Leap into the Odd

Hi!  I am back for The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge "Leap into the Odd"  which I am hosting. :)

I was very much inspired by the fact that we are having a leap year with that extra odd day in February.  Here is the challenge description:

"2020 is a leap  year which means we will have an additional day in February ending on an odd number of days.  The definition of odd is "different from what is usual or expected; strange."    My challenge to you is to create something odd or unusual.   Also you must tell us what is odd or unusual in your project when you share it with us!"

The odd or unusual idea that I wanted to achieve was to take Steampunk and make it SpringPunk. :)

I wanted to take the idea of the dark metal grunge and take it light and pink and feminine.

I started with a piece of cardboard which was cut to make a cover for a ringed binder.  I wanted to create my own sketch book.  I made the cover and now I can add the rings and the sheets cut to size to go inside.

I layered two pieces of the House of Roses paper on the front.  Painted with a smear of white gesso.  I sprayed the edges with some distress stain.

I then spent some serious time painting all the pieces with white gesso and layering with alternating pink and brown stain sprays mixed with water. 

I cut the butterfly and used embossing paste and a stencil to add texture.  After it dried I painted the textured butterfly with gesso and sprayed with the same mix of sprays.

I hope this thinking of what odd or unusual combinations you can create!  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:
Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz Die Tattered Butterfly
Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz Die Timekeeper
Stamperia House of Roses
Idea-Ology Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears 
Idea-Ology Tim Holtz Mini Gears 
Mini Gears Set 
Prima Say it With Crystals 
Snaps
Prima Art - White Gesso 
Ranger Distress Oxide Picked Raspberry
Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Ground Espresso 
Tim Holtz Buckle
Antique Silver Filigree Flower 
Idea-Ology Quote Chips 

Dream Big

Howdy!  I have been busy playing with the new Darkroom Door Dream Big sentiment strip. 

 

The Dream Big strip of sentiments are all focused on dreams and encouragement. 

I played around with inking up the strip with a light color and then coloring one of the sentiments with  a pop of color.  I then used a softer ink to stamp over and added a hint of color with a water color pencil.

I used it in a background repeating pattern:

I partnered it with some  pop outs of the sentiments to go with the pretty flowers from the new Warm Wishes set. 

I re-did my card from the previous post and shared the cloned version here:

 I finished with another set of flowers stamped over the repeated background.

I am sensing a theme here with all the flowers.  I am waiting not so patiently for the weather to change and spring to start!  :)


Thanks for Stopping by!

Suzz

Products:  (Linked to the Darkroom Door Store)
Darkroom Door Sentiment Strip - Dream Big
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Lots of Labels
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Buzzing Bees
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Bold Blossoms
Ranger Archival Inks - Plum, Watering Can, Leaf Green, Violet
Ranger - Wendy Vecchi Blendable Dye Ink - Watering Can, Leaf Green 

Saturday Showcase - House of Roses

Hi! Popping in to tell you I am hosting the Saturday Showcase on the Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge featuring the great Stamperia House of Roses papers.

Pop over to check it out!

Suzz

Lavender Inspired

Hi!  Happy Saturday!  I am back to share some new art using a new lavendar stencil from Darkroom Door.  

I started with using the stencil on a few different sheets of mixed media paper.  I was using the large stencil and it measures 9" x 12".  I like that it can be used on cards, tags, journal pages or scrapbook pages. 

Each stenciled background allowed me to create multiple tags and cards.  I cut out this tag first and then cut out the background for a card.  I had more background leftover but lost some due to experimentation. :)

For the background I did the following:

1. I laid the stencil down on the mixed media paper and sponged over with a mix of dye inks.  I then added water to soften the effect.   I heat set the main colors and used some extra ink to add the splatter over the background.

2.  After it dried I put the stencil back down and added an outline with a watercolor pencil.  I then used a waterbrush to soften the outline in places.
 

My card has a softer feel without the numbers and tags to add texture to the background.  I paired the lavender with the beautiful dragonflies and sentiment from the Wings stamp set. 

Then I used the stencil with a mix of dye inks and sponged a grey and red ink together to give a soft muted effect. 

I sponged the stencil on a larger sheet and cut the section I wanted for this card.  I used a new Quote Stamp which is lovely and stamped over in a slightly darker grey color.  

Thanks for stopping by and visiting me! 

Suzz 

Products: (Links to the Darkroom Door site) 

Darkroom Door Large Stencil - Lavender 

Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Wings

Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Lots of Labels 

Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Number Medley

Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Tick Tock 

Darkroom Door Quote Stamp - Be Brave 

Wendy Vecchi Blendable Dye Inks - Red Geranium, Watering Can, Poppy

Ranger Archival Ink - Watering Can, Sepia

Ranger Distress Stain Ink - Abandoned Coral, Ground Espresso 

Glitter

Vintage Valentine

Hi!  Welcome back!  Today I am sharing my project for the new challenge "Love is All Around Us" at the Funkie Junkie Boutique hosted by the fabulous Jenny! Here is how she describes the challenge:

" With Valentines Day approaching it's time to share a little love. Create something vintage or shabby chic featuring hearts. Here's a few ideas to get you started;" 

I love hearts on my art and this had me inspired looking for ways to create vintage hearts. 

 I started with a page out of an old ledger book.  It became a masterboard sheet that I cut up into hearts and my background.

I splattered, stamped and stenciled with white embossing pasted.  I added strips of design tape before I stenciled.  I let the embossing paste dry and then sponged over with a layer of gold ink.

I hand cut the hearts out with my scissors and sponged the edges. 

I made some gold roses using the Prima Marketing mould with gold embossing paste.  I let it set overnight and popped out the roses.

I also used newsprint to create a multi-layered heart.

I hand cut a series of hearts from newsprint with the largest being cardstock.  I died them all with distress inks and then embossed them with words and white embossing paste.  Then they were died again with inky goodness. 

I finished by stitching them together with a few cross stitches and a few buttons. 

I hope this has you inspired to get your hearts out and play along!  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:
Ranger Distress Ink Sprays - Antique Linen,  Ground Espresso
Ranger Distress Oxide Ink Spray - Picked Raspberry
Ranger Distress Ink - Ground Espresso, Antique Linen
Idea-Ology - Paper Dolls
Idea-Ology Metallic Quotation Stickers
Ranger Layering Stencils - Sparkle,  Valentine
Wendy Vecchi  Embossing Paste Gold, White
Wendy Vecchi NewsPrint 
Stampers Anonymous - Etcetera 
Prima Marketing Moulds
Delicata Gold Ink
Idea-Ology - Design Tape Salvage 
Sizzix Tim Holtz Chapter 2 Crochet

Summer Flowers

Hi!  I am here to share some art using the new Darkroom Door rubber stamp set Warm Wishes!  I was lucky enough to receive this wonderful set form Darkroom Door.  I couldn't wait to ink up the flowers as they have me thinking of warm summer days with the flowers in bloom.

I played with stamping these flowers with a variety of colors and decided to cut out a bouquet.  I inked up the flower with an archival ink.  Because of the way the flowers are structured it was easy to ink the petals with one color and the stem and the leaves with another.

I stamped the background with a new sentiment stamp to give it a pretty background.

The cutting out took a few minutes but well worth the effect!

Next up a bookmark with one of the beautiful flowers and the same sentiment strip. 

 I read quite a bit and like to have a bookmark handy to stick into the book to keep my place for the next time I can grab a few minutes to read. 

This was a quick create because I stamped the background with a pale yellow.  I then stamped the flower with black archival ink.

I finished with some watercolor pencils to add a hint of color in and around the flower. 

For my last card I used old ledger paper as my background for the card.

I stamped the various pieces using black archival ink and colored the flowers with a hint of watercolor using pencils and a waterbrush.

I am in love with these lovely flowers. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Products:
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Warm Wishes
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Lots of Labels
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Number Medley
Darkroom Door Sentiment Stamp - Dream Big
Ranger Archival Inks - Pale Ochre, Jet Black, Leaf Green, Violet
Darkroom Door Rubber Stamp Set - Buzzing Bees 
Watercolor Pencils
WaterBrush
Ranger Distress Oxide - Wilted Violet, Ground Espresso

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