12 Tags of 2014 - April Theme Variation

As I fell in love with the awesome Trellis die from Tim Holtz as soon as I saw it, I had to have it and still love the endless possibilities it offers! As you may remember I already had a heavy play with it over here.

My second entry to the April tag of Tim Holtz' "12 tags of 2014" is an altered latern I used the Trellis die on.

And I also took an image with the curtains closed so you can see how it looks when it is lit by the candle inside:

I had this old lantern with a simple glass which I covered with some japanese rice paper that I first tinted with Distress stain "tattered rose". Then I die cut the trellis twice from some Tim Holtz paper stash, and also two tattered pinecones (to create the fabulous roses) and one twig.

As I wanted to have roses in different sizes I tore the second pinecone shape into two parts and created two smaller roses from that one die cut. The other pinecone shape was used for a large rose.

To cover the metal stand of my lantern I used the rulers from the strip designs from one of the Tim Holtz papers and fixed it to the metal with hot glue. Then I glued the three roses and the twig on the spot where the overlap from my paperstrip was, to hide it.

The top of my lantern was given a border with the tiles from the trellis die cut and the backs that were visible were coloured with the Distress marker "broken china". I also glued some tiles into the trellis frame using hot glue, which makes them pop a little so the light can shine through the gaps!!!

For a finish I added some rough cord with which I fixed the metal idea-ology tag too. Some dabs of patina gilding wax around the platform of my lantern and the metal tag. Done! Hope you like it!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia xx

Happy Easter!

I just found some time inbetween preparing the Easter cake and brunch for tomorrow and cleaning the flat to upload the first images I took with my new camera yesterday when I hiked the beautiful vineyards located at the Bisamberg northeast of Vienna.

I have decided to take up photographing again and it took me over two years to decide which kind of camera to buy until I stumbled upon a real bargain some weeks ago - and as this camera is the follower up model to my old one I didn't hesitate any longer. There's still a lot to learn because it does a lot of new things (and I haven't found the time yet to read the whole instructions)....but yesterday was a wonderful sunny day and we wanted to sit in one of those lovely "Heurigen" after a little walk.

Along the various paths you find a lot of wine cellars like this one.

I love their various looks of beautiful decay and that they seem to have become one with their surrounding. 

If you want to see some more I would love to invite you over to my rather new "art blog" Von Pappe (which is meant to be the place where to share with you the "more earnest" and thoughtful side of me). But the images here are meant for all my true and dear and new readers and crafting friends: 

to wish you a very 

Happy Easter 

with your loved ones! 

Hugs,
Claudia x

Our Creative Corner - Sneak Peek!

Servus and welcome back!
 
This post is just a quick invitation for you to visit Our Creative Corner, where I have the great pleasure to share with you a very cheerful project I made to spotlight one of our prize sponsor's products.

Also...if you haven't seen yesterday's tutorial for DecoArt and That Craft Place , take a look over here.

This month the OCC team are sponsored by Tando Creative and I love their stuff! See what I did to...erm...with some of their fabulous stuff by hopping over to the OCC challenge blog. Need some cheering up today? Then this is the right thing to do. ;)

Hope this tiny sneak peek did its job! ;)
There's the whole project AND a full how-to to be found at the challenge blog! See you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x

Happy Easter Inspiration at That Craft Place plus a DecoArt Tutorial

Time for the some new inspiration over at That Craft Place Challenges and a new DecoArt Tutorial as well!

Over at That Craft Place Challenges there will be additional inspirational projects every Tuesday and Thursday tfrom now on. As Lisa also sells a lot of awesome DecoArt products I did this workshop for both - the DecoArt International Design Team and Lisa's store.



The awesome goodies Lisa (the owner of That Craft Place bricks and mortar and online shop) sent me to work with, inspired me to create this little Easter Shadow box:

The box is made from scraps of thick corrugated card and I used a real egg on it, but everything else used I used to create it can be bought with Lisa's awesome shop or with her shop facebook group.

- DecoArt Americana "Primary Yellow", "Sea Glass", "Rockwood Red"
- bark
- feathers
- embossed cardboard wings
- wood frame and crown
- tiny bunny embellishment
- masking tape
- Ditzie Designs clearly background "Wood Grain" stamp
- rough textural burlap
- DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium
- DecoArt matte Decou Page
- Distress Inks "aged mahogany", "mustard seed"
- clear embossing powder

I first stamped the lovely "Wood Grain" Ditzie Designs stamp with DI "aged mahogany" and clear embossed it. The size of that panel gave me the size for my whole shadow box - so I cut four sides and a backplate from thick corrugated card and glued the box together using masking tape on the outside (to hold everything in place) and Decou Page to make all the parts stick together. While this was set aside to dry I painted the lovely cardboard wings Lisa gave me.

I first gave them a coat of "Rockwood Red" acrylic paint and let dry. Then it was given a thin coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood and after that had touch dried I painted all over with a layer of DecoArt Americana "Sea Glass" (as this matched the colour of my little Easter egg perfectly).

The bark I cut to size and used for decorating the frame was also given some drybrushing with DecoArt Americana "Sea Glass" to make the elements bond into one design (which you can see above). The next images shows the assembly of my bark frame and the glued in place stamped panel that I had inked with DI "Mustard Seed" after the heat embossing.The insides of the frame were painted with DecoArt Americana "Rockwood Red" too.

The outside was painted with DecoArt Americana "Primary Yellow" - which came closest to the "mustard seed" Distress ink look.

After the paint had dried I glued the bark frame onto my shadow box using DecoArt Decou Page glue.

I needed something to glue my cut in half wings parts to, so I dissembled a wooden cloths pin and glued the pieces to the sides with DecoArt matte Decou Page.

You can see a tiny bit of the painted cloths pin peek out at the bottom and top of the left wing...but as I painted them the same colour as the wings they do not disturb the look of the project.

The assemblage in the center of my shadow box contains the lovely Ditzie Designs wood frame to which I fixed the tiny rabbit embellishment (using some thin rough cord), a beautiful feather and some rough burlap in the background. I fixed it all to the stamped, heat embossed and "mustard seed" DI blended background panel with matte DecoArt Decou Page - even the tiny egg and the crown on top. It also worked perfectly with glueing the bark to the corrugated card frame - you just have to make sure to use it rather heavily. As the Decou Page dries clear, nothing of it will be visible later.

To make my shadow box stand, I die cut an easel from a piece of heavy card and glued it to the back. But you can of course also hang it somewhere by glueing a hook or loop to the back of your shadow box.

The sentiment was printed from my computer, blended at the edges with DI "aged mahogany" and glued in place. Done!

I hope you like it! Happy Easter to you! And as always hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia - die amelie x

Dream, Trust, Create, Inspire!

Servus, dear followers old and especially those anew! So glad that you stop by my little creative spot!

The April tag over at Tim Holtz' "12 tags of 2014" really is my absolute favourite so far. I really LOVE that trellis die! And - as some of you might already know and have noticed - I am not very much into flowers (too lovely, too fiddly, too bulky, too whatsoever)...but the flowers Tim creates using the pinecone die are just THE perfect paper flowers for me! Finally I found "my" paper flowers...who would have thought ;)
 

The play with the trellis die and using it with various surfaces for the tiles and the frames finally led to a series of 4 tags that are connected to each other as all the elements/materials/techniques used on them appear in a variation on the other tags.

I admit my first attempts on making the roses failed as I tore the die cut while trying to wrap it around the tooth pick (there are three spots where the single "leaves" are connected by a rather narrow  piece and obviously I treated them like rated break points ;)...but after some tries I had learned where to pay attention and be careful,  I finally succeeded and even managed to create three more. Phew! ;)

I used Kraft Glasseine for one tag, which I stapled over a stamped tag and treated with alcohol inks afterwards. For  one tag I used brown kraft cardboard, for another a sheet from a Tim Holtz paper stash and for the fourth tag I used Kraft Core, which I sanded down a bit after I had die cut the tag (using the Sizzix "Tag and Book Plates" die).

I even used some scrap from cutting the trellis frames for borders and additional embellishing. I cut the trellis tiles and frames from card which I glued some sticky foil onto and ran some of the tiles throught my Sizzix using an embossing folder. Then I rubbed in some black acrylic paint and wiped off the excess using some soft cloth. The made the embossed texture pop even more! I also dry embossed some of the card tiles for more texture.

Some of the tiles that had the sticky foil on them were given a treatment with alcohol inks - as was the frame (which you can see in the image above)!

I did a lot of stapling, distressing, tearing and puzzling with the various tiles and frames and enjoyed this a lot!  I also varied the ribbons I used with the tops of my tags and tried to find the perfect matches for each tag.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing all my variations and tries with all the various surfaces, textures and colours! My personal favourite is the tag with the Kraft Glasseine background...but I love looking at all four lying side by side... seeing the elements that connect them but create totally different effects on each tag - depending on what they are combined with.

Thank you for stopping by! Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia x