'Take the challenge' - November - all my projects...

The challenge over at Faber Castell in November was to show any project you are working on and this was an easy one! Boy, do I have projects in my craft room?! ; )

This is a mould for sponge cakes but it has a small hole in it so it is useless for baking. In an issue of Craft Stamper there was an article about making candle light holders with tins, Alco Inks, glitter and sequins and this is how far I've gotten. In Sweden we use candlesticks with four candles and light one candle each Advent. A very pretty tradition! Thought that I could stick four candles in this mould and fill it up with salt so it looks like snow. Could be very pretty, or could be very tacky! We'll see! ; )

This might be the beginning of my Christmas cards, I haven't decided yet! I bought this set - for children! - because there was a mould for making envelopes, which is quite unusual to find in paper making sets. I made a bunch just to try it out! It was fun!

These are two bags - for children again! (what is wrong with me?!) - I bought at the flea market. I plan to alter them. The spotted bag is in some kind of fabric and quite cute just as it is. I'll probably just stick some flowers and charms to it. The bag with skulls is in paper and I don't like it at all. I will cover it completely.

Oh, dear. I have been cleaning in one corner of the house just to leave the things piled up in another corner in the house. The blue labels are to put on envelopes from back when I was writing letters. They will go in to my art journal. One day. The alphabet stickers are to put on a suitcase, will also be used in my art journal, one day, as well as the wine label (Peacock - a really nice white wine and with such a pretty label!). One day.
I don't remember neither the English word nor the Swedish word for the squares at the bottom of the photo. It's like a chart with colors that you take from the shop when you can't decide what color to paint with. These are white and I thought of using them for the Christmas cards. Just have to nick a few more! ; )

These are Pringles tubes which I plan to make boxes to keep candle-ends in. In our summerhouse we have a special candlestick to put candle-ends in. I guess this is something typical Swedish too because when I tried to google it I couldn't find something in English.

On top of my Katy Crane calender challenge, which I still have from may until now to finnish (sigh...), there are small wooden cutting boards. My uncle gave them to my other uncle to put into the fire but my father rescued them for me! I'm thinking of painting them black and writing some recipies in white, maybe like a chalkboard. Could be really nice!

 

And finally, this is what I started working today, inspired by what Mou showed in the November challenge. We are getting ...ehum... three kittens over the next few weeks and these are art journals, one for each kitten, to help me to find names for them. I haven't gotten so far yet but will continue tomorrow, though it's just about time to find names for them. We have one Alice, one Bea and one Curry. Thought of finding names on D, E and F, just for the fun of it! ; )

12 tags of 2013 - October

 

This was really a fun challenge! First, we don't celebrate Halloween in Sweden (unless you have kids. The American tradition has been embraced by retailers who want to increase their income and the new generation is the target). We celebrate All Saints Eve and light candles in the cemetery and think of our friends and family that has passed away. It's a quiet and quite sad celebration so it was actually kind of fun to make something halloweenie!
Second, I had to improvise since I don't have any Distress Glitter. I don't even think it has become popular here yet. I tried the different glitters that I had and found that Sepia Accents with sprinkled glitter on top and then to seal the glitter another layer of Sepia Accents worked best. In this way I was able to ink the edges. I still think that I have to try a jar of Distress Glitter when I come across one! ; )

I knew that I wanted pumpkins and leaves on my tag and I wanted to have an autumnal feel to it. And then to give it a more halloweenie feel I added the spooky trees. I wanted to use two stencils that I haven't tried yet and it got really messy. I wasted almost half the bottle of the black soot Distress Paint. All came at once when I squeezed the bottle and I accidentally unscrew the dabber and it fell on the table. The background on the tags with trees are made with Distress Stains and then Distress Paint over the stencil. The colorful tags are made with Tim's Distress Paint marbling technique, the same he used on his tag. This technique wasn't easy and I have to try this a bit more.


Here's what I tried and the solution to the right worked the best.

The tags before they were assembled. I didn't have any of Tim's mirrored
 stars, but I found some others in my stash! Really happy about them!

The tags after they were assembled. The leftovers are going to be
Halloween cards to some friends with kids that celebrate Halloween

...and 'the chosen one'! The leaves are sprayed with various
glimmer mists and then I inked the edges.

 

 

MATERIAL:

INKS:

Distress Stain: gathered twigs, frayed burlap, ripe persimon, dried marigold

Distress Paint: black soot, antique linen, peeled paint, spiced marmelade, seedless preserve

Distress Ink Pad: black soot, rusty hinge, ripe persimon

OTHER:

Sepia Accents

Distress Crackle Paint: rock candy

Various glimmer mists

Sizzix die (leaf)

Pumpkin cut by hand

Glitter from Panduro

TCW252s Aspen Trees

TCW208s Mini Branches



A black Sharpei (a cheep Sharpie!!)
Mirrored stars from Tiimari
Ribbon from flea market

'Take the challenge' October 2013

This month the challenge over at Faber Castell's blog was to create something that represents your cherished secret dream. Of course I have some dreams. Some of them I want to keep to myself but I have one dream that I can share. I really like to sing and would I like to sing more! I want to sing not only for my pets! I want to start in a choir. I'd like to take singing lessions and I'd really like to sing the opera! I want to be admired. But I'm to shy. I always sing in the shower and in the car listening to the radio. I have no idea if I can sing or not but once when I sang my cat bit me in the thigh! Oh, well! ; )

When I started thinking about the challenge and what I wanted to do I saw 'The Scream', the painting of Edvard Munch in front of me. I exchanged his anguished figure with my singing diva but tried to keep the background somewhat true to the original, but with brighter colors. I wanted to make it a bit happier but still that one can see the resemblance. Did you know that Munch made four different versions of this painting? I think this only one will do for me! ; )

 

The eyelashes are painted with Stickles
and the mouth with glitter glue



The earring in shrink plastic with a secret message!
 



The first layer of the painting with gelatos.
 



MATERIAL:
STAMPS:

Basic Grey: wild flowers/division b2 sta-1341

ARTEMIO: rèf 10001188

heidi grace: Day Dream Believer
OTHER:
Watercolor paper

Gelatos

Stamper's Big Brush

Gesso (transparent)

Black pen
StazOn: Jet Black

Shrink plastic

Quickutz pendant die

Glitter glue, pink

Glitter flakes from Panduro

Stickles: Black Diamond

12 tags of 2013 - September

As usual there were things I didn't have this month. This time it was Tim's stencils and the embossing paste. Luckily I already had some stencils and instead of embossing paste I used spackling paste, as always. It's a cheap alternative. It seems like the spackling paste absorbed the Distress Stain more than the embossing paste that Tim used. I just realized I used the picket fence Distress Stain instead of the picket fence Distress Paint and that explains why I didn't get the pretty resist that Tim got. Darn. When will I learn to read instructions?!
I am kind of happy with the result anyway. It's fun to play with stencils!
I didn't have the Chit Chat Stickers either so I typed the sentiment on canvas. I believe the sentiment "An artist cannot fail, it is a success to be one" suited on the canvas!

The filler, the picket fence Stain...*sigh*... and the mask.



My take on the September tag



I also got two cards with my friends favourite sentiment
'Be the change you want to see in the word'.
Perfect for her 50th birthday coming up in the beginning of October!

 

 

MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Flights of Fancy
INKS:
Distress Stains: picket fence, picked raspberry, peacock feathers, wild honey
Distress Ink Pad: picked raspberry, pumice stone, black soot, walnut stain
Distress Markers: pumice stone

Inka-Gold: Platin
StazOn: Jet Black

STENCILS:
TCW325s Mini Swirly Garden

TCW361 Tiny Circles

Pink Paisley: PP00894 Mask Flowers

OTHER:

Spackling paste

My old typewriter

Canvas

Ribbon from flea market

Metallic leaves from Panduro



12 tags of 2013 - August

 

 

I'm late as always. And Tim's right as always! Frayed burlap and pumice stone really went well together and I really liked the vintage feel to it. He also writes on his blog that stamps are by far one of the most versatile creative tools and with this masking technique I sure have to agree! I haven't masked a lot before because I have been too lazy. But it sure makes the trick!

 

 

As Always, Tim used stuff I don't have, for example the mask sheet from idea-ology. I used a scrap piece of paper to stamp on and then a temporary repositional adhesive. And since his metal embellishments are rather expensive in Sweden I made my own metal tags by stamping into UTEE. I love this color, platinum, since it looks like metal. I have been using this UTEE a lot before, but I think I'll use it even more now when I know I can make fake metal tags with it! ; )

 

 

This wasn't the last time I used frayed burlap and pumice stone together!

The masks positioned on the tag and the inked background stamp

My take on the August tag

And as usual, I made a few!
The one at the bottom is my new bookmark.  



MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Boundless Flight, French Market
My Mind's Eye: Lost & Found: Item #LF1067
INKS:
Distress Stains: frayed burlap, pumice stone
Distress Ink Pad: walnut stain
Distress Markers: barn door, mustard seed, faded jeans
StazOn: Jet Black
Embossing ink
OTHER:
Crafter's companion: Stick & Spray
Epiphany Craft Tool
Suze Weinberg's UTEE: platinum

Reach for the stars!

As always, I get a lot of leftovers when I'm creating. I liked the sentiment I used for the July tag challenge and wanted to use it for something different.

The red stars from yesterday were painted over with Distress Paints to make them more yellow. I added some micro beads to the stars to make them really shiny and to make them pop out.  I arranged the stamps on the acrylic block and inked them up with three different shades of yellow, used the second impression after misting the stamp with some water. Typed the sentiment on my old typewriter and cut out the words and glued them to the card. Voilà! A batch of cards suitable for many occations!

Seven cards made in less than 1 hour!

 

Close-up!

 

MATERIAL:

INK:

Distress Stains - mustard seed, (barn door, fired brick)

Distress Paints - mustard seed, wild honey

Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, mustard seed, squeezed lemonade, scattered straw

STAMPS:
Autumn Leaves - flourishes v:1

DIES:

Sizzix - 38-0241 Star

OTHER:

Cardboard

Crackle Accents

DecoArt - Weathered Wood - Crackling Medium (used it as a top coat)

Micro beads

My old typewriter!

 

12 tags of 2013 - July

 

I'm super late for this challenge. July hasn't been a creative month for me.
I decided to use the same colors as Tim Holtz. I have never thought of using red and blue together since that combination is very American, and I'm not! But actually, I liked the color combo this time and decided to have a go at it. Tim acknowledged the fallen Prescott firefighters with his tag and I guess the colors also covers the 4th of July. This is my hommage to USA!
I also made a Swedish tag, just for the fun of it! And some small ones, as usual! Which comes in handy since I have a lot of birthday presents and thank you gifts to prepare at the moment.

I have finally bought some Distress Paints, this time I lacked the Distress Rock Candy Crackle Paint! Tim Holtz will ruin me! I tried to use an old crackle paint I found in my stash but it didn't work so I used Ranger's Crackle Accents. I don't think I got exactly the same effekt as Tim, it looks so icy and nice, but it was the best I could get for now. I skipped the metal charms and the tissue tape but added some lace and confetti.



My finished tag!

The not so very icy star!



My tag in Swedish colors!

My small tags!

MATERIAL:

INK:

Distress Stains - faded jeans, chipped sapphire, barn door, fired brick, mustard seed

Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain

StazOn - Black

STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - City Central

Kaisercraft - CS838 Numbers

DIES:

Marianne Design - COL1325

Sizzix - 38-0241 Star

OTHER:

Cardboard

Canvas

Crackle Accents

DecoArt - Weathered Wood - Crackling Medium (didn't work, used it to get more shine on the star)

Lace and ribbon from flea market

Staplers



I won the 'Take the challenge' June 2013!!

Yep! I sure did! And I'm so happy! Look what the nice people at Faber Castell sent me!

The parcel!

The content!

'Take the challenge' June 2013

I came across another challenge when I browsed the net the other day. Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft has a blog where they share tips and techniques on their products, amongst others Stamper's Big Brush Pens and Gelatos! Which I like a lot!

The challenge is here:
"It's the end of the school year. 2013 is almost half way through for all of us. In this time, we have all learned one thing or another. What one important lesson have you learnt this year so far or what one theme has stood out for you?"

I decided to finish the art journal I started on some time ago. I haven't bought a proper art journal yet so my art journalling is on watercolor paper. What I've been trying to focus on these first six months of 2013 is not to get dragged down. There are some changes in my life and I'm not very happy about them. It's so easy to let those dark thoughts take control and make your life miserable. I'm trying to "fly above it" in order to get some distance and that is my attempt at trying to stay sane. I think it works! Even though it feels like I'm on the edge somedays I've created someting in bright, happy colors! Here's my take on the challenge:

The background is made with gelatos. I used masks and carpentry filler (instead of embossing creme) and then a layer of gesso. I painted the bird with Stamper's Big Brush Pens and then I used some ink sprays and destroyed the bird! So I cut out a bird from a patterned paper instead but then I accidentally glued on the wrong side! Decided that it was the grungy look I wanted for my poor, damaged bird, painted another thick layer of gesso over it and heated it with my heat gun in order to get the bird even more grungy. Used Stamper's Big Brush Pens again and some rub ons and finally some black ink to distress the bird even more. It took a while to make this since all my mistakes, but in the end got the result I wanted and I'm pleased with the outcome.

MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Heindesign P-07191211
INKS:
Dylusion Ink Spray: Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, White Linen
Adirondack Color Wash - Stream
Acrylic color
OTHER:
Stamper's Big Brush Pens
Gelatos
Donna Downey Studio -  Artist Stencil #922436, Poppies and Peonies #922122
TCW - 3818 Mini Quatrefoil, 361 Tiny Circles
Carpentry filler (instead of embossing creme)
Posca - Black
StazOn - Black
Fiskars - Rain dots - self adhesive accents
Pencil

12 tags of 2013 - June

 

 

It didn't take long to make this tag since I almost had everything Tim used. For a change! I still haven't bought the Distress Paints so I had to use ordinary acrylics again. I don't get the same result as Tim, but I still like the outcome of it. But I do have the Distress Markers! I liked the Distress Markers tutorial a lot. I haven't used them as much as I tought I would so I'm glad I got to use them in this challenge.

 

I started to stamp and color the image with my Distress Markers. Then I colored the tag with completely different colors so it didn't match the watercolored image at all. So I had to make a new watercolored image!

 

I used my new 325 g/m² aquarelle paper instead of the 200 g/m² I normally use. It was a big difference! I'm so glad I dragged it home from France! I have forgotten the repacking of the suitcases at the airport because my suitcase was to heavy!! (Hope the person that had to carry our dirty underwear in their suitcase has forgotten about it too!!)

 

For a bit of structure I added Crackle Accents on the butterflies wings and stapled the watercolored image to the tag.

 

 

This is my take on the June tag

 

Close-up

 

Here's what I did with the rest of the tags

 

MATERIAL:

INK:

Distress  Stain - evergreen bough

Distress Ink Pad - gathered twigs

Distress Markers - blue, green and beige/brown colors.

Making Memories - Scrapbook Colors - Fresh Anthology - Marine

StazOn - Black

STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Urban Grunge, Boundless Flight

OTHER:

Crackle Accents

Seam binding

Staplers

The leftovers from the May tag!

I always get leftovers when I'm creating. Instead of throwing them away I've tried to make something of the leftovers from the 12 tags of 2013 challenges. I found it hard to color the tags for the May challenge, they didn't turn out the way I wanted. I'm not very happy with these tags but I decided to make some cards with them anyway.

 

Inzpira & Sizzix challenge!

The second tag I made following Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 tutorial ended up with really, really pale colors, strangely enough! I didn't know which one to use in the May challenge because I liked both of them. Then I saw the Swedish magazine Inzpira's challenge and decided to participate with my second tag there. The challenge was to make a card in pink, brown and turqoise with the theme 'fantasy' (imagination). My take on that theme is the round tag with the sentiment 'she knew that it was her destiny to create'.

 

MATERIAL:

INK:

Distress  Stain - wild honey, picked raspberry, evergreen bough, broken china

Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, rusty hinge, evergreen bough

StazOn - Black

STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Flight of Fancy, Life's Possibilities

Basic Grey - Aviary

OTHER:

7gypsies - steampunk rubbings - numbers

Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers

Round tag

Pink Paisleee - Christy Tomlinson - PP00899 Coffee Filter Words

Ranger - Crackle accents

Ribbon from flea market



12 tags of 2013 - May

 

 

May has been a busy month with sowing seeds, taking cuttings and repotting but here's my May tag finally. As usual I didn't have all the stuff Tim used, and since this tag was about rub ons I just needed to have some. I went to the the annual scrapbooking fair in the beginning of May and I found two (!) sets of rub ons to chose from! I don't think rub ons are very popular in Sweden yet. But neither did I think that I would use rub ons and even more like to use them! This was certainly a fun tag to make.

 

 

As usual I used the same colors as Tim. It's a good practise to use the colors that I normally don't use. I made a few tags as usual and all of the tags turned out different (take a look at this really, really pale one here!)

Instead of a enameled tag I used a metallic flower on which I punched the sentiment 'expect miracles', suiting the month of May as everything seems possible in this lovely month of the year! Instead of the film strip I stamped on the same transparency film I used on the April tag.

 



MATERIAL:

INK:

Distress  Stain - wild honey, picked raspberry, evergreen bough, broken china

Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, rusty hinge, evergreen bough

StazOn - Black

STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Flight of Fancy

Basic Grey - Aviary

OTHER:

7gypsies - steampunk rubbings - numbers

Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers

Metallic flower (with Alcohol Ink and some acrylic paint to make the sentiment stand out)

Ribbon from flea market



 

I just loooove Epiphany Crafts!

I'm so happy! I entered a giveaway on Epiphany Craft's Facebook page and look! I won!

Butterflies and wings

I just couldn't stop creating yesterday, I had so much fun! I also wanted to use up the stuff I got left from making the April tag. Here's what I ended up with!

12 tags of 2013 - April

OMG! I can't believe that I have missed these tutorials and challenges! I'm a big fan of Tim Holtz's stuff so I really don't get that I have missed all of this. Unfortunately, I learned that I really need to have the Distress Paints as well! ; )

Since I don't have the Distress Paints I tried to use ordinary acrylics and even though I kind of like the outcome of my tags, I didn't get the same result as Tim got with the Distress Paints at all. I tried to use about the same colors because I liked the color scheme om Tim's. I really loved the turquoise in Tim's tags so I tried to mix my own turquoise. I didn't succeed very well!

 

 As you can see, the acrylics didn't react with water at all. And the acrylics from Making Memories had almost dried so I tried to dilute them with water. God, I need those Distress Paints!!  ; )

Here are my tags before the stamping. I tried to use the same Distress Ink Pads as Tim here as well and that was a real challenge. Rusty hinge is my least favourite color of them all! But I'm glad I did. It's nice to think outside the normal sometimes. I can't make everything pink or purple & orange. The butterflies are painted in a somewhat solid color and then I have distressed the edges with walnut stain.

I didn't have any Clearly for Art as well so I used some transparency film and cut some butterflies out of it.



Here is my tag. I cut a tag from a can and punched 'fly away'. The heart is filled with 3D glaze and micro beads and it also has a sentiment 'free spirit'.

 

 A Close-up of the wings of the butterfly. I like that the acrylic paint on the wings of the butterfly began to bubble when I dried it with my heat gun!

I never make one when I'm making something. I'm clumsy and I often destroy what I'm doing. It is also convenient to have a piece to try things out on. This time I managed to finish all four of the tags I made! I just attached them to a white cardbase, I don't think the cards need anything else.

 This was such a fun challenge! I also adored the tag for March. I think I will have a go at that one as well!



MATERIAL:
INK:
Making Memories Scrapbook Colors: marine, avocado, country blue, sky
duga liquid metal: Dynasty pewter, Classic copper, Olympic gold
Distress Ink Pads: walnut stain, iced spruce, rusty hinge, evergreen bough
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Urban Grunge, Boundless Flight, Artful Things
OTHER:
Making Memories: Butterflies Metallique Reverie, no 36025
Metal embellishment from PY Hobby
3D Crystal Glaze
Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers
Can
Jump rings
Staplers
Manila tag
Flower ribbon from Panduro
Seam binding