of your stamp, and if the ink starts to dry before you finish, just huff your breath onto it to re-moisten the ink.

Computer generate "Dressmaker's Parfumerie Shoppe" onto a sheet of paper, then align the stamped banner image over it and tape in place.  Run it through your computer again to get the phrase printed inside the banner.  Fussy cut image. (TIP:  Place the wording page on your monitor and let the light of your monitor help you see through the page with the stamped banner image to align it for printing.)  Adhere over photo wheel with foam tape.

I hope you enjoyed my altered art project today, and will give some of these techniques a try.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and be sure to visit Sin City Stamps to see all the new products they have, including chipboard, mini books, and die cuts, all to match and go along with your stamps.  And for collage sheets and mixed media needs, Altered Pages is the place to visit.  

Have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy the beginning of the New Year!

Barbara

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I can hardly believe it is now 2014.

I have a brief post for you today.  It is a simple tag that could be given as a New Year's card, or better yet, hang it from a nice bottle of champagne or wine when you visit your friends or family to ring in the New Year.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the ornate frame, sizing it to fit my Happy New Year collage image, and also sized the tag shape to be large enough for the frame.  I embossed the tag with a harlequin embossing folder and added some gold ink to the embossing.  For added bling, I ran a thin gold line sticker along the inner edge of the frame.  This really added so much to the whole look.

I die cut a portion of a picture wheel from gold print paper and added tan card stock beneath the wheel with "2014" rub ons to fit inside each opening.    I first adhered the picture wheel, then added the framed collage image with foam tape for dimension.

After inserting some pretty ribbon through the tag hole, I adhered a paper flower and a couple of scraps of botanicals I had laying on my desk.

Tie an extra length of ribbon through the hole and around the neck of your gift bottle.  Voila!  What a beautifully decorated hostess gift.

Supplies used:

Graphic 45 papers and card stock (Christmas Past, Core-dinations)
Altered Pages AP-1133 Happy New Year collage sheet
Various dies and cutting machine
Embossing folder
Number rub-ons
Ribbon, botanicals

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for stopping by and supporting me throughout this past year.  I wish everyone peace, prosperity, health and happiness throughout 2014 and always.

Hugs,

Barbara