Mixed Media Christmas Ornament

The new monthly challenge begins today at The Mirror Crack'd.  This is a mixed media challenge blog and this time we want to see a Christmas Decoration.  Remember, no cards are allowed.

I made this ornament for my own tree, which is decorated in primarily red and gold with a few white elements.

This ornament started as a styrofoam ball - novel idea, right?  I kicked it up a notch by gluing small pieces cut from a paper napkin.  The napkin was a two-ply one so I really had to lay the glue on thick.  I found Mod Podge worked best.  If I had separated the plys and just used the patterned one, it would have shredded so it was best to use it as is.  One tip is to set it in the top of a wide mouthed drinking glass while you work because if you handle it too much, the napkin wants to come off on your hand.  Also make sure you move it around as it dries (I used my heat gun to speed up the process) or it will stick to the edge of the glass.  I had a couple tiny spots that I had to adjust at the end but it was easy.

Once it was all dry, I added some vertical strips of lace, metallic mesh ribbon and soutache braid, all of which came from my sewing room.  Then I created some some oval and circular panels from foil tape that is used in the heating and air conditioning industry.  The pieces were cut using a couple of Spellbinders dies, embossed with an embossing folder from Craft Concepts called Budding Vine, then painted with a mixture of two red craft paints and highlighted with Classic Gold Treasure Gold wax paste. The oval pieces were added around the top and the circular one was added to the bottom.

I also re-coloured two filigree pieces with Cranberry Adirondack alcohol ink blended with Gold Mixative and added those to the two strips with lace.  Large pearl stickers from Recollections were added to the oval embossed pieces and to the two filigree pieces.

Finally I made a loopy bow for the top from ribbon I picked up at Michaels  with a pearl stick pin that I picked up at Excelsior Wholesale on a visit to England and then added some beads from Arton Bead Supply to another stick pin for the bottom.

I hope you will join us and show us your mixed media Christmas Decoration.

Body Beautiful ??

It is time for the next monthly challenge at The Mirror Crack'd and this time the theme is called The Body Beautiful so we want to see your mixed media project featuring the human form. A hand, an eye or a mannequin to represent a body are just some suggestions you could use, but we would love to see how your imagination works and what you can create. Just remember - no cards.

I decided to make doorknob hangers for Halloween for my Grandchildren (a girl aged 8 and a boy aged 5 1/2) so my body references are not beautiful unless you are a Pathologist or an Undertaker but the skulls suit the theme I chose.

Each hanger started as a double layer of thin chipboard that I cut with my Cameo and glued together.  Next I painted the backs with black acrylic craft paint and the front with Gesso.  Then I crumpled up some tissue paper and glued it to the front of each hanger.  Next I spritzed each one with some purple and green spray inks and hit them with some canned air while they were wet.  Once everything dried I covered them with Black Soot Distress Ink.  They seemed a bit dark so I took a baby wipe and removed some of the Black Soot.  You will notice that my Grandson's hanger is more green and that is because it is his favourite colour.

Besides the vintage skull images each hanger needed some fun embellishments so I got to work.

For the one on the left I made a computer generated date and then I printed some vintage poison labels, coloured them with Spiced Marmalade  DI and then joined them together with a brad from Making Memories.

The mummy head is a glass block covered with strips of gauze bandage that I dyed with some Antique Linen Distress Ink.  His little eyes were created from some acrylic packaging that I coloured with Alcohol Ink, punched with a small circle punch and then added a black pearl sticker for eyeballs.  The 3D pumpkin is made from punched circles that were embossed with a Tim Holtz Texture Fade and then the highlights were inked with some Black Soot DI.  The stem and leaves were hand cut and inked with Forest Moss DI and the tendril is a piece of wire.

Finally the word BOO is made from some wooden letters that I painted with acrylic craft paint and then highlighted with some Rose Quartz Treasure Gold wax paste.  A little hand cut bat tops off the letters.

For the hanger on the right I used larger wooden letters to make the word BOO, painted it the same way as the other but before I added the wax paste, I stamped each letter with a script stamp.  Then I added a couple of brads and another little bat.

I made a little book of spells from some card stock that I embossed with the Texture Fade from Tim Holtz, highlighted with some Black Soot DI and then coated with a layer of Mod Podge.  The book pages are taken from an old book and the book is tied together with some burlap string.

A girl has to have flowers so I added two with buttons from my stash for centres and another with a little rose that I coloured with a Promarker.  Finally I made some bead charms and hung them from chain.

If you are wondering why the little bats don't have eyes - it is because they are "blind as a bat" - lol (cheesy, I know).

Here are the supplies I used to create this project:

Papers: Chipboard (Silhouette), Tissue Paper (Dollarama), Card Stock (Recollections)
Images: Skulls (The Graphics Fairy, The Cottage Market), Poison Labels (Palace Puppy), Bat (Plumrose Lane)
Inks & Paints: Black Soot, Antique Linen, Forest Moss, Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink (Ranger), Crushed Grape, Dirty Martini Dylusions Spray Ink (Ranger), Caramel, Ginger Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Ranger), Rose Quartz Wax Paste (Treasure Gold), Avocado, Black Acrylic Paint (Americana)
Embellishments: Wooden Letters (Dollarama), Flowers (Prima and Wild Orchid Crafts),  Beads and Beading Supplies (Arton Bead Supply, Michaels, Dollarama, Wal Mart), Patchwork Texture Fade (Tim Holtz), Buttons (My Stash), Pearl Stickers (Recollections), Burlap String (The Funkie Junkie Boutique), Brads (Making Memories), Wire (Artistic Wire), Glass Block (Michaels)
Miscellaneous: Gesso (Liquitex), Matte Medium (Ranger), Mod Podge 

I am going to enter this project in the following challenges:

Fab 'n Funky - Halloween
Corrosive Challenges - Halloween Colors
Creative Corner - Anything But A Card
Pattie's Creations - Embossing (must use an image - skulls)
Simply Create Too - It's A Special Occasion

Metal Mania

Today is an exciting day because it is the launch of a new challenge blog called The Mirror Crack'd. This blog will have monthly challenges devoted to mixed media/altered art projects - but no cards.  I am honoured to have been asked to be on this new team and to invite you to join us for the first challenge, which is Anything Goes.

For my first project, I made a small canvas.  I started with a 7" square of framer's mat board and gave it a coat of Gesso (Liquitex).  Next I added some drywall tape and Light Molding Paste (Golden) through a Mini Hexagons stencil (TCW).

The next step was to add some paint and this time I used Pumpkin Soup, Mocha Mousse and Cinnamon (all Fresco Finish).  I used a baby wipe to wipe it back in some areas.  Then I did some stenciling with Black Soot Distress Ink (Ranger) and three stencils; Dots and Stripes Border (Wendy Vecchi), Letter Jumble (Dylusions) and Dotted Flowers (Dylusions).  Once it was dry I rubbed the raised embossing with some Classic and Rose Quartz wax paste (Treasure Gold) and the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink (Ranger).

Next I started on the embellishments.  I cut a couple pieces of cardboard from an old box and removed the top layer to reveal the corrugated layer.  I wanted to paint it with a dark brown paint but since I didn't have any, I mixed together some acrylic paint called Coffee Bean and Black (Folk Art) and painted the valley portions of the corrugated cardboard.  I also rubbed the peaks with the same wax pastes.

I created the text on the computer and inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink (Ranger).  Next I used Jet Black Archival Ink (Ranger) and stamped some script (Recollections) onto some Hopsack Tape (Fancy Gap Outlet).  Then I inked the edges with Walnut Stain and added a couple of brads (Making Memories).  Tip:  I always remove the legs from the brads and use pop dots to adhere them so everything lies flat.

The next step was to create the wings for the clock.  I used paper-backed foil tape used in the heating and air-conditioning industry and hand cut three layers for each wing.  Then I took an embossing stylus and other metal working tools (Walnut Hollow) and gave them lots of texture.  They were painted with Coffee Bean acrylic paint (Folk Art) and then that was wiped off.  Next I blended some Adirondack Caramel, Rust, Ginger and Gold Mixative Alcohol Ink (Ranger) and coated each layer before I adhered them together.

The rest of the embellishments were not altered - Key (Kay & Co.), Clock, Trinket Pin and Lock (Tim Holtz), Gears (Bead Landing) and Button (my sewing basket).

I hope you will join us at The Mirror Crack'd for our first challenge and show us your mixed media/altered art project - but remember, no cards.