"The Sea" - OCC's "Words" Challenge for August

Hello, dear readers, crafting friends and followers! 

I welcome you back to

OurCreativeCorner's August challenge - 

"Words!"

Two days ago I already invited you over to TIOT's "Collage with a twist"-challenge and today this is also the second invitation to a challenge, as I have posted about SanDee&amelie's Steampunk August-challenge earlier in the morning. So there should be plenty of inspiration for you to choose from ;)

But back to OurCreativeCorner and "Words!":

We would love to see projects with words at the heart of them - whether that means they include a quote, a sentiment, a song lyric or some words from inside your own heart and mind; or perhaps the project includes text of some kind, typed or script, handwritten or printed, as a major element; or maybe you can find some other way to have words at the centre of your creation.

My teamies have of course again prepared a lot of beautiful inspirational pieces for you and this was the perfect occasion for me to create a board that is meant as both - a memory keeper of a wonderful holiday on Paradise Island in the Caribbean AND a tribute to one of my favourite summer holiday songs - "The Sea" from Morcheeba.

 I had these lovely small shells and corals I had collected on my long early morning walks on the long (and still empty) beach, which I have been wanting to display for quite some time now - and this was the perfect occasion.

I created a background from corrugated card, which I coloured with Distress stains "tumbled glass" and "salty ocean" together with Dylusions ink spray "White Linen". I tore off some of the outer layers of the card, which left some "holes" and I also cut the piece to size while the colours were still wet - so this rather tore the edges than cutting it (I LOVE that effect ;).

After I had dried it, I heat embossed some of the edges and raised areas with white embossing powder.


I also added some Distress stain "brushed corduroy" using a brush to add more contrast and depth.




The shells were stamped onto white card and covered with DecoArt gloss "Decou-page" to build a resist, as I coloured the white card afterwards using the wrinkle-free distress technique and a lot of Distress stains. I also distressed the edges, blended in some DI "broken china" and flicked some drops of water onto the cut to size pieces of the stamped on card.

The refrain of the song was stamped onto beige card using HeroArts letter stamps and archival ink "Royal blue".

The corals and shells were fixed to the board using thin silver wire.

The most fun was making the two focal words - "sea" and "free".

I die cut them from light blue card using a Tim Holtz Alterations Alphabet die and gave them three layers of UTEE afterwards.

I paid attention that the last layer wasn't totally melted down - so some of the crystals are still visilbe and give it a sandy, sparkly touch - like beach sand when it gets wet.

The four plates with the stamped on shells were mounted to the board alongside some rough white ribbon for more texture.

I fixed some white rough burlap to the top and the bottom of my board for a finish. Done!

I hope the feeling of a beach holiday becomes somehow visible for you too ;)
Thank you for stopping by my blog and having a look around! I would love to see your entries with our "Words" challenge soon!

With this project I join the challenges over at Inkspirational - "Anything Goes",  Pollycraft Challenges - "Fun in the Sun", City Crafter Challenges - "Summer Time" , The Artistic Stamper - "Postcard, Travel and Holidays" , SimonSaysStamp - "Ode to Sunshine" (as it is the sun that bleaches the shells, driftwood and corals and I always feel the warmth of the Caribbean sun when looking at that board), Order of the Opus Gluei - "Don't be such a Beach",  The Squirrel and the Fox - "Nautical/Sea Life" and Creative Craft Challenges colour challenge "Blue and Brown".
Hugs,

die amelie - Claudia xx

Matchbox Steampunk - August challenge "chez SanDee&amelie's"

Welcome back for another appetizer for the new challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges :)

This month we want you to 

use one or more matchboxes with your projects. 

As always our challenge is "anything goes"

as long as it is Steampunk 

and our monthly theme is incorporated. 

Of course this month we have a wonderful guest designer (with a lot of contageous creativity going on ;) with us again and a prize to give away for this month's randomly drawn prize winner. ;)


I had rolled this theme in my head for quite a long time - having no idea even though it was me who suggested the matchbox challenge... but after I had a long play with some white matchboxes, combining them in multiple ways, stacking them, building a row and whatever you can do with three matchboxes, I came up with a creation that I would call "cubist", as it reminds me of a lot of cubist sculptures that all have in common that the artist had a play with cubes, trying to arrange them to a shape and form that might draw the viewers interest to it ;)

So here comes my "Steampunk Cubism" *giggle:

It also reminds me of geometry drawing one learns at school ;)

I first covered a piece of crumpled and then again unfolded brown paper with random brushes of white DecoArt Gesso and after that had dried I stamped some Kaisercraft "dicitionary meanings" and IndigoBlu adverts on it with black archival ink. I covered the matchboxes with this paper, cutting off the excess afterwards.

The compartments of the matchboxes were sprayed with GlimmerMist first and then covered with a filmstrip washi tape on the outsides (which also helped to stabilize them).

Then I gave the edges of the boxes a shading with Distress ink "walnut stain" and glued the three boxes together. I also added some torn scraps of the brown stamped paper for more interest:

For the insides of the compartments I stamped three Steampunk images (from Oxford Impressions and Artistic Outpost) onto more gessoed brown paper, cut three pieces to size and glued them to the boxes' bottoms.

Next I stamped the "cube steam punk" onto white card using my HeroArts letter stamps and jet black and sepia archival inks. I cut the letters out separately and glued them to three different areas of my "sculpture". Afterwards I drew a black border around each letter for more depth.

Having all my paper work done I went on with embellishing. I created a handle for one of the compartments using thin black wire.

The second "drawer" got a metal tab on it showing my lucky number: 7.

To this matchbox I fixed a Tim Holtz idea-ology light bulb using wire again. The wire also holds the gear in place.

To the top of the third compartment I glued a Prima butterfly nut that I gave some dabs with alcohol ink "terra cotta", with which I also coloured the bulbs' sockets.

The bottlecap (one of my on-my-balcony-rusted ;) was embellished with a plastic button I coloured in black and gave some metallic rub ons from DecoArt afterwards. I also glued a rusty screw to the side of the "cube" matchbox.

The upright matchbox compartment was glued to the box to stay in place. The other two compartments can be closed and opened (to hide or reveal their "treasures").
I had a lot of fun embellishing my tiny sculpture with Prima-, selfmade- and Tim Holtz idea-ology goodness and I hope you like the outcome too :)

Please, hop over to our challenge blog to see what my dear friend and Steampunk soulmate SanDee1899 and our special guest Candy Colwell (YESSS, THE Candy Colwell ;) have prepared for your inspiration! I thank you for staying with me this far (as it was a quite picture heavy post again), wish you a happy crafting time and look forward to seeing your matchbox creations soon entered with our challenge at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk challenges. You always enter such a lot of creative awesome stuff - I can hardly wait to see what you come up with next!

I join the challenges over at SimonSaysStamp - "Anything Goes", Fashionalbe Stamping Challenges - "Script/Books/Pages/Print" , Divas by Design - "Favourite Color Combo" (I LOVE black and white combined with browns!), Out of a Hat Creations - "Numbers" (my lucky number 7 appears two times on my project) and Lady Anne's Challenges - "Monochrome" with this project.


Hugs,

die amelie x

"Collage!"...

...is what we want you to do for this fortnight's challenge over at TryItOnTuesday!

This means that - as always - our challenge is an "anything goes" as long as you show us a collage, which must also include some script somewhere ( ...and of course stick to the challenge rules in general ;)


I recently stumbled upon a lovely book about soldered jewelry and so I decided to take up soldering again. This is a technique I had learned over 20 years ago during my arts studies, but honestly never taken any further. But now was the time:
I created a collaged deco hanging with some of my favourite stamps, book pages and images: insects, script/words and plants!

I also wanted to use the awesome bookpages from an old herbarium, which were given to me by lovely ELLIE during a swap! (Thank you for this rare and wonderful treasure, my dear crafting friend!)
And they were just perfect for this project! I sooo love how they are displayed now.

I used 5x5 centimeter Memory glass plates, self adhesive copper foil tape and the soldering iron from dear hubby ;) - and I had a lot of fun!

In the following I will show you all six sides of the hanging ornament:

To create my six small collages, I used pages from the old herbarium, some script and animal stamps which I stamped onto beige card or scraps from the pages' borders and also some scraps from Tim Holtz papers which I stamped some images of insects on. Most of the scraps were cut to size, some of them were torn. All of them were blended with DI "vintage photo" around the edges. Then I glued them to place and put front and back images between two pieces of Memory glass. I covered the edges of the glass sheets with self adhesive copper foil tape and soldered around them afterwards.

Stamps used are from DeStempelwinkel, 7Gypsies and Artemio, stamping inks: archival black jet and sepia. 

Sssshh....my favourite collage is this one ;) :

Working on such small space is something I really like to do. But of course the collages you enter with the challenge can be of any kind and size you want ;)

I invite you now to hop over to Try It On Tuesday to see what my fabulous team mates created for your inspiration! Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your awesome collages soon entered with our challenge!!!!

I enter FSC's "Script/Books/Pages/Print" challenge with this make.(Thought I already had, but it seems I deleted this paragraph accidentally during editing :(

Hugs,

die amelie xx

WOYWW #216

Wow, I made it again for this week's workdesk wednesday snoops...er... visits, hosted by lovely Julia Dunnit! :)

As there is not much going on today on my workdesk (honestly it is rather close to my best state of being tidied up ;), I decided to show you what is beside my workdesk this time. (Hope, this counts too ;).

The shelves to the left hold all the embellishments, ribbons and cords, idea-ology treasure boxes, colour sprays, ephemera and also my tools for wire, wood and metal work and for painting tin figures for tabletop strategie games. There you can also find my inspirations library (on top).

The shelf behind my desk holds the acrylic colours, mediums, crayons, felt tip pens, scraps and stuff like that.

One last look on my "empty" desk:

Well, yes, you are right - tidied up looks different *lol. But at least there's some space left for starting something new ;)

I hope you all enjoy a happy workdesk wednesday and I wish you a wonderful crafting week!

die amelie x

"Counting Shells"

"By the Sea" is SSSaS's theme for this week and almost last minute I decided to create a project for entering their challenge, using my recently bought Sizzix Accordion Flip die.


As it is too hot for me to think properly I skip a long how-to today and leave you alone with the pictures. I hope you like it and that you enjoy the hot summer weather!

I used white Gesso, a blending tool, DI s "broken china" and "gathered twigs", blue card, some mica, alcohol inks, Sizzix, Sizzix accordion flip die, Oxford Impressions images stamped onto tissue paper and glued to the background using DecoArt Decou-page matte (which I watered down a bit), some cord, texture paste, the TCW "Mini numerals" stencil, my HeroArts letter stamps, archival ink "Rich Cocoa", two half pearls and some glue.

Hugs,

die amelie x

I also enter this project with Fashionable Stamping Challenge's "Flora and Fauna" challenge, with Country View Crafts "Summer Sizzler" challenge, Heck of a Challenge's "The Sea" challenge and The Crafting Cafe's "Summer's here" challenge.