Stampendous and DecoArt Blog Hop - Day 1

Servus and welcome to the start of an exciting week with some massive blog hopping with DecoArt in collaboration with Stampendous, who have provided the members of the DecoArt International Design Team (featuring Andy Skinner) with loads of their awesome stuff so they could join in and show what they can create with their lovely stamps, stencils, embossing powders and enamels and the Creative Palette!

But I guess I better first let Stampendous do the talking:

 "Our great friends at DecoArt are joining with us this week to show you what you can do with stamps and acrylic paint! 

You'll be amazed how these two craft items make amazing things! Artists from all over the world will be playing with Stampendous and DecoArt. Prepare to be amazed! Of course, there are prizes! DecoArt is sending three sets of their Media Fluid Acrylics to international commenters, and we'll be adding a $20 Stampendous Reward card to each one so you can choose the stamps or essentials you'd most like to work with!! 

Visit each blog, leave a comment! • Like Stampendous and DecoArt on Facebook! • We've also got a Pinterest Board started!

Please repin our projects on to your boards and be sure to tag us when you do (#Stampendous and #DecoArt) - we'll be tracking. Your comments on the blogs are your entry into the drawing! We'll randomly choose three blog posts from all the designer posts this week and then choose a winner from each to receive a prize package. BUT I have a few bonus goodies hanging around my office for some lucky people who SHARE our Facebook posts and Pinterest Pins! Sorry, even though our artists are from all over the world, you still have to have a U.S. Mailing Address to win. The Official Rules can help explain why. Ready for your trip around the world??? Let's get Hoppin!

Claudia Neubacher (Vienna, Austria)

Kristine Reynolds (California, USA)

Iliane de Fockert (Elly) (Niedersachsen, Germany)

Julia Stratford-Wright (near London, UK)*

Julie Robertson (UK)

Asia King (Oxford, England)

Jessa Plant (Arizona, USA)

Kathi Rerek (New Jersey, USA)*

The Official Rules can be found here. Ready for your trip around the world??? Let's get Hoppin!"

* Sorry - there was a mistake with the first version of the link, but it is updated and should work now. 

***

I hope everything is clear now and you can enjoy a wonderful inspiring hop! As I have the special honour to open this terrific event, I really hope you like my little "Take Away Sketch Journal" I made for a very special and talented young lady (so she can note her ideas for more great poetry in it whenever they hit her mind). 

DecoArt also sent a huge bundle of their new Media fluid acrylics line to their DT so we all can experiment and explore the new possibilities to show them to you, makes this event even more exciting! 


And this is the awesome load of goodness I was able to play with during the last days:

Awesome, isn't it? The new fluid acrylics from the DecoArt media range contain an incredible amount of pigments and I love the opaque tones as well as the translucent ones! There's an "Interference" colours range too, antiquing creme and some fab texture media like crackle glaze and paste and different varnishes - just to name a few. If you hop over to the blogs of my fab teamies (throughout the week) you will find the whole variety there is to choose from - and what you can create with it!

This week is going to see a lot of inspiration from the Stampendous AND the DecoArt International DT members and there will be new posts from Monday to Friday - and some chances to win goodies and give-aways too! So make sure you check back each day with Stampendous and DecoArt to not miss any of the fun! Also make sure to read to the bottom of this post so you don't miss a very special give away from fabulous Andy Skinner himself! Yay!


I highly recommend you visit all the blogs of my creative colleagues and get inspired (but to leave some words of encouragement as well - these are highly appreciated, you know?)! You won't regret it! I promise!


For a start I had a heavy play with the Creative Palette from Stampendous, which works really well as a palette to spread your acrylic colours on but also as a monoprinting plate! You simply apply acrylic colours - like the DecoArt Media fluid acrylics or the Americana paints - alongside some DecoArt Gel Medium or Fluid Medium (or other drying time extenders) - to the palette with a brayer, take off colour with stamps or bubble wrap, doodle into it, use masks... and pull your prints (applying pressure to the back of the paper with your hands or a brayer). Especially printing several layers in separate goes produces the most intriguing results!

You can see the Creative Palette to the left and one of the prints I pulled. It is the one I used to create a thin notebook from as I used a heavier paper with it - so it worked really well as a cover for a light-weight notebook with a sewn binding.

The white circles were done by positioning cut out paper (or acetate) masks before laying down the paper to pull the print. I like to use these areas where the white paper still shows through to add more detailed texture or text.

I stamped some "Brush Strokes" images (from the Stampendous stamp set) first - using DecoArt Traditions "Carbon Black", the Creative Palette and a piece of cut'n dry foam to apply the colour evenly to the stamps.

For more opaque stamped images I used some colours of the Americana range alongside the new Media Fluid Acrylic paints.

Slowly the layers of my cover began to build up and create depth. I also used DecoArt Dazzling Metallics for some of my stamping - to add a bit of metal shine and "bling". I hope a bit of it can be seen with this image:

The golden stamped dots circle was stamped with DecoArt Media "Interference Gold" - which is very subtle but gives a rather delicate feel to your creations.

For a finish I added some detail with a white Sharpie pen and black watercolour pencil.

I then cut the cover to size, folded it and cut some sheets of paper to according size to sew them to the cover.

And this is how the finished project looks like:

I hope you like it! I had such a ball playing with the Creative Palette and the beautiful stamps and the new DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics go a long way with just a little droplet! Stampendous stamp sets used: Brush Strokes, Grunge, Wired.

Also up for grabs - exclusively on the Decoart International Design Team Blog posts -  is a chance to win a one off piece of artwork from brilliant Andy Skinner who will choose one winner from the comments on our blog posts on Thursday and will announce the winner on his Facebook page on Friday: Andy Skinner  facebook page

Didn't promise too much, did I? ;)

I will share some more projects I created for the DecoArt-Stampendous blog hop on Wednesday and Friday - so make sure you come back to check them out! Thanks for stopping by my place and enjoy hopping!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia x

That Craft Place Blog Hop!

Servus, dear crafting friends, readers and followers old and especially anew,

come and join me and the fab design team on some blog hop fun for That Craft Place !
It is also the start of our new challenge and you are very welcome to enter as by doing so you get eligible to win some awesome prizes and give-aways!

The theme is a delightful "Anything goes" - so dont forget to have fun and enter your creation into our challenge!



The prizes to be won:

 1st £10 to spend in That Craft Place
 2nd £10 to spend in the DDD (Ditzie Digi Designs)  esty store
 3rd £5 to spend in That Craft Place
 4th £5  to spend in the DDD etsy store

Now to win you need to make sure you are a member of each group! 

So here are the links to the shop and the facebook groups:

TCP facebook shop group
Natter&Chatter facebook group
Ditzie Digi Design's inspiration group
Our Etsy store

We also give away freebies in the Ditzie Digi Design group once a month so all you digi fans out there please hop over and say Hi!

My personal give away for you would be this little wall hanging. I will randomly draw a winner from all the people who leave a comment with this post next Saturday. So check back then to find out if you are the one!

I created this little hanging assemblage from Lisa's fabulous Ditzie Designs Wood embellishments mainly (the wings, the bird cage and the lock), using a lot of DecoArt paints and media on them like Chalky Finish paints "smitten" and "rustic" alongside some "gold" Dazzling Metallics and Traditions "Titanium White" (which I simply spread using my fingertips).

The "Inspire Others" quote is an exclusive That Craft Place design too!

The wood embellishments, the stamp and the beautiful center piece with the cameo can be bought with Lisa's shop as well as the DecoArt stuff!
And if you don't find an item you desire with her shop range she will be happy to order it for you (which works best and fastest if you join the TCP facebook group)!

I will be very happy to send this over to one lucky winner! ;)

 ***

Now the amazing Design Team have some inspiration on their blogs and some of the DT ladies are even giving away their creations to one lucky blogger - so make sure you hop by and give them some love!

Lisa 

Amanada 

Shell

Claudia (the blog you are currently looking at)

Stacey 

Lorraine

Rebecca

Gayle

Debs 

Cheryl 

Kay

Cathy

Jules

Aurora

Lisa M

Erin S

Rachel

Suzi

Kezzy's 

Deb J
Erin  

Love & Hugs

from all of us at

That Craft Place

SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges - Mid Month Inspiration

Servus, dear Steampunk friends!

As some of you may already have spotted, we have some slight alterations with inspirational posts on the Steampunk challenge blog over at SanDee&amelie's. As our former "ambitious-two-steampunk-girlies team" has grown (because I was so lucky to have some of my favourite steampunk creators join my team), we decided to present our projects for your inspiration with two separate posts - one at the start of the challenge on the 1st of the month - and the other at mid-month, on the 15th.

So today you will find some more and brand new inspiration PLUS our last new member being introduced (AND all detail there is to know) for our actual challenge

"Shades of Grey, Blue and Rust"

if you hop over to our challenge blog.


And this is what I came up with to get you started:

This month we want you to exclusively use all shades of grey, blue and rust you can come up with (and decide to use) to create something steampunk for our challenge! Black lines from stamped images or quotes are allowed of course.

As usual we have a prize to give away too - donated by one of our generous sponsors! And it is once again Tusia from 7 Dots Studio! Yay! Check out the prize package she offers to send to one randomly drawn player from this month's challenge!

I was so lucky to lay my hands on one of the fab Sizzix Alterations arch dies with a sale lately - so I had to use it as soon as it arrived with the mail! The shrine-like shape is so very inspiring, isn't it?

I used some Distress crackle, idea-ology, Distress paints and DecoArt Americana acrylic paints alongside the fab large wooden gear from the fab Ditzie Designs range (which I really really LOVE as it is so heavenly bulky - which makes it look very "real" metal and heavy).

The small panel I glued the gears onto is a scrap of one of the Tim Holtz "Laboratoire" stash sheets. The "steampunk" word is an Artistic Outpost stamp.

The metal foil lace ribbon was a gift from a wonderful swap with the lovely and awesomely talented Candy Colwell (thank you once again, Candy! x).

Even though my mojo is suffering a bit at the moment - due to some health issues that cause trembling hands (which makes stamping and crafting rather tricky and tedious) - I really enjoyed creating this small steampunk assemblage panel! I hope you like it too and that you will join in our challenge soon! Can't wait to see your interpretation of our challenge theme!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia xx

That Craft Place Challenge - "Men"

Servus and welcome to my crafty corner! 

Today a new challenge starts over at That Craft Place Challenge Blog and as it is Fathers Day in the U.K. the theme is "Men".

I made a wall hanging - using the awesome Ditzie Designs Clearly Background gears stamp to create a background to display the Ditzie Designs Wood Stars on.

The stars were covered with clear rock candy Distress Crackle and painted with Distress paints afterwards. The background was stamped and heat embossed - using Stampendous' Fran-tage "aged aqua" embossing enamel.

 The colours added were various tones of Distress stains and some spritzes of water to create a more grunge look. I love the bulky-ness of the wood embellies! I already used some of Lisa's range with this, this and this project!

 Materials used (and all available with Lisa's That Craft Place Store):

- Distress stains
- Distress paints
- Ditzie Designs Wood Embellishments stars
- Ditzie Designs Clearly Background stamp "gears"
- black jet archival ink
- Distress clear rock candy crackle paint
- black soot Distress ink

If you hop over to That Craft Place Challenge Blog you will find a lot of awesome inspiration for Fathers Day makes from the rest of the team! Check it out!

To go shopping visit either the Shop, the facebook shopping group or have some natter and chatter with the team, who will be glad to answer all your crafty questions.
See you over there!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia xx

"Flaming June" - an image impulse challenge at Our Creative Corner

Servus and welcome back to my creative spot!

You are just in time to learn about the new challenge for June at Our Creative Corner for this month which is hosted by lovely Julia this time.

"Flaming June"

She chose one of her favourite paintings from Romantic painter Lord Leighton as an impulse and wants all of us to use the rich orange tones from his painting as the main colours of our makes! To see the painting and to learn more about the details (so you can join in and get eligible for any prize wins or making Top3) hop over to Our Creative Corner!

So Julia says: "use bright orange tones as the main focus".....sounds easy at first, doesn't it? But I found that I really struggled with finding a theme where orange might fit as the main focus....funny thing is: I love orange (especially wearing orange clothes), but I found that I hardly ever use it with my projects...I had never noticed before honestly. 

It was a lucky incident that finally let me come up with something I really like: I had my new Vintaj patina kit out for play and used it to practice on some metal embellishments. And there was an orange lace ribbon lieing on my desk as well (I guess it fell off my box with ribbons when I was searching for some other fabric for a different project some days ago)....when I took both and held them against each other I found that they would make a lovely bracelet! I had always wanted to create one of these gorgeous cuff bracelets made from leather, lace and vintage embellishments!

So I grabbed some beige leather scrap and tried to tint it orange - using almost anything I had at hand: orange mists, orange fabric paint, orange spray paint and distress stains...and it worked (but don't ask me what it was that finally did the trick *lol - I assume the whole mixture)! Yay!

To have a contrasting colour - as is the blue sky in Lord Leighton's painting, which makes the orange of the dress pop even more - I died some white lace ribbon using Colour washes. Then I rummaged my various treasure boxes and drawers (especially the one with the old buttons from my grandma and the one with the metal embellishments I got from fabulous Retro Kraft Shop :

...and after I had coloured the lovely bronze metal branch and the label with the Vintaj patinas, I was ready to sew it all together. And as there is a plant in Lord Leighton's painting, I decided to use a plant (the metal branch) too ;)

It was a bit fiddly as you first have to punch all the holes for the sewing needle to go through the leather and then have to find them again while sewing ribbons to the leather strip from front and back...but the result was so rewarding (at least for me)!

I love how it looks on my wrist and honestly I would never have come up with a colour scheme like this if there hadn't been Julia's tricky challenge theme (so thank you, Julia! xx) ! I had so much fun dyeing all the ribbons and the leather I used and the Vintaj patinas worked great!

I love that I could use some of the buckhorn buttons from my grandmother's collection too and that they add so perfectly to the design! This way I can carry something that belonged to her with me and have her close.

I am sure that this won't be the last bracelet I did, as I had a ball creating it (and still have a lovely collection of old vintage treasures to be used up). I hope you like it too and can't wait to see what you will come up with for Julia's challenge!

We have a prize sponsor too this month and it is Tando Creative! So join in to get the chance to win some of their awesome goodies!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia xx