Going Underwater with Calico Craft Parts

Hi, servus and welcome to my usual fortnightly invite over to the Calico Craft Parts Blog, where I am sharing my latest project (with a detailed how-to as always of course). 

I have this little detail shot for you...

...so you have at least a bit of a clue of  what it is that awaits you. ;)

The project was inspired by some photographs I took ages ago (when my son was little and when we loved visiting the Castle Orth Danube Wetlands National Park with its amazing built-into-the-pond - fish observatory):

Curious now? Good! Simply click HERE to get taken to the project and tutorial! Hope to see you over there soon! Have a good start into the week!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Steampunk Time!

Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by today! As always on the fifteenth I am sharing my make for our "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial" mixed media challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges alongside with the other lovely ladies from Team B!

I love ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and APCs (Altered Playing Cards) and found that I haven't been doing any of these lately. Sometimes I just seem to forget about favourite techniques or projects as there are so many new techniques out there that I want to try and learn...but I am not sure anymore that this is what will make me happy in the long run. For quite some time now  I have been feeling I would love to find my "home" and also be able to "come home" as an artist - to my favourite techniques, my favourite colours, themes, formats,...

So I decided to pick up doing the really small formats again and created an APC duo for this month's challenge:

I still had some prepped playing cards in my studio (covered with old book pages on both sides) and what sparked mojo this time was a "stained" card on which I had "cleaned" my palette knife during a different project...

...when I simply had added drops of DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints (English Red Oxide, Cobalt Turquoise Hue and Diarylide Yellow) and dragged them across the surface using a palette knife.

As I try to never waste any paint or other media I had scraped the excess across a third and fourth card (sometimes I do this on simple white scraps of card stock too that I always have ready at my desk...these can be used in so many ways on future projects!)

To soften the edges of the scraped on paint and also tone down some areas, I added a scraped on layer of white DecoArt Americana premium Gesso here and there. As the premium Gesso is very liquid it creates a transparent effect if being applied very thinly (which was exactly what I needed).

Once that had dried, I applied DecoArt media white Crackle Paste in some spots (using a very small palette knife this time). I put the two cards on the heating to speed up the crackling process. 

Using black Staz-On stamping ink I added some images from the Tim Holtz "Dapper" stamp set. 

I had painted two Calico Craft Parts gears and two pieces I had die cut (using the Tim Holtz "Industrial" Sizzix die) with DecoArt Dazzling Metallics "Moss Pearl" and "Teal"...

...and dabbed on a bit of DecoArt media Carbon Black Antiquing Cream with my fingertip to add a bit of a worn look to them. 

The words I wanted to use were stamped onto some yellowed paper from an old magazine and fussy cut. 

When all had dried and was ready, I glued everything in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page. 

Then I finished up the APCs with some doodling with a white gel pen and washi tape. 

To make the crackles from the paste more visible (and also because I found the cards were still looking too clean) I applied a mix of DecoArt media Raw Umber and Carbon Black Antiquing Creams here and there and wiped back until I was content. 

The finished pair of APCs:

I hope you like them! If you want to get the chance to win a fab bundle of DecoArt media goodness or boozybear steampunk chipboard pieces, simply hop over to the challenge blog, check out the makes of my two wonderful teams to get that mojo flowin' and play along! 

Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Always remember that...

Well, that's definitely something I lately found I seem to have somehow forgotten, so  I decided to create a project to remind me of this and some other - seemingly - simple truths, so I don't loose myself in frustration along my creative journey.

The whole project (as this isn't a journal page, but actually a detail shot from a larger project) can be seen at the Calico Craft Parts Blog - together with loads of colourful mixed media goodness and a how-to with steps images as well of course.

I hope to see you over there soon!

Have a good start into the week! 

Claudia xxx

Baked Texture Sample Tags in a Container - a Seth Apter & Emerald Creek Project

Hi, servus and welcome to my little creative spot today! I am so happy and thankful that you're stopping by! Today I have a quite long and picture heavy project post for you - so you might want to grab yourself a cuppa just in case you decide to read on and until the end. I promise you will learn about Seth Apter's fab new Emerald Creek "Baked Texture" embossing powders in more detail and also about a possibility on how to store and use paint and other media samples for your creative process.

Usually I approach projects the way that I just start with a sketchy idea in my head and let the project,  the used media and effects take the lead once I've gotten "into creative flow". But sometimes there are projects that I want to fit with certain styles or colour themes...and then I like to refer to and work with colour charts and paint or texture medium samples, simply because that offers more "control" and a different way of "playing" with colour tones and mixed media effects.

Being on the Emerald Creek design team I received a bundle of Seth's amazing embossing powders to play with...and they simply knocked me off my feet. Many of my boss Kim's embossing powders have always and already been ones that make my mixed media heart sing, but Seth and Kim together really stepped that up a notch with Baked Texture! These embossing powders are incredibly beautiful , highly textural, yet delicate and subtle at the same time so they add to mixed media projects brilliantly and are so much more than embossing powders that add just a bit of "bling" to your work.

So here's my Baked Texture Sample Box with Tags!
I altered a cheap cardboard box that I primed with DecoArt media black Gesso (to hide the ugly patterned paper it was covered with) and added some "monoprinting" with DecoArt Chalky Finish paints to.

I used Seth Apter StencilGirl stencils and also Seth Apter rubber stamps alongside the Baked Texture. But let's start with the very beginning of this project - the Baked Texture samples that said sample tags are holding on their backs!

I've done samples of each Baked Texture colour on different backgrounds so I can compare how different they look against various backgrounds and colours.  I may well add samples on other coloured backgrounds at some time. As I can simply add them to the others in the little plastic zipper bags, my collection of samples can grow over time.


As you can see on the following images I simply stamped a colour sample box image (a Badass stamp design) several times onto different backgrounds...

....and heat embossed them with all seven Baked Texture tones.

The pictures also show how different backgrounds make the colours look different:

Deep Sea

Chunky Rust 

Rocky Road 

Just look at the incredibly  chunky look of Rocky Road in its melted state! Amazing, huh?!

Ancient Amber

Patina Oxide

Vintage Beeswax 

I also noted on some of the samples if the embossing powders are transparent or opaque.

Dirty Sand

When that was finished with that, I found that I wanted a third comparison with a warm brown background. So I repeated the process on some kraft paper...

Here's an image showing the Patina Oxide Baked Texture before I heat set it. Look at the chunks it has!

So these are my samples so far - all cut out so I can place each beside each other to see how they look being used together. 

Now I needed a storage for these!

On the image below you can see the (flipped over) primed box and some tags that I covered with different designer papers, music sheets and old book pages (using matte DecoArt Decou-Page). 

Then I used Seth's "monoprinting with paper" - technique (as I call it) to add painty layers to the box and the tags. I used DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish paints but you can use any matte finish acrylic paint you want. 

As you can see I also glued some torn paper scraps to the box before I added my layers of "printed on" paint. 

Slowly I built up layer by layer...

...then it was time to add some texture by rubber stamping in black archival ink.

I used some of Seth's IO stamp designs. 

I applied the Baked Texture powders to each according tag by dabbing on clear embossing ink through some Stencil Girl stencils with Seth's designs...

I also added some Baked Texture to the box here and there...

The tags so far...

Then I stamped the Baked Texture names onto some yellowed pages of an old magazine, cut them out and glued them to the according tags...

I used smudged black soot Distress Crayon to darken the edges of the glued on words. 

As I had quite randomly applied the paints to the tags, each tag shows several colour tones in combination with the Baked Texture, which was exactly what I had been aiming for. One tag - many examples! Yay!

I used double sided transparent sticky tape to fix the plastic zipper bags with the samples to the backs of the tags.

Done!

And there's still enough room for additional tags (just in case there will be more Baked Texture in the future ;). But for now I am more than happy with my finished Baked Texture Tag Sample Box!

I hope you like it too and I can't wait to see what you will create with Seth and Kim's amazing embossing powders!!!!

Click HERE if you want to enter this month's challenge over at Emerald Creek Dares!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx