The Great Stump Cake Impersonator

Hi!  Welcome back to a new Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge! The extremely talented Sara Emily is the host and she is challenging us to a Repeat Performance!

Here is how she describes the challenge:

"A popular New Year's resolution is to save money. I challenge you to save money (and the environment) by using at least one thing you would normally throw out on your vintage or shabby chic project. Please be sure to let us know what that one (or more) item is."

I started playing with some old ledger paper intending to make a card.... And then I thought about all the toilet paper rolls that I re-cycle and how could I use them?

 and then inspiration really hit and I decided to make a faux stump log cake.  Is this a double impersonation?  I don't know, but I think you are really going to enjoy how I up-cycled a variety of things!

 I thought about what to do with them if I cut them up and the idea of making a faux bark on a stump.  I watch a variety of cooking shows including the baking championships.  They have made these beautiful stump log cakes with the shaved chocolate for bark. 

I spent a little time thinking about what I would use in my project that was going to be re-cycled. I started with this little gathering of goodies.

 Then I went to work on my cake base (Stump).

I first gessoed the surface.  Then decided that I was going to use the kraft paper that The Funkie Junkie Boutique uses to send your order. 

The paper got a spritzing of antique linen and ground espresso.  I finished it off with some stamping of letters using black ink. 

I used another strip (inked and stamped) to wrap around the bottom half of the container. 

Then onto the bark....

First step fold the tp rolls in half and cut them up into pieces.

 

First I gessoed the bark and tried to spray it with distress stain spray.  It didn't take and it looked terrible.  Next I painted it with a dark brown color.  It didn't cover and I wanted texture. 

I pulled out embossing paste and mixed in some ground espresso re-inker.  It got a lovely shade of light brown.  It wasn't dark enough.... I added some ground espresso paint.  It got a little bit darker but I wanted it really dark.  I pulled out some black soot distress ink spray and poured some of that in and mixed it all together. 

Now I was ready to go to town... I pulled out the wood grain stencil and laid out all my pieces.  I spread the brownish black embossing paste over the stencil onto my brown pieces. 

After I pulled up the stencil I would look at the piece and if I didn't like how the imprint I would smear it with the palette knife.  It gave me a lovely mix of bark with different textures and patterns.

Then I had to create a base from my leftover white cardboard piece.  I decided to smear the surface with a distress oxide ink and sponge it all over.  I chose a green ink to give it a nice base color.  Then I took a mix of design tapes and randomly ran strips along the cardboard. I repeated until the entire surface was covered.  I then used a brown distress ink to sponge over the surface and edges to soften the tape prints. 

The stump base was  hot glued to the design tape background.  I purposely off-set it to the right.

 

I ran tape around the top and the bottom of the container to hold my bottom layer of bark in place.  I had to trim the top of my bark and paint the backside as they would show some color.  I created jagged edges with my scissors.  I then layered them onto the base and  used pop dots on every other to create some depth. 

 

 Here is the other angle to show you the tape and how they were attached.  

The mushrooms were my favorite and came to me while laying in bed.  I wanted to use more things that were destined to go in the trash or re-cycler.  I remembered that one of our kitchen wipes was getting warn out and needed to be thrown out and that the dogs had pulled the stuffing out of another toy and that needed to be tossed.  

While we watched television, my daughter and I whipped up a mini batch of mushrooms.  I cut a square or rectangle from the old wipe.  Took a tiny bit of stuffing, placed it in the center and then wrapped the bottom until it was all bound together.

After that the mushrooms were:  Painted with gesso. Sprayed on the bottom and underside with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide spray.  Then dipped head first into a pool of Aged Mahogany Distress Stain Spray.  Then I heat set the colors and re-dipped the tops if they weren't dark enough. 

I wanted them to be glossy so I dipped the heads into frosted embossing powder and heat set them. I repeated that multiple times. 

I decided my bark and board needed some lightening up and flicked white acrylic paint over everything.    I used the excess splatter to dip my mushrooms in and add spots to the tops. 

Before I put the mushrooms on my project I cut the ends off to give them a level bottom and to let them have varying heights. 

Here is the full picture of my end project.  I have to say I am in love with the final result:

The moss was something I had on hand and was a great way to cover any hot glue extras. The sign a remnant of my bark which was stamped and embossed with ivory embossing powder.

One last view from above.  I hope you enjoyed all the various re-cycled bits in my forest vignette. I enjoyed making it! 

Come play along and show us how to use up your trash/re-cycling!  The winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date at The Funkie Junkie Boutique 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.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Products:
Idea-Ology Design Tape Salvaged,  French Design
Idea-Ology Game Spinners
Ranger Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Wood Grain
Stampers Anonymous - Etcetera
Stampers Anonymous - Natures Wonder
Stampers Anonymous - Architecture
Stampers Anonymous - Entomology
Sizzix Flutter Dies 
Sizzix Funky Foliage
Sizzix Holiday Greens 
Ranger Distress Oxide Sprays - Fossilized Amber 
Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Ground Espresso, Abandoned Coral, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Black Soot, Aged Mahogany
Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black 
Versamark Watermark Ink
Ranger Distress Ink -  Ground Espresso
Dina Wakely - White Gesso
Dylusions Paint White Linen Acrylic Paint
Ranger Ground Espresso Paint
Hot Glue
Moss
Ivory Embossing Powder