Saturday, March 28, 2015

A Total Tim Time

Hello fellow artists! I do hope March is going well for you all. I wanted to share this latest piece, it is finally done! Enjoy!

This is the first time I have ever altered a piece like this (along the lines of a printer tray but not as big, baby steps! Lol) and it was a total blast to do! 

I started with this:

I inked up the edges and sides with TH DI in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. Then I used the paper series: French Industrial and Destinations for the backing in each compartment. 

I treated each compartment like a separate place but with a total Tim theme in mind. I fussy cut the gentleman in the upper left compartment and inked his edges with DI. The butterflies are punches that I layered and edged as well. 
I love to make the gears look like they work and always try to keep that in mind when working with gears. And who can go wrong with keys?!? Awesome sauce! 

The bottles were glued using Glossy Accents (my go to glue for anything metal) and I added copper wire around some and other metal tidbits to others. 

This was a fun and carefree project and I am more than happy with the results! I do hope you enjoyed this altered tray. Happy Crafting! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

This project will be shared with the following wonderful challenges: 

A Vintage Journey-Anything Tim-HERE, I think this piece needs no explanation. lol 

NBUS(Never Before Used Schtuff)-#4 HERE. All the metal pieces and even the tray are NBUS

Artful Times-In the Style of Tim Holtz HERE Everything I used, except the tray is from Tim Holtz

Crafty Calendar Challenge-Add Metal HERE I do believe I nailed adding metal. :) 





Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Mini Hat and Guest Designer for Try It On Tuesday

Cheerio mates! I am super excited to be here today as a Guest Designer for the fabulous mixed media challenge blog, Try It on Tuesday! The challenges are always anything goes medium, but the theme changes so you can make anything (ATCs, scrapbook page, journal LO, tag, OTP, or anything your heart desires) that follows the theme. When Avril asked me to do a guest spot, I happily accepted and was anxious to see what the theme was! The theme for this challenge is HATS! I am thrilled to share my latest creation with you all!

At the beginning of this month I shared with you my first attempt at making a mini top hat as I was preparing for this challenge. This mini top hat featured today is taller than the first, but the process was just as much fun!

I started with my hat template from LostWax and cut out my pattern using crafters foam. I used red and black foam this time but it doesn't matter what color you use unless you are going to do a white hat, as everything gets covered with paint.  Cutting the pattern with precision is key! Using contact cement to glue everything together is very important! 

The first step to beautifying this hat was to add the rivets. These were made with Perfect Pearls (I used white but it doesn't matter the color because it gets painted over) then I Gesso'd the whole thing and after it was completely dry, I painted the entire hat with black acrylic paint. Yes, I paint the entire inside of the hat as well because my crafters foam will range in color. 

After the black paint was completely dry I went back over the rivets with Marble Vintaj Patina paint. Most of my metal embellies and Tim Holtz trinkets, were also painted with the Marble Vintaj as well. I then added the keyhole and feathers to the front of the hat. 

I wanted to use items I had in my stash and not buy anything for this project so I found some rose lace (a gift from a previous swap) and added that to the bottom of the hat with Tombow Multi glue. While the glue was setting up I added my white and black feathers to create some elegance. 

After the feathers were held in check, I added the metal embellies and clock pieces. 

I then added the black damask ribbon bow on the back because I just love the damask pattern. 

The following pictures were taken using different angles, lighting, and settings. 





These hats are just fun to make! The possibilities are endless and I am up to my ears with ideas! I do hope you enjoyed this post! Carpe Diem and Happy Crafting!

If you would like to enter this challenge at Try It on Tuesday click HERE. The DT are just a wonderfully talented group and the challenges are fun!

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments! I treasure each and every one and look forward to "meeting" you! Hugz! ~Niki 

This project will be shared with the following wonderful challenges:

A Vintage Journey-Anything Tim! HERE I always think of Top Hats when I think of Tim Holtz so I made a top hat.

Country View Challenges-Anything Goes HERE Happy Blogaversary #2!

Mixed Media World-Anything Goes HERE

Beyond Grey Challenges-#66 Mixed Media with more than one medium. HERE I used Gesso, black acrylic paint, Vintaj Patina Paint, and Perfect Pearls. 





Sunday, March 15, 2015

Gears, gears, and a Balloon?

Hello yall! This is my first Design Team piece for Sandee&Amelies Steampunk Challenge! The theme this month is Gears! Remember to check out the rest of the DTs work by visiting each of their blogs. Here is my finished piece. 


This is an 8x10 flat canvas. I started by applying Gesso to my canvas and then added texture paste through 3 different stencils. 
Then comes the sprays and mists! I made my own spray box so I could happily spray all day and not worry about color going everywhere. Just a cardboard box and some paper towels. 

I used LSG sprays, Luminarte sprays, and Smooch sprays to achieve the Steampunk look I like. I also added alcohol ink for the patina look. I could have stopped here but there are no gears!!!!
I then used Silks to go over the texture and make it subtlety pop. Then came the gears!

I love using Creative Embellishments chipboard pieces. They have a wonderful selection of Steampunk pieces to choose from and I actually won the chippies I used in this piece. :) I painted all chippies with Gesso first, then dabbed Distress Paint Bundled Sage here and there on the gears, next I spritzed with a copper spray and edged the piece with black archival ink. I adhered the gears with TomBow Multi. 

Next came the hot air balloon chipboard piece. I started by creating my basket out of leather strips that I weaved together. Then I used Acrylic Metallic paint for the balloon part and added copper wire around the balloon. Then I added ribbon around the "handles" of the basket and adhered it with Tombow as well. 

I used copper embossing powder on the chipboard word "Create" and lightly brushed it with black archival ink to give it a grunged look. Hope you enjoyed! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

Want to try Steampunk, but you aren't sure where to start? Throw caution to the wind and just give it a go! Join in for this months theme of GEARS! Just remember to use some gears and you are golden! You never know what you will create! xx


Thursday, March 5, 2015

Winner announced and a Tim tag!

First I want to announce the winner of my first ever giveaway! To determine the winner I wrote everyone's name on a piece of paper, threw all the names on the floor and had my Husky bring me one of the papers (it was a bit wet but still ledgible, love my furry baby!). The winner is Janine Stegman! Congrats and please send me your info so I can mail your tag to you!

March is underway and that means another Tim Tag! Here is my take. 

It seems like every time I do a Tim tag I don't have even half the supplies he uses. So from that perspective it is time I buy some more art supplies right? I mean, a girl can only hold out for so long, and there are many wonderful new supplies being released! I wasn't going to purchase art supplies until April but I am not going to be able to make it. Lol!

The Tim Tag Journey: 
I started with applying some washi tape to my tag and then using the Distress Paints I had on hand to create the background. 

I then added the butterflies. I used stickers because I don't have his butterfly stamp. :)

I cut everything that was hanging over the edge of the tag and then cut out a mask (leftover clear plastic from a stamp set-upcycle! and I get to keep the mask to use over and over) then taped it to the sticker so my stencil wouldn't be on the butterflies. 

You can see the tape in the picture above  and it worked out really well (IMO). 

I used the Crafters Workshop 6x6 "Art Is" stencil and homemade texture paste.  I then used C'est la vie Cerise LSG embossing powder. Heat the embossing powder AFTER the texture paste is completely dry (I did it when it was wet because I didn't read all of Tims instructions) Oops! But it turned out okay. 

I then added my beautiful blue ribbon and also used some blue and white twine to add my metal heart piece. The metal embellies went on last.

Here is a picture of most of the supplies I used. 

This tag is bright and cheerful and makes me want Spring to get here fast! I hope you enjoyed the process and have a lovely day! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments. It sure does mean a lot to me!

This project will be shared with the following wonderful challenges:

The Mirror Crack'd-Make anything using Wings HERE

Stampin' Royalty CHallenge 269-Embossing HERE I used the clear embossing powder on my butterfly. 

Crafter's Cafe Challenge-Use a Charm-HERE I used a heart shaped charm on the top of my tag.




Sunday, March 1, 2015

Mini Steampunk Top Hat

Thank goodness I am back in my craft room for a bit before the big move! I have always loved mini top hats and feathers so I decided I needed to try to make one. Here it is!
(It is sitting on a candlestick because I wanted it to? Haha!)

I have been on the look out for an awesome top hat template but everything I looked at just wasn't jiving with me. Some were shaped weird, or too tall. Some were made out of a dixie cup, some were even already made and just had to be embellished but I wanted an interesting shape and made from scratch. Finally about 3 weeks ago I stumbled upon Lost Wax! And my new mini top hat journey began!

THE PROCESS: Oh boy! This took awhile to finish but I started by purchasing a template from Lost Wax HERE (awesome guy and he has a tutorial!) and then used my crafters foam to cut out the template. Cutting takes the longest and precision is key! 
All my pieces cut out. 

Contact cement is the only glue that works for this. The white glue you see in the picture was my first attempt on the brim of the hat and I had to start over and use Contact Cement. Lesson learned.

This picture is everything glued in place and ready for paint. I learned that it does matter where you accidentally drop the contact cement because it shows through the paint but, for my first hat, I am okay with the oopsy parts. :)

Now the fun part! I used Metallic Copper paint but you can use any paint you would like. After the hat was dry I added Gold Metallic paint to some pieces. Then cut some brown leather cord to fit around the bottom of the hat. The "rivets" were glued on with Glossy Accents (I believe these "rivets" are made  for fabric and you iron them onto the fabric). I also added my compass with a brad and some more Glossy Accents. TIP-drink plenty of coffee before and during this process! :)

Next I tackled the other side of the hat with some feathers! Aaahhhhh feathers. I have accumulated many feathers from friends (human and animal alike) and my junk drawer is overflowing, so I figured that now would be the perfect time to make some room. Glueing feathers requires some finesse, because glue gets everywhere and makes your feathers look like a clump of blah real quick. Lol! I had to use the 13/11 because my lucky numbers are 13 and 11! Boo yeah! 

I added some pheasant, peacock (he is a close friend and very loud so I don't feel bad using his feathers), and small feathers to the side of the hat with Glossy Accents. I cut some copper wiring I found in another stash/junk drawer and wrapped it around my paintbrush to curl it and added that as well. Of course there has to be a gear in there! 


The small green feathers sure do shine in the sunlight! 

The following pictures are just taken in different angles and lighting. It is amazing how different a picture will be by changing the light, background, setting, etc. 






What a journey! I have loved making this little hat and plan on making many, many more (and I have plenty of feathers!). Now that the first is done, I do believe that the next one will be a lot smoother! Carpe Diem!

Thanks for stopping by my little part of the art world and I do love reading your comments because it is just so nice and sweet! Happy Crafting! ~Niki

This mini Steampunk top hat will be shared with the following:

A Vintage Journey-Special Numbers HERE My special numbers are 13 and 11.

Rhedds Creative Spirit-Altered Art/Mixed Media Only HERE

Our Creative Corner-Junk in Your Trunk HERE I used my art junk drawer that is overflowing with feathers ad other tidbits like the copper wiring and the leather piece.

Altered Eclectics-Altered Art/Mixed Media Only HERE

That Craft Place-Mother's Day/Anything Goes HERE 





ATC time at MMM!

Hello one and all! This piece is a bit more (okay, a lot more) girlie than I usually make, but it was fun to design. Today is the start of a new challenge at Mixed Media Mojo and we also have a new rules page.

Our theme this month is to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card)-2.5x3.5 and the Twist is to make a set of 2.  
I don't have any step by step pictures this time because I was having fun and put this little ATC together in record time, all the while forgetting to take pictures. I really enjoy making ATCs and also joining in ATC swaps. One of my favorite ATC swaps was with a lovely lady from Australia. So fun to "meet" people all around the world and our blog world lets that happen. 

I layered my background paper onto some corrugated cardboard and between the layers is where I added the lace. I was lucky to have joined into past ATC swaps where my swap partners were so kind in sending me goodies along with the ATC and this is where I got the lace from. Lucky girl here with Happy Mail! I then used my honeycomb stencil and pale blue paint to add some texture to the card (the ribbon kinda hides the stencil). I punched a hole in the top left corner and tied my blue ribbon to give this ATC some pop of color! I adhered the birdcage with a pop dot after edging the cage with brown chalker. The bottom of the ATC has lace and string wrapped around the lace. I then added the button, the metal bird paperclip and the key. The flowers were from my stash and adhered with TomBow Multi. Are you in an ATC swap right now? Or do you join many swaps? Go ahead and make your little ATCs and show us what you've got! 

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments, it sure brightens my day! Happy crafting! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

This piece will be shared with the following challenges:

Try It on Tuesday-Tic Tac Toe. HERE. I used buttons, cardboard and string

Natalie and Amy's Challenge-Flowers. HERE, BUT the flower has to be a stamped image or pre-printed. My flower is on my pre-printed background paper and also on my button. 

Open Minded Crafting Fun Challenge-Luck. HERE Most people think of four leaf clovers, or horseshoes but those have never brought be luck. I have been lucky to join into swaps with amazing swap partners that sent me some amazing Happy Mail.