Time Flies

I have loved the color blue ever since I was a child.  To me it always feels so cool and calm.  Since flying time (not airplanes, literally time that flies by) makes me a bit nervous – it is SO easy to get caught up in all the things that have to be done, things you want to get done and the things that won’t get done – I decided to use my calm, cool and collected blues for this project.

I recycled a Priority Mail box panel for this project (and you know I have a ton of these boxes because I love getting mail & ordering stuff online).  It worked well but it warped a bit and I couldn’t think of a way to fix it (of course, all the embellishments and what not were already on the panel) and I had already left it under a heavy weight after I painted it because it was warping.  I think what I am going to do is once I can spray it with a clear coat I will somehow affix it to a strong wooden board and while it dries from the coating hopefully it won’t be warped.  BUT I am out of clear coat, so it will have to wait. But I didn’t want to wait to share this because I think it’s beautiful and hopefully you will, too.

I used a TON of blue inks, sprays and paints to make this, but of course, you can use any colors you choose.  I think the best part of this project are the LuminArte products because they leave a shimmer and shine like nothing else I have used (of course this is just my opinion.  However, I have used ALL kinds of shimmery products.  The only ones that come close are the Tattered Angels sprays).  I have a bunch of the H20’s and the Radiant Rain daubers (they used to come in daubers, they now come in spray. I just transfer my Radiant Rain to a little spray bottle – you can either use it full strength or dilute it) and I enjoy playing with them so much.  Anyway, I highly recommend their products.  You should see what the artists with the real talent can do to with them <grin>.  Here is the LuminArte Blog if you are interested.

Now this is an unusually long list of products but don’t let that intimidate you.  It’s only long because of the many different colors of blue I used.

OK – here is what I used:

Panel from Priority Mail box (cut to a size I thought I could work with)

LuminArte RADIANT RAIN:
Majestic Blue, Rich Cobalt, Wine & Roses and Stargazer

INKS:

Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky & Tumbled Glass

Adirondack Denim. Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black, Versa Magic Night Sky, Memento Paris Dusk & Danube Blue and Brilliance Ink in Mediterranean Blue & Top Boss Embossing Ink

PAINTS:

White Gesso (Liquitex), White Acrylic Paint from Golden, Tim Holtz Distress Paint in Chipped Sapphire

RUBBER STAMPS:

Tim Holtz Playful Journey & Life’s Possibilities (clocks), A Stamp in The Hand, F1846, Clock Face w/ Wings and a huge bunch of various clocks, sayings, etc. from companies that I didn’t mark down on the wooden blocks (if you recognize any of these & know who made them please send me an email!)

EMBOSSING POWDERS:

- The Powder Keg Merlot & Not Quite Rusted Penny

- Personal Stamp Exchange Cobalt Tapestry

- Moon Glow Two Toned Lapis Lazuli Blue Gold

EMBELLISHMENTS:

- Small Wooden Letters (mine are about ¾” high)

- Tin Can

- Tim Holtz Sizzix Movers & Shakers Mini Gears

- Miscellaneous small watch parts

- Wooden Gear from PorkChop Show (on eBay & Esty - he sells the gears with a cutout on them but I asked for plain ones & he accommodated me with no issue.  He also makes typewriter keys, mermaids, bottles & much more - you have to go shop & see what he is offering)

- Round Numbers Stencil from Coffee Break Designs (not sure if this is still available)

Whew – I am sure I forgot something!  

First, I gessoed my panel & the wooden letters.  The letters dried quickly and I began painting them with the Radiant Rain in Majestic Blue, Rich Cobalt, Wine & Roses – I unscrewed the cap and just dipped my paint brush right into the paint.  I wanted the letters to have an ombre look, but they had other plans.  I am still really happy with how they came out.  Once the panel was dry, I painted over the gesso with white acrylic paint; I debated about leaving it just gessoed, but I wanted the shine from the acrylic paint.  Once the panel was fully dry, I used the Distress Paint in Chipped Sapphire to give the whirly background. 

My whirly background

I literally pounced the paint, spritzed it with water and used my fingers to swirl it around.  My fingers are still stained!  While that was drying, I kept painting the wooden letters and started to choose the rubber stamps I was going to use.  I have lots of clock stamps but I had already had a few in mind.  So I gathered my stamps and my ink pads and just randomly stamped around the panel.  I also used the Radiant Rain in Stargazer to highlight the letters a bit and I swirled some on the panel itself.  It is a beautiful iridescent color that reminds me of prisms the way the color changes depending how you look at it.

 

I then took a tin can that was already cut and used that to die cut the mini gears.  I knew I wanted to emboss them and I felt it was important to use the “bubble” side (when cutting tin there is one side of the die cut that has a little wall around it; the other side is puffy so I call it the "bubble" side. When coloring die cut tin with alcohol inks you want to use the side with the wall because the inks are so thin & they will run terribly if you use the bubble side.  Trust me) so I was careful to cut the die cuts so I would be embossing the plain tin and not trying to hide the label on the can. One thing to keep in mind when embossing tin like this is that the tin heats up FAST! I mean fast – I think it took less than 30 seconds to emboss each gear – and DON’T touch the tin for a while after you emboss it – it is HOT and worst case the embossing powder will come off and stick to your finger which can seriously burn you!  I embossed each gear with a different color embossing powder and they came out wonderful. I actually could of done a project with just these! (making a note of that idea <grin>)

My tin can gears

Real watch gears and the wooden gear from Pork Chop

Once all the ink from the stamping was dry, I started fiddling with all the goodies I had picked out to embellish the project.  That took me the longest because I’d set it up, then leave it for a while, come back, move this over here, leave it – well, you get the drill.  I could do that forever so I finally buckled myself down and glued everything in place.  I plan on using a spray clear coat in glossy to further protect the panel but I am totally out of clear coat.  I don’t want to use gel medium because I fear it may smear some of the inks I’ve used.  I took some pictures to try to capture the beauty of the embossing and the sparkle but nothing compares to real life.

The finished product minus the clear coat

 I hope you enjoyed by tutorial.  I hope this inspires you to use some of your favorite colors in different shades & to recycle those boxes!

I’d like to enter my Time Flies project in the following challenges:

Unruly Paper Arts – Take a Powder

Divas by Design – Favorite Color Challenge 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Anything Goes!

I am also entering this in the monthly challenge at Altered Electics (Thanks for the heads up Bev!) Altered Art
Another monthly challenge I have found is Our Creative Corner, and the theme is "Words, words, words!" - I would like to enter this piece :)

NOTE: I received no compensation for this post.  Any information about products is purely my opinion.