Raise the Curtains! The Mesmerist!

It's April Fools Day here in the USA, and unwittingly, my art journal pages embrace this holiday!

What would happen if the rabbit escaped from the hat and took over the show? Well, you are about to see for yourself! Trust the magic of the Mesmerist, even when of the hare variety. Little Miss Hare has mesmerized Lady Violet, and is raising her up to the curtains! What else could be in that rolling cart of tricks? Or maybe that is where Miss Hare has stashed the Mesmerist!

It all started with a couple of art journal pages I had sprayed long ago with some Dylusions inks.

This turned out to be the perfect project to use some of my new goodies on! Cracked Pistachio Distress paint, and a Tim Holtz Flourish stencil to create the background. I just flipped the stencil over and laid it down on the left...plenty of paint on it to get the design.

 

I am liking how the Pistachio looks against the reds and oranges. Another new item I found, Gelatos in Steampunk colors...I mean, who could resist these!

Steampunk Gelatos and new distress markers to color some images I'd stamped long ago with Character Construct stamps. As you can see I really didn't worry about coloring in the lines, since I was going to fussy cut these.

More new playthings I had to try! Copper crackle, Zinc glass beads and Henna mica flakes from Finnabair, I used at the bottom of the pages to add some lovely texture. I was wiping the crackle on the page with a "credit card" and happened to pull it up. I noticed it was making these vein like designs, which I thought was cool, so I did it to the rest.

Next up, some background stamping with my new Finnabair stamps, oh I do love these!! Stamps are from Rust and Dust and Trust the Magic. Can you tell the delivery van has been stopping by my house a lot lately?

Next up, some details of the pages... My curtains are made of tulle from Stampin Up, with some hand dyed ribbon and metal. I could not resist stamping "move me" under Lady Violet!

Miss Hare trusting the magic and wielding the magic umbrella. She has hidden the Mesmerist somewhere, perhaps in the cart of tricks. Not even the strong fellows holding the curtains back have found him yet.

Always, always, trust in the magic! Especially on April Fools Day!

I hope you will join us at SanDee and amelie's Steampunk Challenges! Be sure to check out all of the wonderful inspiration from the design team this month, and we have a great sponsor too, Inspiration Emporium! Now, it is your turn to Raise the Curtains!! I can't wait to see what you create.

 

Frayed Fabric Challenge: CC3C

The new challenge at Compedium of Curiosities is Tim Holtz's frayed fabric techñique. In Volume 3, you can find this on page 66. To get some great inspiration for this technique, travel on over to the CC3C site here. Tim and Mario sponsor each challenge with great prize packages, and Inspiration Emporium is donating a $50 gift certificate for this challenge - Yay!! I decided to try this technique out for a couple of projects, and here are the four that I made.

I layered the fabric and sandwiched a piece of green inbetween to add some sturdiness. Played with different stitches, painted with acrylics, doodled with my white pen, added some distressed letters, and Voila!

I must be thinking Valentines? And with the third, thoughts of spring were in my mind as we headed to about 30 below! Brrrrr!

These three are headed to a 4x4 art exchange with the theme of sewing...I just decided to sew!

My final piece I created with the steampunk challenge "lucky 3" over at SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges here. My favorite number is three, and I always consider it my lucky number. I've echoed the three, 3x...the number, the word, and the three gears.

Oh, what the heck! The challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "make new friends but keep the old"...one is silver and the other's gold (song from my Girl Scout days), so I am going to enter these also. Old fabric, well, I've had it quite awhile and had not done anything with it, and new technique-painting the fabric with acrylics.

I must say, these challenges make me work with materials in new ways, and are a great incentive to dig into my stash and pull out those long hoarded items like the fabric. I am loving this creative journey!

Finding My Mojo!

So, today, I finally found my mojo again....cleaned and organized my craft area in anticipation of getting back into the creative mode. Traveling and a bout of addiction to reading the last month or so...oh, well, no more excuses!

Spine details with charms

Challenges times 3!

CC3C challenge information can be found here. Can you believe we are on challenge #13 in Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosites, using the worn cover. It is a lot of fun, pushes your creative bounds and has a ton of great inspiration! You can still get a copy of the book and join in. This challenge is being sponsored by Inspiration Emporium, and they have a lot of cool stuff you can buy, or win!

Used my distress inks to add some color inside and out. I am always surprised to see what I end up with.

So over at Simon Says, the challenge is "Anything Goes"! Love when they have this challenge, it's like a license to play! Information here.

Take the airship over to SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges here, where the challenge for October is "Steampunk Couture".

Makes it fun, fun, fun to roll these challenges into one!

So with my worn cover ready, it's now time to go steampunk! Added some gears, sewing pattern, jewels to the background and worked on my gal. Added a skirt, goggles and a few more bits and baubles. She is ready to climb into the nearest dirigible and fly the skies in her high fashion ensemble.

They say behind every good woman is a man, so the back cover is devoted to the gentlemen, whether they are posers or high fliers. (Love that little propeller) inked up some Tim Holtz papers, added gears and jewels, stamped and drew on the handlebar mustache.

I made the book into a photo book, did not have the right size binder, so experimented with waxed thread and rings...seems to work ok.

Details, details...

There you have it! Steampunk Couture book done, and the creative spirit is working again! Hope you have enjoyed this little journey, thanks for flying in. What's that I hear? My airship is here, gotta go!

Stamp Camp Thank You Cards

I love my blueprint stamps from Tim Holtz, and these ocean themed ones are perfect for thank you cards to exchange at Stamp Camp. I stamped the images onto watercolor paper with archival ink, then used my distress inks and water. Love the colors! I went over the images with glitter pens to add a bit of sparkle.

Now, over at Simon Says the challenge this week is "scratched" and to me these stamps have a delightfully scratched appearance, as well as the inked edges give it an aged appeal.

At Inspiration Journal, the theme is "everything goes" so entering these in that also.

 

CCC3 Painted Industrial

Challenge #7 at Compendium of Curiosities is Painted Industrial (p.46), one of my favorites, because it leads perfectly into the steampunk style I love. The challenge for week four at Camp Scrap with May Flaum is to identify something you do that you love, and this is an example of what I love to create. This challenge is sponsored by Inspiration Emporium with many thanks. I started with a 7 Gypsies rubber band book, and painted the covers with distress paints.

Next step, "painted industrial"

 

Covers of my Gentleman's Journal.

Details....

 

Inside pages...

Well, it just so happens that the challenge at Simon Says Stamp is "J is for..." And since this is a Gentleman's Journal, I will also be sending it there.

Now, to find the right gentleman for the journal!

 

Inspired by some challenges

First challenge: to make a birthday card for a friend who turned 50 this year, special year=special card!

I was inspired by this tutorial by Chelle at Inspiration Emporium here using tape to block out part of the design. She used tissue tape, I had painter's tape nearby.

Second challenge: Inspiration Emporium Summer Fun!

So, what do you think of when you think summer? I think of the beach and the many family vacations we have taken there over the years....sand, sunburn, waves, fun! So, I thought a beachy card would be perfect. Stamp up some images from Tim Holtz (love these blueprint stamps) on water color paper, use distress inks to make the background, and water colors to do the images.

Cut my images out and arrange them...fleck with white paint spots...

Doodle the background a bit, add glitter pens...and I have a special birthday card ready for tonight.

Can't forget the message inside, so using some inspiration from my lettering classes with Joanne Sharpe, I added this.

 

Third Challenge: Simon Says Spots and Dots - why not? A splatter of spots outside and dots inside...

Happy Friday everyone!

CC3C Challenge #2 and beyond: Distress Glitter

Tea anyone?

I've been playing with found objects to create a little figure...it's a little steampunk robot that serves tea. I enjoy a bit of afternoon tea time now and again, and I had several challenges before me. So my lil robot will be "serving tea" at these challenges:

CC3C here and special thanks to the Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge!

SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenge "heavy metal" here.

And over at the Inspiration Emporium the challenge here is to "celebrate". One of my favorite ways to celebrate is to go out to high tea with friends.

Oh look, the dancing girl is coming to tea!

 

I used distress glitter on the robot's head, and added jump rings for curls. I also used it around the clock face and inked it a bit, and on the tea time banner.

A bit more detail and you can see the "steam curls"coming off the hot tea.

Here is what you get when you find things like dominos, little light bulbs, clock faces, binder clips...and you think like I do. My little tea time robot will be heading off to an exchange with my art group.

Hope you have enjoyed some tea while reading through this!

 

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge (CC3C)

The Curiosity Crew at over at the CC3 challenge here have some great things going on, and what a crew of talented folks on the "crew". It all begins with Tim Holtz and his third Compendium of Curiosities,and here was my message when I opened my book.

So, of course I got curious...

And decided what better way to go through my book than with these challenges! You might want to "get curious" and join in the Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge with me :) so, thanks in advance to Tim and Mario, the Curiosity Crew, and the Inspiration Emporium and the Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring the FUN!

Get your book, open it up, and PLAY...

Started here...

 

Traveled to here...

 

Here is where my journey took me!

Yup, I had fun! Here they are again one by one.

 

Do you have a favorite?

So get your book to learn how to do this, and come play along!

As a matter of fact, I think I will also enter this into the Inspiration Journal "Celebrate" challenge here.