"Tag It!" - the September Challenge at SASPC

 Hi and servus, dear visitors!
Time to share with you my project for the mid-month reminder over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges. This month we thought something quick like a tag might be a great opportunity to get back into the crafting saddle after the summer break - so show us your TAGS - either steampunk, industrial or vintage ones!

Do tags or not do tags - that is my question at the moment.
When I began discovering crafty blogland three years ago with all the fantastic rubber stamp collections and other crafty goodness out there, I started with ATCs and quickly moved on to tags as they offered a slightly larger format - which was perfect for trying out all those techniques that were new and fascinating to me. And then - after some time and practice - that somehow didn't do the job for me anymore...mixed media used on altered art, canvasses, in journals, on paintboard...they suddenly seemed to make more "sense". It was as if I felt that tags weren't good enough anymore...if you know what I mean.

But after a long break from doing tags I just found that they are perfect for starting over after a long mojo-less period. They don't put that pressure on you that canvasses or art journals do. You just play around - and if you like the result you can still use whatever you have tried and discovered on your tag for a larger project if you like. And if you don't,  you still did some "art-y exercising". Right?

Erm....what was this post originally about?....well, the steampunk challenge over at SASPC...yesssss.

I recently bought some awesome stamps from Carabelle Studio and wanted to use one of them on my tag for our challenge. They offer some fantastic steampunk designs and instead of just using rubber stamping for adding texture and depth to my project I wanted to make the stamped image the focal point this time. As I am not the colouring type of crafter I mainly use stamping as an addition. Not this time!

First I remembered one of my favourite Tim Holtz background techniques using Distress Inks, water and the heat gun - and really enjoyed doing it again! I used rusty hinge, walnut stain and peeled paint alongside a solution made from Walnut Ink Crystals (from Tsukineko). These are crystals you mix with hot water to get a lovely brown you can use for dyeing fabric or paper...or shading around stamped images and adding splashes with a soft brush (like I did).

Painting the walnut ink solution around my image still let the other stains and colours show through and helped highlight the stamped area.

I also wanted to use some of the blisters I have been hoarding for ages...you know: those transparent plastic packages all the yummy embellishments come in. I thought I could use them as capsules for some watch parts that would move when moving the tag around.

As there were many circles (from the gears on the stamped image) I decided to make them the main shape on my tag and added some other circular elements: brads and Tim Holtz enforcement ring stickers. I shaded them in with a black watersoluble pencil and a fine tip brush loaded with water.

I felt that my tag lacked some "metal bling", so I painted some circles around some of my elements with DecoArt media Metallic Gold acrylic paint. For a finishing touch I also added some detail with a white Sharpie and a white watersoluble pencil.

I really enjoyed playing around with the blister "capsule" and my paints, pens and inks!

The face of the steampunk gentleman was painted over with DecoArt media Translucent White and then shaded with a brown pencil.

I hope that some of the fun I had has become visible on the tag too!

I would like to thank you for stopping by and also invite you to hop over to SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges to check out the beautiful tags of my team mates! And maybe I will soon see your lovely tags entered to our challenge! Yay! I always love to see how others approach the same challenge - and it always provides me with a lot of awesome inspiration for my own work! So thanks to all for playing along and sharing their wonderful art!

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x 

"Collage!"...

...is what we want you to do for this fortnight's challenge over at TryItOnTuesday!

This means that - as always - our challenge is an "anything goes" as long as you show us a collage, which must also include some script somewhere ( ...and of course stick to the challenge rules in general ;)


I recently stumbled upon a lovely book about soldered jewelry and so I decided to take up soldering again. This is a technique I had learned over 20 years ago during my arts studies, but honestly never taken any further. But now was the time:
I created a collaged deco hanging with some of my favourite stamps, book pages and images: insects, script/words and plants!

I also wanted to use the awesome bookpages from an old herbarium, which were given to me by lovely ELLIE during a swap! (Thank you for this rare and wonderful treasure, my dear crafting friend!)
And they were just perfect for this project! I sooo love how they are displayed now.

I used 5x5 centimeter Memory glass plates, self adhesive copper foil tape and the soldering iron from dear hubby ;) - and I had a lot of fun!

In the following I will show you all six sides of the hanging ornament:

To create my six small collages, I used pages from the old herbarium, some script and animal stamps which I stamped onto beige card or scraps from the pages' borders and also some scraps from Tim Holtz papers which I stamped some images of insects on. Most of the scraps were cut to size, some of them were torn. All of them were blended with DI "vintage photo" around the edges. Then I glued them to place and put front and back images between two pieces of Memory glass. I covered the edges of the glass sheets with self adhesive copper foil tape and soldered around them afterwards.

Stamps used are from DeStempelwinkel, 7Gypsies and Artemio, stamping inks: archival black jet and sepia. 

Sssshh....my favourite collage is this one ;) :

Working on such small space is something I really like to do. But of course the collages you enter with the challenge can be of any kind and size you want ;)

I invite you now to hop over to Try It On Tuesday to see what my fabulous team mates created for your inspiration! Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your awesome collages soon entered with our challenge!!!!

I enter FSC's "Script/Books/Pages/Print" challenge with this make.(Thought I already had, but it seems I deleted this paragraph accidentally during editing :(

Hugs,

die amelie xx

Simplify, simplify II

This time I want to present you my very first own stamp design, used on one of the tags I created when playing around with Distress paints for the first time some weeks ago.

I thought the colours of the background were a perfect match with the hot weather - blue sky above, sun heating and you think you can almost see the heat that surrounds you.

As the images are stamped over distress paints, they look somehow transparent with some spots, thus creating a kind of depth combined with a light feel to it.


 For my dandelion leaves stamp
I first made a sketch using a pencil
and a dark brush
felt tip pen. After I had transferred the image upside down to my carving block I cut out the shapes carefully. From time to time I made a print for a test to find out where I had to cut off some more. I trimmed the edges of my leaves and grass until I had the desired look. Then my very first self made rubber stamp was ready for use!!! Coooool and so much fun!







The word stamps are from Artistic Outpost, the tiny dragon fly is from DeStempelwinkel.

I enter FSC's "Something New/New Style" challenge with this tag.

Hugs,
die amelie x

"Nature Studies" altered book project

Easter brought some chocolate and that came with a lovely small book box which was perfect for altering!

So I created this:

First I gave the glossy surface of the chocolate box a coat of Gesso. Then I applied a coat of glue over the front of the cover and covered it with sandwich paper I crumpled while trying to keep the center flat and even. After that was in place I continued with the spine of the book where I had glued three thick pieces of cord which were now covered in the same way. The back was most fun as I could crumple the paper here as much as I wanted!

After all had dried I trimmed the edges leaving some for glueing it to the insides to get nice edges.

For the inside of the cover I stamped some cut to size card with images of the "Nature History" stamp set from DeStempelwinkel (which I love veeerrry much), blended the edges and the card with walnut stain Distress ink and flicked some water over the finished piece to get a stained look.

The inside of the box was painted with turquoise acrylic paint.

The outside of the sandwich paper covered book was first painted with a dark brown and then dry brushed with a lighter brown to highlight the creases and some areas. I also used Inka Gold, which gave the book a lovely leathery, old and precious looking finish!

The book panel was also created by using stamps from RedLead and DeStempelwinkel, blending with DI walnut stain and flicking water onto.

I hope you like it! I had a lot of fun making this (and have another of these chocolate boxes in store ;).

I enter The Artistic Stamper's challenge "Texture"  , Craft room challenge "In the Library" , City Crafter's "anything goes" challenge and  Simon Says "Anything Goes" challenge, with this project. 

Hugs,

die amelie x