I made the Design Team on a rad Craft challenge blog and other Hot Air Balloons…..

Can you see that twinkle in my eyes????

I am so super excited. 

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

I have been asked to join the Design Team for Our Creative Corner. 

Our Creative Corner is a design and craft challenge blog where your creative expression is unlimited in terms of what you create.  Readers are invited to take  inspiration from the creative process of an Internationally diverse (Canadian, Slovenian, French, South African ~me~, English and American) design team. Each Month, a challenge theme is hosted by one of the design team and readers are then invited to contribute their own interpretation or inspirations. 

From the Readers creative contributions, the best creative entry as well as 3 Top mentions will be chosen and will be gifted with some awesome crafty supplies from fantastic sponsors.  There is also a random draw where a random creator can win some more stuff.  There are sponsor spotlights – where the design team has a go at showcasing some of the cool products from our sponsors – and even then – readers are invited to contribute their creative interpretations and a randomly drawn winner will receive some prize goodies from that sponsor.  The Calendar for each month is as follows:

OUR CREATIVE CORNER CALENDAR

1st - Challenge issued
4th - Sponsor Spotlight
8th - Winner announced
11th - Surprise Guest Designer
18th - Sponsor Spotlight
22nd - Top Talent
25th - Sponsor Spotlight

Its all so exciting! I am so darn well stoked to have been asked to be on this amazing design team.

To celebrate my induction into the OCC fold – I decided to do an upcycle project.

(THIS CRAFT CHALLENGE BLOG JUST LETS YOU GO WILD IN YOUR CREATIVITY)

I like hangy things – and I have a thing for Hot Air Balloons.  I think they are perfectly whimsical.  So I decided to update the mobile efforts in my home and made some Hot Air Balloons from old lightbulbs, Christmas Tree Baubles, string, pegs and paint and ink.

Super cute huh?

Here is a very simple tutorial on how you can do that too!

You need this:

HOW TO:

• I used Distress Paint to paint the big baubles in the accent colours that would match the colour palette I have going in my lounge.  I used Dala Glass Glaze (but I think you could use Ranger alcohol ink as well), to stain the light bulbs.  I didnt bother hollowing them out because I wanted the fitting on the end so that I could make that into a basket.  Leave that to dry thoroughly.
• While that is drying you can start to work on making the easy-peasy macrame string wrap.  This is easier than it looks.
• You are going to to need 4 to 6 pieces of equal length string. When the string is folded in half or doubled, it should be long enough to be twice the length of your “balloon” .  If you plan on attaching the basket of the balloon to the same string wrap, make it a little longer.
• Get a small loop or ring of something. Thread each piece of string through the loop or ring so that it doubles over on itself and the tie it off with a love-knot.  For the purpose of showing you what I mean – I am using a curtain ring and red cord, but for my project, I used a beading jump ring and cotton string (or twine)
  
• The next step is to join the adjacent tails of each set in a knot so that it makes a diamond shape – so it should go like this
• First row:

• The second row is done by joining the original set of strings back together. So A1 + A2,  B1+B2, C1+C2,  D1+D2,  E1+E2,  F1+F2 must all join back up together so that you have a another concentric row of diamonds. 

• And for third, fourth, fifth, sixth, however many concentric rows – you just alternate between joining the adjacent strings (ie - A2+B1, B2+C1, C2+D1, D2+E1, E2+F1, F1+A1) and then bringing the string set siblings back together again for the next concentric row (ie - A1 + A2, B1+B2, C1+C2, D1+D2, E1+E2, F1+F2 ).  That really is how easy it is to make the string wrap.

• Slide the String Wrap over the bauble or the Lightbulb and wiggle it around until its nice and centred and snug.

• To make the basket, for the big Baubles, cut a small piece of toilet paper inner tube down to size.  Take apart about 6 pegs so that you have 12 pieces of peg legs.  Glue those on to the inner tube.  To make it stay fast – you can secure it with a rubber band – like this:

• Attach the “basket” to the String wrapped Balloon.  My mom and dad came over for a visit and I got them to be props for me to show you this.

 

• If you want to you can use a dye-spray to add a little more colouring and distressing to the whole balloon like I did.  But they look just as cute uncoloured I think.  For the lightbulbs – I just wrapped jute cord around the base of the lightbulb and added some beads for interest.

• Final Product Drying:

So there you go – be sure to go on over to Our Creative Corner and  check out the amazing projects the other Design Team members have come up up with leave a comment here or there if you liked this tutorial. 

See you soon

Tincan (Candice) Crafter

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 – June Edition

Would you believe it – I even managed to get my June tag ready before halfway through the month? 
Ever since I bought a series of Tim Holtz stencils, I have become very attached to them.  I was particularly excited to get started on this tag because it was  about cool stencil effects.  And since I now own a stack of these (Yes they finally arrived in my little dorpie in South Africa), I take every chance I get to bust them out and make up for the long lost time that I had to do without them. The technique this month was deliciously simple but a fabulous watercoloury stencil effect. 

In my last post – I showed you a background I did for the “Follow Your Heart” tag.  What I did was lightly mist the cardstock with water and only ink up the stencil, then I pressed the stencil down onto the wet cardstock.  I like this batik look and I do like the way the die pools up in certain places.

The technique Tim demonstrates for the stencil background of his June tag is very similar – except that he inks and mists the stencil and doesnt print on damp cardstock.  His method is so much more vibrant and gives a really lovely blended coverage.  See his tag here:
  
One of the personal goals I set for  myself every month for this particular tag-share is to reinterpret the elements and theme such that it does preserve the technique and theme of the tag while challenging me to be more creative with my style.  I think its fun or like a really cool game to create something within certain boundaries but with the freedom to superimpose my brand of creative urging.
I am going to share a mini step-by-step of how I made this tag which I turned into a card topper.  I am going to try and show exactly what elements I kept and re-interpreted.

Well there it is then – I kinda had fun doing the pic-torials with the arrows and the text as well.  Until later!

Everything is coming up roses

 

I have had really good intentions to enter Linda Ledbetter’s Compendium of Curiosities 3 challenge.  I just never managed to find the time to sit down and make something.  However – when I saw Challenge 3 – I knew that I had to do this one atleast.  If you dont know about the challenge, here’s a little link to the rules of  engagement http://lindaledbetter.com/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-faq 

The current challenge is to use the faux tea-rose technique on page 65 of Volume 3 of Tim Holtz’ Compendium of Curiosities.  I had loads of those left over when I did the April Tag for the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2014 challenge and I have been dying to try out an idea I have had in my head for a while. 

I saw these metallic drinking straws on Amazon and in my head, I saw metal pipes. I wanted to make an industrial type looking thing with pipes and gears and taps (faucets)  When I saw what the CC3 challenge was about this time – I immediately had a vision of a rose pipe-line.  And the idea gave birth to this piece above.  I love how it turned out – I really want to explore the pipe-potential in different configurations now.

To make the pipes – I just took ordinary drinking straws and painted them with distress paint and then I cut them to the sizes that I wanted. The faux tea-roses ofcourse are cut with the die mentioned in the book.  A cool thing I have been doing recently is cutting off the last few petals on the spiral – that gives me control over the size of the roses.  

The background is just a piece of cereal box board that I painted with gesso and then distress paint and the goldleafed a little.  I accidentally discovered a DIY way to make goldleafing – will write a post on that sometime soon.  I drew the black- lines in real hard to create the effect indentation with the aim of making it look like shingled planks.  I know this challenge is really about the faux tea-roses but all I am obsessing about right now are those cool pipes – the industrial/grunge/steampunk loving crafters will understand that.  I am going to have to make many more pipe-lines in the future just to get it out of my system. I think I am going to pipe-out my tag entry for  the 2014 12 Tags May Tim Holtz challenge as well.

Distress Paint: Alchemy – turning cardstock into Vintage Gold

I have been busy in my apothecary creating a fast and dirty formula to create a vintage forged gold effect.  I am going to share that with you today.

Now you can watch me perform alchemy in the lightning speed video below,  however in solidarity with my people (since South Africans generally are inflicted with the curse of slow, expensive, data-capped internet) – I am also going to share my magical formula in the step by step picture tutorial underneath it.

(edited to add – something went wrong when I tried saving the video – it is cutting all the video frames in half – don't know why – you’re stuck with the pic tutorial then! 
2nd Edit - apparently this is a bug well common to Movie Maker 2.6 devotees like myself who try to run it on newer Operating Systems - boo - I think I have lost my favourite editing tool but more importantly I am going to have to reshoot this whole video)

STEP ONE

Cut out your pieces – I have used the Tim Holtz Alterations Clock Key and Pocket Watch die and a circle die from Spellbinders to cut out the window face with the intention of turning it into a pocket locket. 

 

STEP TWO

Create the background Patina by covering the whole die-cut with an opaque coat of Black Soot Distress Paint (DP – from now on) – this is very important in crating that vintage feel - so don't skip it. 

STEP THREE

Choose the embossing folder pattern - I like to use something with a highly detailed pattern as it gives me more texture, and more texture makes the piece look more vintagey. So I chose the Sizzix Alterations Damask Folder.  Run it through your Embosser.

 

STEP FOUR

Dab a glob of Tarnished Brass DP on your work surface or craft sheet and using the blending tool with the the foam applicator, gently begin burnish the embossed bits.  The trick here is to apply very light pressure in a staccato or brisk up and down motion.  Keep building up layers .  I prefer to highlight the embossed bits heavily in the Tarnished Brass DP but leave the debossed bits, slightly less covered in paint so some of the Black soot shows through.  This is what is going to achieve the vintage patina effect.

  

STEP FIVE

The next step is optional.  To create the gleaming glint of vintage gold – over the Tarnished Brass DP rub on some Gilder’s Paste or Perfect Pearls. This has a two-fold effect – it blends and evens out the sponged on paint and the gold particles settle into the debossed areas such that it matts everything out but at the same time adds more gleam to the “precious metal”

 

STEP SIX

To finish it off or seal it – there are three things that you could do.

You can coat in Ranger’s Glossy Accents – this looks super shiny and slick.

Or you can heat emboss it with CLEAR embossing powder. Don't use gold embossing powder because you will lose all the cool dry embossed detail.

Or you might just want to take the fast and dirty way out and either spray clear lacquer varnish or paint high-gloss varnish onto it.  Which is what I did for the pocket locket – The heat gun was a little too fiddly for me and I didn't want to leave my chair – and that is the primary reason why I chose this method over the other.

And there you have it – You’ll be turning pieces of paper into gold in no time at all.

A few other details about this project – the stamp is from a South African company called Heritage Stamps, though I have to admit that I did tweak her eyelashes and put on more eyeliner for her..  I stamped on Ranger’s Specialty Stamping paper and I coloured the image with Ranger Distress Markers.  To create the vintage glass feel – I gave the face window a generous coat of Glossy Accents.  Once that dried – I decided it would look cooler with deep cracks in the glass, so I overcoated that with crackle accents.

I still haven't decided what I am going to do with my paper gold pocket locket.  Maybe I could swing it off of the top of a tag and turn it into a bookmark.

In the end after all the tweaks this is what it turned out like.

  

12 Tags of 2013 – July Tag – 67 minutes

  I didn’t think I was going to enter the challenge this month.   I was really stuck for inspiration – we don’t celebrate the 4th of July (being South African and all) and I have been saving all my tags with the intention of eventually installing them onto a collage of sorts to hang on my bedroom wall.  So I reckoned a “ US Independence Day/freedom” type tag would be a little lame and weird if its going to hang on the wall of this  “makhoti”  in Kwazulu right?  

Anyway I went about my business, messing around with all kinds of other projects, but I think if I don’t do something Holtzy I get a bit anxious and fidgety.  I swear I think I’m Holtz junkie. 

So then the 13th of July rolled around which is my birthday and I got a sweet horde of Holtz-aphenalia….which I generously gave myself as a birthday present,everybody should save up all year to do one big bank-busting Tim Holtz buy for their birthdays right?  In addition to that – I received an order from Inspiration Emporium.  And you know how that goes – once you get your stash, it takes an extreme amount of self-control and pleasure delaying to stop yourself from wanting to play with your goodies….


Inspite of the haul and the intense desire to cut, copy the July theme, and paste ideology charms and adornments I was still stuck for an idea that would fit somewhat with the theme. 

Then the 18th rolled around which in my country is celebrated as Mandela Day as it is his birthday.  This year he turned 95.  The celebrations were less pomp and festive than usual as he currently lays gravely ill in hospital.  As we collectively held our breath for news of his wellbeing, an idea started forming in my head.  Yes we don’t celebrate American Independence Day but we do have a new and very worthy July tradition  - the 67 MINUTES tradition.  The concept of 67 MINUTES is a pay-it-forward sort of deal.  

In recognition and honour of the 67 years that Nelson Mandela (known affectionately in my country as Tata or by his clan name Madiba) selflessly served in the aim of greater good, we give 67 minutes of our own time to do something good, charitable, courageous or gracious.  Madiba being such a genuine example of humility, benevolence and grace – asks that the day be marked not by some kind of reverent worship or adoration of him, but instead be marked by your own 67 minutes of good deeds on this day.  I think this is an awesome way to honour a man that I have utmost respect and gratitude for.  And that is what jump-started my idea for the July entry into 12 Tags of 2013 challenge.

The concept was “freedom” in a sense.  The idea is that doing something good frees your soul.  I also wanted to share the idea of the 67 minutes challenge.  One of the other great gifts I received this yeas for my birthday (from someone else this time) was a copy of a book called “The Secret”.  The ideas contained in this book speaks to the power you have within you to attract that which you desire if you are in alignment with the Universe (It is lot less hocus-pocus-chant-Aum-gaze-into-my-crystal-ball-New-Age-magic-sparkle-unicorny than I am making it sound).  

The basic premise of the movement is that within the universe there exists a law of attraction – like attracts like.  It espouses that the Law of attraction enables you to call goodness into your life by just focussing on it, wanting it and envisioning it.  

If you persist in negative thought patterns, you by default invite negativity, if you dwell on positivity you by default attract positivity.  Your thoughts are your intentions.  You cannot change the outlook of others but you can change your outlook.  

I thought about what I most wanted in my life (I always thought it would be unlimited credit at Ranger)  but it turns out that what I want more than anything else is to love unreservedly, be good and be surrounded by love and goodness.  I want to challenge myself to spend at least 67 minutes of each week doing something constructive, positive and benevolent.  

The book offers a tip on how to bring this into conscious awareness and thereby into conscious manifestation by advising that that you should try putting visible reminders of what you want up where you can see them.  What better visible representation of what I want and hope to be than a pretty tag that reminds me of the 67 MINUTES challenge?

If you know my style at all – you will see that I have deviated from my usual style which is often dark, moody colours with jarring eye-poking contrast.  This month’s tag is a little lighter and softer – I worked a colour palette that I have never felt at home with before – a kind of sorbet,pastel palette.  This already might be the effect of the law of attraction in operation.  I am starting to feel lighter, my heart is starting to feel softer, less anxious and not so at odds with the world and I think it is starting to reflect in my every day life, including my choice of colour palette.

Back to the tag - as always – here’s a blow by blow photo show of my whole process – even though it is not as super detailed as I usually do it. 

Background
I brayered on Distress Stain – in various colours and then over that in the opposite direction I brayered on White Picket Fence Distress Stain, Loved how it it toned down the eye-pokey.  Following Tim’s instructions, I random stamped incomplete images all over to make a pretty collaged background.

I used a couple of Alterations dies for this tag – Fanciful Flight, Sewing Room and the leaves were from the Tattered Florals Strip die.  I crackle-painted and baked in the Walnut Distress Stain on the wings – loved that porcelain look.  I also put some glow in the dark paint on the outer wings – this is both cool and a little creepy when you turn the lights off. 

The flower on the bottom left is a tissue tape flower. I used a variety of different tissue tape on this tag.  

The quote comes from one of the Visual Artistry Clear Stamp sets.  I thought it was perfect – Madiba himself achieved the somewhat impossible by his dream of being more.  I stamped on Vellum, heat embossed and then used Distress Ink and Stain to colour the vellum.  I Distress Stained the little strips behind the sentiment.  Those cool strips are so awesome, they used to be a window blind, I cut it up, cos I am a rebel like that.

 

I attached the wings to the dress-form with brads, added the INSPIRE token – I kinda wanted it to look like a medal as if  your 67 minutes that you give frees your soul, you “win” by inspiring kindness in others as well.  



When I was little we got “stars” if we did something right or good, they represent the same concept – I crackle-painted and glossy accented those.  They were so tiny though, your fingers get a little crampy, and you get a headache from trying to get your aging eyes to focus so while the awesome grungy end might justify the physical trauma of method - I am going to have to admit that it took effort and supreme determination to stay committed to that effect. 

 

I ought really to go to bed now cos it is 3am and I have two classes to teach tomorrow.  I hope that you were inspired to act on your 67 MINUTES as well.  I love this quote by Marianne Williamson (often erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela’s Inaugral Address btw) – I am going to end this post with it.

"...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love -1992