Bring on the B's

Servus!
Time for a new dare over at Emerald Creek it is! And this fortnight's challenge theme is

"Bring on the B's"

- use buttons, brads, buckles  and try keeping your project feminine or babies (as they are cute as a button, right?)

I went for the feminine approach and created this card using Yupo paper on some brown craft card:

I just adore this old photograph of a fearless knife thrower's assistant!  Her dress is absolutely fantastic and I love how she looks into the camera!

Emerald Creel products used on my card:

EC Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powder

EC Easter Parade embossing powder

EC Fleur Crest Brads

EC Fleur Brads

EC Fearless Buckle Charms

other products available at Emerald Creek:

Distress marker antique linen

Distress spray stain rusty hinge

Distress paint black soot

Distress Crayons Set #3

A list of other products used can be found at the bottom of this post.

***

I started my background by cutting to size some Yupo paper and adding various tones of alcohol ink by dripping them directly from the bottle on the paper.

The alcohol inks react so beautifully on the Yupo. By the way - I followed a great demo done by Tim Holtz at CHA this winter. Here's the video:




I didn't have the alcohol ink blending solution so I used Isopropanol instead and dabbed that through a stencil to take off some of the dried alcohol ink:

Next I used some Ranger Vintaj patina colours to customize the lovely Emerald Creek Fearless Buckle charm and Fleur brad:

I also dabbed on some black soot Distress paint :

I die cut the mini flourish and clipboard pieces from heavy black card and heat embossed them with the Easter Parade and Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powders:

Next I drew a thin outline with my black soot Distress Crayon around my Yupo background and smudged it with my fingertip.

An old white yarn button was given some sprays with rusty hinge Distress spray stain:

A collection of vintage buttons and the photograph, the flourish and the clipboard pieces were glued to the background using Matte Medium:

A white chit chat sticker needed some toning down with an antique linen Distress marker:

Everything was mounted onto some brown craft paper. The buckle charm and some stained lace ribbon were fixed to the Yupo paper using matte medium and two brads before I glued everything onto the craft paper.

Some details:

(I love Emerald Creek's Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powder!)

And the Easter Parade one too (lol):

Once again the finished card (which is as feminine as I can get):

Thanks for the visit and I hope you liked what you saw!
I hope to see you over at Emerald Creek Dares, playing along with us!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia
xxx

other products used:

Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Inks

Ranger Vintaj Patina

Yupo Paper 

Ranger Alcohol Blending Solution

Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool 

Sizzix Movers & Shapers dies: Mini Clipboard Top & Bottom, Mini Flourish

Mr. Hyde Goes Out

...is the title of my first project as a regular member of the fabulous Calico Craft Parts design team!

You may remember the two projects I did for them as a Guest Designer recently (over HERE and HERE) and how much I enjoyed working with the wonderful designs - so when I saw they were doing a DT Call I jumped right in. And here I am (still pinching myself)!
I am not sure if I am able to express my excitement accordingly in English - so I spare you any attempts. But believe me - I AM! (Eeeeek! Yesssss, yessss, yessss!)

So let me invite you over to the Calico Craft Parts BLOG where I am sharing a nocturnal scene - inspired mainly by these three fabulous products from the awesome Calico Craft Parts range: an awseome hinge, a lovely lamp post set and an arch shaped mixed media board.

Here's a little sneak peek too:

So I hope to see you over at the Calico Craft Parts Blog! 

Hugs and happy crafting, 

Claudia xxx

Art Journaling with Yupo, Alcohol Ink, Washi Tape and Distress Crayons

Tim Holtz' new "Sideshow" stamp set was one of those I just knew I had to have when I first saw it! And often I find it quite hard to work with stamps that already have a kind of "finished collage" or -drawing" look - but I found that they are perfect for using them with alcohol ink backgrounds created on Yupo! So I created this journal spread today:

I have recently started experimenting with alcohol ink on Yupo (over HERE) and came up with this background that I gave a finish by rubbing over it with a soft cloth (applying pressure) - which kind of smudges the ink stains and creates this softer effect:

I originally thought of painting over this one and doing a flower themed Yupo painting (as some of the shapes look like blossoms) - but as you can see: I changed my mind.

So I stamped on the images using black archival stamping ink, cut them out and glued them to my journal pages. Then I smudged some black soot Distress Crayon around the edges and added some rubber stamping.

To make the chit chat stickers more visible I used a soft brush that I loaded with water to lighten the outer edges and to soften any edges from alcohol ink stains.

I added bits of washi tape here and there.

Then I did some stencilling using Distess Crayons (using my fingertips to "rub" them through the stencil onto the page) and added some spritzes of Distress Spray Paint.

For a finish I drew a thin border around my pages using a permanent marker.

Some details:

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx

Experimenting with Yupo and Alcohol Inks

Hi and servus again!

This is my second post today - and if you have missed my short early morning invitation to my new tutorial, please, scroll down to the previous post where you will find the link to the tutorial over at Our Creative Corner.  ;)

In this post I would like to share a new passion of mine: Yupo paper!

I have only just started experimenting with Yupo paper. It is a synthetic paper that makes a lot of media "behave" differently than on normal paper. So you can create great effects on it with inks, alcohol inks, acrylic paints and many other media.

I started with alcohol inks as I love how they spread and create these beautiful patterns on the Yupo.
Here are some experiments with different ways of application, using Isopropanol, diluted inks, stamps, mark making tools...

#1

 I simply let the alcohol inks drip from the bottle onto the Yupo. 

The lighter tones were done using diluted alcohol inks and a pipette. 

To dilute the alcohol inks I used Isopropanol.

I only used three different colours by the way. They mix this beautifully on the paper - simply by adding more layers of inks and/or isopropanol. 

#2

I sprayed a mix of Isopropanol and water onto the dripped on alcohol inks and created some running lines.

#2 detail

#3

I used diluted alcohol inks and tried to create smaller splatters using the almost empty pipette. 

#4

I used mixes of heavily diluted alcohol inks and pure Isopropanol to create layers of drops of all sizes.

#5

I used Isopropanol and rubber stamps, bottle caps,  ribbon (dipped into Isopropanol) and other tools to create marks. The black script was stamped on using black archival ink. 

detail:

#6

I used pure alcohol inks. isopropanol and soft scraping tools to spread the inks. 

detail:

 

#7

the same procedure with heavily diluted alcohol inks

Working on Yupo is such great fun! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Claudia

xxx

It's Sneak Peek Time Again!

Servus, my dear and true readers and followers - old and anew!

I am happy to see you stop by again and would love to invite you over to Our Creative Corner where I have a short and easy tutorial for you that is meant to take you further into experimenting with die ink and trusting your own brushstrokes.
Also again I have been creating layers (as I always do) and am taking you through the single steps of the process.

Here's a little close up so you can get an idea (and hopefully decide to hop over and find out a bit more):

To get to the blog post click HERE. I would love to see you over there! Also make sure you don't miss the last few days to enter the fabulous "Gipsy Fayre" challenge hosted by lovely Candice!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia 

xxx