March Creative Adventure - Numbers

Welcome everyone!  This month's theme for Creative Carte Blanche is "Numbers".  I have to admit I thought long and hard about this one!  However, after a while I began to think outside the box and wondered what we could do in a day to make a difference.  I finally came up with this canvas:

Now I am going to be brutally honest with everyone this month and confess that I struggled with this piece.  I initially wanted to use a quote from Ghandi "There is more to life than increasing it's speed".  You will see in a few of these photos that I cut the words up and used them on the piece.  However, as I went along, I was not happy as the piece began to look too busy.  Off went the words as I tried to "clean up" this piece and simplify it a bit.  I'm sure everyone has had this happen to them at some point, right?

I began by covering a 5" x 7" canvas with Gesso.  When dry. I used Tim Holtz's Dot Fade Layering Stencil to add some texture using Wendy Vecchi's Studio 490 White Embossing Paste.   Once dry, I used DecoArt's Cobalt Turquoise Hue paint to cover the canvas.  I used a brush and a baby wipe to cover the canvas, using the baby wipe to highlight the textured areas.

Later on in the process I added some DecoArt Burnt Umber paint lightly over the top of the texture as well.

I wanted to convey the message that the Earth keeps turning and time marches on whether we want it to or not, so I used Tim Holtz Sizzix thinlit Globe to die cut the earth from a piece of Manila card stock.  Then I used Tim's Sizzix Large Pocket Watch and die cut this piece from some alcohol ink paper I had.

The Earth needed some texture, so I used Wendy's White Embossing Paste again to slowly "dab" the texture onto the land masses with a small paintbrush:

Next I used some DecArt Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide paint with a small paintbrush to add color to the newly textured land masses.  To tone down the color and add more terrestrial colors, I dry brushed on some Burnt Umber and later some Sap Green paint.  Candy Colwell used a similar technique in one of her tutorials.  Thanks for the great tips, Candy!

When the entire piece was finished, I trimmed it down so that it would fit inside the large pocket watch.

The next step was to adhere the pocket watch to the canvas along with a few other pieces:

I added the "clock hands" (Idea-ology game spinners)  to my pocket watch "world" .  I then cut out the "2" and the "4" from the numbers on Tim's Sizzix Alterations Word Play alphabet from black card stock and went around the edges of the numbers with Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide                     DecoArt paint.  I also began to lay down different elements.  This is where I told you that I wasn't happy with the words, so things changed a bit at this stage.

I took off the words and added more metal embellishments to represent time.  I used several Idea-ology large gears to which I adhered Time Pieces and spinners.  I used a Remnant Rub about time on one of the gears.

I also found some ticket stubs in my stash that I used to represent" your ticket to today".  I liked the extra pop of color they added to the canvas as well.

I used an Antique Copper metal frame from Creative Impressions to highlight another remnant rub with the abbreviation for "Number" that I added to one of the tickets at the bottom of the canvas.  I also used some Creative Impressions ball chain to add to the top of the pocket watch.

I deided to add another number "24" to the bottom of the canvas as well.

To finish the piece, I added a few more tiny gears to the canvas.  A friend of mine suggested I computer generate the abbreviations for hours, punch it out and attach to the gears.  Wasn't that a great idea?

Now I am happy with this canvas.  When I look at it, hopefully it will remind me to slow down a bit and appreciate every minute of the day as we never know what tomorrow will bring!  How will you spend your next 24 hours?

Susan

NOVEMBER ART ADVENTURE - "YOU'VE GOT ME IN STITCHES"

Here it is November already and we have a wonderful adventure brought to us by the lovely Annette Green who has asked us to create a project using fabric and/or stitching in some way.  Here is my project:

I wanted to create a keepsake that reminded me of my lovely maternal grandmother as she and I would sew or craft quite a bit whenever we were together.  She had an old Singer sewing machine I just loved to use.  We spent a lot of wonderful days together sewing stuffed frogs for the church bazaar, crocheting, etc.

I used Tim's doily and dress form dies for the main part of this project.  I cut the dress form out twice from brown card stock and glued the two pieces together for added strength.  I also cut one from Sticky Back Canvas and cut the top and the bottom off, adhering it to the card stock dress form.

The patterned paper I used for my base is an old "pattern" design sheet from Basic Gray.  The strips on the side are from Kaisercraft as well as the Bingo card and the "Cherished Memories " paper ephemera piece at the top.

I now decided to decorate the dress form.  I used a lovely photo of my grandmother that I cut to fit inside one of Tim Holtz's Idea-olgy Cameo Frames and adhered it inside.  I then got into my fabulous stash of ephemera from Creative Impressions and found some measuring tape twill along with a small safety pin, a Country Heart and some mini ball chain in silver.  I began by creating a necklace with the ball chain and connector and adhering this to the back of the dress form so that it wouldn't move around too much.

I then cut a length of measuring tape twill, folded it so that it would fit on the dress form's waist and used matte medium to glue it not only along my folds but also on the waist.  Then I positioned the          
with Grandma's photo over the top, hiding the folds.

The Basic Grey patterned paper and the Kaisercraft paper strips were adhered to a back panel.

I cut Tim's Sizziz Thinlits Doily die from cream card stock and added some Vintage Photo Distress ink to "age" the doily.

For the "sewing" part of this piece, I used a template from Paper Pizazz with different stitches on it to draw in straight stitches along the area where the two different papers were attached.  I then used some Creative Impressions Baker's Twine to stick along the "seams" by hand.  I really like the way this turned out!

I added another burgundy layer of card stock and one last black layer to finish the base.

Next I added the dress form to the piece and finished decorating it with some paper flowers and Creative Impressions safety pin and Country Heart.

Now I'm thinking this may have happened to you at one point as well.  Are you lucky enough to have a friend whose "stash" is as big as yours?"  Well, I made a trip to my friend Michelle's house to see what she had.  Lo and behold she not only had that perfect paper for creating the side strips, but she also had this fabulous wooden disk with a hole in the center, paper to punch to made it look like the side of a thread spool and a bingo paper ephemera piece from Kaisercraft that were perfect!  Yay!

I also added some more paper flowers to the the upper portion of the piece as well along with some lovely lace along the top and bottom.

Now to finish it...I decided to use one of Tim's Idea-ology Display Hangars for displaying the large tag.  Michelle also had this perfect oval paper ephemera piece that expressed the perfect sentiment.  She had the idea to put it in the center of the hangar.  Love it!

I added a beautiful bow made from Creative Impressions Crepe Ribbon and I was done.  It's not hanging in my studio as a wonderful reminder of happy times with Grandma!

Now let's see what you come up with for "You've got me in Stitches"  This is a broad topic, so I know you will easily have a great project to share with us.  Make sure to return to our main site at
www.creativecartebanche.com and use the Inlinkz upload to show us your wonderful work!  Can't wait to see it!

Susan

CREATIVE CARTE BLANCHE - CORRUGATED PAPER, METAL AND LACE

Hello everyone!  I hope you have all been enjoying your creative adventures with Creative Carte Blanche!  I know all of us have truly enjoyed seeing your creations and are learning a lot at the same time!

Candy is hosting this current adventure and has come up with a wonderful challenge for us all - to use corrugated paper, metal and lace together in the same project.  I really enjoyed the idea of grouping these three items together and, something unusual for me, came up with an idea pretty quickly.

Those of you who followed us during our Compendium of Curiosities adventure may know that I love to use old photographs that I am fortunate enough to have from my family.  It has always been on my "bucket list" to create beautiful art with these photographs to enjoy and hopefully pass down in the family.  If you are like me, I have so many projects in my head and not enough time to do them all, so it is nice that I have this opportunity.  Here is my creation:

The photo is of my great grandparents' wedding.  I decided that I didn't want to add much color to this piece, so I used light colors that I found in the photo.

I started off by using white gesso to prepare the canvas.  Then I began laying different pieces I wanted to incorporate until I was happy with the look.  Originally I thought I would add a pop of color to the top right and bottom left of the canvas, however, I decided to remove the fussy cut paper flowers and stick with a softer look.

I then removed all of the elements and glued torn pieces of corrugated cardboard onto the canvas.

Next came the paint.  I used Tim Holtz Distress Paints - Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Brushed Corduroy, Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo and Picket Fence and applied them with a brush and a baby wipe.  I tried to closely match the colors found in the photo.

I used DecoArt's Media Matte Varnish to seal the canvas when the paint was dry.

I painted a torn heart I created with the same colors from the canvas and sealed it.  I then added a       Time Piece and a word band from Tim Holtz Idea-ology to the heart.

Then it was on to the lace.  I wanted to use quite a bit in order to create a soft, romantic feel.

It was now time to add some additional metal embellishments, a key and a Philosophy Tag               from Idea-ology.  I laid down some Prima flowers so that I could judge where to put the metal pieces.

They are hard to see, but the leaves are also metal leaves from Idea-ology.

Now to add the photo...I adhered the photo to some heavy black cardstock first to make it stronger and then adhered the photo to the canvas using foam tape and matte medium.

To complete the piece, I adhered the Prima flowers to the canvas as well as three antique buttons from Tim Holtz Idea-ology.  The torn heart was also adhered, partially covering the bottom of the photo.

I have to say that I am pleased with the way this canvas turned out!  I think my great grandparents would be happy!

Many thanks to Candy for coming up with this wonderful adventure for the month of March.  Hope you all will join along!  Don't forget to check out our blog and upload your photos here.

Happy crafting!
Susan

Layering Stencil: Monoprint

Here we are at the last challenge for Tim's A Compendium of Curiosities III book - Challenge number 34, Layering Stencil: Monoprint!  It just doesn't seem possible!  The time has flown for me and I have loved every minute!

I would like to personally thank each and every one of you for all your wonderful comments and for playing along with these challenges!  All of you are so talented!  I have SO enjoyed getting to know all of you - even though I haven't met most of you personally, I still feel like I know you.  Hopefully our paths will cross in the future!

Many of you have commented that you have enjoyed the use of my family photos in my artwork.  I have had so much fun incorporating these photos into my projects and have loved creating some wonderful keepsakes for my family along the way.

As I started off with a family photo for one of my first projects, I thought I would finish up with several as well.

You will find this wonderful monoprint technique on Page 48 of the Compendium of Curiosities III book.  You will see that there are actually two different ways to incorporate this technique.  I decided to go for it since it is the last challenge and created two different projects - with each one I have used the technique differently.  Here they are side by side, one tag and one journal page:

As  you can see, both projects are very different, a vintage tag with a photo of my mother-in-law and my very first journal page using bright colors.    First the vintage tag:

This is a photo of my husband's mother, Rosa Maria Cura Mostek.  She is originally from Spain.  This tag project is a tribute to her amazing journey from Spain to the United States shortly after she married.  It is also a way to thank my wonderful husband who has never complained about all the time I spend working on my art and waiting for dinner on more than one occasion when I didn't want to quite working as I was "on a roll".

I started by creating a monoprint on cream card stock with the Flourish Layering Stencil.  While I can't tell you how I did it, I followed the first technique using Broken China, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs, and Hickory Smoke Distress Paints and Antique Linen Distress Ink.  I could have kicked myself when I realized I had become so engrossed in the project I forgot to take step-by-step photos, so I took some close-ups of the project.

I created a frame by die cutting Tim's Sizzix Postage Stamp from Grunge Board.  I then added a layer of gesso and added Antique Linen Distress Paint over the top when dry.  I finished my frame by adding Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs Distress inks around the edges.  Once this was completed, I added the photo of my mother-in-law after adding some Vintage Photo ink around the edges.

I adhered my frame to my monoprint tag and then began adding several Idea-ology pieces I had painted with Cracked Pistachio, partially dried and then rubbed off a bit to create a patina.

My mother-in-law fell in love with a young Czech man who escaped from then Czechoslovakia after WWII and came to this country shortly after they were married, not knowing any English or anyone here in this country.  I felt Tim's "Life was meant to be a great Adventure" stamp from the Handwritten Thoughts Stamper's Anonymous set was quite appropriate as well as the Idea-ology Word Band choice.

The "angel" wing from the Idea-ology Adornments: Regal represents Rosa's faith and Guardian Angel watching over her.

I added the crown from the Adornments: Regal as she reminded me a bit of a young Queen Elizabeth.  Lastly, I created a bow from Tim's Crinkle Ribbon, using Antique Linen and Broken China Distress Stains.  I added a Trinket Pin, Jump Ring and Heart Charm with the words "All my Heart" representing her love for my father-in-law.  I finished the project by adhering the finished tag to a piece of Aqua color solid card stock.

Now for the second project.  This is my first first journal page (which I have been dying to start) using a photo of my mother, uncle (in the back) and their cousin.  It always puts a smile on my face as I think of simpler times, a fun picnic and wading in the stream.

Now I definitely don't have a step-by-step of this monoprint technique as that would completely give away the technique.  I can tell you I used Picked Raspberry, Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron, Dusty Concord and Mermaid Lagoon Paints along with Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Inks.  I wanted to leave quite a bit of white on the page as well.

The wonderful sentiment is from Tim's Stamper's Anonymous set Handwritten Thoughts.  Here are a few close-ups:

 Thanks for being patient with my longer than usual blog post.  Hope you have enjoyed both projects.

This final challenge is being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  Linda Coughlin will be offering a $25.00 shopping spree in her online store to the winner of a randomly chosen project.  Tim and Mario  are generously offering a fabulous prize package to the winner of the Curiosity Crew Choice.  A big thank you to all of them for supporting these challenges!

Finally, I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to our fearless leader, Linda Ledbetter.  She has done such a wonderful job putting these challenges together and keeping the Curisioty Crew in line!   I feel so honored that I was asked to participate - I have stretched myself so much artistically and had so much fun along the way, especially being associated with all the other terrific gals on the Curiosity Crew!

Now head on over to Linda's website, study the rules and enter your project!  We can't wait to see what you create for this final challenge!

Hugs, Susan

Altered Surfaces

We have arrived at the next to last challenge - No. 33 - for the Compendium of Curiosities III Challenge!  Say it isn't so!  I have been having so much fun with these challenges that I hate to say goodbye to them!

The current challenge, Altered Surfaces, can be found on Page 45 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities III book.  It's never too late to get your autographed copy which can be found here.  Tim and Mario are also providing a fabulous prize package to the winner chosen by the Curiosity Crew.

The wonderful folks at Inspiration Emporium also have a generous $50.00 shopping spree just waiting for the randomly chosen winner of this challenge. You will love their product selection and customer service!

Now all of us on the Curiosity Crew want you to participate, so head on over to Linda Ledbetter's site here for all the rules!

Here is my project:

A lovely blog comment was made that she enjoyed my use of family photos in past blog challenge posts.  It made be realize that I hadn't incorporated any for awhile! Time to dig out more photos! 

I have always wanted to do something with the above hilarious photo of my mother (center) with her best buddies, Pat (left) and Ginger (right).  She has tried to convince me that this photo was taken in Wenatchee, Washington at the carnival during the Apple Blossom Festival.  However, I know better as I have this photo that shows what happened to these naughty girls:

Now for the challenge piece.  I chose to alter the large number 3 as well as the arrow.  I thought the technique would be most effective on larger pieces.  The number 3 is from Idea-ology Alpha Parts  Numeric and the Arrow is from Alpha Parts Framed.  I attempted to use the technique on the framed sentiment, also from the Alpha Parts Framed, however, I think it is much more effective on the more solid pieces.  I can't tell you how I accomplished this look as you have to find out yourself by turning to page 45 of the book, however, here are close-ups of the two altered surfaces:

I began my project by placing patterned paper cards from Idea-ology Pocket Cards behind the photo and adhering them to my Burlap canvas (also from Idea-ology)  I then adhered  a red strip cut from Tim's Sizzix Alterations Frameworks Courtyard die so that it would peek out from behind my photo as well as another card from the Pocket Cards.   I adhered my enlarged photo over the paper and die and added some Film Strip Ribbon on either side of the photo.   This is how it looked at that point:

Now I began to add more details to the canvas, including a Flash Card with the word "Friend" (I added an "s" from Alpha Parts to the end) from Flash Cards Elementary, Two Remnant Rubs from the Numbers Sheet, several pieces from the Ephemera Pack (Thrift Shop and Expedition), some tiny playing cards from my stash and a Word Band.  I threaded Correspondence Paper String through the Word Band and adhered blue eyelets.  The Paper String was wrapped around to the back of the canvas.  I did the same thing on the right side of the piece as well.  Here are some close ups of the details:

I used Distress Paints to add color to the Alpha Parts Framed "Good Times".  The red ticket is an actual raffle ticket and the other two are from the Ephemera Packs.

One last look at the finished project:

Looking at this piece in my studio will definitely make me smile!

Ok, now it's your turn to create a project using Altered Surfaces!  I hope you have as much fun as I did with this project!  My mother will either laugh or be horrified that I chose these photos!

Susan