If You're Feeling Blue...

Hello friends!  I wanted to make my daughter a graduation card, since her college is finally going to have a  graduation ceremony this weekend for last year's graduating class.  I have nothing in my crafty arsenal for graduations, so I needed to improvise. Since she will be a psychological counselor after finishing her Masters next year, I thought I would make a little play on her profession with my quote. I've had this set of quote stamps for years and have never opened them. I cut the stamp in two, so I could place half the quote at top and the other at the bottom. I don't think she'll be handing out this advice in her office, but it's really good advice, don't you think?

I stamped the quote on a scrap in Archival ink and a couple Glitch 1 stamps with regular Distress, both Faded Jeans. I  added some drips and splats as I was inking other parts of the card. The pink splashes and drips are Oxide spray.

I stamped the circle from Glitch 1 on another scrap and painted in one of the areas with Oxide spray. I love the grid stamp from the set and inked it in Chipped Sapphire, splashing with a little water for some inky washes. Finally, I used the Plus stencil and texture paste to add texture, and when it was dry, replaced the stencil and inked with Faded Jeans.

This Baseboard Doll's dress was colored with Embossing Dabber/Pen and Embossing Glaze, and after heating, rubbed with steel wool to remove the shine. Her cheeks, hair piece and tights are colored with markers. The heart on her dress didn't look too good, so I applied an old Remnant Rub over it and while they were out, added some here and there. Everything is edged with Hickory Smoke ink.

That's all for me! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend! Sara Emily

Challenge shares:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Add A Quote

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday ChallengeAnything Goes

Tim Holtz products used:

Distress ink - Archival Faded Jeans, Faded Jeans, Hickory Smoke, Chipped Sapphire

Distress Oxide Ink - Faded Jeans

Distress Oxide Spray - Kitsch Flamingo

Distress Embossing Glaze - Kitsch Flamingo

Distress Marker - Worn Lipstick, Spun Sugar

Glitch 1 Stamps

Plus Layering Stencil

Baseboard Dolls

See the Beauty Mixed Media Tag

Hello friends and visitors! What do you do with a background that turned out absolutely horrible? Turn it into a tag, of course! (Or ATC's or coins.)

(click on this photo to enlarge)

This actually started a while back with some flowers blended with Wilted Violet through Roses mini stencil. It didn't turn out too well using blending foam--a blending brush works much better with these smaller openings. So into the bin it went to use the other side at a future date.

 So yesterday I was blessed with a wee bit of 'free time' to play in my Closet, and I found this panel. I blended Distress Micro Glaze with a blending tool through the same stencil, placing it over the existing flowers. After spritzing the panel with water, I sprayed with various Distress Spray stains and Oxide (colors in the products list below). I repeated this with different stencils, drying between and finally blending Wilted Violet ink through Floral stencil. Lastly, I sprayed with water and mopped with a paper towel.  It pretty much went from bad to worse when I tried to add some pink to the left side to balance the brightness of the right, but I'm a firm believer in salvation. I decided I could die cut it into a tag using Stacked Tags and try to rescue the better part of the background.

I chose three brightly colored butterflies from two different Botanical packs; one is a little different to the other two, but I used my splatter brush and Picket Fence paint to try and unify them. Each one is edged with Black Soot ink and layered over some die cuts from my stash. 

I found some appropriate phrases in the Clippings Sticker booklet to add, edged the tag in Wilted Violet and matted it on white card. 

 I snipped off some crinkle ribbon seam binding and colored it with Fossilized Amber and Crackling Campfire spray stains, dried and stamped the script from Tiny Toadstools in archival Black Soot ink. I tied it into a little bow as a topper.

All's well that ends well. I hope you get some time to be crafty! Hugs! Sara Emily

Challenge Shares:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Bright, Cheerful Colors

These Tim Holtz products were used on my tag:

Stacked Tags Thinlits

Tiny Toadstools Stamps

Stencils: Roses Mini Stencil (set 25), Floral, Latticework, Bubbles

Ideaology - Clippings Sticker Book, Botanical Layers

Distress Microglaze

Distress Collage Medium 

Distress Ink - Archival Black Soot, Black Soot, Wilted Violet, Evergreen Bough, Cracked Pistachio; Distress Paint - Picket Fence

Distress Spray Oxide - Cracked Pistachio 

Distress Spray Stain - Cracked Pistachio, Evergreen Bough, Fossilized Amber, Picked Raspberry, Crackling Campfire

 

Bright and Merry!

Hello! It's time for a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog and Cec is our hostess. She names her challenge  'Celebrate', and here's how she describes it:

"Your challenge is to create a shabby chic or vintage project to celebrate someone or something special. Since celebrations are happy occasions, your project should be made with lots of happy, bright colours. Keep your dull or neutral colours to a minimum please because as winter approaches we will have lots of that naturally so your bright colours must be predominant."

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details. While you are there, be sure to check out all the amazing inspiration by my talented teammates.

Well, I could not think of anything more bright or happier than the upcoming Christmas season, so I decided to make a tag to Celebrate! I think my tag looks even brighter (although busier) with the contrast of an old rusty metal grate in the background. What do you think?

Below, I'm sharing some close up photos followed by a brief tutorial on how this tag came together. You'll see I used just the teensiest bit of white on the Christmas word tag seen directly below, otherwise it's bright colors and gold and silver everywhere you look!

So  let's get started...I started by coloring white yupo paper with red alcohol inks and pearls. You'll see the colors I used two photos down. While  I'm not one to look at videos and just tend to do my own thing, I'm sharing  a link to this video that gives some great tips for using alcohol inks. 

For my red panel (and then green panel further below), I just dripped the inks starting with the lightest and kept adding and dripping with alcohol blending solution and occasionally spraying with isopropyl alcohol. In the end, I placed a silver foil sheet over the panel, burnished it and removed to leave some silvery spots and veins.

I decided my flower needed contrast between the layers so I inked this metallic paper I had in my stash, layered the two red inks by pouncing with an alcohol ink tool/felt. You can see the die cut on the left (shown below) has just the lightest red applied thus far, and I'm starting to build up the color on the other two.

I applied the pearls directly to the edges of the bracts. (These are actually leaves, but because they are colored, most people think of them as the flower.) In the end, but not shown, I pounced on some of the green alcohol inks and shaped the die cuts to give dimension to the flower. I tried shaping the yupo die cuts by heating with my heat tool, but this turned out not to be a good idea--the colored layer started to peel up, revealing white underneath.

I chose shimmery silver yupo for the green and yellow ink panel and cut a few green leaves and the cyathia from it. (More commonly known as the flower's center, but it's actually the flower of a poinsettia plant. Just sayin'...) I also cut some from gold metallic paper from my stash, but in the end cut a few from the silver metallic paper above and colored them in lighter shades of pink and green and used those instead.

To make the flower center, I colored some stamens with Alchemy Alcohol Pearls and Citrus Alcohol ink and cut off the wire stems. I adhered them through a hole punched in a burst die cut from Metallic Kraft Stock  using the Ornamental Birds die set.

The background is from my stash. I had written notes on the back for some reason, and this is what I had written:  "Print left by cleaning off a stencil inked with Evergreen Bough ink. (I didn't note which stencil, and it wasn't a clear print.) Blended with Mowed Lawn ink. Sprayed with Peeled Paint Oxide Spray." 

On choosing this background for my project, I decided it needed to have some yellows to brighten it, so I blended the top with Fossilized Amber ink and then spritzed the ink left on the mat with water. I  dipped the panel into the little beads of ink, and after drying, I blended with Cracked Pistachio ink to up the brightness. I had quite a bit of Alchemy squeezed out from dipping the stamens that I wanted to use up, so I dipped a paintbrush into that and splattered the panel with that, too.

The sentiment is a combination of die cuts and embossed stamping. I used Christmas Ribbon and Alphanumeric Tiny Type Thinlit die sets for Merry, Bright and "AND"  is from one of the stamps from Tim Holtz' Festive Overlay stamp set. The background was cut with a Stacked Tags die and layered over trimmed red card (stash) and gold Metallic Kraft Stock.

I keep a stash of the little dyed crinkle ribbons that have come off the little packages that come in Linda's orders, and I chose a few lighter colored ones and dyed them further with inks and alcohol inks that coordinated with the rest of the tag. 

The last detail to add is the silver colored metal word tag that says Christmas. I found this single tag in my stash, but had to alter it to work it into my color scheme. I used Picket Fence and Tarnished Brass Distress paints and some gold foil and attached it to the ribbon with a loop pin.

That's my take on the 'Celebrate' challenge! Remember there's more inspiration by the team on the blog--be sure to have a look. Then it's over to you! We would love to see your happy, bright colors on your vintage or shabby chic projects, so be sure to link them up here. I can't wait to see what you create! Happy crafting! Sara Emily

Challenge Shares:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Remembrance/Thinking Of You (at Christmas)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Thinking Of You (at Christmas)

Country View Challenges November 2020 - Anything But A Card

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Sizzix Chapter 3 Thinlits Dies - Elegant Poinsettia 

Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Yupo Paper, White

Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 7pk - Stacked Tags by Tim Holtz

Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Die Set - Christmas Ribbon

Sizzix Chapter 1 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Alphanumeric Tiny Type Upper

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Festive Overlay

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks - Watermelon, Citrus, Botanical, Poppyfield

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Pearls - Alchemy, Deception, Sublime

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Blending Solution

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink Mini Applicator Tool

Tim Holtz Idea-ology 8 x 8 Metallic Kraft Stock

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads - Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn, Candied Apple, Cracked Pistachio, Fossilized Amber, Black Soot Archival

Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Picket Fence, Tarnished Brass

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray - Peeled Paint

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Ranger Embossing Powder - Gold - Super Fine Detail

Artificial Flower Pearlized Stamen

Pack of Perfect Pins - 3/4" Mini Safety Pins

Rayon Seam Binding

Home is Where I Am

Hello and welcome! Today  starts a new challenge at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog and Jenny is hosting 'Home is Where the Heart Is'. Here's how she describes her challenge theme:

 "What does 'home' mean to you? Maybe it's a place of safety, somewhere you live with family or friends, or a place that holds treasured memories. It may be somewhere you can be yourself or a place from where you can grow and thrive. Whatever 'home' means to you create a project of your choice that represents it."

As always, the winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team. Please see the blog for details. While you are there, be sure to check out all the amazing inspiration by my talented teammates.

Home means a lot of different things to me, but mostly I would say home is where I am. It's been different places throughout my life, and I've decided to represent different stages of my life on some wood block house ornaments. I'll start with a photo of the original blocks as I found them at a yard sale followed by closeups of each of the ornaments. Finally, I'll take you through the steps on how these came together. There were lots of steps and lots of photos, so grab a good drink and snack. This will be another long post.

These were hand crafted by a nice old man who seems to have better woodcrafting, than spelling, skills. He insisted the blocks spelled out HOME, while I smiled, handed him my dollar bill, and nodded my agreement. Uh huh. LOL

Let's start with the farmhouse that I called my full time home for my first eleven years and then a few more years on visits. That's me, in pink, with my oldest brother just around the corner. You can see this is the only home with snow, because we lived up north. I've lived in more southern areas in the other stages of my life depicted on the remaining three blocks. We're lucky if we get a little dusting every other year. but we always get a good frost on the roof. 

Some of my fondest and clearest memories of living in this home are the snowy winters, building great igloos and snow forts out of the massive snowdrifts formed after the snowplow had been through a time or two. Winter was a time of fun for us kids, while the more temperate months on our dairy farm were spent working in the fields and gardens--not so memorable. Although building tunnels out of hay bales in the hay barn was pretty amazing! But that was after the hard work of bringing in the hay was done.

My other two brothers, one older than me, and one younger pose around back. I selected the trading stamps from the Christmas ephemera pack, because I do remember pasting those stamps into a book when I was a kid--such fun!

 

Here's my two sisters, both older than me. I still remember a plaid dress similar to these, in green, handed down from sister to sister to sister. Even though there's a 25 on the ephemera, there's no other mention of Christmas on this one, since we did not celebrate Christmas when I was a kid. Sad, yes, but I make up for it now; throughout the year in fact, as I have a small vintage Santa collection I keep out year round.

 I chose this block with the big chimney, as one of the highlights of my childhood is the fire that started from the wood stove in the kitchen, one of two wood stoves which heated the house. My mom didn't live with us then, and my dad was in Europe visiting family. My oldest brothers and sisters had to grow up fast and managed to keep everyone safe and the house standing.

I skip ahead to when I was an adult, living on my own. After a series of other homes, this one was an important one to me, as it was my first home I saved up to purchase on my own. No more crazy roommates or rentals for this girl!

The younger version of myself looks ahead to see what's around the corner. It's 'good will to men' (and women and kids), as a I continue to work on my career as an LPTA helping others rehabilitate after neurological accidents like strokes, spinal cord injuries, and brain/head injuries. What a rewarding career that makes you thankful for your own health.

Here's my current 'home' status: Married with two kids. My kids are grown now, but back under the family roof once again, thanks to all the craziness going on with the pandemic. Nothing says 'home' like arguing over who ate the last of the frozen waffles, the extra clutter of three households now under one roof, or (on the good side) the family dinners we share or the occasional board game marathons we have. 

Around the side I chose the horizontal 'Christmas' from the Collage Wrap, as seen in the final photo below.

Next I take a glimpse into the future, when my husband and I might someday be empty nesters. I visualize a smaller home, and perhaps the kiddos will have families of their own, leaving us to celebrate most of Christmas on our own. Perhaps we might get a letter or card from them (See the letter and stamp ephemera?) and a quick visit, special delivery. 

Now let's take a look at how these little wood homes were made. They really are quite simple with the help of Tim Holtz Holly Ideaology Collage Wrap, a handful of mixed media supplies and very few details. I'm very fond of tiny things, and I was lucky to have enough of the smallest Paper Dolls from last year's Christmas pack to tell my 'home' story on these little blocks of wood. I was a little saddened to see this year's pack didn't cater to my specific wants. (Tim?) On the up side, there's a whole new wonderful cast of characters! I've linked to the new Christmas Paper Dolls below.

I start by applying Dina Wakley's White Gesso over the sides and bottom of each 'house'. The roofs are painted right over the existing color with Distress Paints: Barn Door, Fired Brick and a dry brushing of Black Soot on the red roofs and Black Soot and Hickory Smoke on the other two.

 I painted the reverse side of a couple of lengths of the collage paper, after determining what portions I wanted to show on my houses. I set that aside to dry while I continued to work on the blocks themselves. Some of the photos may seem a little out of sequence (or as you'll see later on--non-existant). I am constantly working on one part while allowing another part to dry, and lots of other business happens around the house between steps, so photos get forgotten, but I believe I can walk you through  the process.

I stroke on one more light coat of Fired Brick paint on the red roofs and sprinkle with Fired Brick Embossing Glaze powder. I dry with my heat tool to melt the powder. You'll notice I also painted the chimney with Black Soot paint at some point. After the roofs are fully cooled, I scuff with steel wool; I want texture but not shine. 

I repeat this process with the darkest roof with Black Soot paint and Walnut Stain Embossing Glaze powder.  I think I used the Embossing Dabber and Walnut Stain Embossing Glaze on the snowy roof. At various points in my process, I smeared on some Distress Grit Paste sprinkled with Distress Glitter to make the snow on the farmhouse roof and in drifts around the base. ( All of these process photos apparently were deleted or not taken--apologies.)

Each of the houses is wrapped in bits of the prepared Collage Wrap, making sure the desired images were in place. I do this by applying collage medium to the block, laying the desired portion of collage wrap over the wet medium and burnishing with my finger, not being particular about any wrinkles. Once the adhesive dries, I trim with scissors then lightly sand the edges to remove excess paper. 

I smeared on Distress Crackle paste randomly on each house and allowed to dry. I later decided to apply some stencil work, using the festive repeat stencil from Mini Stencil set 21 and Candied Apple ink. In hindsight, I should have used archival ink, so my final layer of collage medium wouldn't smear the ink. But I embraced the imperfection...

I decided to break from the red pattern and switched instead to brown for my non-Christmas homestead. Red would be too Christmas-y a color for this home.

After the wrap and crackle was in place and dried, I coated each of the houses with Vintage Collage Medium. When that dried, I smeared with Walnut Stain Crayon to accentuate the cracks. (not pictured) As predicted, the ink smeared under the collage medium, but I decided it lended a vintage quality to these already vintage houses, which I love. You might notice I chipped off the snow on the farm house when it got dirty from my stencil work and replaced it with some new. One thing we did not have on the farm was dirty snow!

At this point, I decided I wanted to 'frost' the three remaining roofs, so I swiped them with the Embossing Dabber randomly and sprinkled with Ranger Sticky Embossing Powder. This powder is heated just until melted and then immediately sprinkled with  Clear Rock Candy Distress Glitter. Heat it once again to 'lock in' the glitter. Above you can see what the sticky powder looks like before it's heated.

Here's the drone shot of each of the houses. Brrr! It looks cold from this view!

I chose a scrap of green ink mop up paper from my stash and add to it inks (Iced Spruce, Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide Spray splatters. I used one of the tiny dies from the Sizzix Foliage Wrap set to cut little pine boughs to tuck in behind my paper dolls. Each of the die cuts is then dipped front and back into puddles of watery Pine Needles ink and dried with a heat tool before adhering.

I altered a pair of bow adornments from the Ideaology Ribbon and Bows set, first by brushing with collage medium and then covering with Fired Brick Embossing Glaze Powder. I heat to melt, and when completely cooled, I smudge with a bit of  Prima Metallique Wax. These are adhered to the ends of two of the houses with collage medium.

All of the Paper Dolls are colored with Distress Embossing Glazes: Fired Brick, Tattered Rose, Cracked Pistachio and Speckled Egg were used. I use the embossing pen to apply the ink in one desired area and sprinkle with one color at a time, heating each color before moving onto another area. When they are all cooled, I buff with steel wool. All ephemera and paper doll edges are blended with Frayed Burlap ink.

As you can see from my little ornaments, home will always be where I am. I'm looking forward to seeing how you interpret what home means to you when you enter our challenge! Happy crafting! Hugs! Sara Emily

 Challenge shares:

Bleeding Art October Challenge

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Layer It Up

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Paper, Holly

Sizzix Chapter 3 Thinlits Dies - Foliage Wrap

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls Christmas

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Christmas

 Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Snippets Christmas

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments Ribbon & Bows

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint - White Gesso

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Glaze - Tattered Rose, Fired Brick, Cracked Pistachio, Speckled Egg, Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Dabber

Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Pen 2pk

Ranger Sticky Embossing Powder

Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads - Candied Apple, Evergreen Bough, frayed Burlap, Iced Spruce, Mowed Lawn, Pine Needles

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress CrayonsWalnut Stain

Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Barn Door, Black Soot, Fired Brick, Hickory Smoke

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray - Frayed Burlap

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste, Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste 3oz Opaque

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Vintage

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabar - Metallique Wax - Vintage Gold

Altered Bird House Tutorial

Hello ! As promised, today I have a step by step tutorial for my bird house which is my DT project for the current challenge " Birds" at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog. You can see why I couldn't include the steps in my DT post; this is such a long post by itself. Let's start with the original birdhouse...

It's demo day! I always love this part of these rehab projects because that's when the ideas start flowing. After removing all the bark, nails, most of the glue and a piece of gingham fabric (What??), I ended up with what looks like a band stand. Band stands make for spooky places, and I made another here.

***

I gave it a new rusty, mossy roof. I smeared streaks of Translucent Grit paste down from the top and sprinkled with Chunky Rust powder with a bit of verdigris sprinkled here and there. When it was about dry I hit it with my heat tool to melt the powders and bubble up the paste a bit. The hanger is painted with Black Soot paint. I smeared on thicker blobs of Grit Paste and allowed it to dry. I scribbled the dried paste with Peeled Paint crayon (lost the crayon in the photo when I did the photo collage) and smudged it with my finger. Lastly, I dripped on alcohol inks in Mushroom and Rust and spritzed with water, drying with my heat tool when I was happy with the way it dribbled and ran.

***

Next, time to work on the wood work. I had a vision of a burnt out charred house that has sat empty for years. I painted the wood with black gesso, right over the old glue and bits I couldn't remove. Grungy is good. To add more grunge and icky texture, I smeared the beams, ceiling and floor randomly with grit paste and let it dry. When it was thoroughly dry, I sprayed with Weathered Wood Oxide spray and dried it with my heat tool. Next, I added random patches of Crackle Paste and let that dry. Once more, I heated with the heat tool to make sure it was good and dry, and then smeared all the texture with Distress crayons in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint.

 I added some dead and diseased rambling roses climbing up the walls by wrapping black string around the beams and securing with collage medium. I also adhered some thorns to the vines (Funky Wreaths) cut from black card.

I elevated the house on a base made from chipboard pieces glued together and painted with more black gesso.I adhered this piece to the bottom of the birdhouse. I die cut and embossed silver Metallic Kraft Stock scraps with the Star Trim Impresslit. I painted on Black Soot paint, sprayed with water and dripped on Mushroom alcohol ink. These pieces were adhered to the edge of the chipboard circular piece.

 I felt like it needed something else, and I found an unfinished wood square plaque in my stash, which I also painted with black gesso, then wrapped with Halloween Design Tape at the very bottom. I coated that with collage medium and when dry, scribbled with Ground Espresso crayon and smudged with my finger. I adhered some fence die cuts from my stash across the back.

I used Brickwork 3D Texture Fade and black paper coated with Distress Collage medium and cut out a section for my brick walkway.  I colored the bricks with Fired Brick and Crushed Olive crayons and adhered the piece to the square base prior to adding the birdhouse and creating the garden.

***

I cut a pair of gates using the Gate Keeper dies and old Tim Holtz paper stash glued together, so front and back would look similar. This also makes the intricate dies more substantial and stiff. It helps to use the Chrome Precision Plate to cut these out. Because of the thickness of the papers glued together, I ran it through 3 times to get a nice clean cut. After applying Translucent Girt paste to the gates and allowing it to dry, I scribbled with Rusty Hinge crayon and smeared with my finger. These pieces were added to the two beams at the opening.

***

Now that the house is constructed it's time to add the embellishments.

I cut two panels of mixed media card and spray both with water. I spray one with Distress Spray Stains: 

Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso, spritzing with water to blend further, tilting my paper and allowing to drip onto my craft mat. I use the second panel to blot up the extra stain. When the panels are dry, I spray randomly with Frayed Burlap Oxide spray, activating with water spritzes and drying again. I blot up the extra with the second panel. I repeat on the opposite side of the panels, so there is color on both sides.

I use the darker of the panels to cut three of the thorny Funky Nests and some of the other die set's  accompanying twigs. I cut thin strips from the lighter mop up panel. The strips are spritzed with water, crumpled in my hand and set aside to dry. I cut sections from two of the wreaths and glue the ends to make nests of different sizes, and assembled everything over the crumpled strips within the birdhouse.

I placed some bones (Boneyard) and a skull (Skulls and Pumpkins) in the nest. I did nothing to the skull, but added Black Soot and Ground Espresso paint to the bones.

Next, I cut the spider and web (Spider Web) from clear waste packaging, and a second spider from black card (the spiders were cut off the photo when I made the collage, sorry.) Using a felt applicator I colored the spider and web with Mushroom alcohol ink. I applied Snow Cap Mixative to the reverse side of the spider, as shown above. These were glued into the bird house with collage medium. Because the medium dries clear, the web look like it's been put there by the spider. I applied Translucent Grit Paste and Antique Linen crayon to the black spider, and he's hanging in the eaves out back.

I used the larger of Feathered Friends dies to cut a raven out of chipboard recycled out of my cat's canned food box. I cut two of everything and glued them together, so there would be more substance to them. After drying some throw pillows in my dryer the other day, I found some feathers in my lint filter and glued these around the wings. Everything was painted with Prima's Impasto in Pitch Black. This paint is super thick, and you can achieve some great texture. I sealed with Distress Collage Medium Matte to set down a surface over which to scribble and smear Brushed Pewter Distress crayon, highlighting that texture (not pictured). I finished off the raven with a black half pearl for his eye (also not pictured).

I made a little prop to hold the bird up with a piece of waste packaging. After cutting a rectangle of it, I used my scissors and straight edge to score (but not cutting through) two horizontal lines, and then folded the clear plastic at the lines. I used collage medium to secure the bird to the house. Be sure to leave it sit until the glue dries, and it will hold like cement! (I used collage medium for all the gluing, including securing the birdhouse to the base.) You can see the prop clearly in the photo below.

***

I colored an old Halloween Token with Antiqued Bronze and Black Soot paint. I found a die cut dot laying around and used that to cover the hole and adhered this at the entrance. Three Pumpkins of different sizes and a sparkly foam pumpkin from my stash were each smeared with Crackle Paste and when dry, coated with collage medium. I scribbled and smeared crayon in Ground Espresso and Peeled Paint and layered them up at the doorway and placed a single one by the raven's feet.

***

I sprayed a panel of olive card with Ground Espresso Spray Stain on one side and dried. From this panel, I cut some foliage using Garden Greens and Funky Floral #3 die sets. I colored a piece of Mummy Cloth with Bundled Sage Spray Stain and Peeled Paint Oxide Spray. These were adhered in the garden and in and around the pumpkins.

More vines hanging off the front of the house come from my stash left over from this very creepy project combined with  more die cut twigs cut with the Funky Wreaths set. I sure have toned down since then!

So here is the completed bird house. If you haven't seen my original post with all the close up shots of the details, you can pop over here to see it. Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week! Sara Emily

These products were used on this project and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

 Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Spider Web

Chapter 3 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Gatekeeper

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Feathered Friends

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz Thinlits Dies - Funky Wreaths

Sizzix Chapter 2 Tim Holtz 3-D Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Brickwork

Sizzix Tim Holtz 3-D Impresslits Embossing Folder - Star Trim

Tim Holtz Distress Grit Paste Translucent

Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste Crackle

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Mini Skulls & Pumpkins

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Design Tape, Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tokens - Halloween

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Boneyard

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray  - Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Peeled Paint

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain    - Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Bundled Sage, Ground Espresso

Tim Holtz Distress Paint   - Black Soot, Ground Espresso, Weathered Wood, Antiqued Bronze

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons  - Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive, Antique Linen, Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge, Brushed Pewter, Ground Espresso

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink  - Snow Cap Mixative, Mushroom, Rust

Prima Art Alchemy Impasto Paint    - Pitch Black

Seth Apter Baked Texture   - Chunky Rust