I Love Fall - Tag

I haven't been taking part in challenges for ages but recently I just was inspired by Simon Says Stamp's Monday and Wednesday Challenges and so I decided to enter their actual Wednesday Challenge that is all about Fall and Autumn Colours. The perfect theme for me as I just loooove autumn and its rich warm colour palette!

I also wanted to finally try out my newly bought Distress Oxide Spray Inks. I remember I gave the Distress Oxide Inks a try when they came out as ink pads but never really managed them properly. Now that there are Oxide Spray Inks - and after watching Tim demo these and being just like "wow" and "ooohh" most of the time, I decided to give them another try. I am still not fully content with my results but they were perfect for using them to create a fallen leaves fall tag. ;)

Don't ask me which colours I threw on all my papers...I mixed Spray Stains with the Oxide Ink Sprays and mostly went for reds, oranges and yellow tones and added some "frayed burlap" Oxide Spray Ink into the pot as well. Iced Spruce, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber and Pumpkin Spice were in the mix...also Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge Spray Stains...hm...I'm sure there were some more that I have now forgotten...

My idea for the tag was inspired by a photograph I have taken years ago during one of our autumn hikes...

I remember how much I loved the dew drops on the leaf and wanted to recreate this effect on my autumnal leaves on the tag....some still clinging to the almost bare branches...

...others already having fallen to the ground, gathering in beautiful piles of oranges, browns and reds.

I used Tim's Alphanumeric Classic Uppercase and Lowercase sets alongside the Fall Foliage and the Dimensional Heart dies sets. To die cut my tag once from heavy greyboard and another time from white cardstock I used Tim's BigZ "Tag and Bookplates" die. I also die cut some branches using his new "Branches" BigZ die.
The background base was done using Tim's Birch embossing folder.

The die cut leaves and branches were blended around the edges using black archival stamping ink. Then I went in with some Distress Glaze to make the autumn leaves shine! You can see the difference - to the left the leaves die cut from the papers done with the Oxide Inks - to the right the leaves already treated with the Distress Glaze! So cool!

I glued the embossed Birch texture tag to the greyboard tag and let that dry. Then I used some of the Distress Oxide Ink Sprays again to add some milky birch bark colour...on top of that I used one of the three Mini Stencils from the #43 set to add some Grit Paste. Once that was dry I painted it using Distress Paints Peeled Paint and Twisted Citron.

I finished the tag background off by blending the tag's edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink using a blending tool.

As I didn't have any Glossy Accents I used the Liquid Glass from DecoArt instead and created droplets on all the leaves that I had glued in place.

While that was set aside to dry naturally I die cut the small Dimensional Heart from one of my left over "fall colours Oxide papers". That was folded, glued together and fixed in place with some Tacky Glue.

I felt I needed something more at the bottom of my tag, but first wanted to add the quote. I die cut the letters needed using Tim's Alphanumeric Classic Upper- and Lowercase dies sets and glued these in place as well. I used a fine tip black marker to outline the letters.

At that time I had decided on what to put to the tag's bottom - more fallen leaves. This time I glued them behind the tag. To add a thin border on top I cut a thin strip of rough ribbon and glued that on top.

 I also decided to add a bit of crackle texture here and there. So I applied that in a few spots with the very tip of a palette knife. The inks from underneath beautifully mixed with the white from the crackle paste - so I didn't have to add extra paint on top of that.

Voilá! My finished "I love Fall" tag!

I hope you like it! 

Thanks for stopping by and as always

hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Welcome to the Laboratory!

Hi, servus and I hope you're having a good start into the week!

I would like to once more invite you to the Calico Craft Parts blog to check out my latest project there. Helen has added some awesome "Laboratory" designs to the shop and I fell in love with them at first sight (and as I have a dear friend who teaches Chemistry, I knew exactly what I wanted to use them for...Barbara, if you are reading this, stop here right now, do not read any further and do NOT follow the link to the Calico Craft Parts blog, okay? ;)

All the others are of course free to check out the whole project and with this little sneak peek I am not giving away too much I think...

To see the whole project and learn more about the how-to, simply click HERE to get taken to the Calico Craft Parts blog. I hope to see you there soon!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

In the Light of a Full Moon...

...wicked sisters seal your doom,

witches swing and ride their broom,

put a spell on some poor groom,

stir in cauldrons with NO spoon...

...in the light of the full moon. 

;)

Sorry for the poor attempt at rhyming in English but I couldn't resist. ;)

Servus, hi and thanks for stopping by today! I hope you're having a good week so far! Today I would like to share a project that I made last weekend - playing happily with my newly bought Tim Holtz idea-ology stuff and using that alongside some older Tim treasures I've been hoarding for ages it seems. 

The Vignette Tray Coffin for example has been on my shelf for quite some time - I just never came up with a project idea that I thought was good enough to put it to use...until Sunday I finally decided to use it - no matter what the outcome of my idea would look like ;)

I think the Halloween Paper Dolls gave me the needed final push to get going and create a shadow box in the tray coffin. And as I always love to put as many of my Tim dies as possible to use on a Tim project, I got out my BigZ Branches, Cauldron and Graveyard dies, the Bat Crazy, Frightful Things and Twisted Edge Thinlits dies and the good old "Halloween Shadows" Sizzlits die strip with the Trick or Treat quote (one of my all time favs). 

 I combined these with the Bitty Bats, Skull Fragments, Halloween Paper Dolls and Tombstones from this year's idea-ology Halloween release and to add some lovely Tim texture in the background and as a border I also used the 3D Texture Fades "Botanical" and the 3D Impresslits "Provincial".

I used heavy black craft cardstock and outlined the tray coffin with a pencil - then I drew another outline about the frame's width smaller and cut that out, so the coffin shaped paper fit in the opening. 

I ran that cut to size and into shape paper through my Sizzix using the 3-D Texture Fades "Botanical" embossing folder. As the folder was slightly smaller than the paper I needed to run it through twice. I tried to find a good spot on the embossing folder to "continue" the already embossed pattern...there still was a slightly visible edge where the two separately embossed sections touched but I solved that problem by gluing a branch on top to cover that up. 

Then I arranged all my die cut elements and the paper dolls until I found the perfect spots for these and took an image (mainly for my own reference).

I used Distress paints black soot, antiqued bronze, frayed burlap, squeezed lemonade, peeled paint and twisted citron to paint my die cut shapes (I also did a pumpkin but later decided it was too large so I didn't use that).

The embossed Botanical background was dry brushed using twisted citron Distress paint.

To mimic some grass to put the tombstone and skull on I cut a strip of a kind of "mummy cloth" (but not the real thing - it is some Halloween decoration fabric) and tinted it with Distress stain crushed olive.

The full moon was done using a die cut circle with Distress Oxide Ink peeled paint and Distress Stain pumice stone.

Then I inked the edges of all the elements with Ranger Jet Black archival stamping ink before I layered them into the coffin tray using stacked sticky foam pads. 

I also used the black soot Distress Paint dabber around the tray coffin's edge and once that had dried I applied some white Crackle Paint with a palette knife and toned the finished crackle down using dark brown acrylic paint. 

Some moss and other bits of the mummy cloth were glued to the coffin here and there for additional spooky texture.

I also had great fun layering the thicket of branches behind which the frightened ghost is trying to escape the evil steaming from the cauldron...I simply glued the branches to the coffin tray frame. 

The bats' bodies got a dot of Liquid Glass for some glossy texture and dimension. 

This is what's going on on the bottom of the coffin tray ...

...a tombstone in front of a steaming bronze cauldron, all surrounded by creepers and climbers...

...and the fractured skull of some poor long deceased... 

...rotting solitarily in the damp moss of the graveyard. 

I just love the ghosts from the Frightful Things dies set! This poor little guy obviously is frightened by what is going on the graveyard. We don't know what it is that the witch sisters are brewing in their cauldron, but maybe he knows...

I hope you like my fun little Halloween shadow box! 

I'm entering this project to Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge. 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx