Hip to be Square

I finally managed to not only have a wonderful messy time at my workdesk but also help myself to one of Seth Apter's wonderful workshops - an online one of course because I am one of approximately ten mixed media lovers in the whole of Austria - so the really good live workshops are all too far away. lol

But there are several pros to doing workshops online (as long as you don't feel the urge to be part of the hype and among those who are the first to try and show the actual styles and techniques) - one I especially appreciate is that you can do them at your own pace and also use different materials or simply adapt techniques you learn to your own work (which isn't something you manage to do in a live class).

[edit - you can buy and download his workshop by clicking HERE.   ]

I learned some really awesome techniques watching Seth Apter do "his thing". Seth - being a recognized artist - definitely knows what he is doing and it is such a joy to listen to him and his ways of explaining art and how to approach it.
And as I recently managed to get me some of his (also older) dies and stamps I decided to finally jump right in and play around.

And this is the result after several days of playing with paint, mono printing technques and arranging pieces:

There isn't much to explain - as that would mean giving away workshop content - but I can tell you what I used to create my mixed media board:

I used DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish paints, Viva Decor Rusty Paper and Patina, DecoArt Dazzling Metallics paint, DecoArt media black Gesso, dark brown and black archival stamping inks, a Kaisercraft stamp, Seth Apter stamps and Spellbinders dies and matte Decou-page.

The squares I used were blanks to make your own "pairs" game (or "Memory" as it is called in German).

Some close ups:

and once more the finished project:

and my desk as it has been looking during the last days....

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are all doing fine! 

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia

xxx 

Meet Don Consuelo!

...over at the Calico Craft Parts blog where I am sharing my latest project with you today!

If you want to know how to make your own tattooed jumpin' jack or art doll the style of the early 1900s ...

...there's a how-to on the Calico Craft Parts Blog. I hope you like it!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia

xxx

Happy Anniversary, Emerald Creek!

Servus, dear crafting friends!

This is the second post I am sharing with you today - so if you haven't already seen my project and invitation for our September challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges, I would like to ask you to scroll to the previous post after reading this one and check out my little steampunk make too.

But this post is all about the anniversary of Emerald Creek Dares! Yay! One year has passed so quickly and our lovely boss, Kim, has been so busy working and I wish her another amazing year equally filled with joy and success on all her endeavours as has been this one!!!

Emerald Creek Dares are celebrating this wonderful event by hosting a month long "Anything Goes" challenge with more inspiration to come throughout the month. So stay tuned!

There's a $50 voucher to spend at the Emerald Creek online store waiting for the winner and the Top3 will get a 20% discount off their next shopping too! So don't miss the chance and play along! Anything Goes challenges are so much fun!!!!

I decided to create a tag and use the "Happy Frog" stamp from the Emerald Creek range alongside some other goodies that are available at the Emerald Creek store - like the exclusive Emerald Creek embossing powders Kim creates! These are absolutely fantastic to play with!

Here's a list of products used on my tag. They are all available at the Emerald Creek online store!

EC Supplies used:

Happy Frog stamp

Metal Angelfish brad

Metal Hearts brad

St. Paddy's Day EC embossing powder

other supplies used available at Emerald Creek:

Distress paint - barn door, mustard seed, wild honey, spiced pumpkin, twisted citron, picked raspberry

Distress stain - antique linen

Distress ink -  shabby shutters

Distress crayon - walnut stain

I created the tag's background by using Tim Holtz' marbling technique using Distress paints. 

Then I added some splatters of black soot Distress paint using a splatter brush. 

For an even more aged look I inked my tag using a blending tool and shabby shutters Distress ink and then flicked some drops of water on the tag (well known as Tim Holtz' wrinkle free distress or flick'n spritz technique). 

The frog was stamped in black archival ink and "water-coloured" using various tones of Distress stains and a soft brush. 

The little crown was die cut and covered with gold Distress Glitter. 

The banner was die cut and then inked with antique linen Distress stain. Once that was dry I added the handwriting using a very fine tip black china ink marker. 

The silver heart brad was customized using Distress paint to make it match the colour scheme of my tag. 

The edges of the tag were darkened with walnut stain Distress Crayon (as the Distress inks don't stick too well with the Distress paints..so the Distress Crayons give a much darker effect).

The die cut laurel wreath was heat embossed using Emerald Creek's lovely St. Paddy's Day embossing enamel. Then all the parts were fixed to the tag using matte medium and sticky foam pads. 

Thanks for stopping by (again) today - I hope to see you join in both challenges (the one over at Emerald Creek Dares AND the other at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges) soon!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx

Steampunk Necklace Tim Holtz Style

Servus, my dear creative friends and followers!

Today I am sharing a little steampunk style necklace with you that I made using Tim Holtz' rectangle Ornate Frame Sizzix BigZ die with shrink plastic, DecoArt media Liquid Glass and some of the cool Tim Holtz idea-ology bits (the cog and the jump rings).

It is also my inspirational project for our September challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges (being part of Team B who always present their makes in the middle of each month).

I got the idea while I created this altered steampunk notebook, so I went ahead and die cut the lovely ornate frame from shrink plastic too (mainly because I wanted to find out if the detail of the ornate frame would get lost during shrinking...which it didn't. Yay!).

Before I went to shrink it using the heat tool, I sprayed the die cut frame using the turquoise DecoArt media Shimmer Mister.

A bit of a golden sheen was added using Gold Rush Metallic Lustre after the frame had shrunk to pendant size.

Then I gathered some small watch parts, a very (!!!) clean non stick craft sheet and the DecoArt media Liquid Glass. I simply placed the frame on the craft sheet and filled the opening with the liquid and placed my cogs and gears and other bits into it using a pair of tweezers.

Then I added some IndigoBlu gilding flakes....

...and put some more Liquid Glass on top. As you can see it looked quite uneven at that stage but as the Liquid Glass is self levelling...

... it had all turned into a flat surface after a few minutes.

All I had to do now was wait and let my pendant dry naturally. And be very very patient! *sigh
After I had used quite a thick layer of Liquid Glass I left my piece untouched for two full days. And I really managed not to touch it too soon!!!!
It would have been such a shame if I had left a fingerprint by testing too early!!!

Then I gathered my idea-ology jump rings, some idea-ology cogs and a turquoise bead from my stash and played around with all the bits until...

...I was content with the look of my necklace. Et voilá!

I hope you like my little easy-to-make pendant and the necklace! Please, hop over to our steampunk challenge blog to check out the makes of my teamies AND the projects already entered - there's so much inspiration there to gather! I hope to see you play along with us soon!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia

xxx

Poetry and Calico Craft Parts?

For me they go together pretty well! 

(and not only with this particular project ;)

Servus and thank you so much for stopping by! 

If you want to find out more about my Poetry Distillery, hop over to the Calico Craft Parts blog. 

There's a new project and tutorial waiting for you. ;) 

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx

Spontaneous Crop With my Niece Rosi

Yesterday I had my lovely niece Rosi (9) over and we spontaneously decided to use my newly bought Tim Holtz Sizzix Halloween dies, some DecoArt Americana acrylic paints and Distress inks on watercolour paper, a brayer and a scraping tool and create a quick creepy project!

This is her finished piece - no need to say that she is a very talented and skilled young lady and that she made that awesome background (and the rest of the project) all by herself - just following my lead.

To the left you can see my unfinished piece (unfinished because the birthday cake (Malakoff Cake) for my husband needed finishing first ;).

The background was done applying dots of acrylic paints and mixing them directly on the paper by scraping and brayering them as desired. Then we sprinkled on some dark red and black acrylic paint using a splatter brush. Once all was dry we applied a thin coat of black soot Distress ink with a blending tool and sprinkled on some drops of water for additional splatter patterns.

We had a lot of fun - but, oh, so little time! The die cut elements were glued in place - and voilà: my niece's first Halloween project was done (and finished off by adding a little sticker on top).

Can't wait to have her with me again - so we can enjoy getting messy and creative again! :)

Have a nice weekend!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Super Heroes at Emerald Creek Dares!

Servus and welcome back to another of Emerald Creek's Dares!

It's a month long "Anything Goes" challenge for you, but a "Super Heroes" challenge it was for the DT!

It brought me sweet memories of my very first Superman comic book my mom gave to me when I was about 12 years old (looking back at it now I think my mom was really cool - having two daughters but always providing me - the boyish one and very much into drawing at that time - with boys stuff and with images to fuel my creativity). No further need to mention how much I loved this comic book!

For the "Super Heroes" challenge I decided to recreate the new Super Woman logo for the upcoming movie and use it on a card. Not that I am much of a women's libber, but I really love the look. (and I like that there finally a female super hero will hit the screens ;)

I used some of Emerald Creek's fab embossing powders for the different metal tones - but - as you can see - these were soooo hard to capture in a photograph. So I hope you will get at least the idea of the metallic sparkle of my make.

I used the fantastic Mercury Rising and Mirror Gold embossing powders for the background on the circle MDF panel (which is from Calico Craft Parts) and Charred Gold and Burnt Copper Leaves for the logo.

I know, I know...I could have printed out the original and use that to cut out my letter parts, but sometimes I am in the mood to challenge myself and find out how far I'll get by doing it all by hand. I also think that this makes my project not just a "copy" but an original (which is important to me).

So I made a sketch...

...then I drew a precise double doubleview using a ruler (but not measuring...only seeing to it that the logo would fit with the circle panel I was going to use as a background). To get symmetrical sides of the logo I used my old tracing and dry embossing device (a box with a light bulb mounted underneath a transparent top):

Then I made some copies using our printer, so I had at least two to four logos to cut the letter parts from.

The cut out pieces were painted black and set to dry.

They were heat embossed with Charred Gold and Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powders:

The circle panel got a coat of Mercury Rising embossing powder:

I added a second layer of the same embossing enamel to the top and bottom sections of the circle for more dimension and to create subtle horizontal sections. I also sprinkled on some Mirror Gold while heating the Mercury Rising embossing powder to create some sparkling speckles.

The letter parts were glued on and light beige, carbon black and dark grey acrylic paints and a very small detail brush were used to paint the highlights and shades.

A single star was added by using the same light beige through a stencil.

The background for the circle panel was made of black card that was run through my Sizzix using a Tim Holtz Diamond Plate embossing folder .

Using brushed pewter Tim Holtz Distress Stain I quickly added some metal sheen to the black card.
The edges were distressed, four brads were attached and all the elements were mounted to a folded piece of creamy white card using sticky foam pads for more dimension.

Depending on the light source the logo can change its look from cool to warm metal. The texture of the embossing enamels and the layered logo become more visible too when being lit from the side. So here are some more close ups:

The "glowing white" surrounding the logo was painted directly on the Mercury Rising embossing enamel. As I only had done a very thin single layer in the center of the panel the acrylic paint adhered quite well!

So my logo isn't perfect - but I had a lot of fun recreating it. Sometimes the journey is the reward, isn't it? ;)

Please, check out the Super Hero makes of my team mates by hopping over to the Emerald Creek Dares blog! And I hope to see you join in our challenge soon! A $50 voucher is waiting for one lucky winner drawn among the entries. And of course glory and honor for those who make it to the Top3 and for the challenge winner! ;)

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx