Ever After...Well Sort Of!

It's time for another challenge at Simon Says Stamp & Show. Design team member Anna-Karin wants to see a fairy tale inspired challenge. So here we are, and off we go to Neverland , or anywhere else you please for "Ever After". Whether you go with a classic tale, use a quote from a story, or just tell a once upon a time kind of story in your art journal, we can’t wait to see what you do. There are no strict rules here. You could be inspired by a story, a character, even an idea or color scheme. From stories of princesses to flowers that talk, faraway places to under a rock, embrace your sense of whimsy this week and see where inspiration leads you.

 

You are probably wondering why you are looking at Frosty given the theme of the challenge, but when I kept thinking fairytale, fairytale, fairytale in my head, this popped up, and it's a diddy!

  Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
Frosty the snowman is a FAIRYTALE, they say,
He was made of snow but the children
Know how he came to life one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk hat they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to dance around.
O, Frosty the snowman
Was alive as he could be,
And the children say he could laugh
And play just the same as you and me.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Look at Frosty go.
Thumpetty thump thump,
Thumpety thump thump,
Over the hills of snow.

Stamps aren't just for inking anymore!  You can also use them to make images in molten Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, which I learned at Ranger U. It looks scary, but it's really very simple.

Place a Melt Pot onto a Craft Sheet...this baby gets hot! Turn it all the way up. Pour UTEE into the pot up to the fill line, and cover it until it's melted. Add a few drops of Melt Art Heat It Ink (I used Sapphire.), and give that a little stir with the spatula the pot comes with.

Add a thin line of UTEE in a metallic (I used Platinum.) but don't stir this time. It will marble around by itself.

Select your stamp and place it onto a stamping block. Pour the molten liquid and immediately apply your stamp image into it. You can do this directly on the craft sheet or pour it onto a Melt Art Texture Fade like I did. Wait about a minute or two until your UTEE is slightly hardened and not as hot, and remove your stamp. Wait another minute and then remove the whole blog and trim as needed. Allow it to cool and harden thoroughly.

Use Distress Markers to color in the image. Permanent Markers can be used as well. The finished piece will be fragile, so no throwing it around. Mine cracked a little, but some Glossy Accents mended it back up.

I had some left over wood pieces from my Christmas Village, so I thought I would use them to make a plaque. I colored the background with Tumbled Glass Distress Stain because I wanted to still be able to see the wood grain. I used Picket Fence to dab on the bottom to make it look like heaps of snow. I dried it thoroughly.  I stamped Snowflake images using Snow Cap Paint Dabber.

I applied Glue N Seal to some millinery netting to apply onto the plaque. You can also use the netting you get from bundles of fruit or other things.

I actually did the next picture part first, but blogger made it too difficult to reverse the photos...sorry. I added a little bit of Wendy's Embossing Powder (Have I mentioned I want to eat this stuff?) to the bottom part to mimic the texture of the snow. While it was wet, I sprinkled a little Distress Stickles Glitter over it. Glistening snow city!

I die cut white cardstock using the Tim's Sizzix On the Edge Snow Flurries Die. I ran this through a Snow Flurries Texture Fade. To give it strength and sheen, I applied a nice coat of Glossy Glue N Seal. When this was all dry, I adhered it to the side of the plaque.

I painted some balsa wood strips with Silver Paint Dabber. I trimmed them with my Dremel after I measured them to fit the plaque. Love him! Don't be alarmed at my plastic mat...I never clean it. It's like having scars that this chick digs. ;0)

I used Picket Fence to color in the letters. The beaded wire (Computer components...who knew? Thanks Linda Cain for helping me figure out what they were.) was attached to the metal and added to the plaque.

I wanted the faucet handle to match the bright blue arrows and words in the Snowman, so I  used Alcohol Ink to color it. I added a layer of Glue N Seal to it to seal in the Alcohol Ink and prevent it from evaporating off, which it sometimes does on metal. I colored in the letters of LIFE with Picket Fence Distress Stain, and used the wire to attach it to the faucet.

I inked up the plaque, hammered in the brads, and adhered the back part which will be the stand.

 

 

So what is your Happily "Ever After"? Is it something you like to share? If so, create your work of Art and enter it into our challenge. You might be the lucky winner of a $50 voucher to Simon Says Stamp. You can also be named as one of the "Top Three Picks" for this challenge. Good luck, and don't forget to see what the other DT members conjured up this week...pure magic!!!

 

Supplies:

I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

12 Tags Of 2013 - January

You cannot believe the squeal I let out when I read he was continuing on with the tags! Creative life just wouldn't be the same...right? Thank you for the inspiration Tim!
Nothing like waiting until the very last day! Here is my take on Tim's 12 Tags of 2013 for January. It's a little...okay a lot...industrially gaudy, but it makes me HAPPY! My hands have been stained for days...YIPPEE! Maybe I should add a little more! ;0)

And finally, after many inkings and stainings and combinations therein, I've also included an easy tutorial for a cool background technique (Which I used on my January tag.), that I finally figured out after trying and trying to achieve it this past year, to make a "Colorized Metal Blow Torch Look" on paper. It's an Art to make colorized metal and steel now, but back in the mid 1980's when I was a pimple faced teenager taking Welding and Metal Shop, everyone was cutting out cool shapes and making fabulous signs and such with acetylene torches, while I was just heating up the metal and making colors, being totally fixated on it. It all makes sense to me now, but back then, everyone probably thought I was a bit mental (Still do perhaps!) I love the color combinations and how it changes and manipulates itself....like a metamorphosis. If I could go back in time, I would have cut the metal into cool designs, colored it up, and sold the goods for thousands! Oh, and all the while buying all the IBM and Windows stock I could! ;0)

I've deduced that Aged Mahogany (My fav!), Rusty Hinge, and Walnut Stain Distress Inks seem to make the best base colors. I apply them using Tim's good old technique of blending the inks in a circular motion starting on the craft sheet and moving on to the tag to prevent lines. Give this a little blast of heat to dry. Sorry for the poor photo quality...night shot.

Here is the secret...applying Weathered Wood Distress Stain directly over the blended inks, and then drying. It never occurred to me to apply it like this, but it makes all the difference here. I like do it in stripes, only because that is how I worked my acetylene torch way back when. You will not compromise the color inside the Stain, as the dabber does not allow color in. If the pad get Distress Ink on it, just purge it on your craft sheet a few times while whipping clean the pad. Here is the tag with horizontal stripes, and....

...here is the tag with vertical stripes. Both of the tags are very interesting and really look like heated up metal.

Next, finish off using Tim's spritz and flick technique, by applying water in the palm of your hand and flicking it onto the tag. Dry it with the heat tool after a few seconds.

I got a little too much water on the right tag, but it definitely adds interests. I wish the photos were better, and I wish I found a good colorized metal photo on the internet, but here is the link to a youtube video of a man showing you how he colors metal with a torch. You will see what I mean, sort of, as he doesn't finish the piece, but you will get the gist. I will be doing this technique a lot, so I am sure I will be getting much better photos of the results again.

Back to my January tag...I embossed the horizontal tag from above using the gears, and rubbed straight from the pad, Black Soot and Walnut Stain Distress Inks in different areas of the tag.

I misted the tag with water and then with Ranger's  Sunflower Sparkle, Heirloom Gold, and Perfect Copper Perfect Pearls Mists in the spots of color that I thought coordinated with them, and then misted them with more water to dilute them a bit. I dried it thoroughly.

I took this in the dead of night and just couldn't get my lighting correct to pick up the way it looks like light is shining from behind the gears, so this really looks very plain, but it really is not.

The Sizzix Gears, Mini Clock, and Maya Road Wings were colored with Metallic Distress Stains, then painted with Distress Crackle a bit. After all of this dried, I inked it all up using Walnut Stain.

I added Tim's Idea-ology Ball Chain around the Clock Face and filled it in with Glossy Accents a bit to hold it together, before adding the crackled wings.

This is probably my favorite quote of all of the ones on all of Tim's Stamper's Anonymous images. I thought it was perfect to start off a new year. I stamped it in Jet Black Archival and heat embossing it with Aged Mahogany Distress Embossing Powder. I did the same for the Pointing Finger.

I wanted this Word Stick to match the Philosophy Charm is terms of patina, so I did my best using these Alcohol Inks. It worked very well, and looks down right old!

 

 

 

Supplies:


I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!