An Almost Ready for Christmas - Card

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by my little creative corner close to the beautiful Austrian Alps!

I just wanted to share another Christmas card I've finished today, done with a lot of Tim Holtz goodness this time.

I haven't taken any steps images this time, 'cos this card meant joyful me-time, but I will of course love to share with you what I've used and how.

The room shown on this card reflects the actual state of Christmas preparations over here at the moment...well, actually the actual state I hope to be in after next weekend to be honest ;)
With the tree already bought and put into its stand (but we keep it on our balcony and only get it in on the 23rd as over here in Austria we do not put up the Christmas tree before that (instead we love to keep it for as long as possible afterwards...lol...I remember my mom having ours one time so long it dried out and one day just fell off to the side while we were away shopping), the presents all wrapped up and piled up in some corner of our flat - as these will also only be put in place on the 24th right before we celebrate Christmas - which over here is on the 24th in the evening.

I have put up a list for you of dies and Distress products used. I inked all the die cut pieces using Distress Ink and Distress Oxide Ink Pads and my blending tool. Most parts were die cut from white cardstock, only the inner of the fireplace was done using black paper instead (with traces of fired brick Oxide Ink on top).

So here's what I've used:

Thinlits dies:

Fireside
Santa's Helper (the books sitting on top of the fireplace and the Christmas crackers)
Handwritten Holidays
Frightful Things (the little candle in front of the books)
Festive Things (the cup with hot chocolate, the tree, the wreath and the present)

Background "wall" paper:
Dapper paper stash

For the floor I've used a strip that I blended with Distress Ink vintage photo and ran through my Big Shot Plus using Tim's
Lumber 3-D Texture Fades embossing folder and Distress Ink gathered twigs on top.

Distress Inks used:
vintage photo
pumice stone (for the fireside)
black soot
chipped sapphire (on top of peeled paint Distress Oxide Ink to mix a different green for the tree and the quote)
gathered twigs

Distress Oxide Inks used:
peeled paint
broken china
fossilized amber
fired brick
ripe persimmon

Distress Stain brushed pewter was used on the fireguard and on the garland the tree is decorated with.
I also used my little Tim Holtz Sidekick for die cutting the smaller parts while creating the scene and coming up with more ideas on what to add to it. I love that you can put the Sidekick directly on the media glass mat and quickly die cut whatever small pieces you need.

I enjoyed creating this card a lot and I hope you like it too!

Hugs and happy Xmas crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Mistaken for a Flower - a Calico Craft Parts Tag

Hi, servus and welcome back after the summer holidays!
I hope you have all enjoyed a great time outdoors and could cope well with the extreme heat!

Today's Calico Craft Parts project was done while I was at Lake Atter, enjoying our usual stay at our favourite summer resort. I had taken a tool box with me this year - filled with some of my favourite go-to media, paints and products, some prepared die cuts and substrates and a box of paper scraps of all kinds to chose from. I also knew that I would receive one of my Calico Craft Parts design team parcels there, so I had ordered some plain MDF tags and plaques in various sizes for whatever project would cross my mind during the holidays.

What would you pack for a five weeks holiday away from your studio?

It's really hard to decide, isn't it?  In the last years I always felt I was forced to leave too much good stuff at home, so I didn't take anything at all with me and focused on knitting or crocheting instead. But there were always moments when I was so inspired to do a specific project only to find that my studio with all the stuff I wanted to use for it was far far away and out of reach.

But this summer things were different due to a special item I bought last autumn....and I also found I obviously had packed a real good combo of stuff that worked pretty well for me - if you want to know more about that specific item and the other things I took on hols this summer I have a list and some pictures about that over in today's Calico Craft Parts blog post as well. ;)

This sneak peek already gives away some of the stuff I obviously had in my tool box...but what to use to create a butterfly's feelers from when you do not have any thin wire at hand? Well, this secret will be revealed over at the Calico Craft Parts blog too and of course there's a little how-to as well. 

Mostly it is found objects that spark creative ideas and during the summer holidays we spend a lot of time out in nature - mainly in the forest and on beautiful hiking trails around or up on the mountains there. We also go hunting for fossils and already have some favourite spots to go to. But this year an old big rusty nail which was a find right in front of the farm house where we spend our holidays in inspired me to create a tag and I hope you will love it as much as I do, once you have checked it out over at the Calico Craft Parts blog. Simply click HERE to get taken to the blog post there. 

Hope to see you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Recall for Robot BR0730am! - a Tag for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Attention, attention, dear customers!  Robowell are doing a recall for Robot BR0730am due to malfunction and possible danger of fire!!! There seems to be a severe malfunction with the GMS ("Greet the Morning with a Smile") and the FS ("Fried Sausages") modes that in a worst case scenario could even set your home on fire!

Customers have reported several issues of severely burnt sausages and grim looks and also sent image proof:

NOTE: do not try to fix your BR0730am yourself! Instead return the product with bill and - if possible - in original packing to Robowell asap! All electronic shops are advised to accept returned robots of this type and will assist customers with refund procedures! 

***

Hi, servus and welcome to today's project for the launch of our March challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges! 

I had so much fun creating this little robo chap with an obviously faulty circuit! (and I really would love to be able to get these delicious British breakfast sausages over here in Vienna too...sigh...not burnt ones of course). 

Just look at this cute grim face! giggle

I really adore this dies set from Tim Holtz's latest releases. It's great fun and the possibilities for creating whimsy little robots of all kinds seem almost endless. The idea for my grim little breakfast robot came from the die cut pieces lying on my desk...I suddenly saw the angry "eyes" in the filament...and the grim expression on the "mouth"....and the sausage pan...and there it was....a breakfast robot gone mad! (do I need to mention that I am a huge fan of Nick Park's "Wallace and Gromit" films? ;)

I also enjoyed taking out my alcohol inks again after not having used these for ages...

I used Tim Holtz's "Foundry" 3D embossing folder and silver metallic foil to create the tag's background. The tag itself was cut from really thick greyboard, using the "Tag & Bookplate" die from Tim Holtz. All the layers were glued together using DecoArt matte Decou-Page. 

Then I added a coat of sprayed on matte varnish, so I could paint on the alcohol ink background without having it being reactivated or coming off. 

I painted a background for the lit bulb with DecoArt media Translucent White. 

Black soot Distress Crayon was used to darken the tag's edges and the white one to create a subtle brightness around the bulb.

I had cut out the robot's pieces from black cardstock. To make my filaments shine really bright I needed to first paint these with DecoArt Titanium White media fluid acrylic paint...

...before I could add some bright light in Hansa Yellow Medium.

The robot parts were painted using a huge variety of DecoArt Metallic paints...

Here's an image showing all the different metallic paints (and other DecoArt products) I have used:

DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Radiant Red" was used on the little gauge. And I varied matte and shiny metallic paints for more interest. I used the new and fantastic DecoArt Matte Metallics "Pewter" and "Aged Bronze" alongside the DecoArt Dazzling Metallics "Moss Pearl", "Teal" and "Copper" and DecoArt Extreme Sheen paints "Vintage Brass" and "Bronze".

The gauge window first got a coat of DecoArt Triple Thick. Later I decided to add some DecoArt media Liquid Glass to it for even more dimension.


The burnt sausages were painted using DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "timeless" (as a base layer) alongside DecoArt media fluid acrylics "Transparent Red Iron Oxide" and "Carbon Black".

Then I made a mistake (already half knowing that it might be one...) and tried to use the Liquid Glass to glue the die cut acetate bulb to the finished robo face. 

Uh oh! What I had already feared happened: the Liquid Glass reactivated all the layers underneath and the painted bulb background came off the silver foil...as did the alcohol inks. All the paints and inks mixed with the Liquid Glass and created a brown muddy glue liquid on top of silver foil shining through here and there. Arggghhh! I had hoped that the varnish and the acrylic paints on top would be enough of a barrier but sadly they weren't.

So after waiting for a while (hope fading) and watching disaster grow and take over, I removed the acetate and tried to clean off whatever I could. Gladly the Liquid Glass had at least fixed the top layer of the painted die cut face pieces to the back of the acetate - so didn't have to redo these.

I die cut another bulb background from some beige paper I had at hand and painted a new bulb with DecoArt media fluid acrylics Titanium White and Hansa Yellow Medium again. Then I glued that bulb layer to the tag and fixed the acetate as a top layer to the background by only applying the matte Decou-Page with a detail brush to the backs of the filament and mouth. That's something I will try to remember doing when next trying to fix acetate to a background without wanting any visible traces of glue. ;)

Phew! So rescue was a success! There were still some smudges and stains from the Liquid Glass and the alcohol inks that had been reactivated by it on the acetate, but that actually added beautifully to the worn and grungy look of my tag. 

The other bits and pieces were glued to the tag using the matte Decou-Page and my detail brush again. 

Taking good pictures of shiny projects always is a challenge....sigh...

Some detail shots:

I hope you like my little robot as much as I do! 

My teamies have come up with more steampunk fun and/or goodness to fuel your inspiration! Check out their makes by hopping over to our steampunk challenge blog. I would love to see you play along this month. Remember - we're giving away two fab prizes each month (being donated by our wonderful prize sponsors DecoArt and boozybear)!!! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Guy Style at Emerald Creek Dares

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by!
It is time again for me to share my DT project for Emerald Creek Dares and this month's challenge theme is "Guy Style" - which is totally up my street!

When I hear guy or male style, I think about metal, grunge, rusty and industrial style stuff. Perfect for using some of my all time favourite embossing powders from the amazing Emerald Creek range!

I have used Emerald Creek embossing powders Hammered Metal, Burnt Copper Leaves, Ultra Thick Clear Gloss and Doubloon Gold alongside Baked Textures Ancient Amber, Vintage Beeswax and Rocky Road on this tag.

As I knew I was going to give the tag some rough treatments with loads of collaged on and scraped on layers, I decided to use one of the Calico Craft Parts MDF tags as a substrate to work on.
I also took the opportunity to use my newly bought Pete Hughes Circle Mask die from Sizzix alongside some of Seth Apter's fab Spellbinders dies.

Burnt Copper Leaves, Ancient Amber Baked Texture and Hammered Metal were used to heat emboss my first die cuts. I also used a left over die cut that had been heat embossed with Doubloon Gold.

The Hammered Metal "dots" on my tag are actually the cut outs from Pete Hughe's Circle Mask die ;)


Then I rummaged my box with left over die cuts from previous projects and found an old die cut (done with one of Seth Apter's fabulous dies) that I wanted to give more dimension to. So I heat embossed that one with two layers of the Ultra Thick Clear Gloss Enamel.

Vintage Beeswax Baked Texture is perfect to tone in any chipboards like this Tim Holtz paper doll that I wanted to have a more brownish tint instead of the original greyish one.

The MDF tag was covered with an old dictionary page that I toned down with tea dye Distress stain.

Then I scraped on some Fresco Finish Paper Artsy paints using a palette knife.

Black soot Distress Crayon was used to darken the tag's edges.

Rocky Road Baked Texture was added here and there for additional texture and patterns. To do so I dabbed some embossing ink from my dabber onto my craft sheet, picked that up with a palette knife and randomly scraped that across the tag before I sprinkled the embossing powder on.

Some Tim Holtz stencils and black archival stamping ink were used to add additional patterns.

As the background was way too noisy at that stage, I decided to tone everything down with a coat of Titanium white DecoArt media Antiquing cream.

Once the Antiquing Cream had dried, I used a soft damp cloth to wipe it back until I was content with the look of my background.

The heat embossed elements, some word stickers and my paper doll were glued in place using matte Decou-Page. I also added some doodling and shading with a white gel pen and a black aquarellable pencil.

I finished the tag off by stamping on some stitch patterns around the edges and adding a clip on top.

The actual Dare at Emerald Creek Dares is still open and by playing along you get eligible to win a

to spend at the online store! So don't miss the chance and show us your "Guy Style" projects!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Happy Easter Monday at Calico Craft Parts!

Happy Easter Monday, dear crafty friends and followers!

I hope you're enjoying the Easter holidays!
As usual on an "every other Monday" this means an invite over to the Calico Craft Parts Blog, where I am sharing my latest project and tutorial.

I almost had started thinking that Easter would pass me by without having done a single Easter themed project (really???!!!), but then inspiration finally stroke and here's a little sneak peek on the result:

To see the whole project and learn about the how-to, simply click HERE. 

The project is also a great one if you want to use up some of your hoarded designer papers...lol.

Slightly Belated Happy Easter (crafting)!

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