My Altered Art Piece

Hi Everyone,
Did you miss me. Probably not so much. LOL 

And where have I been?? My muse decided to take a vacation and I just couldn't get my juices flowing. 

Well tonite I joined in on Terri Sproul's Tuesday nite live broadcast and wella, here is what I created. 

This is done on a canvas board, I started with a Tim Holtz tissue wrap base and I used Gelato's some iridescent medium, matte medium, light molding paste, a stencil, a stamped image, and some lovely flowers.I also added some Twinkling H2O's for more color.

This piece was so much fun to do, Hope you enjoy it as much as I did in making it.

I have a couple of posts that will be coming up around March 1, so stay tuned for those. I think you will like what I have coming.

SUPPLIES USED ON MY PROJECT

Stamps: winged woman - Lost Coast Paper/Card Stock: White CS Ink: India Ink Accessories: Canvas Board, Iridescent Medium, Matte Medium, Light Molding Paste, Tim Holtz Tissue WrapGlowers, Trinkling H2O's, Gelato's, music sheet piece, flowers, stencil, IO Diecut pieces.

I am submitting this project to the following challenges:

All Crafts Challenge - Anything but a Card 

Craft Your Passion -  Always Anything Goes (#86)

Incy Wincy Designs -  Distressing (#9)

Love to Scrap - (Week 2) Anything Goes (#130)

My Craft Creations - Always Anything Goes (#72)

Not Just Cards - - (Week 2) Always Anything Goes (#135)

Through the Purple Haze -  Anything Goes (#28)

Scribble and Scrap - #38 Always:  Anything Goes (#186)

Stamping Sensations - FEBRUARY:  Anything Goes (#300)

The Corrosive Challenges - #218 Things with Wings (#106)

12 Months of the Seasons

Hello everyone,

As I was cleaning and straightening up my studio, I saw this accordion folded book laying out and decided to share it with you today before I filed it away again. I had this out because I shared some of the pages with everyone who attended the Wednesday Night Live in C&T Publishing’s Digital Lounge.

Each Wednesday night at 9:00 pm (EST) there is a 1 hour show of craft demos etc. It is a great time, and the projects are always great, so, try to join in the fun.

OK, back to the accordion fold book. I made this book almost 2 years ago in a club I belonged to.The project lasted 12 months and we were to bring a 6"X6" panel to add to an accordion fold book. We decided to use the theme of the 4 seasons. So, at the meeting in Jan., Feb., and Mar., we were to bring one panel in at each month's meeting in the winter theme, Apr., May and June meetings were a spring theme, and so on, throughout the whole year, til the book was done. When we brought our panels in, we showed everyone what we had done, explained how we did it and then we drew numbers and took someone else's panel home. Well, with that in mind, I wanted to have a book of the panels I made, as well as a book of the ones I received each month. So, when I made my panels I made 2 the same. One of the panels that I made, went into one of my books the other panel was given away. The panels that I received, went into the other book.

Here are the photos of all the panels I made.

This is the cover.

 I painted it gold and adhered a piece of paintable wallpaper in the center.

The first season was WINTER

The deer I used was a copy of one that was in a grungeboard package. Since I needed 2 deer and only had one, I just copied the one onto the chipboard and cut it out. The tree was my design. I made the trunk out of chipboard and wrapped it with wire. As I wrapped I then added the naked branches and got what my minds eye saw, as a winter tree. As I started these panels I wanted to have a wire element on each months panel, but that just didn't work out. The next panel shows  2 photos of the snow in my backyard and the third was a window that I made. The bird was a picture off the internet, printed onto ink jet transparency. and the pine trees are stamped onto white cardstock. I sandwiched everything to give the illusion of looking out a window and seeing that bird.

 Next was SPRING

 

The background on the bird panel is actually from one of those $1.00 calendars you see at Michael's and various other places. I stamped a bird and cut it out and adhered it over the calendar image. The next panel was all stamped and hand drawn by me, using another panel from that cheap calendar as the inspiration. Lastly, the butterfly was a cutout from something and the flowers were stamped and cut out, stems hand drawn and the butterfly added.

Next was SUMMER

 

Summer just reminds me of beaches and mature flower beds. So again, I used another calendar page as a background of the beach scene and added bathing suits, The next panel is a collage of dried flowers and a scene from somewhere. The third panel is a hand drawn panel of flowers, these reminded me of hollyhocks from afar.

Finally we are into FALL

The panel for Halloween was inspired by a picture I saw in a magazine. I drew this house and the tree. Stamped the bat and the spider web and added the paper border at the bottom. Next panel,,I used another calendar page that showed this foot bridge in the fall. The leaves were die cut and colored with Twinkling H2O's, which is a product like Glimmer Mist but in solid form. I just surrounded the picture of the bridge with those leaves. The last panel is a stamp the I've had for years from Nature's Blessings. After I colored it I thought it really looked like a harvest bounty.Perfect to finish up the fall theme.

As I added the panels into the book, I designed a border to compliment each panel.

Hope you like the book as much as I do. It's fun to get it out and look at all the panels and remember.

Well that is it for today, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Christmas Card Idea

Did you know that in 47 days Christmas will be here.WOW!!! At this time of year, every year, I wonder where the time has gone.Today, I thought I would share with you an idea that you will love. And it enables you to save from year to year some of those special holiday cards you receive.

What do you do with all the holiday cards you receive?? Do you save them?? And then what happens to them?? Oh, they get stored in a box and they never see the light of day again?? OK, a lot of us are like that. Well here is a great way to show the cards off again and put then on display especially if you will be entertaining throughout the holidays.

Get an old book, go to the Thrift Shop in your area and pick up one if you don't have a book you want to part with. Any title will do. Next gather up the cards that you want to use.  Next count how many cards you are using and divide that number into the total number of pages in your book.The number will represent approximately pages you will have in each section. Next section off the number of pages per section, using binder clips or large paper clips. Now, using white glue, paint glue on the page edges of each section. You will want to get the page edges pretty wet but not drippy. Let dry. (I actually put waxed paper between the sections to keep the sections separated while drying.) I let this dry overnight. While your book is drying, cut the card fronts off the cards and anything else from the card that you will be using, make sure to keep all your card elements together from each of the cards. Maybe you want to use just the card front, that is what I did but I also used some of the sentiments too. After the glue on the page edges is dry paint the front and back of the book. I used acrylic paint in champagne gold, love this color. This gold color is soft and not too brassy. After the front and back of the book is dry, paint the edges of the sections in the same gold color. Let all the paint dry.

Now the fun begins. In this step I decided the order of the cards and painted the printed pages with a color that went with that card. It could be a contrasting color or a color that was the same as the card, but you want your card to stand out on the page not to be buried in the page.You will be painting the printed pages of each glued section. After the paint is dry I affixed the cards on their respective pages. Lastly I added embellishments to add further interest. You can see that I trimmed a lot of the cards to fit into the book to make the cards look like they belonged on that page. I had a few cards that I actually cut the card front in half because the card was just too big. I even stamped on some of the pages, but you could add stickers too if you wanted. Brads and buttons are also cool embellishments, as well as die cuts. Let your imagination go wild.

 

This is a great way to preserve special cards and to be able to display them the following year. You can even add the year to the front of the book so you can remember what year you received your special cards.

How cool is that.

Tomorrow I will show you another re purposed item that you can use for a Christmas package  or a birthday gift or whatever the occasion is. See you then.

Well, that's it for now, thanks for stopping by,

Barbara

A Piece of Art

I sat down the other day to make a piece of art. Wanted to clear the cobwebs out of my mind and look what I wound up making.This turned out to be a wonderful and colorful piece of art. Well, I liked this piece so much I decided to mount it. This piece is larger that the cards that I usually photograph, so, it was hard keeping the background all white.

The colors really popped when I mounted on the black mat board. Now, I just have to find the right place to hang this in my house. Hmmmmm.... maybe my office.

Well that's it or now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

June's Antique Show Goodies

Sunday June 20, was the 3rd Sunday of the month and that meant it was time to go to the Burlington Antique Show. Even though it was Father's Day, the show was crowded. I arrived at around 10:00 a.m. and got started making my way to all the booths I usually go to and of course looking along the way at others. The show is at the Fairgrounds in Boone County, Ky., and it takes 2+ hours to go thru the show. Now mind you, I don't stop at each booth, if I did I would be there 4-5 hours. It was very hot today, 90 + degrees, and very sunny. I saw a few things that I didn't get this time and if it's there next month, I will get the items. You know, if it's meant to be, it will be there next time.
Here are the cool items I picked up this time.

This print was tucked in the book that's pictured next. This appears to be a pic of the Ohio River before the area was settled. and before the Suspension Bridge was built.

I spied this book in a small booth that I stop at each time I go to the show. This book was marked $5.00 and I got it for $2.50, what a deal. Here is the front cover and a few peeks at some of the pages inside. This is a  book that was published in 1966 to celebrate the Centennial year of the Suspension Bridge that connects Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Ky. Great pics and what looks to be a great read with a lot of historical info and only 31 pages. This bridge was designed and built by John Roebling, who also was responsible for the Brooklyn Bridge.

And last, but definitely not least, here are two items I picked up that satisfy my love of altered art. Now what will I do with these??? Not sure yet. The fence I will probably use at some time in the future. The angel is actually made of a wire form with more wire wrapped around the form and a smaller fence is used for the wings. This really was calling my name and I picked up both of these for the large sum of $10.00. What a bargain.

I will be going back next month so, stop back to see what I pick up next month.

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Enameling

Today I learned a new art technique. Now, enameling is definitely not new, but I had never done it before so it is new to me. I found that the technique is pretty easy and here are my first attempts at enameling.

Here is the first piece that I enameled today.

                 Next I got a little bolder and made this masterpiece.

Ok, here is the third piece. Adding more colors and expermenting more.

Here is the last piece I did. It is a metal bowl and this pic shows the enameling powder applied to the surface. The oven is about 1400 degrees and melts the powder onto the metal surface.

And here is the bowl after it baked for about 3 1/2 minutes. I thought it came out pretty good for my first day working on enameling.

I have always loved enameled pieces and was so happy to get to learn the enameling process. So here are the masterpieces I finished today. This is something I would like to go further with. So time will tell.
(Sorry for the glare on these pictures, since the surface is shiney, the photos show the overhead lights at the studio.)

 

 

 

 

 

Well that is it for now, Thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

Saturday's Retreat

Last Saturday I attended a retreat for the Altered Arts group that I am a member of. We learned 3 new projects. We etched metal, made fairies and learned soldering. I took a soldering class a few years ago and really needed a refresher in this so I was quite happy to revisit this technique.We started out with soldering.

I have not mastered attaching jump rings yet. You need 1-2 more hands to get this set right. I did find a tool that actually will hold the piece, freeing your hands for other actions. Love it. I am looking forward to using it on the next soldering project.

Jump rings are not supposed to be laying flat.Isn't this just pitiful (LOL). I WILL master this. Soldering is really not hard but it takes a lot of practice to really master it.

This is a piece of glass that I bought at Michael's and I soldered tape onto it to make it look like a gift. It just needs a bow. I am working on that .

Hard at work on my soldering. You really need more than 2 hands.

Next we learned to make Fairies out of chenille, yarn, a bead, fabric strips and florist tape.

They need wings and then they will be true fairies. Aren't these cute?? I love these and they are so easy to make.

Last but not least we learned to etch metal. This works well with brass, tin, copper but does not work on aluminum. Muriatic acid, peroxide and baking soda for the rinse and after 15 minutes or so you have an etched piece.This is not hard to do but you really need to work in a ventilated area and wear eye protection and wear rubber gloves. Here is the end result:

The day was perfect and we had a great time learning 3 new projects.

My thanks to Angie, Carla, Beth and Sandi for their hard work in getting their classes together and for their time.

Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon,

Barbara

....a poem as lovely as a tree (pt 2)

Friday I mentioned I had another card to post and show how it was made. It is a tree and I used the tree stamp from Great Impressions but in a different way. Most of the items I used will probably be in your stash. The tool called Inscriblio you may not have. It engraves and for the life of me I can't remember why I originally bought it. But I just had to have it. And then it sat unused for years. Then along came Spellbinder dies and I decided to engrave the set number on the back of the dies. I decided doing that would keep the correct die with its right family. 

Not too long ago, I saw a technique that called for acrylic sheets and an engraver and I immediately thought of the Inscriblio. So I brought it out and tried the technique out and I fell in love with the look. So I thought you might like it as well. This group of pic's just shows how to get the image onto the acrylic sheet. So here is the finished card:

Here are the products/tools I used:

Stamp - Great Impressions, adirondack acrylic paint - lettuce, Adirondack paint dabber -  pitch black, acrylic sheet - 10 mil, Inscriblio - EK Success.

First position the acrylic sheet over the stamp image and engrave the acrylic using the image as your guide. When complete your image should look like the index of the stamp.(Sorry for the glare on the etched image)

 

Next, apply the pitch black onto the etched image, and then rub off with a paper towel. Don't wait to long, you want the black paint to still be wet as you are wiping it off. After you have wiped off the paint, you will be left with an etched image of the tree with black paint in it. Looks great doesn't it!! Just like the stamp.

      

Next  turn the acrylic sheet over, you will be applying the lettuce colored acrylic paint on the non etched side of the acrylic sheet. I used a swirl motion to apply the acrylic paint and the thin tipped nozzle makes it easy to achieve the swirly look. Cover the whole tree area where the leaves would normally be.

   

Now set it aside to dry completely, about 30 minutes.

After it is dry you will want to trim your acrylic sheet down to the size needed for your project.

When I finished and prepared the sheet for my card,I actually used the side that shows the etched side up.This lets the tree trunk and branches show more, but the other side is nice as well. You be the judge.

This is the completed image with the etched side down.

This is the other side. The etched side up, I preferred this side but you may like the other side up better.

This is how I made the tree using an etching tool and some paints on acrylic sheets. Easy and fun to do.
 
 Well that is it for now, thanks for stopping by, see you soon.

Barbara