Monday, February 27, 2012

Shabby Accents Blog Hop


Welcome to the Shabby Accents Blog Hop!

If you have arrived here from Suzanne of Scrap With Suzy you are on the right track. If not, please start here.

The shabby chic style has been around for many many years, originating from Great Britain, where time worn items were showcased in most country homes. Today’s essence of shabby chic is to achieve that time worn layered vintage look from yesteryear by painting, distressing, dying or tea staining. Now we bring it to you right from our craft tables.

Please follow along as the following crafters showcase their handmade Shabby Chic Accents. Be sure to visit each blog, as each artist will be having a giveaway. Also, we have a couple of awesome sponsors who have generously donated for a “Grand Prize Giveaway”. Their shops are full of shabby goodness. To qualify, all you have to do is become a follower if not already and leave a comment on each blog stating you are a follower, or have become one.
Our Sponsors



The Funkie Junkie Etsy Boutique - $15.00 Gift Certificate










Sa Crafters - $20 Gift Certificate









And now on to the deets on my project.  
For some time now, I have want to turn a book into a piece of shabby artwork and since I had some lead time on this project, I decided to go in that direction.  It's tedious having to rip all the pages, but I just worked on them a little at a time.  The torn edges were inked with Antique Linen DI.  I usually use Vintage Photo for inking edges, but this time I wanted to go a bit softer.  The base panel was clear embossed on white CS with the lace BG stamp from Wendy Vecchi's Sentimental Art (you'll be seeing that a lot because I'm totally in love with it!).  After clear embossing it, I ran over the entire piece with Tattered Rose Distress Stain, and then as is typical for me, I covered almost all of the pretty background up.  The cover sheet is a vintage music score cover that I downloaded from a vintage site on the internet.
                                                                                                                                                                                    I only used half of the book and ripped the spine off because it was the wrong width.  I cut a strip of Ranger Foil Tape to the desired length and width and ran it through my Vagabond with a embossing folder and then painted over the entire surface with a black acrylic paint dabber.  I let it dry about half way and removed most of it with a paper towel, leaving a tarnished silver effect.  I cut along the front edge with scallop scissors.  I was a little nervous about adhering it to the spine, but it went down beautifully with no wrinkles.  I thought the top and bottom needed a bit of silver edging too so I repeated the process, this time cutting both strips with the Vintage Lace Decorative Strip die (one of the few dies I still have left in my Etsy boutique - have more on order but Ranger is SUPER slow getting orders out since CHA).  I created a bit of framing for my vintage lady with the foil tape and same process and the butterfly as well.  
I used several flower dies, including Tattered Florals and Mini Tattered Florals to create my large flower with white CS swiped with Tattered Rose distress stain (you guessed it, I'm getting addicted to that stuff too!)  The leaves were cut with the Tattered Leaves die and swiped with Bundled Sage distress stain.  I made those curly things by ripping a very thin strip of paper, wetting it well with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium Matte and wrapped it around a piece of wire.  Very fussy process and ended up with totally coated gluey fingers but it did achieve the effect I was going for.  
My upper corner element was made with Tattered Rose distress stained CS and the Tattered Pinecone die.  The leaf branches were cut with the Festive Greenery decorative strip die and dyed with Bundled Sage and Antique Linen distress stains.  The little charm was some metals that I shabbied up by white embossing them and added a pink pearl and a faceted Czech glass rose bead.  I added a piece of dyed seam binding left over from the Vintage Valentine's kit I was selling earlier this year.  

And now for the fun part.  I know you didn't come here just to see what I had made, although I do hope I have inspired you in some small way.  I do have a little prize to give away.  It's a lovely blue and green elements collection in celebration of spring.  It includes tags, buttons, Prima flowers, floss, chipboard, a flocking set and several 5x5" sheets of designer paper.

To enter the random drawing, you must leave a comment on my blog.  And to be eligible for the grand prize drawing, you must comment on each hop member's blog.  You DO NOT need to be  follower to win my blog candy prize.  Stop back by on Wednesday to see who the winner is.

Your next stop is Ashley from Marine Wife's Scrappin' Life.  If you should loose you way, here is the order of the hop line up


Theresa Neubaum - http://www.scrappyartcrafters.blogspot.com
CallyAnn Cornwell- http://callyanncraftycreations.blogspot.com
Suzanne- http://scrapwithsuzy.blogspot.com
Linda Coughlin - http://thefunkiejunkie.blogspot.com
Ashley- http://proudusmcwife415.blogspot.com
Amber Johnson - http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com
Michele Eickholt ~ http://chelescrafts.blogspot.com/
Melissa Pinter- http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com
Janet Nagai http://www.createatdreamscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
Barbara Babe-http://barbarab3.blogspot.com
Gina Torres - http://californiascrappin-gcinderella21.blogspot.com/
Kristen http://huneebcreations.blogspot.com/
Erica Smole http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
Monica - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com
Alina - http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com/
Liz Mullen - http://scrapiliciouslife.blogspot.com
I hope you enjoyed the hop. Thanks for stopping by!

POST UPDATE:  Thanks to Michelle for asking how I got my concentric circles so perfectly spaced.  Here's the scoop:  I got the tearing started by cutting smaller sized openings with an Exacto knife.  I cut 4-5 pages at a time with the Exacto and then ripped around the opening varying the size of the opening as I went along.  And you don't have to be perfect.  Sometimes I would rip the opening too large, but the next page I would do smaller and it would cover up the larger opening.  I just kept making the openings smaller and smaller as I went along.  











Challenges Entered:
DYSU - Distress

Products Used: (I'm sorry so many of my Ranger products are sold out. Ranger is really backed up after CHA. I'm waiting on two orders and hope to be restocked in the next two weeks)


Sunday, February 26, 2012

Be Inspired

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I'm back again with another of my recent samples for the February Artistic Outpost release, this one from the Charles and Amelia set.  I found some patterned paper with a world map in my stash and decided to use it as a background paper for this piece and then as usual, I completely covered it up.  Honestly, I don't know why I just don't use a piece of copy paper for the background - you would probably never even know - LOL!  I made a little post card using the Ephemeral Backgrounds set along with a couple of stamps from the Charles and Amelia set.  I love making faux post cards and using them in my art.  I also stamped a couple more of the stamps from the set on a scrap of vintage muslin with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink.  The front piece was stamped with Ranger Sepia Archival Ink and the Be Inspired sentiment was done on my computer.  That's it - a very simple piece that is pretty much technique-less.  I know I showed this piece earlier in the week, but wanted to feature it by itself because I think all these stamps deserve a cameo appearance!

Thanks for stopping by - hope your weekend is going great!



Saturday, February 25, 2012

Sprint Towards Your Dreams



I'm back today to share with you one of the pieces I made for the recent Artistic Outpost release.  When I was making the release samples, I made this one to fit this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner called Over the Edge.  Tui Nathan is our hostess again this week and she wants us to create something that flows over the edge.

I began by cutting a white cardstock tag and a chipboard tag with the Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplates die.    Then I stamped the images from Industrial Chic and Charles and Ameila in Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink and then clear embossed them.  If you have a nice juicy pad and you hustle, you can emboss with the archival ink.  Then I did one of my favorite Tim Holtz techniques over the entire tag - rusted enamel using Antique Linen and then Vintage Photo inks.  The license tag is also embossed Archival Ink sponged with Antique Linen.  I repeated the process with the FLY tag I made but that stamp didn't have a border around it so I carefully edged it along the Jet Black Archival Ink pad and then clear embossed the entire piece, then sponged with with more Antique Linen.

The gears were cut with the Gadget Gear die, the large one was painted with Walnut Stain crackle paint and the smaller one coated with Weathered Wood Distress Embossing Powder.  The letters for ADVENTURE were cut with the Vintage Market die from back CS and coated with Glossy Accents.  The airplane background on the tag was second generation stamping using Ranger Sepia Archival Ink and the tag was cut with a very old Spellbinders die.  I used a Tim Holtz ball chain for my tag pull as well as a grungy washer picked up in parking lot.

So there you have the details on this little tag.  Thanks again for stopping by.   Now it's time to scoot on over to our Creative Corner to see what kind of mojo starting inspiration the other designers have in store.





Friday, February 24, 2012

Oooh, that Pion Paper!



Hello, so glad you stopped by. I made this pretty little ditty just 'cause I wanted to use my new Pion paper. It is just so gorgeous and it was just sitting on my shelf gently whispering to me...come on, don't you want to see what you can make with me??? It's been there for two weeks now and finally wore me down and here's the result of my playing around this evening. I started with the Vintage Cabinet Card die. I cut a base in white CS and then a couple of layers of the Pion Studio of Memories 6x6" paper. The top of the white base that shows on top got a coat of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and when dry, I sponged Antique Linen DI over it. The flower was created using several dies, white CS, Weathered Wood DI, stamped lightly with a script stamp in Ranger Sepia Archival Ink. The flourishes are from the Festive Greenery die and the Venise Lace fan is from my Etsy shop. I dyed it with coffee and painted it with Weathered Wood reinker/water mixture. Weathered Wood really matches the paper perfectly. I made the little sentiment label on my computer and gave it a couple of coats of UTEE and sponged it with Vintage Photo DI. I decided I wanted it to be a free standing desk bling so I added a stand cut with the Small Easel Die.


That's it for my sweet little project tonight.  Hope you enjoyed your visit.

I'm sorry so many Ranger products are out of stock in my Etsy.  Ranger is very slow in filling orders right now.  I assume they are backed up after CHA with so many new releases.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Deets on Artistic Outpost Release Cards


Hello and thanks for stopping by.  I'm back today to share the details on two of the cards I previewed yesterday with the February Artistic Outpost release.  This one is very much a departure from my normal style, but I certainly enjoyed making it and am happy with it as a first attempt.  I get a lot of blog hits from Pinterest and sometimes I click on the link to see who has pinned my work and what other work they have on their board.  Pinterest is so wonderful and I see a lot of amazing work that way.  Last weekend Pinterest brought me to this blog.  I just love the way she collaged all of her elements together and decided to give it a try.

A piece of thick chipboard was cut with the Vintage Cabinet Card and Gadget Gears dies and painted with Expresso Paint Dabber.  Images from the London Elements set were stamped with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink on canvas and glued to the cabinet card with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium Matte.  Then I mixed up a glaze with a little water, a couple of drops of Vintage Photo reinker and more Multi Medium and liberally brushed it over everything.  When dry, I repeated the step, building it up around the edges.  I did that a couple more times, even coating the twill.  When dry, I dripped/painted a little Expresso Alcohol Ink around the edges of the canvas and on the elements.  The big stain you see is from here I dripped it on, but decided that was too much so then I went to brushing it on.  But I liked the variation between heavy and light so I left it.  The gears also had a couple of brushings with the multi medium matte glaze.  I mounted the whole piece on a sheet of corrugated cardboard.


And now a few deets on the main card I shared yesterday.  I made vintage looking photo using one of the Diesel Punk images, masking it and stamping the engine plans stamp from Industrial Chic set.  All black stamping here was done with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink.  The gear is just plain chipboard covered with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and when dry I went over it with Vintage Photo Distress Stain.  The speed limit sign was coated with one coat of UTEE and then sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I used a sheet of Tim Holtz's Kraft Core Core'dinations paper, ran it through the gears embossing fade and then sanded it.  The word stamp is from the Artistic Outpost Bluebird set, which is one of my all time favorite AO sets.

That's it for today.  I'll be back tomorrow to share the details on another card I made for the release.  Thanks so much for stopping by today.


Challenges Entered:
Simon Says Stamp and Show - London, Paris or New York

Products Used: