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

Saturday Showcase - Stamperia Wedding Paper Pack

Happy Saturday!  I am hosting a showcase over on the Funkie Junkie Challenge Blog today with a few projects featuring the lovely Stamperia Wedding Paper Pack. 

 

The papers are so beautiful they design themselves!  :)  Hop over to The Funkie Junkie Blog if you would like to see the other projects!  

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Let's Play Tic Tac Toe

Happy New Year!  The Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge is back with Cec hosting a fun game of Let's Play Tic Tac Toe!

Here is Cec's description of the challenge:

"Let's play a game of Tic Tac Toe for this first challenge of the year. Choose any vertical, horizontal or diagonal line from the graphic below and create a vintage or shabby chic project using all three items on your chosen line. In addition to using all three items you must include a copy of the graphic in your post and tell us which line you chose."

There were a variety of choices here and I was inspired by the Layers, Bling and Die Cuts.  Although I had lots of the squares covered!!

 I was so inspired I made two versions of the same card....

These cards started with bits of crochet lace die cut that was accidentally glued to some white cardstock when working on my holiday tags.  I was applying glue and glitter on the die cuts on top of a sheet of white cardstock.  When I pulled up the lacey diecut some stuck to the white cardstock.  I thought it would be fun to incorporate that into a background.  Hence the torn lace. 

I then had some stars laying around on my table and a deer cut out already and everything came together very quickly.  The stars were embossed with silver tinsel embossing powder.

I stamped over the background with music stamps and script stamps.

The rest was just assembling bits and pieces together.  I love when the various bits from projects come together beautifully into a card.

I hope this has you inspired to come play along in our tic tac toe!  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: (The Funkie Junkie Boutique)
Sizzix Thinlits Chapter 2 Crochet Tim Holtz
Ranger Distress Stickles Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy
Idea-Ology - Metallic Droplets
Stampers Anonymous - Christmastime #2
Stampers Anonymous - Tiny Toadstools 
Ranger Embossing Powder - Silver Tinsel 
Ranger Archival Ink - Watering Can
Ranger Distress Oxide Ink - Vintage Photo 
Sizzix Swirling Stars
Jingle Bells
Twine
Idea-Ology Metallic Stickers
Sizzix Stars Dies
Sizzix Winter Wonderland
Memory Box Music Stamp

Saturday Showcase - Christmas Tags

Happy Saturday to you!  Christmas is rapidly approaching so the team over at The Funkie Junkie Challenge decided to do a special Saturday Showcase and everyone created a tag!  You need to pop over there to see what wonderful designs they cooked up for this very special showcase!

I was inspired by a cooking challenge that asked the contestants to do a white on white baked display.  It had me thinking about what I could create with layers and dimension all in white!

I decided to start with an stamped and embossed background to give a layer of soft texture before I even layered on the die cut bits and pieces.

The hardest part of this tag was getting a photo. :)  The white on white is hard to capture the beauty of the shimmer, glimmer and softness.

I stamped the background with Versamark and heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder.

I die cut all the various pieces and then covered them with versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

It gave them a lovely sheen.  I then assembled my poinsettias with pop dots between the centers and when I attached them to the tag.

I took a few of the metallic droplets and painted them white and then sprinkled them with distress crystal glitter.

 I finished the tag with a white bow and painted a charm white to coordinate.

I wish you and all your loved ones a very blessed and happy holiday!

Suzz

Products:
Sizzix Thinlits Tim Holtz Festive Greens 
Sizzix Thinlits Tim Holtz Christmas Ribbon
Stampers Anonymous - Yuletide Greetings 
Idea-Ology Tim Holtz Metallic Droplets
Prima Art Basics - White Gesso
Distress Stickles Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy
Ranger Clear Embossing Powder 
Rayon Seam Binding 
Idea-Ology Tokens Christmas

It's The Holidays!

Welcome back for the last challenge of the year for The Funkie Junkie Boutique!  The talented Maggie is hosting and she has challenged us with "It's The Holidays!". 

She describes the challenge as:

"I know everyone is super busy this time of year so I've settled on a practical challenge that hopefully will give you some needed crafting time while making something that is useful for the holiday season that is upon us!  Create a vintage or shabby chic card, tag, gift box or bag that you can use over the holidays."

I was inspired to look for something to use as a repository for a holiday gift.  I started something fun(to be shared later) and this project:

I was cleaning up the gift closet (A combination of party supplies, future gifts, wrapping paper, etc) and found some little party hats left over from one of the kids parties. Mind you my kids are all over 18... :) 

It had me thinking I will hold onto those party hats and use for a future project. Well today is that day!

I wish I could be transformed like this. :)  From a paw print party hat to a Victorian beauty! 

 To create this it took a few steps:

1.  Paint the hat with white Gesso.  (It took about 5 coats and I had to wait in between to dry!)
2.  Spray tissue paper with lavender distress oxide spray.  Let dry.
3.  Stamp background text using black archival ink.
4.  Attach the tissue paper to the cone.  I wrapped the tissue paper around the cone before  applying
     and cut the tissue paper close to the size.  Apply tissue paper with clear glue. 
5.  Cut out three pieces of the doily trim from white cardstock.
6.  Cut out star and snowflake from white cardstock.
7.  Paint covered cone, lace trim, and snowflake with a mix of white glue and water.
8.  Sprinkle in glitter.  Let dry.
9.  Spray star with lavender distress oxide spray. Let Dry.
10.  Add tinsel trim to star.  (I used hot glue gun and cut small pieces.
11. Spray crystal heart with distress oxide spray. Let dry.
12. Edge joy with silver pen.
13. Accent snowflake with metallic pearls.
14. Assemble decoration on Cone.  (I used hot glue because the glitter makes it difficult to stick!)

I poked a hole in the bottom of the party hat and strung a few pearls and charms on the bottom.  The charms were embossed with tinsel embossing powder to give it a shimmer. I filled the inside with the leftover tissue paper from the outside.  There is also a lovely handle to hang this with from seam binding and tulle.

I hope this has you inspired to come and join us in the fun!  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 Chapter Two Tim Holtz Crochet Die
Sizzix Flurry #1 Snowflake
Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black 
Idea-Ology - Holiday Adornment Yuletide
Idea-Ology - Christmas Token
Idea-Ology - Tim Holtz Metallic Droplets
Idea-Ology - Tinsel
Ranger Distress Oxide Spray - Milled Lavender 
Ranger Distress Stickles Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy
Glue
Tim Holtz Assemblege Bauble Mix Charms
Idea-Ology Tim Holtz Metallic Stickers Holiday Talk 
Idea-Ology Mirrored Heart
Stampers Anonymous Music and Advert Background Stamps