"Buttons" challenge at That Craft Place

Servus and welcome back!

Today That Craft Place have launched their new challenge "Buttons" over at their challenge blog and I browsed through the fabulous stuff Lisa sent me to create with as a DT member to create a project to share at Natter&Chatter today. There were no buttons but some awesome wood embellishments that - when stitched to a surface instead of glued - looked rather close to buttons to me ;)

Today I want to start with showing you the backside of the tag I made...just to let you have a glimpse behind the curtain ;)

LOL....as you can see there has been some furious stitching and stapling. But on the frontside it looks a lot less chaotic...promise!

See my "buttons"? ;)
I admit I would not want to have to fiddle these "buttons" through any holes but they are at least a bit button-ish (I hope). First I thought about stitching the skulls to the tag by using the eye holes but that looked rather silly - even though it would have been closer to the button theme. But - as I never tire to repeat (and do) - we all have to make sacrifices to art and so I went for the visibly more attractive solution. ;)

The steering wheels and skulls were given coats of picket fence and weathered wood Distress crackle paint. The tag's background is made of black Kraft core which I ran through the Sizzix using a crackle embossing folder and which I sanded down afterwards. The pediments were die cut from brown card, blended with DI "black soot" and sanded down too.

The portrait of Captain Jack Sparrow is a quick sketch done after a DVD cover from one of the PotC movies.

The white gauze was first glued to the tag's sides (forming the quilling while putting it down) and then stapled to the tag. To cover the staples I stitched some linen ribbon on top of the gauze quillings.

Stuff from Lisa's store used on this project:

- white gauze
- Ditzie Designs skulls (wood embellishments)
- Ditzie Designs wheels (wood embellishments)
- Distress Inks
- lace ribbon

More "buttons" inspiration and the challenge are to be found at That Craft Place Challenge blog.
If you want to natter and chatter about your button makes or look out for some inspiration visit That Craft Pace Natter&Chatter on facebook.
You can also become a member of That Craft Place on facebook and ask Lisa and her team for some special orders on products.


Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia xoxo

Friendly Monster Notes

I recently discovered the fun in using colour copies of my own abstract paintings for other artsy projects (as can be found on my rather new Von Pappe art blog over HERE).
And as I believe that one can never have enough note books I decided to use some of them with the awesome matchbook die.

The insides of the die cut matchbooks were covered with old book pages that I gave a wash with white Gesso first. I stitched the pages to the booklets by hand using black thread and drew the "stitched" border around the outsides by hand.

I also used my new stamp from Stampotique to add the "friendly monsters" to the covers. And you can see the backs of the notebooks too.

I hope you like my little fun project!

Creativity is contageous!

Well.....time for my first DT make for That Craft Place, I suppose! 

A warm welcome to my dear readers, followers and especially today all those who followed the link from That Craft Place Natter&Chatter facebook group! So great to have you visit my blog! I hope you will leave my tiny creative spot inspired and ready to create after reading this post (or maybe some more *lol)!

So...these are the fab goodies I created my steampunk tag with. LOVE the stamps and wood embellies from Lisa's exclusive Ditzie Designs range! Along with the goodies in the picture I used Distress stains "brushed pewter", Distress ink "black soot" and silver embossing powder to create the background and paint the wooden wings.

I used the DecoArt Metallic Lustre to tone the brass embellishments so they would fit the silvery look.

To create my tag I stamped the fab gears background stamp using embossing ink and then heat embossid the image using silver embossing powder. Afterwards I blended the card with DI "black soot" and distressed the tag's edges.

Using some strips of black trim to create the quilling for my tag's bottom.

The metal ornament was cut in half and glued in place as were the wings that I had painted with Distress stains "brushed pewter". The light bulb was toned down using DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Silver Spark" before I fixed it to the tag with a piece of thin wire.

The copy of an old portrait was glued to the tiny frame and layered on top of a piece of white and black gauze which I had stapled to the tag first.

Materials from Lisa's shop used on this tag:

- white and black trim

- light bulb embellishment

- Ditzie Design chipboard wings

- tiny frame

- quote stamp - Ditzie Design

- Clearly Backgrounds "Gears" stamp - Ditzie Designs

- metal ornament

- DecoArt media

- Distress Ink "black soot"

I hope you like the tag and that I will see you soon over at That Craft Place Natter&Chatter!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Other links you might find useful:

That Craft Place (Online Shop)

That Craft Place Challenge Blog

That Craft Place Ltd. facebook group

That Craft Place Natter and Chatter 

New Stuff - New Design Team!

Yay! Great news to share with you today: I am now part of one of the most cool and fun DTs - the fab bunch from That Craft Place!

Lisa, the owner of That Craft Place store (a bricks and mortar shop and online store as well) offers an awesome range of beautiful own stamp designs, digital stamps, various mixed media, lovely own design embellishments and wood die cuts and lots of general stamping and crafting stuff! And her team is one of the most relaxed, helping and friendly I have ever met! 

You will find at least two makes per month on my blog on which I will use their fab stamps and other products and I also love that they offer DecoArt products too or order them for you if you if you need anything special!

You can find Lisa's products or/and her DT's makes at:

That Craft Place (Online Shop)

That Craft Place Challenge Blog

That Craft Place Ltd. facebook group

That Craft Place Natter and Chatter 

I am to be found at facebook at Natter and Chatter for the first two months, where the DT and group members show off and exchange inspiration and crafting "secrets" ;). After that teams will switch places, so I will be found on the challenge blog for another two months...  and I hope I will see you visit both! There's inspiration for everyone - be it grunge OR cute! Honestly I really enjoy that cute and grunge lovers mix and mingle at That Craft Place. I have already learned a lot about "the other side" of craftiness *lol.

To find out who else is on the brand new DT just hop over to Natter and Chatter to have a closer look! See you there soon - and on my blog as well - introducing my very first make for Lisa's and Erin's fab teams!

If you come back tomorrow you will be able to see my very first make for That Craft Place! ;)

xoxo Claudia

Fragile

I created a new panel from paint board yesterday, having a heavy play with acrylic colours, DecoArt Dazzling Metallics, DecoArt modelling paste, stencils, wire, some rusted keys (given to me by dear Uncle Helmut ;) and my new Red Lead word stamps.

For those who want to take a closer look at the project I set up a new blog "Von Pappe", where I plan to focus on the more personal makes and on those my heart belongs with. (I don't intend to do an announcement over here for every new project I put up over there, because I assume then I could post all of it right here and would not need the other blog anyway - so if you are really interested take a closer look at the Von Pappe blog from time to time ;).

I recently found that VonPappeII looks so crammed with all the blinkies, badges, followers icons and snippets that one cannot easily focus on the make itself. So I decided to have two Von Pappe blogs...one being the more fun and interactive one and the other being "pure art" that (hopefully) mainly speaks for itself. So if you might want to hop over to see more details of my project I would be very happy.

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x

Quick Spring Tag Share

Just a quick share of a tag today that had been lying on my desk for several weeks...simply because I loved the background I had created but didn't find anything worth covering some of it up ;)

So there it lay....having been done with a stencil and the Sprayza tool I borrowed from my son, some washi tape and scraps torn from old book pages.

But then I remembered a lovely stamp set I bought at a sale some months ago...and after I had stamped it to plain white card and cut it out I found it the perfect match!

I like the sketchy feel to the images and text as well! So I combined it with some die cut flourishes and a bit of lace ribbon.

The lace and flourish were stapled to the background and then covered up with a strip of book page scrap and the stamped and fuzzy cut dandelion image.

I first wanted to add three tiny pennants to the right side of my tag and had already randomly cut the pieces from a scrap of a book page....but then I decided to just go for one tiny pennant...and after I had glued it in place I only then realized that it said "pennant" (in German "Wimpel") on top...as if I had chosen this scrap especially for that one reason...lol...happy accident at its best!

Instead of a ribbon I added another die cut flourish to hang the tag.

The text was fixed to the tag using sticky foam pads to add more depth and make it pop a little.

Hope you like my spring tag! I have already seen the first dandelion in bloom (just behind our block)! Not long now until we will be able to make a wish (or two...).

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x

Country View Challenges - Paper Chase!

Great news today!

I was invited to create and share a project for this month's theme over at Country View Challenges due to one of my mixed media paintings being selected as their special mention back in January. This means that today I can share with you not only the fact that Country View Challenges celebrate their first anniversary this month but also a little matchbook I created for this month's challenge theme

Paper Chase!

I recently bought some Sizzix dies at a real bargain and was happy that the matchbook die was one of them as I had already seen it used on other blogs but found it too expensive back then.

This matchbook is meant to be used as a tiny notebook to write special dates - for example birthdays - into. So the inside may look a bit "unfinished" to you...but I wanted to leave enough space for notes to be written into it. 

I die cut the larger matchbook from white card and cut to size a strip that was folded and to be used as the spine to glue the pages to. 

I die cut four tags using the "Tag and Tie" die and blended these and the matchbook cover and spine with DI "pumice stone". 

Next I stamped some chicken wire in various places using jet black archival ink. I also glued on some torn pieces from old book pages. I also flicked some water onto the tags and let them dry to create some stains.  This was done on both sides of each tag. 

On the back cover I used a stamped portrait which I fixed to a piece of rough fabric using four brads.  All was glued in place using matte DecoArt Decou-page glue and sealant. Before that I had stamped on some chicken wire and glued on some torn scraps from book pages as I did with the tags.

The front cover of my matchbook received a similar treatment: stamped portrait, stamped on chicken wire and torn pieces from old book pages.

I added some die cut tags and labels to the four tags to create some "spots" for important notes, so they would be visible at once.

I used a small hinge clip  to keep the booklet closed. 

This time I wanted to let almost plain paper, paper scraps and natural paper tones play the main role as the theme over at Country View Challenges says Paper Chase! 

I feel truly honoured by being chosen and invited to do a Guest Designer's post - especially for this extra special month when we all celebrate the first anniversary of Country View Challenges! 

 Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x