Happy Haunting...a Halloween Centerpiece ~ and a new Publication

I had sooooooooo much FUN making this project!!!

It's got a little bit of everything in it from wooden dolls on the roof to a blinking light-up pumpkin for a skeleton to perch on.

This is the front view of the piece. It's on a wooden platform I was going to use to make an encaustic project.

This is a birdhouse, of course, with the holes covered up.

Strips and layers of paper go on after the house was painted...wait for it...wait for it....BLACK!

OF COURSE!

This is the left side with the skull beads heads plugged up using Liquid Pearls...kind of a reverse lobotomy so to speak.

Here's the right side, more layers, chipboard, and all the images have been enhanced with pens. Especially the figures. Add shadows for depth.

I found the Pumpkin lantern and little items at Gordman's and the skeleton at Michael's.

These are wooden pieces painted with Pumpkin, Key Lime, and Daffodil Liquid Pearls and black pen.

This top piece is made from chipboard that I learned to make at Gentleman Jim's blog here!!! Thanks so much to Jim. I had to make the top ridge flat in order to add the little wooden ghouls.

It's nothing compared to what he makes, the man is brilliant I tell ya,  but it worked, and for that I am thankful to him!

A little vial of Arsenic has Rust Alcohol Ink in it to color.

Tim Holtz bats from the Bewitching Hour die  are seen here and there cut from chipboard.

The little toothpicks have holes drilled into the base to hold up the sign.

Glittery Spiders add a bit of Glitz!

This is the base with the 4 layers of paper just to show you how it started.  (night shot)

I painted the base with Claudine's Landscape Green Studio paint, then added a black glaze to dull it.

Crushed Olive Distress Stickles are added before the Halloween paper strip is inked with green pen and glued.

The fence posts are made with Cracker Barrel toothpicks. You can see the cool tops on the one by the lantern best. They really were perfect to hold up the fence.

I've added lots of pen to change or add colors to the papers wherever I needed contrast, and dots to fill up space on the front doorway.

Otherwise, the Graphic 45 Happy Haunting Paper Collection is what's used here...and one piece from Communique Collection.

Their papers are always PERFECT!

*Today was a great day.*

 I got my new Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine.

Now, I know I'm a bit biased, but this issue is AMAZING...if you love Assemblage Art, it's a must!

I'm just sayin' there are some great projects in here that you'll LOVE.

Having said that...I am thrilled to say, I have 5 pages of instructions, pictures, products and tips so you can make a piece like the one below.

NEXT, they have 30 Artist's that donated 5x5 and 8x8 works to auction off for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

You can purchase them at etsy.com/shop/CPSmagazine later this month.

Anyway, mine is a 5x5 roughly framed Acrylics and paper on canvas using images from Graphic 45's Steampunk collection.

It's pictured in this publication along with lots and lots of other pieces you can have for your very own...while giving to a great cause, as well.

SOOOOOOOOOO, since I get a subscription anyway, and they send me more, I think someone out there might want one of these magazines for FREE, too!

Just leave a comment, and we'll draw for a winner.

And if you already have subscription, hey, just say so, and we won't put you in the drawing.

Or just say hi!

And we'll take comments for a couple more days to win the Ladies' Journal paper pad, too.

Be Well,

Linda



Back to Painting...Back to my Roots

Back from CHA and had a WONDERFUL time!

There truly is NOTHING more fun than having friends that love ART! I am so blessed.

This is a piece I did a while back for a Breast Cancer Awareness benefit auction.

It's on a 5x5 stretched canvas with Golden Heavy Body and Fluid Acrylics.

The canvas is encased in the plain wooden frame I learned to make YEARS ago from Claudine Hellmuth in one of her books.

It works great for stretched canvases and is a rustic way to add something to your art.

The Butterflies are Graphic 45, of course, as is the gorgeous lady by Alphonse Mucha.

She's from the Monaco-Monte-Carlo print.

He is definitely my favorite Art Nouveau artist.

I added Glossy Accents to the butterflies for dimension.

The doily is underneath all the layers of paint and I love how it turned out!

The lovely lady is accented with pens and layered onto black chipboard. She's protected with a thin layer of Micro Glaze by Judi Kins.

That stuff is WONDERFUL.

I've had it for years and a small jar lasts forever.

That's it for today.

I've got another 8x8 piece I'll show you later.

Always movin'...never standing still...jumping from one medium to another.

What shall I play with next...perhaps a bit more sewing!!!

Linda

-----------Create a Little Sunshine Challenge-----------

The Inspiration Emporium Design Team has a Sunshine Challenge going on.

"This month we are challenging you to Create a Little Sunshine…whether you want to make it sunny & bright or calm & beachy, it’s your choice. We love to see how everyone interprets each challenge and makes it their own…"

This is way out of my comfort zone!

I am not a Scrapbooker....I admire those who do the work, but I am not good at it.

Having said that, I didn't have any real "sunshine or beach" stamps, so I went digging for photos.

This is a granddaughter who is now old enough to want to remain "unnamed" in old pictures.

 This is the 1st pool this little one had in the back yard at our house. We think Uncle Carlo was blowing bubbles in the water to make her laugh....which was enough to make us laugh till the tears rolled down our faces!

So, let's begin!!!

This is nothing more than a cheap Michael's wooden frame.

I used Distress Stains Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade on it in spotty areas as you can see. I should be BRIGHT!

This is the back, but it shows the steps well.

After it's dry, add torn pieces of Composer Tissue Wrap with Multi Medium-Matte until it's covered.

When it's dry, add Picket Fence Distress Stain to the whole piece to tone it down.

The colors change dramatically when you do this.

I added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink direct to paper and blended it in spots.

Then the Aqua and Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabbers were used to "dab" blobs of paint here and there.

When it's completely dry....add a touch of Gold Paint Dabber to the edges.

This ends up looking like LINEN...I don't know why....but it does!

Then I cut flowers with the Mini Tattered Florals die and Crinoline. I made a LOT!

I sprayed them with Dylan's Bubblegum Pink, Vibrant Turquoise, and Lemon Zest.

I dried them and added Perfect Pearls Mists Sunflower Sparkle and Perfect Pearl.

These ended up darker than I'd expected.

So later I made more with less spray and more muted colors.

That's what I ended up using.

BUT, didn't these turn out soooooooo stinkin' CUTE???

I loved them!

Then I cut several of the Mini Butterflies out of packaging plastic.

There is a tutorial on this in an earlier post, but you basically add 3 colors of Alcohol Inks to the Applicator Felt. Don't let them touch.

Here I used Stream, Wild Plum and Watermelon.

It's turns out different every time...just dab the inks on the back.

Wait a few seconds till it's dry, and add another layer that creates backwashes and pools.

Practice on a scrap until you see how they work.

These turned out beautiful. The colors are gorgeous!

Heat with the Heat-It Tool slightly, and shape into a butterfly in flight.

Simple as THAT!

I used the Word Band and some Aqua Paint to cover the words.

Let it dry for a minute, and wipe off gently. Buff to remove the excess paint.

I added a couple of pieces of twisted gold wire and mounted on a scrap of cardstock.

I had a bag of Turquoise and Gold mini beads to put in the Corked Vial, and added some Bakers Twine in a bow.

See the difference in the lighter 2nd generation of flowers?

I threaded metallic gold thread in a needle and sewed the Prima Wood Buttons-Songbird pieces to the flower centers.

This closeup shows the gorgeous colors of the butterflies.

The Aqua Rhinestones matched perfectly on the body.

See how the wood somehow looks like Linen here?  I really like the way this turned out, and I have no idea why it did this.

Side Bar..... these are the backgrounds I made with the left over inks from the flowers.

As you can see in this night shot, the Sunshine Sparkle Mist REALLY blended in a cool pattern.

Don't wipe all that cool spray ink up....spritz some water on it if it's dried, and swipe some tags through it. Spritz the tag with water first, it helps.

These are somewhat lighter, but you have to have light on mica to get it to shine...at least in my experience. It's hard to get a good photo of it sparkling.

So, this is the finished frame with "Baby Doe" or "She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named"...boyfriends...bleh!

I used the gold thread in all the other buttons and glued in place.

So, take a jump over to the Inspiration Emporium Blog for a chance to win $50 in IE merchandise, and enjoy the other Designers works of ART.

There's 2 new EXTREMELY talented DT Members coming on board...you won't want to miss their projects!

AND a week from today I'll be at Prairie Art Stamps in Springfield teaching the Standing Curio Class. Can't wait to see my friends there again!

Linda

*Products Used and found at Inspiration Emporium*

 from Tim Holtz:
District Market - Composer Tissue Wrap
Idea-ology -  Word Bands, and Corked Vials
Distress Stains - Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Broken China, Picket Fence
Distress Inks - Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade
Alcohol Inks - Wild Plum, Watermelon and Stream
Alterations - Movers and Shapers - Mini Tattered Florals and Mini Butterflies

 from Dylusions:
Ink Spray - Bubblegum Pink, Lemon Zest, and Vibrant Turquoise

 from Ranger:
Perfect Pearls Mists - Perfect Pearl and Sunflower Sparkle
Acrylic Paint Dabber - Snow Cap, Aqua, and Gold

  other products:
Core'dinations - Adirondack Collection
Kaiser Rhinestones - Aqua
Prima Marketing - Wood Buttons Songbird
Gold Wire
Gold Metallic Thread
Turquoise Beads
Baker's Twine
Crinoline

Life is about creating yourself...it's a Secret and Fragile process

This is a tag showcasing Adirondack Products...Inks and Paints.

It's done almost entirely with just that line from Ranger.

I used Dylusions and Tim Holtz Stamps to lay down a resist with Clover and Lemonade Pigment Inks and Embossing Powder.

 I applied Dye Inks with pieces of Cut-n-Dry Foam all over the top of the embossed images.

The Pen Nibs are painted on with a brush and Alcohol Inks .

The Word Key was really fun.

I used Clear Embossing Powder, Alcohol Inks and a touch of Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber.

Some Eggplant Alcohol Ink and Snow Cap Dabber shabbied up the Word Band.

And the really cool thing I love about this Pigment Ink is the way it embossed onto metal.

Just push the Ornate Plate into the Bottle ink pad and then covered with clear embossing powder. The effect is amazing!!!


It keeps the dark ridges and turned out VERY cool.

Then I used the Dye Inks to dye the Crinkle Ribbon.

The added black numbers and letters were stamped here and there with Jet Black Archival Ink and Pitch Black Paint Dabber.

Use the Dabber if you want to push the stamping to the background since it won't adhere to the embossing.

The Archival Ink brings the stamping to the foreground since it WILL stamp onto the embossing as the TOP layer.

The Fragile stamp is stamped onto Manila cardstock and cut to fit the Plate.

I thought the Commute Tissue Tape helped to accent the Word Band.

Sooooo, all in all it was a new experience for me and just using the Adirondack products.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!!

Your Friend in ART,

Linda

Products Used:
Adirondack Pigment Inks - Bottle, Clover, Lemonade, Snow Cap, Pitch Black
Adirondack Dye Inks - Eggplant, Purple Twilight, Terra Cotta, Peach Bellini
Adirondack Paint Dabbers - Pitch Black, Snow Cap
Adirondack Alcohol Inks - Butterscotch, Eggplant, Purple Twilight, Terra Cotta
Archival Ink - Jet Black
Idea-ology - Word Bands, Commute Tissue Tape, Ornate Plates, Crinkle Ribbon, Word Keys, Pen Nibs
Tim Holtz Stamps - Little Labels, Mixed Media
Dylusions Stamps - Basic Backgrounds
Ranger - Matte Multi-Medium, Heat it Tool, Clear Embossing Pad, Clear Embossing Powder, and Cut n'Dry Foam

The Final Touch of Ink.....Know When to STOP!

This is the end result of lots of days of playing with paint and ink.

If you were here several days ago, before we left for vacation, I started this watercolor journal page.

This is how it looked the other night, when I decided to STOP!

It's not easy to see in this format, so I'll show some of the details

If you look below, this was all white from a stencil and Snow Cap Paint Dabber.

I found these really fun little clear stamps from Inkadinkado in Florida that I rolled here and there using Dyan Reaveley's technique of not putting them on a stamp block. Works really well! (check out her blog for fabulous tutorials!!!)

I originally used Deep Purple Archival Ink over this spot....did NOT turn out well...WAY too bright and not a good color combo.

SO.....I painted over with white paint, that picked up some of the color, that was OK.

Then I added some water to Claudine's Altered Orange Studio Paint and gave it a wash.

OK, that looked better, then I added the stamping again with COFFEE Archival Ink..

YES!!!! Much better. If you don't like it, COVER IT UP!

Start again.

Here I added lots of doodles with pens...White, Distress and Black Gel.

More ink around the letters and such.

You can see where I used a Dylusions stamp on the edge and just added more of the same squares to enlarge the area of checkerboard.

I LOVE these little birds that I found... too cute.

Some stamping with French Ultramarine Archival over the white paint.

Also added some color to the hand with a Distress Marker.

So in conclusion....this is what we started with...Distress Stains.

This was the middle with a few layers added.

And this is the end result. Hard to believe I TONED down the color with Walnut Stain spray, but you can see it in the closeups.

Be well and enjoy!

Linda

Loved making this Kraft Tag!

When I got these Kraft Tags from Ranger to use for samples at CHA, I knew I was going to love them

One reason, of course, is my fondness for BROWN!  The second was I knew how cool they would be with probably my favorite color combination. Brown, Red, Black and White.

I think they are a Classic combination for Vintage pieces.  I'm just sayin', I think they work.

Add a bit of shine, like Gold, and it is all you need for a tag that's fun!

 

I trimmed down a #8 Kraft Tag and embossed with white embossing powder and the Steampunk stamp. I decided to cut the bottom off with the Mini Scallop die just for kicks.

Then I used Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks around the edges. You cannot beat the richness of the Mahogany on the Kraft colored paper!!!!

Next I layered it onto a black Chipboard tag cut with the large Tag Die from Tim.

I cut some Mini Gears out of Grungeboard and swiped the Picket Fence Distress Stains on them. Then added Gold, Silver, and Copper Paint Dabbers on them.

Loved how the paint dries with texture from the sponge applicators.

Add a bit of Gold around the black chipboard tag for some contrast.

The light bulb has Sunshine Yellow Alcohol Ink dabbed on it. Very vintage looking I think. I wrapped a piece of wire around the base and glued tit o the tag.

The Plaquette is added over a piece of magic mesh just to make it stand out a bit more.

The Pen Nibs are glued in a pattern to make the eye follow around the piece from the lower left, up to the Timepiece and Spinner assemblage and around to the Gears. The Sprocket Gears are just a bit more metal here and there.

The ribbon at the bottom gives the piece a base for stability and the Pen Marks outline the piece to make the color pop!

Get some of these Kraft tags and give it a try! Let me know what you think.

Linda

Ranger Products:

Tim Holtz Collection - Steampunk Stamps

Embossing Ink - Pad

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Pen Nibs

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Plaquettes

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Game Spinners

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Light Bulbs

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Sprocket Gears

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Grungeboard Basics

Tim Holtz Distress Stains - Picket Fence

Tim Holtz - Idea-ology - Timepieces

Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks - Sunshine Yellow

Distress Ink Pads - Aged Mahogany and Fired Brick

Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die - Tag & Bookplates

Sizzix Movers & Shapers Magnetic Die Set 2PK - Mini Gears Set

Adirondack Metallic Paint Dabbers-Gold, Silver and Copper

Inkssentials Surfaces - Kraft Tag #8

Claudine Hellmuth Studio - Multi Medium - Matte 4 oz

The All Seeing Eye ATC - And a Challenge!

 

This is a project that was in the Ranger Booth at CHA. 

And it was one of my favorite pieces to make. So if you want a bit of a tutorial, sit down, get a cup of coffee, and enjoy the ride.

1. First you spray a Black ATC with Ink Refresher. Rub it in. Seriously. And then crumple it up really tight. Open it up and flatten out.Spray it with Blue Patina  and Sour Apple Perfect Pearls Mist. Dry with the Heat It tool. You can also use the powdered Perfect Pearls as well here.

2. Color a Kraft ATC with Picket Fence Distress Stain on one side and Chipped Sapphire on the other. (The Chipped Sapphire looks almost black in the picture.) Dry. Spray with Pewter on dark side and Perfect Bronze PP Mists on lighter side.

3. Cut an X on the Kraft ATC diagonally about 1/4 inch from the corners. Roll open the 4 sections over a pen or paintbrush exposing lighter side. Glue to Black ATC on the edges.

4. Paint thin layer of Gesso onto Shrink Plastic. Let dry. Stamp Papillon stamp and Artful Eye with Archival Jet Black ink and LIGHTLY heat set. Trim. Punch hole for piece with butterfly. Shrink with Heat It tool.

5. Paint color onto plastic with Distress Stains Wild Honey, Broken China, Pine Needles, Chipped Sapphire, Pumice Stone and Dried Marigold and small brush.

6. Cut plastic packaging to 1 1/2 inch square and put into Memory Frame. Glue Artful Eye piece on top of clear plastic with Matte Medium. It looks like its floating in the center of the frame now.

7. Add Butterfly with a jump ring to the bottom of Memory Frame. Glue onto ATC center.

8. Layer onto black cardstock 2 3/4x 3 3/4 inches to display.

Here's a different angle of the piece. The Perfect Pearls really are gorgeous on the black paper.

Kind of different and quirky for a change!

AND there's a Monthly Challenge going on at Inspiration Emporium for a $50 gift certificate!!!! Check it out. PLUS a 20% off Sale as a Remembrance for the victims of 9/11 in the Newsletter. All the links are below for the products I used.

Hope you have a great weekend. The weather here is very cool. Not at all like just a week ago.

Be Well and Be Good to Each Other,

Linda

Ranager Products Used:

Black ATC, Kraft ATC,

Perfect Pearls Mists-Blue Patina, Sour Apple, Pewter & Bronze.

Distress Stains-Picket Fence, Chipped Sapphire, Wild Honey, Broken China, Pine Needles, Pumice Stone, Dried Marigold.

Refresher Spray,

Heat Tool,

Studio-Gesso & Multi Medium-Matte,

Shrink Plastic,

Memory Frame.

Archival Jet Black Ink.

Stamps-Papillon & Artful Eye, Archival by Stampers Anonymous