Another WOYWW is here!

(No. 193 already...wow!)
Which means that another week has flewn by. I missed last weeks WOYWW over at Julia Dunnit's as we spent a lovely skiing holiday but today I can at least submit an image of my workdesk as it looks at that very minute - and will be looking for at least the next four to five hours (because I have to leave after having written that post to get my son registered for grammar school (Gosh! How time flies!))....whoooeee! We will be celebrating that by having some yummy Sushi for lunch afterwards.

So here comes my desk:

There are still the things on the table I used for yesterday's bird wall hanging - wire and grippers, Distress ink pads, heat embossing tool, paint dabbers,.... well, the usual stuff mainly. And ....uh oh...I just see it now: a big No-Go: the brush head down in the water glass.... have to go get it out immediately. Just a sec...

...back again. I have been telling my pupils since ages not to do that as it bends the brushes tips which makes them useless for good painting. (Hope, none of them will see that *gg). Seems I am slacking off...

Hope I will find the time to visit your desks later today.

Hugs,
die amelie x

"I hope you love birds too."

Well, I know this is already the third post today, but as I mostly have prepared my DT blog posts at least a couple of days earlier, I have been busy crafting in the meantime (and of course you know that one cannot hold back when it comes to showing ;)...

So, please, if you are interested in my projects as Design Team member for TryItOnTuesday and FunWithATCs, scroll down to the previous posts. This one is about birds.

I found this awesome quote by Emily Dickinson and knew this was the perfect saying for the second panel (remember the two panels I showed with my latest WOYWW?). I guess the little pendant speaks for itself - so I will leave you alone with some images (and of course close-ups ;). I used my favourites: corrugated card, stamped on tissue paper with Mod Podge, Patina, the lovely Sizzix die, Fran tage aged embossing enamels, Ranger Distress inks, wire, my alphabet stamp set from Hero Arts, a feather stamp from DeStempelwinkel and the bird stamp from Kaisercraft.

Thanks for stopping by again/for the first time!
Hugs,

die amelie xx

I am entering the challenges at Fashionable Stamping Challenges , SSSS and Vintage Stamping Challenges with this project. 

"It's all about the Eyes!"

Another fortnight has passed and this means a new challenge starts today over at Try it on Tuesday! (and another one as usual over at FwATCs - so please scroll down to the previous post if you want to see some "red").


This time it's all about the eyes! So show us projects where eyes play a special part in (have to admit: I am really, REALLY curious this time!).

I had some eyes left...*lol...I see how that sounds. Next try: some months ago I had used a copy of a (rather strange looking) postcard I found at a Museum's flea market, showing a collection of glass eyes. I had used some of the eyes for a tag, but I did not use all of them. So the left over eyes were just perfect for this challenge! At least for my interpretation of the theme...

Scary, aren't they? That inspired me to do a rather dark and spooky tag, using alcohol inks on glossy card. (Glossy card is rather easily to be found, when you keep an eye on packaging material that goes with a lot of things you buy - I used the card back of the package of some winter insoles I bought recently. Good thing: that card was already coloured in light grey, which made it the perfect base for my project).

For a start I blended the whole tag with darker tones of alcohol inks, dabbing them on, using the blending tool with the felt. Over that layer I stamped the framed image of the house with tree and moon and heat embossed it with black "Sternenstaub" embossing powder.

To make the image more visible, I removed some of the dark alcohol inks by using a cotton ball and nail polish remover. 

That made the embossed surface dull, but reheating the image restored the gloss of the embossed layer.



Then I used alcohol inks again - mainly red and black - and let them run down the upright held tag, applying the ink directly from the bottle.

I wanted the eyes to be more spooky, so I covered them with "crackle accents" and rubbed in some red Distress ink afterwards - that made it look like thin blood vessels...










I added some stamped (and heat embossed) images - the quote and three flourishes - to get some texture and embellished the tag with the die cut ornament (which was treated with alcohol inks too and fixed with two tiny brads) and a self adhesive black lace ribbon. Done!

(Well, I am sure that you will see something less spooky from the DT when you hop over to TioT! :))

This month's sponsor is Really Reasonable Ribbon, who are offering a $15 gift voucher to this months winner!

I am curiously looking forward to see you (and your creations) over at the awesome design team's challenge blog... and hope you enjoyed your visit with me today!!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Servus from Vienna,

die amelie x

"Red" is the colour that...

the DesignTeam FunWithATCs want you to use on your ATCs this time! Quite easy, isn't it?

So here are my two takes on the "red" theme (nothing much to explain as they speak for themselves - first comes with a rather scientific approach and the second shows some delicious doodling. Both of them provide verbal guidance for colour blind people as well ;)

So enjoy your red fortnight with FwATCs and show us your take on the challenge! Hope to see you there!

Hugs,

die amelie x

Steampunk Birthday Tag

What kind of tag would you give to a dear (male!) friend, who loves the Victorian Age as he loves roleplaying games located in the late Eightteenhundreds? Yesss, that definitely had to be a steampunk tag with lots of odd machines, gears and details to play around with. This one is the "practicing tag" I will keep to myself (I sometimes do "practicing tags" and a (maybe slightly different) copy after the first...it's a good thing because you can choose afterwards which one to keep and which one to give away ;)

As the crew from Craft Stamper Magazine has just released their first "Take It, Make It challenge", this was the perfect occasion to try out their awesome "Faux Airbrushing" technique!!! Looks cool and is so much fun to do! (Hm, it seems I almost covered up all of the faux airbrushed background while playing around with lots of layers and embellishments...hope, the tiny spaces where it still can be seen make my entry good. At least I can offer some pics that show the tag in its various stages... ).

Here are some close-ups that should show the Faux Airbrushing I did on the background:

For the "airbrushing" I used a wonderful LaBlanche stencil  I got from SanDee (yes, the one who sent me that awesome goodie parcel! Great news: she now has a blog on her own! Go, visit SanDee's blog - there's some awesome Steampunk to be found!)

Here's how the tag looked in the beginning with just the Faux Airbrushing and some blending with Distress inks:

to the left the "airbrushed" tag with the LaBlanche stencil on white card, using DIs "chipped saphire", "faded jeans", "broken china", "shabby shutters" and "mustard seed".


To the right the tag after some blending and using another stencil with gears.



Maybe some of you have already spotted the fact that this tag is influenced by the february tag of Tim's "12 tags of 2013" ;)
Just love this tag with the embossing, the use of cord and embellishments, the layering and playful combination of textures!

The guy in the picture is a Mr. Pöschman from Vienna, whose image was on a legitimation card for the "K.u.K. Austrian State Railroads" from the year 1890. I found this card among the photos my Grand-Auntie left me and thought my ancestor fitted just perfectly.

Stamps used are Andy Skinner Texture stamps and stamps from the docrafts "Chronology" range. Gears were cut using Xcut dies. Hope you like the tag!

Thanks for your visit!
Hugs,

die amelie xx

I am entering Vintage Stamping Challenges with this tag, as they ask for "Blues, Browns & Beige".