Wednesday 20 September 2017

Canada, the Beautiful! - at Emerald Creek Dares

Canada, one of the most beautiful country on this planet (besides Austria, of course ;), is celebrating its 150th anniversary - and Emerald Creek Dares are joining in with this month's challenge theme "Canada, the Beautiful"!

I am a huge fan of the 90s TV series "Northern Exposure" and of Canada's wide and endless forests, lakes and wild life in general and I hope to visit this wonderful country some day! And as it happens I have only just finished reading two of German writer A.E. Johann's wonderful novels about a poor German couple who fled to Canada back in 1749 when France and England fought over Nova Scotia. Walther Corssen there becomes a soldier first, then a Ranger, later he establishes one of the first fur trade companies there and is among the first white people who explore far west Native Americans' territories and culture. In his novels A.E. Johann describes the beauty of Canada's nature - so this challenge theme came at exactly the right time for me!

I wanted to capture the image of wide and deep forests and silent lakes at night, only lit by the Northern Lights in a tag, using mainly Emerald Creek embossing powders alongside my favourite Sizzix dies - two "Tree Line" dies (an On the Edge die and a Thinlits die) and the Evergreen Alterations die designed by no other than Tim Holtz. And this is the result:












Emerald Creek products used:

other products used available at Emerald Creek:

Distress Paint - black soot
Distress Stains - vintage photo, tea dye, wild honey


And here's how I did it:


I die cut all the needed shapes (one tree, two tree lines, a deer, two maple leaves, a branch and the tag) from heavy black cardstock. Then I used a very worn and old bristle brush to loosely add strokes of white Gesso to the top area of the tag (to create the aurora borealis).




I made sure the Gesso was really dry, then I used another bristle brush, dabbed it into the emboss it ink pad and added another layer of loose brush strokes over the white area. I sprinkled on my favourite, the awesome Fractured Ice embossing crystals, and melted them with my heat tool. 




Next I took my black soot Distress paint dabber and added some vertical brush strokes on top. I wiped off the excess with a baby wipe. Voilá - there was my aurora borealis! All made from embossing powder! 





I used more clear embossing ink to stamp the furthes tree line using the lovely Emerald Creek Aldergrove stamp and heat embossed the image with EC Mercury Rising embossing powder. 





The bottom area of the tag that was meant to form the lake, got a layer of Fractured Ice crystals directly on the black card (using my embossing dabber).



The Fractured Ice looks so great on plain black card, doesn't it? See the tiny blingy turquoise dots? I love this effect! 






I cut the die cut tree in half and heat embossed it with EC Moss Stone Green embossing powder. Then I dabbed on a bit of black soot Distress paint for some texture. 






The maple leaf were heat embossed with Charred Gold and the branch and the larger leaf with Burnt Copper Leaves embossing powder. The heart brad and the cute little pine cone charm were a perfect match! The linen ribbon was toned in using wild honey, vintage photo and tea dye Distress Stains. 







The stag's antlers were highlighted with Charred Gold as well. The two tree lines were heat embossed with Mercury Rising and Vintage Ivy textured embossing powders before I started to layer them on my tag with black sticky foam pads. 

Et voilá!





 Happy 150th birthday, Canada!!!!






And if you want to play along and celebrate too, I hope to see you over at Emerald Creek Dares!
You can win a fab $50 voucher to spend at the Emerald Creek online store! How cool is that!




But there's more! The Top3 will get a 20% off discount code for the shop AND everyone who enters the challenge can receive 10% off their order (check out the full info over at the challenge blog)! So don't miss the chance and play along!!!!

Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia
xxx






Monday 18 September 2017

Summer Farewell at Calico Craft Parts

Good morning, dear creative friends! I hope you are all well and have all had a wonderful weekend!
It's time for another short invite to the Calico Craft Parts blog where I am sharing a little mixed media project to say goodbye to a beautiful hot summer...




Simply click HERE to get to the post with the finished project and a detailed tutorial. I hope to see you over there! 

Have a good start into the week!
Hugs!

Claudia 
xxx






Friday 15 September 2017

My Heart Runs on Steam - Anything Goes at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Hi and servus and thanks for stopping by!

Time for the second round of our September challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges! Round one already saw a lot of incredible projects - and we have also already had some fantastic entries so far - I hope I will find you play along too!

I am still struggling with a nasty virus and more headaches, but it's slowly getting better and so I made it just in time for Team B's turn to share a little steampunk inspiration with you . So this time it's a quick project and I also didn't manage to take images that would show the steps. Sorry, but I was already happy just to be able to create a little happy mess at my desk without having my head explode.




The focal image (a stamp set from Carabelle Studio) was first stamped onto a manila tag and then masked so I could later paint it with transparent DecoArt media fluid acrylics (Quinacridone Red and Violet, Prussian Blue Hue and Yellow Iron Oxide). I painted it AFTER dabbing on the background paints - just in case I wasn't content with the outcome...



I finished the painted image off with a white gel pen and a bit of metallic sheen here and there. You can also see that I painted a bit of a shade around the jar bell to make it visually pop from the background (but it is a single layer tag!).

Instead of using a brush for applying the paints for my background I used a round sponge to dab them on and rather mix them directly wet on wet on the tag than on the palette first. I used DecoArt Americana-,  Student- and media fluid acrylics to create the background.



The sponge created really cool patterns that - for me - match the feel of patina and rust. I simply added layer over layer and went in with colours as I needed until I was content with the look.

The glued on chunky rivets are left overs from a board game my husband got for his birthday (I always keep the left over bits from the chipboard parts that come with most board games...just in case... ;)
I painted them with Raw Umber first and then added some "Vintage Brass" Extreme Sheen with a soft brush. Wow! If you compare the rivets to the little label that was done using DecoArt Metallic Lustre, you can see the difference...I like both to be honest, but if you really want extreme sheen the DecoArt Extreme Sheen paint will do the job. lol



I used one of Andy Skinner's cool industrial texture stamps to add the scratches with black archival stamping ink. Then I masked the image again and sprinkled on some white, black and orange DecoArt media Shimmer Misters and the last bit of (diluted) Extreme Sheen paint from my palette. 



I wasn't able to get a good picture showing both - the stamped text AND the bling from the paints...so here's a detail view so you can see the quote a bit better:



My heart runs on .... steam! What else? 








I hope you like my messy tag! And of course I also hope to see you play along with us over at the SASPC Challenge Blog! I can't wait to see what you will come up with!

Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia xxx



Monday 4 September 2017

How to store and display tiny treasures at the same time - a Calico Craft Parts Project

Hi, servus and thank you for stopping by, dear creative friends and followers!
It's once more time to invite you over to the Calico Craft Parts blog to find out about my latest project I have done with some of Calico Craft's latest craft parts!

Some of you already know that I love to go fossil hunting! Sadly most of my found treasures had spent the last two years stored away in closed boxes, wrapped up safely, but this way also hidden away from sight.
I simply didn't have a cabinet or other display to store them in AND have them at display at the same time...until Helen came up with the new tray kits in many different styles! They're just perfect and I will definitely be making more of these!



If you have some tiny treasures too that you want to store "museum style", my tutorial over at the blog might be the one for you!
I hope to see you over there! Have a good start into the week!

Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia
xxx