Poor lonesome friend! - Melt Art Mania

has taken over here too, I am afraid.

I have been hoarding some UTEE for quite some time now but never had the guts to use it with all those awesome techniques like stamping in UTEE or creating high gloss embellishments with UTEE... but this has changed since I read Candy Colwell's "Ranger Melt Art Mania" post over here. Her project is sooo awesome and her stepxstep really gave me the feeling that I could not go wrong. So I tried and this is what I came up with:

Yes, you are right: I had some put aside backgrounds from my various tries to create a yellow background tag for the DDTIO "Yellow, lightbulbs and wire" - challenge.  They were too dark to fit what I wanted with the lightbulb theme, but for using my brand new Stampotique stamps they were just perfect!!!! They are sooo cool - I haven't bought any Stampotique stamps until now, but when I saw these I just had to have them. NOW! *lol

The "melt art" techniques I used were: covering the die cut bat with some layers of clear UTEE, which was a lot of fun to do.

Then I stamped the frame image from IndigoBlu partially on top of the tag and covered the image with black embossing powder for heat embossing.

Next I experimented on stamping into UTEE - which was my very first time (I always was afraid of breaking my stamps by getting them stuck forever in UTEE or something like that ;).

For a first try I was quite content with the outcome. (So, please, be gentle with me *lol).

I also used melt art as a resist by stamping the Tim Holtz barbed wire image and covering with Ranger Ultra Fine Detail clear embossing powder for heat embossing. Afterwards I blended the area carefully with "black soot" Distress ink, trying to create a kind of border.

The eyes of the poor lonesome friend were heat embossed using black embossing powder too to make them look more intense.

The Stampotique Owl Tree image was the perfect background image for the sad scenery.

The tag's background texture was added by using a LaBlanche "burlap" stencil, DI "pumice stone" and a blending tool. I masked the spot, where I later stamped our "friend" on by covering this area with a cut out shape of the image.

Then, by pure accident, I stumbled upon a really cool "technique" while pimping up the ribbon I wanted to use with this tag:

as the ribbon was originally bright white with only the barb wire image printed on it, I first blended it with DI "black soot" to match the dark look of the tag. As the ribbon was a rather shiny material and less absorbent than cotton or linen for example, the DI stayed very much on top, which I only realized when I stained the ribbon using Distress paint "wild honey", dapping dots directly onto the ribbon... which caused the ink to build black edges around the yellow stains...which looked more than just perfect for the tag's theme!!!!

Cool, huh? I heat dried the ribbon and adhered it to my tag after I had distressed the edges and blended them with DI "pumice stone".

Now let's hope someone soon will find the courage to play with our sad friend! ;)

Most images were stamped with my favourite two inks: black jet archival ink from Ranger and Distress ink "black soot", so I enter Simon Says Stamp and Show's "Favorite Ink" challenge with this tag.

Hope you like my tag! Thanks for stopping by again!

Hugs,
die amelie x

On the Wild Side

Hello, dear friends, followers and new readers!

Today I am here to present to you the brand new challenge themes over at Try It On Tuesday and FunwithATCs (if you want to know more about the latter please scroll to the previous post).

On the Wild Side

 is this fortnight's theme for 

Try It On Tuesday

and I LOVE IT and of course I hope you do too!

We want you to feature animals or birds with your creations.  (Sounds like birds were no animals... *lol)

Well, many of us have specialized on bird stamps (when it comes to "animal stamps") and love them (as do I) - so this is a wonderful challenge to get them out and use for a gorgeous project to enter! So this is why they are mentioned separately. But of course any animals you feature are welcome ;)

It was the perfect occasion for me to use my brand new RedLead jar stamp together with the lovely Oxford Impression stamps from the "Deep Sea" sheet. 

I stamped the images using jet black archival ink and coloured them with brush felt tip pens afterwards. The labels were stamped using HeroArts alphabet stamps, cut out, blended with DIs and glued to the tag.

I also stamped the "NATURE" script onto the ribbon for the tag to add some texture.  A little blending with DI "spiced marmalade" and "antique linen" with tag and ribbon. Done!

Hope to see your entries soon over at Try It On Tuesday! 

Happy crafting and hugs,

die amelie x

"Recycling" at FunwithATCs

is this fortnight's theme with us at FunwithATCs!

I always love "recycle" challenges - a wonderful opportunity to use up left overs from other projects, scraps, ephemera, and especially die cut left overs. Many dies do not only cut your desired shape but also the other parts from the die if you do not cut your papers to exact size.

So for example I have a lot of die cut letters and numbers (and I am not able to  throw them away... even though I cannot do any words with them that would make sense - having used the important letters already ;)

So here comes my recycling ATC for our Recycle-Challenge:

Definitely every single piece used on this ATC is a left over from previous projects, die cutting attempts and background left overs made using stencils, sprays and all that messy stuff I love to work with.

The background is cut from a piece of glossy card I often love to use as a mat when I work with alcohol inks or apply gesso to smaller pieces of paper or card. This one shows the "traces" of a stenciled flourish that did not turn up well enough to use it with the project it was meant for. So I cut it to ATC size for later use - and now its' time has come. :)





The "M" is a left over from my self- made foam word stamps, made by using letters I die cut from funky foam.

The frame was "accidentally" die cut together with the big tag from the Sizzix Bigz tag die designed by Tim Holtz.

To add some fun I fixed the tiny tags on top of that frame together with the
frame and left them spin-able. So you can play around a bit, changing the look of the ATC as you please.

Just in case someone wonders - no, there is no hidden meaning with the letters m and n and the 1,2,3. I chose them by colour and shape, thus putting together an "assemblage-ATC".
Recycling gives me a kind of freedom in thinking which I enjoy very much. Browsing through left overs, playing around and finally putting parts into place to create something totally new is a lot of fun and often a surprising to me too when a piece is finished.

This time I even used a recycled background (packaging material from a T-Shirt) for taking the picture...  100% recycling.Yesss! *lol.

I hope you like it and have a lot of fun (like I had) creating an ATC from recycle material!!! I am already curious to see your makes with us at the FunwithATCs challenge!

Hugs,
die amelie x

Yellow, Lightbulbs and Some Wire

is the theme over at DragonsDream TagItOn and I LOVE it. Yellow is such a vibrant (but also quite tricky) colour to work with! And I LOVE lightbulbs - this time I used my beloved 3rd Eye lightbulbs (the big and small ones) - AND I love wire too. The perfect challenge for me then - so I had to join in. :)

For the background I die cut a white #8 size tag and gave it a layer of "mustard seed" DI using my favourite TCW "Mini gears" stencil and the blending tool.

Then I cut some gears using the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers dies and used the left overs from the white card as a stencil too to add another layer of "mustard seed". The cut out gears were blended with the same colour and put aside.

Using archival black jet ink I stamped a "lightbulbs border" using the two small lightbulb stamps from 3rd Eye and stamped the big light bulb onto some white card and cut it out.

I did the same with the Tim Holtz pointing hand image and adhered them to the tag using sticky foam pads I cut to size. In between the sticky pads and the card I put a piece of white coated wire (a left over from my beading hobby) I first wrapped around the bulb socket.

I also bent a filament from that same wire and glued it together with the extra stamped "i" onto the tag. Thus the "i" "shines too. ;)


The word "shine" was stamped using my brand new Tim Holtz "worn text" letter stamps! (Love them!)

The gears were fixed to the tag with some big worn copper brads and cut to shape once in place.

The edges of the tag were distressed and blended with "black soot" distress ink. For a finish I attached the gorgeous measuring tape ribbon. Wallah! ;)

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Whitsunday!

Hugs,
die amelie x

Home, sweet home!

I dear friend of mine asked me if I would do a triptych for her as she needed a house warming gift.  So I created this triptych after I got the information that the three canvases were meant to decorate a new "Landhaus" style kitchen and what kind of colours she would prefer.

(Just in case you wonder what looks a bit strange with that image: I collaged the three images of the canvases together to give a little impression of how the look like hanging on the wall. )

The first step was to cover the canvases with burnt umber acrylic colour and let that dry. Than I applied some crackle medium and let that dry too. The upper coat was "cafe latte" and I love how the contrast worked out.

Then I prepared some glossy card with alcohol inks "raisin" and "rust" and stamped the words "Home, sweet home" onto them using the Tim Holtz "worn text" letter stamps and embossing ink to heat emboss afterwards with deep red embossing powder.

I rounded the corners using a corner punch and sanded the edges, before
punching four holes in the corners and fixing the plates to some rough burlap using tiny brads.

The lovely vintage adverts from the Tim Holtz "French Marketplace" stamp plate were stamped the same way - using embossing ink and deep red embossing powder.

The piece of bark and the ribbon were glued to the canvas using a heat glueing gun. For a finish I added some embellishments as the butterfly, the metal bird and the fabric flower from Prima.

Some close ups as usual ;)

 I hope you enjoyed your visit and wish you a lot of inspiration for your own crafting and creating!

Hugs,
die amelie x

I enter FSC's "anything goes" challenge  and Zeus and Zoe's "mood board" challenge with this project.

12 tags of 2013 - May

Finally I found some spare time between shoving big boxes filled with books, DVDs and tableware from one space to another (due to our living room and kitchen renovation) to at least take a chance on Tim's may tag from his 12 tags of 2013.

This time Tim shows the rub on resist technique, which really looks very effectful and was definitely a lot of fun to try.  I don't use rub ons really, so I had to use what I had (which was exactly one single sheet with rub ons to be honest ;) - which lead to the tags theme - the way I look at nature and art. Nature is all around us, so art is too as it influences an artist's work and view at the world. And art is somehow expressed nature - the nature of the person who created that piece of art to be exact. At least that is how I think art, artists and nature are related.

The Distress stains used for the background were "crushed olive", "pine needle", "tumbled glass" and "brushed corduroy". Background images were stamped using "sepia" archival ink and stamps from the Tim Holtz classics #7 plate, his small "Mona Lisa" and the bird image from the Shabby French plate were stamped using jet black archival ink.

As I do not have the film strip ribbon I used the Sizzix Tim Holtz "mini film
strip" die and glued it onto the tag.

The enameled tag was blended using Ranger alcohol ink "juniper". Not owning any remnant rub ons, I used StazOn black ink with the Tim Holtz stamp from the classics #7 plate and pressed the tag onto the inked up stamp, trying not to smear the image.

For a finish I stamped "art" using the fantastic Tim Holtz "worn text" letter stamps with embossing ink onto the tag (and partially over the glued on film strip) and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Mona's eyes needed some lighting up with a white gel pen and the philosophers tag, the enameled tag and the stamped saying were fixed onto the tag using tiny Tim Holtz brads (white and aged bronze).









The white ribbon was coloured using Distress stains, dried with the heat gun
and attached to the tag. I also used a self made ring fastener, which was die cut along with the tag and stamped with the same stamp from the classics #7 plate as the enameled tag to fit the look of the rub on resist.






A little blending around the edges of the fastener and the tag. Voila! Hope you like it!

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

die amelie x

Our Creative Corner - "history untold"

Hello out there, my dear friends, followers and those yet to become ;)

I am very proud today to officially show you my very first project as a member of  Our Creative Corner's DT and thus offer you some mid-month motivation and inspiration!

There is still almost a fortnight to go with joining the challenge and I would love to see your awesome creations over there too! This month is "anything goes" time!!!! So I am sure I will see a lot of awesome projects entered... ;)

For my first OCC project as a Design Teamie I chose to do one of my favourite "themes" - a booklet. It turned out rather feminine, which is not what I do mostly, but that is just how this booklet turned out - it developed almost by itself (and maybe I developed alongside with it too ;).

I apologize in advance for a rather word and picture heavy post ;)

"history untold" means the history we - the ordinary people like you and me - "write" just by being in places and living our lives... sometimes at places that have a wider known history on their own...but would they have it without people who have been telling it? I believe it is us, who write history and not the places.

Maybe Dr. Watson would have never become Sherlock Holmes' "room mate" hadn't he heard that violin? How would this have changed the Sherlock Holmes stories?

A galant kiss behind closed doors might have changed some lives of girls, we do not know of... but a great "story" may have started with such an event... and I am sure, this has happened in famous places too... Prague, Rome, Venice... who knows? And where did something like this happen to you? This place has it's very special history now for you, hasn't it?

There lived a lot of highly talented women who painted famous places for their own personal keeping...never showing it to anyone but their dearest friends or family. Think of Sibylla Merian, who was one of the first women who became famous for their painted work... just because we don't know of them, this does not mean that there are a lot of gifted artists/painters out there...even today.

I often wonder how childhood days friendships looked like some fifty, eighty, hundred, two hundred years ago... what was it that children rejoiced in? Are the sounds of their giggles, cushioned by hands held quickly to their mouths, and whispered eternal friendship vows still captured with the bricks of old buildings in famous places? Sometimes I touch these old stones and try to listen with my fingertips...

Which untold stories could a boy have witnessed, waiting for his father to return from the pub, hearing the men's laughter and smelling the warm food?

What about history, written about long lasting female friendship? Shared thoughts well hidden underneath new hats? Afternoon tea filled with gossip, great plans and expectations?

I often wonder how many stories that would be real history (and not only fiction) are out there - yet untold, because they would be the history of people like you and me. And I am sure many of them would be as adventurous and special as history we know today, that has been handed down about famous people...

I used papers from the lovely Prima "Script Pad" as pages, cut them to size and treated the edges using the Sizzix OntheEdge tabs die from Tim Holtz. The backs of the single pages - as they were white - were coloured by using DI "aged mahogany", "pumice stone" and "iced spruce"... applying them to the craft sheet, spritzing with water and dipping the pages through the puddles of ink.

The stamps used for this booklet are from flonzcraft, IndigoBlu, HeroArts and DarkroomDoor. The stains were stamped using Andy Skinner, BoBunny and Tim Holtz texture stamps and heat embossed with dark red "Sternenstaub" embossing powder to add a little bling and contrast.

The images and words were stamped on light beige card (with DI "aged mahogany"), cut out and glued - edges blended with DI "walnut stain" - to the prepared pages.











For the binding I bent two rings of dark wire, which I embellished with a lovely
Artemio button and some coloured lace ribbon.


I left the "history" rather sketchy - to leave enough room for imagination and thoughts on possible untold history - maybe even running with ones own family.

Browsing through old photographs showing my ancestors or reading notes they once made in corners of books or written postcards to their loved ones often makes me wonder how much "history" might be found there  - untold yet (and sadly most of the time remaining untold, as noone is left to tell...).



So I created this booklet as a kind of reminder too - to remind me/us to tell our stories/history to our next of kin. Maybe write a diary... or leaving notes in our calendars and keep them... so we can tell our grand children what once was a "moment of importance" to us as it changed our lives...

I leave you with these thoughts and some more close-ups and hope you have enjoyed this rather word- AND picture-heavy post.... I look forward to seeing your creations  over at OurCreativeCorner! :)

I am entering SSSaS's "little paper" challenge and FSC's "Anything Goes" challenge with this project.

Hugs,

Claudia - die amelie xx