Mixed Media Minis

Beautiful Calico Craft Parts and designer paper, your favourite media and paints and a bit of bling...that's all you need to create tiny works of art!

And sometimes I even surprise myself finding how many techniques and mixed media goodness you can use and create on a little format like an ATC!!! If you want to see the finished pieces, simply hop over to the Calico Craft Parts Blog!

Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Anything Goes at Emerald Creek Dares!

Anything Goes - one of my favourite challenge themes to be honest! lol

The perfect occasion to use stamps and other goodies that you have been hoarding for what feels like ages.... ;)

Emerald Creek Dares are open for "Anything Goes" projects this month - so don't miss that chance to dust off some of your older treasures ...or something you have only recently bought and cannot wait to use on a project! Everything's possible! Yay!

The lovely "Fishing Boat" stamp from Emerald Creek has been in my stash for quite some time yet - but then there were always other ideas for projects that got in the way...but finally this was the time for it to enter the stage on a summer-splashy ocean waves tag!

I found the ribbon (with - what I think of as - a wave pattern) in a dollar shop lately and thought it would make great waves on a tag! I also had a waves die in my stash that I had almost forgotten about...so I decided to build the stage for my fishing boat using both - the ribbon and some die cut waves. 

But first I gathered all the other Emerald Creek goodies I wanted to use: the Prize Cameo charms, the lovely Anchor charms, some chipboard frames from Southern Ridge and - of course - some of my beloved Emerald Creek embossing powerds. This time I used Mercury Rising (which is a dark, deep black-ish blue), Winter's Mistake (which melts to a matte and gritty finish with tiny sparkling turquoise inclusions) and Ultra Puff White (which does what its name says...lol) to make the white cresps with it. 

The large tag was die cut from heavy (packaging) cardboard using the Tim Holtz "Tag and Bookplates" die. 

I picked one of the frames that matched the size of the boat's image. I had the idea of placing it a bit aslope (as if it was floating on the waves) on top of all the layers of the stamped image and die cut waves. 

The waves were die cut from white cardboard...

...and then heat embossed with Emerald Creek embossing powders. 

I scraped on salty ocean, weathered wood and broken china Distress paint with a palette knife for my background. I repeated this step on a piece of card. Once that was dry I stamped the boat's image onto it with black archival stamping ink. 

I used red and white acrylic paint and a fine tip brush to paint the fishing boat. Then I tore the finished image to size. The chipboard frame was heat embossed too before I scraped on some red and white acrylic paint to fuse it with the tag's design. 

Then I scraped on some white Gesso (for the clouds) and attached the anchor charm to the frame before I glued all my finished layers to the tag. I used sticky foam pads to fix the frame to the tag - so it "floated" even more. 

I cut some word stickers to size to glue them to the tag and used a small glass cabochon to finish off the hanging device that I made from one of the lovely Prize Cameo Charms. I used Glossy accents to glue the cabochon to the cameo frame charm.  

Some rough cord was attached to the loop and a thin white border was drawn freehand with a white gel pen - done!

I hope you like my ocean tag and how I used the ribbon for the waves! 

I would love to see you play along with us over at Emerald Creek Dares! There's - as always - the chance to win a fab $50 voucher to spend at the online store! 

So don't miss it! Over at the Emerald Creek Dares blog you can find more inspiration  being shared by the DT throughout the month! Check it out! 

Happy summer!

Claudia

xxx

Something Nautical...

...is awaiting you today over at the Calico Craft Parts Blog (yes, it is "my" Monday again to share my latest project with you over there).


This time I am trying to lure you over with this picture...

What kind of project is it part of? What on earth has she come up with this time? And how did she do it? Well....all of these burning questions (do you say that in English too?) and more will be answered if you click HERE and hop over to the Calico Craft Parts blog. ;)

I hope you will like what you will find there!

Hugs,

Claudia

xxx

Steampunk Summer - Round Two of SASPC's Summer Special

Servus, hi and I hope you're enjoying a wonderful summer and great holidays! It's time for Team B's makes over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges so I am happy to share my latest (and first) summer-themed steampunk project with you today!

Summer and iced lollies are a perfect match, aren't they? Who doesn't love to enjoy something that is not only cold and refreshing but also colourful and a joy to look at?! So I tried to capture that iced lolly feel on my little 6''x6'' canvas.

My little butterfly's body is made from an old metal fitting I found in my "found metal treasures" box. For the letters and wings I used some of the fab Calico Craft Parts and the whole canvas was created using DecoArt media Misters and fluid acrylic paints.


The Calico Craft parts and the butterfly's body were glued to the canvas using matte Decou-Page.

Once that was dry, I dry brushed some white DecoArt Acrylic Gesso onto the MDF parts (so none of the details would get lost) and stippled more white Gesso directly onto the metal piece and around the glued on pieces for additional texture.

Then the spraying fun began! I spritzed some clear water onto the dry canvas and then added several tones of DecoArt media Mister colours to the wet canvas to create drip lines. I added more spritzed on water where necessary.

I also created some drip lines using washes of DecoArt media "Burnt Sienna" and "Transparent Red Iron Oxide" fluid acrylics alongside tiny traces of Carbon Black Mister.

More pure Transparent Red Iron Oxide was randomly added to the MDF parts and the butterfly's body to create a rusty look.

To tone everything down a bit I created more drip lines with White DecoArt Mister and water from my spray bottle.

And finally some more drip lines of "rust" created with Transparent Red Iron Oxide fluid acrylic.

I randomly stamped on a circle pattern here and there using black archival ink and one of  Tim's stamps from the Mixed Media set.

Using a permanent black fine tip marker I drew the butterfly's legs and feelers...

...and also added some handwriting and a thin border:

I love my little hairy winged dude in all his bright colours!

And I hope you like him too ;)

Our summer special challenge over at SASPC is open until the end of August - so there is still enough time to enjoy some creative steampunk mixed media fun and play along! And don't miss the chance to win one of our two wonderful prizes being sponsored by DecoArt media and boozybear chipboard pieces!

I hope to see you over there! The teamies have come up with the most amazing summer projects - so make sure to take a closer look at their makes too!

Hugs and happy summer crafting!

Claudia

xxx