Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 35

My submission for the final Compendium of Curiosities Challenge (#35) over at Studio L3 is a cover for my Letterboxing journal. What is letterboxing, you ask? I'll tell you more about that below! It's very addicting. Anyway, I've used papers from Club Scrap's To You With Love collection, Tim Holtz Lost and Found pack, Graphic 45 Steampunk Debutante, and finally DCWV Travel stack. I've also added some grungeboard hinges and flourish which i've painted with bronze metallic paint. The other elements were done using T!m's design ruler. The center area is 4x6 and will serve as a mat for whatever photo I want to feature.

As I said in my post last week, the end of these challenges is bittersweet for me. I've learned so much and really pushed my boundaries which is awesome for any artist. The downside has been finding the time to do it and maybe not prioritizing what I should over it since i enjoy it so!

A HUGE thank you to Linda for being such a marvelous hostess and always finding something wonderful to say in her comments. In addition, thank you to all who have commented on my submissions; I truly appreciate it. Thanks also to all who have played along...you've given me so many great ideas for these techniques. Lastly, but definitely not at all least,

THANK YOU T!M.

You are an amazingly talented man and your art provides endless inspiration.

Hugs to all.

WHAT IS LETTERBOXING?

Letterboxing is an intriguing mix of treasure hunting, rubber stamp artistry, navigation, and exploring interesting, scenic, and sometimes remote places.

Here's the basic idea: Someone hides a waterproof container (box or zip baggie) somewhere (in a beautiful, interesting, or remote location) containing at least a logbook and a handcarved rubber stamp, and perhaps other goodies. The hider then usually writes directions or "clues", which can be straightforward, cryptic, or any degree in between. Often the clues involve map coordinates or compass bearings from landmarks, but they don't have to. Selecting a location and writing the clues is one aspect of the art.

Once the clues are written, hunters in possession of the clues attempt to find the box. In addition to the clue and any maps or tools needed to solve it, the hunter should carry at least a pencil, their personal rubber stamp, an inkpad, and his personal logbook. When the hunter successfully deciphers the clue and finds the box, they stamp the logbook in the box with their personal stamp, and stamps their personal logbook or journal with the box's stamp. The box's logbook keeps a record of all its visitors, and the hunters keep a record of all the boxes they have found, in their personal logbook or journal

Check it all out at:

http://www.letterboxing.org/

http://www.atlasquest.com/

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 29 AND...T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 10

Sad but true, I am still not done with my interpretations of T!m's 12 tags of Christmas. This is my version of his day 10 tag combined nicely with the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #29 that's been going on over at Linda's blog. I've used the purple twilight paint dabber on harlequin patterned grunge paper but that's about all I'll tell you of the technique known as Weathered Wood grunge found on page 50 of T!m's book.

The acetate flowers are a Technique Junkies technique. It didn't go very well for me for reasons I can't really go into without divulging too much info ;-]. I've only used 2 Club Scrap items for todays challenge...the soft flower and the bronze brad in the center of my acetate flower. The chain and washers were purchased at the hardware store. I gave the washers a few coats of AI to grunge em up a bit.

Now, onto the important part. The adorable little girl is my Grandmother (Dad's Mother). I never met her as she passed away only months after my Dad met my Mom. I grew up not knowing much about her (other than that she was an orphan)and had only seen a couple photos that I can remember. Some time ago, I came into possession (from a relative) of a treasure trove of old family photos. One of which is this one (i've used a laser copy, not the original!). I hope she likes what I've done with it.

T!m's 12 Tags of Christmas - Day 7

I did another door hanger. I've said it before, but I have a tough time doing art, just for the sake of art, so I always feel like it has to have a function. Also, I've slowed waaaaaay down on my production due to getting ready for a final exam and prepping a final paper/presentation.

This shape is slightly different from the last and I've used paper from Club Scrap's Arts 'N Crafts collection for the base. For the JOYFUL letters, i've used a combination of thickers and grunge board letters which I inked with DI's and stamped with the Dreamy Collage wood mount stamp from Club Scrap's Expressions kit.

I made my own sticky back canvas...works like a charm. I just used some inexpensive duck/canvas (you can also just buy a drop cloth from the hardware store) cut it into manageable lengths and run it thru the xyron.Additionally, I don't have the color wash, but I just mixed some of my distress ink re-inkers into my mini mister with water and it sprayed beautifully on the homemade sticky back canvas....probably could add a little perfect pearl and you'd have it all in one mister, but I opted to then spray with a glimmer mist. I then hand cut my poinsettia petals and leaves. I've used the rays embossing folder and covered that area with Rock Candy Stickles which caused some of the red to bleed off onto the paper, but oh well, there are no mistakes in art, right?

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 23

Hello to all. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a blessed day full of good food, friends, family and fun! I've been loving my 4 day weekend which is sadly coming to a close tonight. But, I thought I'd get my submission in early just in case I can manage to find any time to play along with T!m's 12 tags of Christmas later this week. I'm so excited i can hardly stand myself!

Linda's challenge this week over at Studio L3 is the Double Distress technique (details of the challenge can be found here at her blog and details of the technique can be found on page 40 of T!m's Compendium of Curiosities. I've departed from my pennants for this week.

Double distress was done with the brick & woodgrain texture fades (on the fireplace front in grungeboard & and trim pieces in paper, but my Silhouette was working OT on this challenge. I cut about 45 holly leaves for the wreath and several sets of flames, all of which were colored in one way or another with distress inks and sprayed with perfect pearl mist. The stockings were also cut on the Silhouette. The paper (as almost always) comes from Club Scrap (it's just the best quality stuff out there!!). I've used several pieces from an older kit called Old South. The fireplace and hearth are constructed from book board (which I cut on my power miter saw....felt good to use a power tool for a change!) The Peace On Earth text was just done in PSE and printed onto another piece of CS paper from Old South, and the banner is a trick I picked up from the abundantly talented and lovely Jennifer McGuire.

I'm planning to dig through my basement stash and find an 8x10 shadow box frame (which I know i have somewhere, lol) to put this in. I was thinking of making these as gifts, but this one took me so long, I'm not sure i have enough time to invest for the number of them I'd like to make. Now that I've made one though, I'm sure subsequent ones would go faster.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 20

Something must be seriously wrong because I've already completed my Compendium of Curiosities Challenge and it's only Tuesday??? What's up with that? This week, Linda has tasked us with the Industrial grunge technique which is found on page 54 of this fab book by the genius T!m Holtz.

I've used the wings & crown grunge shapes and a piece of K & Co paper for the pennant itself. The 8 (for banner CRE8) is cut on my Silhouette from a piece of paper from Club Scrap's Scholarship kit. The metal time piece is from another Club Scrap kit (i just don't know which!).

Hope all is well with you and yours on this election day....thank goodness the commercials can stop airing!!!!

In addition, I'm submitting this piece to these other challenges (all first timers for me!) Go check em out.

• Paper Playtime - Clock, ticket or tag
• Aly's Sunday Challenge - Distress
• For Fun Challenges - Use Metal
• Incy Wincy - Anything Goes
• Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 15

It doesn’t matter how many times I use AI’s, I fall in love all over again! They give such amazing results (usually!). So, for this week’s Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Linda’s fabulous blog the technique is called Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge (it’s on page 53 of T!m’s amazing book).

I departed from making cards again for this one because I have had it on my list to do for far too long to make one of these earbud holders that I saw here. That one is leather and much more costly, but I knew I could duplicate this with Grungeboard the minute I saw it. I just created a pattern, traced and cut it out of grunge board (harlequin). For the strap, I just cut a straight rectangle of grunge and notched it so that you can easily hook and un-hook it. I used glossy accents to glue the strap to the shape and voila, my creation is fini (mixing my languages a bit there I think). Of course I could punch the hole and add a grommet/eyelet and chain to be able to clip it to something, but I've chosen to not do that just yet until I decide how i plan to carry it. I made 2 of them (including the strap) quite easily out of one sheet of grunge board and I plan to make more as gifts. The blue one is for my phone earbuds, so I stamped it with the words Call Me! and Hello from Club Scrap kit called Gimme A Ring. The pink/purple one is for my ipod and is stamped with the words Rockin Girl and a very small stamp of sheet music. You could also add your name or initials or anything you want.

Pardon my blurry photos...not sure why I had such trouble photographing these.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 10

Hello all...I hope you are having a good week! I was finally inspired for Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge tonight looking at my photos from Stampaway 2010. One of the booths had some Wizard of Oz themed cards and I instantly thought, what needs stickles more than a pair of ruby red slippers??? So, here's the card I made. The paper is all from Club Scrap (Black is from Cruisin Kit, Red is from Ornamental Kit, Yellow is from Common Threads Kit and the tiny Silver is from Culinary). I ran the yellow thru Tim's brick embossing folder and sprayed with Pearl Glimmer Mist. The ruby red slippers were manipulated a bit in PSE and then printed out and then covered with rock candy distress stickles. The wand is made from a narrow strip of grungeboard that's been inked with Black soot. The phrase is from a stamp set called "You Go Girl" made by The Paper Company Studio and was snagged recently on a visit to Big Lots. Thanks for looking.....Thank goodness tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 9

Here i am again, just getting this submitted under the wire and also I have a confession to make. I think Tim's products are wonderful and I own many and want to own just about all of them.......exception: distress crackle paint. I am not a fan. It dries up and becomes useless. I'm not the only one who has had this problem, so I do not have any that I can use and I don't plan to buy it again unless the formula is improved. So, i had to improvise with another crackle product that is a two step process and the results aren't nearly as cool...what's a girl to do.

This "handsome devil" is my SO as a child (isn't he precious?) I took a scan of an old photo and added devil horns (which you can't even see) and colored his shirt red in Photoshop. I coated corrugated cardboard with silver paint, then a layer of crackle medium and finally top-coated with a red. I REALLY need to invest in some good quality paints (like Claudine's), but again, i used what i had on hand. The flames and pitchfork were found online and cut with my QK Silhouette and the Grungeboard letters were painted with the same silver paint under the red. Although you can't tell it, i inked the mesh with mustard seed and the handsome is inked with spiced marm. There are probably many more layers and such i could add, but I'm tired and I think I'm afraid of ruining what I do have. TFL

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 5

Distress Embossing - Boy did I struggle with this week's challenge. Biggest obstacle is that I don't own any distress embossing powder...oh horrors. I know, I know, I should be taken to the woodshed and properly disciplined. I plan to purchase some online as soon as time allows, so please forgive me!! I ended up finding a "recipe" online for distress embossing powder, and although I'm not thrilled with the final results, it's all I have to submit...sorry.

This is a tag that was started a while ago and this little owl (which is distress embossed) was the final touch.