A Leftovers-Mixed Media-Assemblage Piece for PaperArtsy

 Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by today! 

I am sharing another project I've done for PaperArtsy, using some of their lovely Fresco Finish Acrylic paints and products alongside some beautiful stamps designed by Lin Brown. "Leftovers" is the actual theme over at the PaperArtsy Blog and that was definitely a theme straight up my alley! 

I actually hoard leftovers of all kinds in all kinds of boxes (preferably old beautiful cigar boxes), vintage or vintage looking drawers, wood, tin and ceramic bowls and cabinets of all sizes. Leftovers for me include paper scraps and other tiny left over bits from previous projects as well as found objects like nature finds or rusty bits and also items that I have because I needed a single piece for a previous project and could only buy them in packages of two or more pieces of the same kind. I even keep tiny scraps of trims and paper strips - who knows? Maybe these will come in handy some day with one or the other ATC or assemblage piece...I even have some small tin and wood bowls on my studio desk that display leftovers and found objects for an inspiring space to work in. 

As you know you can click on all the images for a larger, closer view. 

 

Speaking of assemblage pieces...I've done a new one for PaperArtsy and creating it was a process I thoroughly enjoyed - thanks to my inspiring collections and studio desk! The whole finished project can be checked out at their blog (HERE), but I am sharing some detail shots in this post. It's design was inspired by the leftovers that spoke most to me on that day. 

I guess you might already have seen this one being shared on social media: 

The texture was done using PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze and Fresco Finish paints and the paper trims I used were - yes, of course - leftovers. The blue-ish dry brushed one at the very bottom is a design that I really like and need to use more often I found. It's a paper strip done using the fabulous Tim Holtz Lattice Trim 3-D Impresslits. The thinner Star Trim on top is actually an old (slightly damaged) scrap of original gold Dresden Trim but you can also use Tim's Star Trim 3-D Impresslits to create one yourself if you're not able to get these ( I do have that Impresslits die as well as I love to be able to create my own Dresden Trim whenever I am in need of one and will have run out of the "real stuff"). 

In the picture below you can see the two trims "in action" on the finished project. Another star on my assemblage is the little glass vial that I altered using PaperArtsy Infusions. I wanted to get an aged look instead of having the boring white glass of the vial and found a cool way to create the beautiful drip lines and the tint (it is all explained in  detail in the PaperArtsy blog post along with the other stuff of course). 

You may also have noticed the highly textural piece to the right in all its aged and worn glory...if you want to find out what it is, how I did it and how it looks as a whole, simply click HERE to get taken to the PaperArtsy blog and post. 

I hope to see you over there soon!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

The Start of a "House Journal" - a Calico Craft Parts Project

Servus, hi and thanks for stopping by! I hope you've had a lovely weekend!

It's Calico Craft Parts time today and over at their BLOG I am sharing the first piece of a kind of House-Journal I have been wanting to create for a long time, but haven't found the courage yet to start. But finally I took the first plunge and the first house is waiting for you to be visited ;)

A sneak peek should give you a first impression on what kind of mixed media project is waiting for you. Of course there is a step by step as well as loads of pictures and the lists of the Calico Craft Parts and DecoArt media products and paints used as well. Simply click HERE (or on the picture) to get taken to the blog post.

Hope to see you over there soon!

Have a good start into the week!

Claudia

xxx

Dreaming Myself Away Creatively in Times of Corona

Hi, servus and how is everyone doing these days?

Austria is taking first steps at getting back to a "normal" everyday life; "normal" meaning as normal as possible with the Corona virus still out there. Face masks, keeping one to two metres distance to everyone who is not living with you in the same household and special time tables for school kids will be staying part of that "normal" life (with schools and kindergardens and shops reopening again) for quite some time I guess. No one knows how summer holidays will look like and if these can be spent the way we usually do....

...so I decided to at least do some fantasy holiday travelling creatively on my desk and go to the beach!

Using one of Calico Craft Parts' printer's tray kits and other craft parts from their amazingly wide range of maritime and seaside themed wood shapes and combining these with stickers and designer papers and some DecoArt media goodness was great fun and creating my shadow box was a lovely relaxing time spent in my studio.

To see which Calico Craft Parts I have used and how I made my Beach-Holiday-Tray simply click HERE to get to the according blog post.

Stay safe and keep creating!

Claudia 

xxx

Mixed Media Entomology - a DecoArt Mixed Media Project and Tutorial

Hi, servus and thanks so much for stopping by!

Today's post is an invitation to check out my latest project and tutorial for the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog.

My love for insects should be a well known fact by now - and this project is once more inspired by "bug beauty" ;)

I've found a cool and easy way to create my own beetle by using specific supplies that are usually meant to enhance human beauty...if you want to find out what it was that I've used, simply click HERE to get taken to the blog post with the tutorial and a list of all the paints, products and cheap little "specialities" it needed to get my gorgeous bug done.

Of course there had to be some yummy texture and crackle too! The tuto also covers how these were done of course.

I hope you like my project and the tutorial! Get inspired to create your own glamorous and fascinating specimen! It is really easy and quickly done - and great fun too! See you over at the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

What to Make From Left Over Gameboard Token Chipboard Frames - a DecoArt Mixed Media Project

Servus and thanks so much for stopping by today!
This is another invite over to the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog, where I am sharing a project done using a left over chipboard frame that came with one of our numerous board games our friends, my husband and I love to play.

Most of these games have a lot of tokens and these come pre-punched but still in their chipboard frames for safer transport. I like to keep the frames as these are usually made from very sturdy chipboard and often they make for perfect frames to create little display trays from. Perfect for a collector of all things small and wondrous like me ;)

So this was how the frame looked before...

...and this is a sneak peek of how it looked after I had used some of my favourite DecoArt media products and paints on it.

There's a very detailed tutorial with loads of steps images over at the DecoArt Mixed Media Blog and I hope you will like it (and the finished project of course) ! I have already put it up on my wall as it displays some of my favourite shells and fossils. They have been stored away in a drawer for way too long - now I am happy that I can look at them every day. And as I am quite happy with how the tray turned out I am happy to look at that too. ;)

Hugs and happy 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

Time Machine - an Artist Trading Block created for SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Summer Special Challenge

Hi, servus and welcome to today's post which is all about our annual "summer special challenge"over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!

As every year we are having a two-months long challenge that runs from the start of July until the end of August. This is meant to provide our players and my wonderful design team with as much time to spend outside in the summer sun as possible and still have enough time to create a little something to play along with us and get the chance to make our Top 5 or win one of the two prizes donated by our wonderful and true sponsors DecoArt and boozybear.
More info on any differences to our usual challenge rules and an amazing bundle of steampunk inspiration by the design team wait for you over at our challenge blog (I have added a link to it at the bottom of this post).

My project for our summer special makes me especially (hahah...sorry for the pun...I just couldn't resist) happy this time as it was not only a lot of fun to create but I am also more than content with the outcome.
I guess you all know how it is sometimes...you have an idea in your head...of something fantastic looking and magical...but when you try to make it become real in a project it just doesn't seem to work out. That's one of the most frustrating things that can happen and often these are projects that I put to the side to return to several days (or weeks or months) later to find out if it can be saved, worked over, recycled or will just finally go into the bin (which is the worst case of course as it means I wasn't able to reach a goal I had set for myself. Luckily that doesn't happen too often. But it does happen from time to time).

This time though everything went as well as one could wish for...I had enough time, I was sufficiently relaxed and not too focused on an already very detailed version of the project I had in mind. There was plenty of room for changes and for just following my gut or let the project take the lead at some point. And this is my result - my Time Machine Artist Trading Block! Tadaaaahhhh!

I have used loads of Calico Craft Parts from my stash and DecoArt and DecoArt media paints and products on it and I will try to name each and every single one I have used in this post (just in case you would like to get and use one or the other for your own projects). If you head over to the Calico Craft Parts shop site you can use the "search" tool in the top right corner there to find a particular craft part more quickly.  You can get there by clicking on the according design team badge on the right side bar of my blog. 

This is the date I set my time machine to travel to. Which one would you pick? ;)

The project was also a great opportunity to use up some of my found objects and bits and bobs from my several boxes in which I hoard watch parts, vintage buttons, wire, bulbs and other junk that makes us steampunk mixed media crafters happy ;)

The MDF wood block I worked on is part of a Calico Craft Parts "Storage Cube Kit" (the other cube that originally is the drawer that goes into this larger cube was used for this project HERE). As this cube has an open side I could hold it by putting my hand inside the cube and work on all other five sides simultaneously (usually you have to wait until at least two sides are dry so you can touch it and continue working on it).

This is how the finished block looks seen from another angle and from the top:

I started by adding some DecoArt media white Modeling Paste through the Americana "Short Circuit" and "Pixelated" stencils (using a palette knife).

While the Modeling Paste dried, I primed the Calico Craft Parts I wanted to use with DecoArt Raw Umber Student Acrylic paint. I stippled on the paint using an old and worn bristle brush to get a textured paint layer. I also rubbed on some DecoArt media Texture Sand Paste with my fingertips once the Modeling Paste had dried.

Once the Modeling Paste had dried, I stippled on my base paint layer using "heritage" DecoArt Chalky Finish paint.

That was heat dried and then I went in with DecoArt premium "Cobalt Teal Hue" acrylic paint and dry brushed that onto some spots around my cube.

Then I added some industrial style numbers and words using DecoArt Americana "Light Buttermilk" paint, a stencil brush and Andy Skinner's "Industrial Elements" stencil.

After that had dried, I started dry brushing all sides of the cube with more Raw Umber Student Acrylic paint to highlight the stencilled on circuit areas and pixel dots and the cube's edges.

To get a shiny contrast against the rough areas where the Texture Sand Paste had been applied, I rubbed on several different tones of DecoArt Metallic Lustre. I used my fingertips to add it into the crevices and a piece of sturdy, flat cut and dry foam where I only wanted the Metallic Lustre to go to raised areas.

Copper Kettle for starters...

...then some Black Shimmer...

...and finally some Gold Rush.

I also used Metallic Lustre "Silver Sparkle" to sponge it onto the two Calico Craft Parts Steampunk Word Elements I used on top of the cube. This way the laser engraved words weren't covered up by too much  paint or paste.

Metallic Lustre Black Shimmer was also applied around all the cube's edges.

The large "Mechanical Cogs" element on top, the wood corner "Cogs & Clock Hands" and the other wood corner "with Hanging Edison Bulbs" were painted using DecoArt Matte Metallics paint "Pewter" and some later sprinkled with diluted DecoArt Dazzling Metallics paint "Venetian Gold" (after the two Word Elements bands had been glued to each side to form the stand for the top element).

Before I glued all the painted Calico Craft Parts and found objects in place I used the left overs from the Light Buttermilk Americana paint, diluted it and sprinkled it onto all the cube's sides. I repeated that  step using diluted Zinc Dazzling Metallics paint.

The cool "Diving Helmet" was painted with DecoArt Extreme Sheen paint "Bronze" (as well as the little screw heads, washers, the wings (from one of Calico's Mini MDF Wings Sheets) and the Ornate Key.  To that I added DecoArt Dazzling Metallics "Zinc" and "Moss Pearl".

The same paints were used on the side where I had glued the gears and beautiful "Ornate Key" shape to. I think this is the side with almost all the different DecoArt Metallics paints used - Moss Pearl, Venetian Gold and Zink Dazzling Metallics, Extreme Sheen "Bronze", "Pewter" Matte Metallics and "Metallic-Silver" media fluid acrylic paint (on the label holder that shows the set date).

Some of the parts were painted before assembly, others - like the smaller gears, washers and screw heads were painted after - simply because I wasn't sure which colour I wanted to use on these or changed the previously painted colour by painting over it.

For the little silver panels (I used some "rectangle Mini MDF Tags" for these) with keys, screws and washers I used DecoArt media fluid acrylic Metallic-Silver.

To fix the coated wire pieces to the cube I drilled matching holes using my Dremel tool. The wire ends were then inserted and glued in place with matte DecoArt Decou-Page.

The light bulbs were wrapped with rusty wire and the wire ends were inserted into drilled holes as well and bent over on the cube's inside and glued in place from there.

An old clock face and hand were glued to the top element using super glue.

This is a picture of all the products used and the mess I created on my craft desk ;)

I already liked my time machine cube at that stage (without the wires, bulbs and tubes added), but it looks so much cooler with all these little gadgets, doesn't it? I have added these a day later, enjoying some more hours of happy crafty playtime at my craft desk.

Some close ups:

and once more the finished ATB:

I hope you're enjoying a wonderful summer! But I also hope you will use one or the other rainy day (not that I wished there would be too many of these) to create a little steampunk somethin' to play along with us this July and/or August! The team and I would love to see you play along with us over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!

Hugs and happy summer crafting!

Claudia

xxx