Family Challenge at Paper Funday!

Hello everyone! Today is the start of the May challenge at Paper Funday and our optional theme is FAMILY.  I had a few options in my mind for this challenge, but decided to go with a family of cats; if you follow me on any social media I am always posting pictures of my cats (I have eight which is why I found this sentiment to be particularly fitting)  and talking about their crazy antics! I hope you enjoy my card:

I started with a handmade slimline base in white and covered that with the brick paper (this paper is from a pack I got in a bundle from My Favorite Things & I couldn't find it on their website) for the wall and used dark blue cardstock for the floor; pretending it's carpet, to give the illusion of a room.  Then I used my favorite black ink on watercolor paper and stamped all of the cats as well as all of the other items I used in my scene.  The sentiment was stamped on white card scrap and cut out with a fishtail banner die.  I colored everything with my Zig markers, cut out all the items and glued them to the card.  I had found a wooden heart embellishment with a paw cut out (discontinued product)  which I covered with Foundry gilded wax and being it a flat piece, I added some Diamond Glaze to seal the heart otherwise the wax just flakes off - it needs dimension to stay on something.  I watched the Tim Holtz video on Foundry wax and I had to get ALL the colors after I tried out the gold.  The pictures don't do this product justice - it really is amazing!  The heart was the last thing I attached to the card and it was finished.

I hope you enjoyed my card and maybe it will help you think of different ways family can be interpreted.  And most of all, I hope to see you join in at the Paper Funday challenge for May! Thanks so much, Christi

I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Krafty Chicks, #610 - Stamp Act
DreamValley Challenges, #269 - 4 Legged Friends
Critter Crazy Challenges, #62 - Anything Goes w/ Critters
Crafty Friends, #155 - Animals
The Diva's That Cut - Anything Goes
Country View Challenges - Cats and/or Dogs

Peace Sign decorated with The Robins Nest Dew Drops

 This wasn't the project I was going to share today but I feel it's relevant to what is going on in the world, so it is a perfect time to share it.  

 

I had purchased the Peace sign at Christmas time at my local Dollar Tree Shop knowing I wanted to make something out of it that would be on my desk year round.   I began by sanding the wood a little bit mostly to just get any slivers that were hanging off and generally smooth the sign out.  I then used gesso, in white, as a base coat.  I knew you'd be able to see the white but since I love the combination of blue and white, I was fine with that.  I started trying to keep all the shapes and colors consistent with each other on the individual letters, but that soon became impossible because some letters took a curve when others didn't and so on, so I just filled in the spaces with Dew Drops that continued the theme and fit; the sign isn't that big, it's only about 6 inches long and about 2 1/2" high.   This sign sits on my desk to remind me to breathe, chill and relax; to find that inner peace, even if it is just a tiny bit.  I didn't want to make something that would need to be put away once the holiday season was over and I feel that the word peace is appropriate any time!

Dew Drops that include colors that I used in my project: Sea Foam Diamond Dew Drops,  Sea Glass Tear Drops, Black/White/Silver Dew Drops, In Love in Italy Mini Dew Drops and Raindrops Dew Drops which is a mixture of all the sizes and shapes of Dew Drops in clear.  Dew Drops come in an array of mixes; so your Diamonds could also have some round Dew Drops in the mix and you may be able to purchase some colors in a single pack while some colors are only in mixes.  The suggestions I provided are just that; I urge you to take a look at the shop and see what strikes your fancy!

I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and take a look at my Peace sign! I hope you & yours are safe and happy. See you soon! Christi

I am entering my project into the following challenges:
Crafting Happiness - Anything Goes
The Funkie Junkie Challenge - Mixed Media
A Perfect Time to Craft, #3-2022 - Anything Goes
Creative Artiste, #80 - Anything Goes

My Art Part Heart

I love being on the Design Team for Anything But a Card - it has truly been one of the BEST things ever for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love making cards and such, but I find a great satisfaction when I make something that can sit on a shelf or be hung on a wall.  I remember the joy I felt when I discovered Wendy Vecchi and her Art Parts – how cool was this!?! All the hard stuff was done for me!  And her stamp line? Well, don’t go looking at it unless you have some extra cash – I love the entire line.  And I buy as much of her stuff as I can.  I’d like to think if we ever meet we’d be friends (and not in a crazy stalker way).  Anyway. . . this month's challenge at Anything But a Card is this beautiful color palette.  All I see when I look at this is serenity ~ so I pulled out my Wendy Vecchi Art Parts, my Distress Paints, some other goodies and went to town!

I love this and I look forward to seeing what all of YOU create.  But, in the meantime, here is my creation; maybe you'll get some inspiration and join us?

 

This project is made almost entirely of Art Parts (you can check out the entire line of Wendy’s Art Parts here, her stamps sets here  and you can find both at many retailers both online and in the stores).  What I used was:

1 Large Circle and Circle Frame

1 Large Heart

Sentiment Stamp from “Art Comforts” set, SCS110

Distress Paint in Fired Brick and Seedless Preserves

Wendy Vecchi Ranger Archival Ink in Red Geranium

Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black

Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy

Prima Micron Pen in Black (I think I used #2)

Brads with clear gem middles, 2

Wooden Flower & Leaves from craft store

Embossing Enamel,from Globecraft & Piccolo in Mossy Glen & Enchanted Aubergine

Embossing Fluid from Globecraft & Piccolo 

Previously gessoed old book page

My book page

First I gessoed the circle, the frame and the heart.  Once they were dry I used the circle to cut a piece of old book page that I had already gessoed and glued that on.  You don’t have to be perfect with this since the frame is going to cover the edges – thank goodness because my page was a wee short.  I painted the circle frame with the Seedless Preserves paint (straight from the bottle) & set it aside to dry.

I took a scrap piece of cardboard (thin cardboard, like the back of a paper pad), gessoed it and then stamped the sentiment on that.  Due to the roughness of the gesso, I used the Micron Pen to fill in where the ink didn’t quite hit the cardboard.  Then I took another scrap piece of cardboard and painted it with Fired Brick paint (again, straight from the bottle). Once that was dry, I glued the sentiment to the Fired Brick background, broke the arms off two silver brads with gems in the middle and glued them on. 

Almost all the parts

My heart

I took my heart, inked it with the Red Geranium, let it dry and spread the Rock Candy Crackle Paint on it – set it aside.  Got the flower and the leaves and embossed them.  Attached the circle frame to the circle, put the heart in the center, attached the sentiment to the center of the heart & finally glued the wooden flower & leaves to the top. 

I had actually thought this was done before I added the flower & the leaves – when I saw how well the Enchanted Aubergine Embossing Enamel complimented the Seedless Preserves Distress Paint, I had to figure out a way to add it.  Luckily, I came across the flower & leaves.  I think that the last touch completes the piece.  I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and had as much fun as I did making this! Blessings! Christi

 

I would like to enter my Art Part Heart in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - #259, Purple Passion 

Crafting at the Weekend - #1, Anything Goes

Challenges for Everybody - #41, Anything Goes

Divas by Design - Anything But a Card 

Stamping Sensations - May, Anything Goes

Halloweenie (?) Shadow Box (yep, another one!)

I made this little shadow box from one I got at the Dollar Store – I have had it in my stash forever but I knew someday it’d come in handy and I’d know just what to do with it.  Halloween is definitely one of my top 3 favorite holidays – I love spooky stuff and candy!  The box is only 8 ¼” from the very tip top to the bottom and 7 ¼” side to side so it isn’t very big but I love the little cubby holes and I wish I had bought more. I don't have any pictures of the construction of the box as it's fairly cut & dry; if you have any questions you can either leave a comment for me or use the "contact me" form.

First I gessoed the wooden shadowbox twice.  When I am working with wood, I am careful to ensure it is totally covered because wood will just soak up whatever medium you put on it and in the case of this, with all the nooks and crannies I wanted to be sure the entire box was covered.  And at this stage, I really didn’t know what I was going to do with the box and when I don’t know I try to prep for anything <grin>.

Here's the box after I painted it.

The paint is hand mixed dark gray acrylic (I used my trusty Golden acrylics); I just used some black paint and white paint until I found the color I liked & painted the whole box.  A trick I like to use when mixing paint is I mix it in a plastic cup so when I think I am done I can pop a piece of waxed paper over the top with an elastic and save the mix; inevitably I need the paint again, either to touch something up or fix a mistake and I have kept acrylic paint for days using this trick.  The last thing I want to do is try to mix the exact color because experience has shown me time & time again I won’t be able to do it.  Then when the project is done, or at least the painting part, I can just toss the cup away.  If I only need a little paint I will use those little plastic cups that come with liquid cold medicine and then I’ll wash the cup out and keep it; I have tried to do this with the regular cups but because they have ridges on the sides I can never get the paint out completely so I toss it even though I hate adding to trash.  I can never seem to get the perfect amount of paint out of the container – I always end up with too much, so this way I can at least try to save it.

Once my box was all painted, I started to fool around with finding things that fit in the cubby holes.  I measured one of the cubbies and cut little rectangles out of black and orange card stock but I kept having to trim them to fit in the holes. I measured again and again had to trim – well, come to find out ALL the cubbies were different sizes – oh JOY – at least it wasn’t my measuring skills this time, LOL.  But I decided I really didn’t want the box to be too Halloween like (Halloweenie?) in case I wanted to display it all year (I’m lucky, my honey likes creepy stuff too) so out when all the rectangles. 

I had gotten an order I placed and forget I even ordered the DCWV La Crème stack and once I saw it I thought, it was perfect for the background of the holes.  You can only see some of the paper but I like the fact that if you look really close you can spot it.  The pictures of the skulls, web, Devil, Edgar Allen Poe and the witch are all from clip art.  I got the really cool picture of the lady holding her head from Kris Dickinson’s blog called A Nostalgic Halloween (she is an amazing artist; check out her ATCs!), the two little girls are from a collage sheet from a company that’s gone out of business and the “eyes” face I had in my stash of photos – I don’t know where it came from but I think its Charles Manson.  The poison label at the top is an authentic label from my stash of pharmacy labels.  The swirl is a piece of Tim Holtz grudge board painted with acrylic black paint (I used my tip about the tiny cold medicine cups with the black paint.  Even though it wasn’t a hand mixed color I knew I missed some spots the first time I painted it and, like usual, I knew I’d splotch out much more paint that I needed, so I kept it in the little cup – worked great!).  The adorable black plastic cat is from an eBay purchase eons ago.  The 2 medicine bottles came from The Pork Chop Show – I glued little wooden circles (the size of bingo chips but without the number) to the back of them so I could have them stand out a bit.  The Dresden trim came from a kit club I used to belong to but it is easy to find online, I got the puffy fabric bat ribbon from the same club (but again, I am sure you can find it if you really want it).  I made the black crystal ball out of a marble glued to another little wood thingie (same as the kind I used above) painted silver with a Krylon Leafing pen.  I had the little bottle & ribbon in my stash as well as the little copper nuggets that are inside the bottle (I don’t even know what I am going to use the rest of the little nuggets for – don’t even know why or where I got them! <grin>).  The black chain came from a Dazzles sheet from Paper Wishes called Steampunk . I thought it would be cool to give the pictures some dimension so I picked a few, Edgar, the witch & the web and glued little wooden thingies (the same ones I used to make the crystal ball) to the backs of them and then glued them in place.

This is a view of the dimension.

 Lastly, the little drip of blood running down the side is a drip of resin I made when I had mixed too much.  Once it dried, I painted it with red acrylic paint on the flat side then just glued it on. 

Stunning isn't it?

There ya go – my Shadow Box – I really enjoyed making this a lot and I have quite a stash of various sized shadow boxes so I know I’ll make another one (I know I have one more with the cubbies in it - I just don't know where it's hiding). . .hmmm, is it too early for Christmas?

I would like to enter my shadow box in the following challenges:
My Crafty Life - Anything But a Card (over the end of November)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Rhedd and Rosie Challenge - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes

Get Inky! - 3D Holiday

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
Drunken Stampers - Goth or Halloween 
Left of Center Creative Challenges - Halloween or Creepy (entry 2)

Halloween Shadow Box & May Arts Ribbon Halloween Crafts Challenge

I had a shadow box frame I had bought at a hobby store ages ago & it’s been hanging around my craft room getting in my way so I decided to use it to make a project out of some scrumptious May Arts Ribbon I had gotten so I could play in their  Halloween Crafts Challenge  - please go take a look at the amazing creations that other artists made for this challenge; and, if you leave a comment about which project is your favorite you will be in the running to win some ribbon for yourself!  

The wooden frame did have a glass front but I took that out and will use it another time.  I gessoed the frame and then painted it with Lumiere Pewter acrylic paint – if you have never worked with Lumiere paint it is the most beautiful metallic acrylic paint I have ever seen & the colors are amazing! It is made by Jacquard Products and I strongly suggest you get a bottle – there are SO many colors and color combinations you can choose from & you can find them online or in art stores; I’ve seen them priced any where from $3.50 to $5.00, a pretty good deal since the small bottles are 2.25 fluid ounces and can last you a while.  Anyway. . .

Skelly's hanging with his bird friend

I had this very long old necklace I had gotten from a friend of my mother’s who was cleaning out her jewelry – the necklace had been broken once and there was a knot in it or I probably would have kept it to wear – but I cut it and used a length on each side of the box.  I altered a Dollar Tree skeleton (I had to cut him apart & rearrange him a bit) gave him a Dollar Tree bird buddy (who was painted with black acrylic paint long before this project) and made him a festive hat out of some of the May Arts ribbon.  I also added some ruby red gems to his eye sockets so he'd be that much scarier.

And a close up of his scary eyes & cute hat

For the back of the box I painted the panel with Golden Quinacridone Violet with some Golden Micaceous Iron Oxide mixed in (gives it a shimmer that you can't see in the pictures) and then I put some of the spider web ribbon on the top (doesn’t this ribbon rock!?!). I then cut out the Happy Halloween, in orange card stock with my Silhouette Cameo machine & glued it to a piece of the silky black ribbon and attached that below the spider web ribbon. 

My Bat

I had the metal pumpkin in my stash, attached that to the back panel.  I had made the bat already; he is from a mold I made with Amazing Mold Putty (the original of the bat is a metal stamping I have) and then he was cast out of Amazing Clear Cast Resin. I painted him with Golden Carbon Black and attached him to the top of the shadow box.  Done! 

DONE!

I love LOVE this box – it has to be one of the projects I am most proud of and it went together like a dream!  It started as one of those ideas that just seem to sprout wings and all the elements just flocked together (get it? Wings, flock? LOL).  I hope you enjoyed my project & I encourage you to visit both the May Arts Blog & Amazing Mold Putty (find the links within the post). 

I knew I had a better picture of the entire box!

I’d like to enter this shadow box in the following challenges:

•  Creative Cutting Challenge – Halloween, not a card (my SVG is the Happy Halloween Words) 
•  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Spooky 
•  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – Halloween or Halloween Colors 
•  The Ribbon Reel Challenge – Purple & Black with a Halloween theme plus Ribbon
• Anything But a Card – Orange and/or Black 
• Drunken Stampers – Wood (The frame is wood)

The Little Halloween Box from Hell

Did you ever have a project that started out fine but then became such a nightmare you were tempted more than once to just chuck the thing through the window? Welcome to that project.  The saga of the small Halloween demon box from Hell begins now.

It started out innocent enough – on one of my trips to the Dollar Tree (dollar store) I found a cute little wooden box with a magnetic closure.  Yippee!  That was the best part of this project for me. 

First, let me tell you I adore Halloween.  Love it, love everything about it; the spookiness, the candy, the weather, the colors, everything.  So I make lots of Halloween decorations, just for me to enjoy. And that is what I decided to do with my cute little box.  I thought I would try to do “things right” this time and I actually took the hinges off (and put straight pins in the hinge holes so I wouldn’t fill them with paint and lose them – I am so brilliant sometimes!) so I could decorate the box without having to worry about getting paint and whatnot on them.  I gessoed the box and thought about what color I’d like to paint it.  This is where my nightmare began.

I had bought some cheap acrylic paints quite a while back and I had one called “Sparkle Black” or something like that – I can’t tell you the actual name because I threw the thing away – and I happily painted my box with this wonderful paint, expecting some shimmer in the black. If you read my blog you know I am a fanatical “drier” – I let things dry overnight, at least.  Well, my cute little box got to dry even longer because we were hit with a massive heat wave, like two weeks in the high 90’s.  When I went back to my box, I noticed that the coverage wasn’t even – at all.  It was streaky and I could still see some of the white gesso under the paint.  No problem, I just put another coat on it and went about my business.  Well, when I went back to my box it stuck to the wax paper. I have never had this happen before but I dutifully touched up the spots and set it to dry again.  It looked OK, no shimmer or sparkle, but I didn’t really mind that it was a “regular” black.  This time I had put the 2 pieces of the box together and left it for a while as I attended to other projects.  The 2 sides didn’t exactly stick together, but I had to use some effort to get them apart which caused some of the paint to chip again.  OK, by this time, I am getting a tad irritated, but I touched up the spots and left it. 

I had gotten the “Steampunk Spells” DCWV paper pack and I compulsively save paper that I love so I was determined to use something out of the stack; my theory being if it is cut once it’s OK to cut again.  I had picked out a cute little label for the top of the box and had some of the paper die cut flowers and gears that came with the stack – so spooky!  As I went to try and see how the label was going to look on the top the light hit the inside of the box and it was STILL streaky and now I was mad.  I decided right then to throw the stupid paint out (which I NEVER do) and just break out my Golden Carbon Black.  After I finally fixed the paint (by painting over the box with carbon black), I took some old ribbon I had gotten in a kit and glued it around the edge of the top.  I then decided to seal the whole box with some gel medium because I was certain I didn’t get ever single spot with my good acrylic paint and if this box chipped one more time I was going to throw it in the road and run it over.  This painting part of the project took me about three weeks, between the heat wave, the touch ups and finally painting it with the Golden paint. 

Sure enough, I had missed covering some of the old paint.  And the spots I had missed became reactivated when I brushed the gel medium onto the box, which of course I didn’t realize until I brushed some on my ribbon.  Ok, I can live with the ribbon being muted by the now black gel medium; I didn’t really have a choice because I certainly wasn’t going to rip the ribbon off and start over – I mean it is a dollar store box and I was afraid it would disintegrate if I messed with it any more.  Plus, the thought of gessoing the box and painting it again was just NOT an option.  I think it makes the ribbon look more spooky (yes, I am trying to make myself feel better). 

The ribbon on the left is adhered to the box & the ribbon on the right (the nice shiny ribbon) is what it looked like prior to me sealing the box with gel medium.

I forged ahead.  I decided I needed a shelf inside the box because I was going to make it stand up as opposed to open like a regular box.  So I made a shelf out of a piece of scrap chipboard; all I did was fold it so it fit, in an upside U shape so I had a shelf & two "legs",  I then covered the shelf with black gaffer’s tape so it would have a bit of sturdiness to it.  To my surprise it worked! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the shelf before I put it in the box.

Then I began to fill my box with all the cute little goodies I had in my stash.  I can’t even tell you where this stuff came from because I have been collecting it for years.  Feel free to put whatever you have hanging around in your box.  I made the spells, elixir and notions labels in Microsoft Publisher and I used some of the flowers & gears out of the paper pack to decorate a little bit.  I glued my cut out on the front (I waited until last to do this because I ADORE this paper and I would have been completely insane if somehow this demon box messed up the label and made it unusable) and the little flower.  I did end up putting four black pony beads on the bottom of the box (and now you can’t open it up all the way or it falls over – par for the course with this project) and you will see the feet in some pictures. 

Not sure why it looks filmy in this picture

The box is on it's back here

 Here are the items I used:

The actual box:

Small wooden box (Dollar Tree)

Black Acrylic Paint (I FINALLY used Golden Carbon Black)

Length of ribbon for around the top

DCWV Steampunk Spells Paper Stack & paper die cuts

Glossy gel medium (I use GOLDEN)

4 straight pins for the holes that the hinges go in (so you don’t fill the holes with paint)

Handle brad (with the little things cut off so it lies flat)

 

Inside the box: 

Wooden Bottles (Scotty’s Pork Chop Show this is a link to his Esty shop but he is also on eBay)

Skull Button (with the shank cut off)

Krylon Gold Leaf Pen (to paint the weird head game piece)

Spell Book (I made mine out of a Mahjong piece, and covered it with the Steampunk Spells paper. Why a Mahjong piece? Cause it fit perfectly!)

Elixir bottle (I have TONS of little bottles)

Notions (I used a small white box for this)

Small ghost with pumpkin

Glass candy corn (I know this was a table scatter but can’t recall where I got it)

And here is the inside

I am actually really pleased with how it came out considering.  Please let me know what you think & I would love to hear your stories of “craft projects from hell.”

I would also like to enter my little Halloween Box from Hell in the following challenges:
C.R.A.F.T, Challenge # 128 - Autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving (I went with Halloween)
My Craft Creations - Anything Goes
Country View Challenge - Something Spooky (second entry)
Crafty Catz - #202 Time for Halloween
Creative Inspirations Paint - Inspired by Halloween (second entry)
DL.Art - October Linky Party
Hobbycutz Challenge - #19 Halloween
Left of Center Creative Challenges - LOC/Halloween/Orange/Black
Unruly PaperArts - Black (RAQ1)