Poor lonesome friend! - Melt Art Mania

has taken over here too, I am afraid.

I have been hoarding some UTEE for quite some time now but never had the guts to use it with all those awesome techniques like stamping in UTEE or creating high gloss embellishments with UTEE... but this has changed since I read Candy Colwell's "Ranger Melt Art Mania" post over here. Her project is sooo awesome and her stepxstep really gave me the feeling that I could not go wrong. So I tried and this is what I came up with:

Yes, you are right: I had some put aside backgrounds from my various tries to create a yellow background tag for the DDTIO "Yellow, lightbulbs and wire" - challenge.  They were too dark to fit what I wanted with the lightbulb theme, but for using my brand new Stampotique stamps they were just perfect!!!! They are sooo cool - I haven't bought any Stampotique stamps until now, but when I saw these I just had to have them. NOW! *lol

The "melt art" techniques I used were: covering the die cut bat with some layers of clear UTEE, which was a lot of fun to do.

Then I stamped the frame image from IndigoBlu partially on top of the tag and covered the image with black embossing powder for heat embossing.

Next I experimented on stamping into UTEE - which was my very first time (I always was afraid of breaking my stamps by getting them stuck forever in UTEE or something like that ;).

For a first try I was quite content with the outcome. (So, please, be gentle with me *lol).

I also used melt art as a resist by stamping the Tim Holtz barbed wire image and covering with Ranger Ultra Fine Detail clear embossing powder for heat embossing. Afterwards I blended the area carefully with "black soot" Distress ink, trying to create a kind of border.

The eyes of the poor lonesome friend were heat embossed using black embossing powder too to make them look more intense.

The Stampotique Owl Tree image was the perfect background image for the sad scenery.

The tag's background texture was added by using a LaBlanche "burlap" stencil, DI "pumice stone" and a blending tool. I masked the spot, where I later stamped our "friend" on by covering this area with a cut out shape of the image.

Then, by pure accident, I stumbled upon a really cool "technique" while pimping up the ribbon I wanted to use with this tag:

as the ribbon was originally bright white with only the barb wire image printed on it, I first blended it with DI "black soot" to match the dark look of the tag. As the ribbon was a rather shiny material and less absorbent than cotton or linen for example, the DI stayed very much on top, which I only realized when I stained the ribbon using Distress paint "wild honey", dapping dots directly onto the ribbon... which caused the ink to build black edges around the yellow stains...which looked more than just perfect for the tag's theme!!!!

Cool, huh? I heat dried the ribbon and adhered it to my tag after I had distressed the edges and blended them with DI "pumice stone".

Now let's hope someone soon will find the courage to play with our sad friend! ;)

Most images were stamped with my favourite two inks: black jet archival ink from Ranger and Distress ink "black soot", so I enter Simon Says Stamp and Show's "Favorite Ink" challenge with this tag.

Hope you like my tag! Thanks for stopping by again!

Hugs,
die amelie x

Steampunk Birthday Tag

What kind of tag would you give to a dear (male!) friend, who loves the Victorian Age as he loves roleplaying games located in the late Eightteenhundreds? Yesss, that definitely had to be a steampunk tag with lots of odd machines, gears and details to play around with. This one is the "practicing tag" I will keep to myself (I sometimes do "practicing tags" and a (maybe slightly different) copy after the first...it's a good thing because you can choose afterwards which one to keep and which one to give away ;)

As the crew from Craft Stamper Magazine has just released their first "Take It, Make It challenge", this was the perfect occasion to try out their awesome "Faux Airbrushing" technique!!! Looks cool and is so much fun to do! (Hm, it seems I almost covered up all of the faux airbrushed background while playing around with lots of layers and embellishments...hope, the tiny spaces where it still can be seen make my entry good. At least I can offer some pics that show the tag in its various stages... ).

Here are some close-ups that should show the Faux Airbrushing I did on the background:

For the "airbrushing" I used a wonderful LaBlanche stencil  I got from SanDee (yes, the one who sent me that awesome goodie parcel! Great news: she now has a blog on her own! Go, visit SanDee's blog - there's some awesome Steampunk to be found!)

Here's how the tag looked in the beginning with just the Faux Airbrushing and some blending with Distress inks:

to the left the "airbrushed" tag with the LaBlanche stencil on white card, using DIs "chipped saphire", "faded jeans", "broken china", "shabby shutters" and "mustard seed".


To the right the tag after some blending and using another stencil with gears.



Maybe some of you have already spotted the fact that this tag is influenced by the february tag of Tim's "12 tags of 2013" ;)
Just love this tag with the embossing, the use of cord and embellishments, the layering and playful combination of textures!

The guy in the picture is a Mr. Pöschman from Vienna, whose image was on a legitimation card for the "K.u.K. Austrian State Railroads" from the year 1890. I found this card among the photos my Grand-Auntie left me and thought my ancestor fitted just perfectly.

Stamps used are Andy Skinner Texture stamps and stamps from the docrafts "Chronology" range. Gears were cut using Xcut dies. Hope you like the tag!

Thanks for your visit!
Hugs,

die amelie xx

I am entering Vintage Stamping Challenges with this tag, as they ask for "Blues, Browns & Beige".

Foil and Alcohol Inks

Our Creative Corner's actual challenge wants us to use Alcohol inks on foil - one of my favorite techniques! So I decided to join in almost last minute...

So I made another album (have four or five more in my treasure chest, waiting to be altered), using an ATC sized silver metal foil plate, I had made earlier and then put aside, because I didn't actually know how to continue with it. But today its' time had come at last! ;)

I had engraved some swirls into the metal foil, using a mat and an embossing tool. Afterwards I added various tones of alcohol inks to it.

Papers used on the album cover are from a Tim Holtz paper stash and a book about Shabby Chic, which contained a collection of lovely ephemera. I distressed the edges of the cover, the cut to size papers and ephemera and blended them with Distress inks "vintage photo","chipped sapphire" and "walnut stain". Some of them I blended with "antique linen", using a stencil from LaBlanche, I got as a surprise present recently!

It took me quite a while this time playing around with ribbons, brads and embellishments until I was content with the outcome. I had got so many as a present from a very dear scrap-friend of mine, that I really didn't know which ones to choose (or which ones to leave for another project ;).

I hope, you like the result!

Gone fishing, Mom / Bin zum Angeln, Mutti!

Dieses ATC entstand aus einer Laune heraus: ich habe gestern von einer lieben ATC-Stemplerin mit zwei tollen Karten auch noch einige Dinge bekommen: Gitter, die als Schablonen für Hintergründe verwendet werden können, ein hübsches ATC-Tütchen mit schönen Motiven drauf, tolle Tapes und noch einiges mehr. Das alles hat mich zu diesem ATC angeregt und dann gings wie von selbst.

Der Hintergrund ist mit GlimmerMists und den neuen Schablonen gemacht, die Buchstaben stammen von einem Tim Holtz Bogen, Fisch und Jungen-Gesicht von dem ATC-Tütchen. Am Rand links und rechts habe ich gleich das schöne Schrift-Tape verwendet es der längs in Hälften gerissen und geinkt. Das Fisch-Embellishment habe ich in Kupferfolie geprägt und ein wenig mit Alcohol Ink bearbeitet. Das Gesicht wurde mit Crackle Accents überzogen und auf eine Goldfolienscheibe aufgeklebt, die ebenfalls mit Alcohol Inks eingefärbt wurde.

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This ATC was inspired by the lovely package I received yesterday! It was from one of the girls at the ATC-platform I am in and she packed a lot of gorgeous goodies in there! I could not resist using them and this is the result:


the background is done with GlimmerMists and fence-masks, the letters were cut out off a Tim Holtz Paper from the "Lost and Found" paper stash. Fish and boy's face were cut out off the ATC-pocket I got. I embossed the fish-embellishment by hand onto copper foil I used Ranger alcohol inks on. I covered the face with Ranger Crackle Accents and the edges of the tape are distressed with Distress Ink.

Vom Winde verweht / Gone with the Wind

Einmal etwas eher ungewohnt "Zartes" von mir. ;)

Die aktuelle Challenge auf Vienna Impressions Inspirations , "Es liegt etwas in der Luft", hat mich dazu inspiriert, endlich meinen schönen La Blanche - Rahmenstempel auszuprobieren.

Den Hintergrund für das Bild habe ich mit Distress Inks und Wasser auf weißem Karton vorbereitet. Die Schwalbe für die Rahmenverzierung ist ein Stempel aus dem Pictorial Webster's Stempelset, die Stempel für Gräser, Biene und Schmetterling sind aus dem Artemio Clear Stamps Gräser - Set. Die Alphabetstempel aus meinem Lieblings-Hero-Arts Alphabet Stempelset.


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For a change something rather unusual "tender", I did.

The actual challenge "There's something in the Air" at  Vienna Impressions Inspirations made me try my rather new and beautiful La Blanche Frame-Stamp.

The picture background for the framed motive I did with Distress inks and water on white card. The swallow as embellishment for the frame comes from the Pictorial Webster's stampset, the grass, bee and butterfly from the Artemio Clear Stamps "Gräser" - set. For the phrase I used my favourite alphabet-stamp-set from Hero Arts.