Altered Pages Monthly Challenge

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year!  And speaking of the new year, our theme for this month's challenge is Chinese New Year.  2014 is the Year of the Horse, and this year, Chinese New Year's Day will actually arrive on January 31st.  So, to celebrate this day, I decided to make a Chinese Lantern, but instead of using a candle, I prefer to use the battery-operated tea lights.

Side 1

Side 2

Side 1-Night View

Side 2 - Night View

Close-up - Night View

I used two pieces of 6" x 12" black card stock that I scored vertically along the long edge  at 3", 6", and 9".  This gave me four panels to work with.

Next, I resized my four central images from AP 2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet and printed them onto vellum.   After cutting four lattice frames in the center of each of the two center panels using my Silhouette die cut machine, I placed strips of Scor-tape along the lattice edges, applying gold leafing through the openings.  When I removed the release paper on the opposite side of the Scor-tape  I centered the frames over my vellum images.

Graphic 45's Birdsong paper lent itself beautifully to decorating my lantern, using a decorative corner punch on each corner before adhering to each outer panel.  On two outer panels, I die cut two horses using my Silhouette machine, and two more horse images from the AP 2251 Year of the Horse collage sheet.  I used images from AP 1842 Chinese Health Posters to place behind each horse image, and a few calligraphy symbols for the center panels.

Supplies used:

Altered Pages Collage Sheets:  AP 2251 Year of the Horse; 

AP 1842 Chinese Health Posters 

Scor-tape 

gold leafing

Black card stock

decorative corner punch

Chinese embellishments

Mini tassels (4) 

Maple leaf brads

Below are some close-ups of each panel.  

           Side 1 - Panel 1

Side 1 - Panel 2

           Side 1 - Panel 3

Side 1 - Panel 4

Side 2 - Panel 1

Side 2 - Panel 2

Side 2 - Panel 3

Side 2 - Panel 4

Now that you have a bit of inspiration from the design team for this month's challenge, I hope you will join us for this fun, festive holiday by making your very own Chinese New Year project, posting it to your own blog and linking it up to the Altered Pages Challenge page.  There is always a wonderful prize to be won, and we love to see your work!

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see your creation this month.  

Hugs,

Barbara

CHA Block Party

Hello everyone, and welcome.  As most of you already know, the big Craft and Hobby Show, or CHA, opens today in Anaheim, California.

I am honored to be participating with many other designer artists in Sizzix's Block Party at CHA featuring one of Eileen Hull's new Sizzix dies, the Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D, aka the Artist Trading Block™, or ATB for short!   Here is a quick look at mine, with some directions on how I decorated it.

Eileen says this about her ATBs:

 The Block is part of my new Sizzix Cherished collection which is designed around a baby theme. But let me tell you, this die is not just for babies! First of all, it is a ScoreBoards die, which is specially designed to cut and score THICK materials, like matboard and chipboard. This technology is unique to Sizzix so you won't find anything else like it! 

The Block measures 3" square, can be assembled in under a minute and it is super versatile! You can use inks, paint, chalks, mists, or markers with your stencils- the rigid matboard makes the block nice and sturdy so you don't have to worry about wrinkling or tearing- load on the techniques- the matboard can handle it! 

Artist Trading Blocks™ are the next big thing in the crafting world! Unlike tags and ATC’s, Artist Trading Blocks allow you to create in 3-D!  Why show only one side of your creativity when you can express yourself with multidimensional style? Make your mark on these six-sided blocks using all of your favorite craft supplies and techniques.

Supplies Used:

Sizzix Scoreboards die: Block/Cube/Bank, 3-D
The Looking Glass 8x8 paper pad (Kaisercraft)
Distress ink:  Evergreen Bough (Tim Holtz)
Decorative Labels Eight die (left side), Blossom Tags and Accents (front)(back), Damask Motifs (top)(right side)(bottom),  (Spellbinders)
Corner rounder (Marvy)
Wooden clock (Prima)

Hey Pesto, South Pacific, Nougat Fresco Finish acrylic paint (Paper Artsy)

Paint edges and inside of both pieces of box with the three acrylic paints, blending as you brush it on.

Dry fit box together and mark sides and direction, as shown.  This will help greatly when you are decorating your box, especially if your papers and embellishments have a direction.

Now you can see which way to place your papers and images while working on it flat.

Cut 6 pieces of print paper slightly smaller than 3" x 3", ink edges with Evergreen Bough, and adhere to each side, marking with a tiny post-it note as you go.

Add your embellishments, maintaining that direction you have noted on your post-it notes.

Here are some close-ups of each side of the box.

And the completed box, once again.

I hope you enjoyed my project today.  This is going to be a fun new trend this year, so you may want to check out your local stores to get your hands on this wonderful die as soon as it becomes available.  If you are at CHA this year, I hope you are having a blast!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a super wonderful weekend.

Barbara

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 Sheets: AP-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)

Graphic 45 French Country 6x6 paper pad

Vintage Mix'd Media Inx

Pink Persimmon Sweetheart Mending stamp

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

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