Bring on spring!

After receiving 13.5" of snow this past weekend I am definitely ready for spring.  After all, the spring equinox was last week!  Poor groundhog must be having eye problems or can't count the weeks on his calendar pages. 

Ranger recently held a contest with the spring palette in mind.  I entered my latest tissue box cover that can be found on this blog post.  I was ecstatic to discover I was one of 3 lucky winners who would split the display shown on the Ranger blog.  Yesterday I received my box of goodies...bring on spring is here!  It is going to be such fun creating new projects with these spring colors!

Claudine Hellmuth's Yellow Pastel Paint, French Ultramarine Archival Ink, Yellow Stickles, Eucalyptus and Lavender Stickles Dry Glitter, Baby Blue and Mint Green Liquid Pearls, Turquoise Embossing Glitter, Shabby Shutters and Shaded Lilac Distress Ink pads, Squeezed Lemonade Distress Stain, Bundled Sage Distress Paint, London Blue Dylusions Ink Spray, Sunflower and Grape Fizz Perfect Pearls

Thank you, Ranger, for manufacturing such awesome products and standing behind them when problems occur.  You have picked the best talent to showcase your wares in ways that make us want them even more.

Greensleeves

"No, honey, I said 'green and leaves' was the theme!"  Sheesh, sometimes men just plain don't listen!  Over on the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo group our wonderful list mom has come up with a super challenge.  Not only do we make a piece of art to share on line with the group but we'll be swapping them! 

Here's my ATC that I'm sharing on-line and that will be sent to Lori for swapping.  It's a 3-for-3 swap and they can be the same or different.  You must use at least one Studio 490 stamp, the color green, and a leaf (or 2).  How hard is this?????

The leafy stem was stamped in Olive Archival Ink twice; once on the ATC and a 2nd time on a scrap piece of paper.  I cut this one out carefully so I'd have a positive and a negative image.  I wanted to be able to stamp over the stem and not have images within the leaves and I used the negative portion to color within the lines.

Once satisfied with my design I cut around part of the leaves so I could curl them and show off the green stamped paper underneath.  The small butterfly was stamped on colored shrink plastic and punched out using a 1 1/8" punch.  It fit inside the 14mm Typewriter Frame Label by Coffee Break Designs perfectly!

Studio 490 stamp sets used:  Fashion Style And Art, Ticket To Art, Alphabetically Art and Make Mine Mini Art

Ranger distress inks (greens, browns, yellows, purple) and archival inks (olive, black)

The on-line version is due by midnight March 26 central time but if you want to swap them Lori needs to have them by April 15th.  I almost forgot, Wendy is giving one lucky participant (randomly chosen) a prize package!  So, what are you waiting for????? 

Spring means allergies - achoo!

I wanted to come up with a project in which I could incorporate Tim's super wonderful tattered florals die as well as the spring seasonal palette that Ranger mentions in a recent blog post.  There are some wonderful prizes at stake for these challenges so here's my entry: a square tissue box cover that is full of spring colors.

Tattered Floral die used as a stencil

Mini Tattered Floral Garland

Tattered Floral die - layered card stock flower

Using scrap card stock I created a stencil from  the Tattered Florals die.  I taped off the various flowers and smudged distress inks through the openings, overlapping as desired.  A black Micron pen and distress markers were used to draw around the flowers and to note the flower centers.

Smaller flower with 3-D butterflies

embossed top

I cut out the center of the decorative layer using a Sizzix rectangle die.  On the base I stamped a sentiment from Stampers Anonymous in Jet Black Archival Ink.  Around the frame I added more Tattered Flowers and Mini Tattered Flowers.  The stems were cut from sticky back canvas.  The tiny buttons were colored with yellow alcohol ink for the flower centers.










Using my scoring board I created my own version of a trellis and added a Tattered Floral flower using all the flowers from the die.  The daisy flower was cut apart to create skinny leaves.  All the layers were run through an embossing folder before being colored with distress stains and inks.  Tim's ticket stamp and die are stuck in a memo pin.











More embossing was done on the yellow layers that were also smudged with darker yellow and brown distress inks.  Another Tattered Flower (regular and mini layers) was added to the side.  I stamped the 3 butterflies on the layer after it was embossed but it didn't show up as I wanted.  Plan B:  stamp on acetate, color and layer over the original image.  Super!  And now it becomes 3-D with the wings pulled slightly forward.









Here's a view of the top - also embossed with the edges smudged with more distress ink in darker yellows and browns.
















Sizzix:  Ticket Strip, Tattered Floral Garland decorative strip dies; Tattered Florals die; mini branch; Swirls, Fancy Floral embossing folders

Stampers Anonymous:  Papillon, Mixed Media, Nature's Moments, Stuff To Say, Odds & Ends

Ranger:  distress inks, distress stains, distress stickles, matte medium, sticky back canvas, archival ink, alcohol ink

Misc.:  Bazzil cardstock, Micron pen, buttons, memo pin

The pattern and instructions for the tissue box cover can be found on the Splitcoaststampers site.  I've shared the link in previous posts.

Bring on spring!

I never thought about using tinsel twine like Tim shared in his latest tag for 2013.  I didn't want to copy and I don't celebrate Easter so I really wanted to stay away from the rabbit and the card stock background he chose.  However, butterflies also signify spring and warmer temps so I went with that idea.

 

My little posies are peaking over the black kraft core'dinations iron gate.  They (and the leaves) were cut using the Tattered Flower Garland decorative strip door on scraps of kraft core'dinations.  The stems are toothpicks painted green.  The mini butterfly was cut into the larger ticket die which showcases the tinsel twine colored with alcohol inks.  I did use some of Tim's spring-themed cardstock but used one of the smallest images and attached it to a fragment charm.  On the ticket corners you'll see some Black Enamel Accent dots; White Enamel Accent dots form the flower centers.  

The tag was colored using the Watercolor Distress technique and over-stamped with one of Tim's small weed stamps.  I stamped 'imagination' in Jet Black Archival Ink (from Flight of Fancy) onto one of the Tattered Banners.

Nothing says spring like the softer color palette of turquoise, yellow and green!

Sizzix:  Tattered Banners, Tattered Floral Garland decorative strip dies; Iron Gate on the edge die; Mini Ticket, Mini Butterfly

Ranger:  distress inks, distress stains, distress stickles, archival ink, enamel accents

Stampers Anonymous:  Flight of Fancy stamp set

Tim Holtz:  fragment charm, tinsel twine, silk ribbon, mini pin, jump ring

core'dinations:  black, turquoise, green, yellow

Vintage shadow box

Along the lines of Karen's shadow box tag that I shared previously, the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo group chose this same theme for their latest challenge.  Using Studio 490 stamps was the only other requirement.  Now a shadow box can be made from most anything.  Here I've created one using Wendy's Large Square Art Parts.  I needed more depth than just the frame would allow so I built up a frame using chipboard strips.  This and the back were wrapped with a sheet of Tim's card stock from the Vintage tablet.  It was perfect because it had a sewing theme on it - what luck!

I also glued on the scalloped borders from the Scallop Trim Art parts.  Matte Medium worked very well for this but I also added a strip of cardstock as reinforcement.

From Claudine Hellmuth (CH) I wrinkled and colored a piece of sticky back canvas using distress inks and Claudine's acrylic paints.

The Women's Measuring Ticket (Just Sew Artsy) was stamped in Jet Black Archival on cream colored bond paper.  The notebook edge was created using Tim's new on the edge die - love this!  The edges were distressed using brown and black distress inks.  One of Tim's mini paper clips was added to the top.  His snap and tiny hanger are also at the top of the shadowbox.

On grunge paper I painted CH Modern Red acrylic paint.  Over this I stamped Wendy's new background stamp (Heirloom Art) using the white acrylic paint dabber.  This was heat set before I colored the flower centers using more CH bright yellow paint.  Heat set again image before stamping the garments (Fashion Style and Art) in JBAI to avoid any bleeding.  To tone down the birghtness of the colors I smeared brown distress stain over them - yes!  The images were cut out and layered with foam tape for dimension.

On a scrap of muslin I stamped the label (Art By Hand) using Vermillion Archival Ink.  Once cut out I pulled threads on all four sides to instantly age it.  Further aging was done by misting the label then running brown distress stains along the edges.  Crumple, let dry.

The thimble and scissors art parts (Tools for Art) were covered using the silver paint dabber then overstamped in JBAI.  One of Tim's tiny fasteners replaces the screw on the stamped image - adds a bit of realism to the scissors, I think.  A bit of brown distress ink was added to both pieces for more age.

The frame and scallop trim were covered (not carefully) in Brushed Corduroy Distress Crackle Paint; dried,  then smeared with a bit of CH acrylic paint, brown and black distress stains.  Love, love, love this look!  The button holes (Just Sew Artsy) were stamped in JBAI...rather a perfect fit, don't you think?

The frame looked kind of bare so the thimble was added to the lower corner using Matte Medium (love that stuff!).  Across the top I threaded some old buttons.  Normally I wouldn't use an even number but with the thimble the odd number is created visually.

The last touch was adding the word 'vintage' from Wendy's new Classic Words stencil using her new black embossing paste.

I'm delighted to add this piece to the wall above my sewing machine. 

I did photo this piece before I added the acrylic window (cut from leftover packaging) to cut down on the camera and light glare and to avoid having my reflection show within the frame.