White On White - Try It On Tuesday

Servus and welcome back to another edition of Try It On Tuesday challenges!

The new challenge asks you to create something

White On White

(which from my point of view is one of the supreme disciplines of card making and crafting....which is why I really struggled with this theme - but the results are worth it honestly - just hop over to TIOT and see for yourself ;).

Sadly this will be my last DT project for Try It On Tuesday and I want to thank my wonderful team for having this wonderful, wonderful time. TIOT was my very first DT and (also because of that) will always remain something special to me :). Thank you so much, ladies! You really helped me with growing into challenges and DT stuff and made me love it. 

I recently had some health issues which made me think.... and after I had thought enough I decided to reduce some of my crafting time and rather spend it on becoming more agile and healthy again (instead of just "waiting" for better times and hiding out behind my crafting desk). I also wanted to gain more time for creative experiment (which includes also projects that might go to the bin - and this should not happen when under pressure with DT projects to be done).

My white on white card is not white on white on the back honestly...*lol. I hardly ever manage to make anything without leaving at least one final fingerprint...*sigh. I really admire all those card makers out there, who are able to produce all these immaculate cards!! I definitely will never become one of them *lol.

But now to my card for your inspiration:

I did some dry embossing, some heat embossing (which is so very white on white that it was almost impossible to photograph *giggle) and some die cutting. And that's mainly it.

To make all the white shapes a bit more visible I blended the edges and raised areas with Distress ink "antique linen". Hope you like it (as it is really the best I can manage with card making I am afraid ;).

See you over at Try It On Tuesday (to admire and learn from your white on white projects) and I wish you all many many more crafting fun with the TIOT challenges. It's definitely one of the best places I know ;)

Hugs,
Claudia x

Colour Explosion - Try It On Tuesday

Servus!!!

Time to start a new challenge over at Try It On Tuesday! This fortnight we want to see some

Colour Explosions

which means you should use bright or seasonal colours for your makes.

I had played around with Distress paints and Tim's marbleing technique as I recently added some more colour tones to my stash. The "explosion" of colour was definitely intense - but then I didn't know what to use this background for. I knew - if I made  a tag I would cover up a lot of that background (which I actually did not want to this time).

Finally I decided to create two ATCs.

As the background was the thing I wanted the focus to be on, I only added some stencilled words done with DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Gold", stamped leaves (in black jet archival) and stencilled stripes (using one of the new Tim Holtz stencils and distress ink).

To make the gold letters pop out a bit more, I gave them some shading with a black felt tip pen. Done.

I hope you like them and look forward to seeing your personal colour explosion entered to our challenge soon ;)

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x

Halloween is the theme...

...this fortnight over at Try It On Tuesday!

It is that time of the year when witches abound, ravens talk and pumpkins show their true faces ;)

We want you to create something for Halloween. As always our challenge is an "anything goes" medium, as long as you stay within the challenge theme. If you need some inspiration, hop over to the challenge blog and see what the TIOT DT have prepared for you.

This month our Sponsor is "Smeared Ink", who will give away a $ 10 voucher for their store. They asked us if some of our DT would use some of their digi images for the projects - so I used the "wicked witch" on my tag.

I love how grumpy she looks ;)
On this tag I combined distress inks, crayons, stamping, stencilling and heat embossing to create a dark halloween-ish mood with some orange popping out as the focal colour. Hope you like it and have a lot of fun creating for halloween!

See you (and your entries) soon over at TIOT!

die amelie x

Steampunk Storage - Try It On Tuesday's challenge and a new tutorial

Hello and welcome back, dear crafting friends, readers and followers!

Today it is time for a new challenge 

over at Try It On Tuesday 

and this fortnight the theme is 

"Textures"! 

LOVE IT! 

My team mates obviously loved it too and created an awesome bundle of inspiration for you, so hop over to Try It On Tuesday to have a look around and be inspired!

This month we have

 Smeared Ink 

as our generous sponsor 

and there's the chance to win $10 dollars to spend in their store 

- so take a chance and join the challenges in October! ;)

It's also time for another tutorial. Yay! So get yourself a cup of tea or coffee as this is once more going to be a picture heavy post.

So here we go. This is my DT make for the "Textures" challenge and I so enjoyed playing with all of my favourite stuff - Acrylic colours, Metallic rub ons, dies, crumpled paper and crackle media!

For my storage box I used:

- a wooden goose eggs box, which I had hoarded since last Easter

- some DecoArt products:
- DecoArt Traditions Acrylic Colors: burnt   umber, raw umber, medium white
- DecoArt Metallic Lustre: Iced Espresso, Champagne Ice
- DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium
- DecoArt OneStep Crackle
- DecoArt Decou-Page matte

- some brushes, baby whipes, glue
- box feet, metal bookplate, brads
- Sizzix and X cut dies: layered wings, gears
- Sizzix embossing folder "rivets"
- black card
- sandwich paper
- DI "walnut stain"




1. For a start I cut a lot of gears from heavy black card.

2. Then I cut a pair of wings from the same card. I used the Tim Holtz "Layered Wings" die from Sizzix.

3. I ran the wings' layers through the Sizzix using the Sizzix "rivets" embossing folder.

Tadaah:

4. Afterwards I glued the layers together to finish the wings. They were set aside to dry.

5. As my box had a paper label on it which I could not remove completely, this inspired me to add some texture using sandwich paper.

To do so I tore some scraps of sandwich paper to glue them to the box (and thus cover the peeled off paper spot on my box).

6. I glued some more scraps to different areas of the box using DecoArt Decou-Page matte and made sure that I created a lot of crumples by squeezing and pushing with my fingers while the glue was wet.

7. I used Decou-Page too for attaching gears to my layered wings...

8. ...and also for glueing the gears to the box.

9. Then I painted the insides of the compartments with DecoArt Traditions acrylic colour "burnt umber".

10. For the outside I used DecoArt Traditions acrylic colour "raw umber" and stippled the colour to the surface instead of brushing it.

As the sandwich paper showed through after the first layer I added another one.

11. I also painted the wings with the same colour from both sides.

12. After the colour had dried I glued the wings to the box after I had inserted two tiny brads.
At that state it looked like this:

Then I added some DecoArt Weathered Wood Crackle Medium with some spots of my box.  (See the darker shiny areas? That is where I brushed on the Weathered Wood)

13. As soon as they were touch dry I covered these spots with DecoArt Traditions acrylic colour "Medium White" and watched the crackle magic happen.

14. I rubbed on some DecoArt Metallic Lustre "Iced Espresso" and "Champagne Ice" for some highlighting.

This made the crumpled paper texture and the rivets pop out beautifully!

15. I cut a piece of card (from a left over paper scrap from a Tim Holtz wrinkle free distress technique session) for my metal label and after stamping on it I gave it a coat of DecoArt OneStep Crackle Medium. After that had dried I added another coat and that produced some fine crackles in which I rubbed some Distress Ink "walnut stain" to make them more visible.

16. For a finish I glued the label with two brads and some idea-ology box feet to my altered box and let dry. Done!

Some more close ups:

I hope you like it and have fun altering your own boxes! Can't wait to see your makes for the "Textures" challenge over at Try It On Tuesday either!

Hugs and happy crafting,

die amelie xx

Going Dotty (Dots or Circles) at Try It On Tuesday

Can you believe it? Another fortnight has passed again and it's time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday!

It is called

Going Dotty (Dots or Circles)

We want you to "go dotty", so use dots or circles with your projects. The design team over at Try It On Tuesday have prepared a whole bundle of inspiration for you - so hop over to our blog and join in the fun!

I used some self-adhesive dots (which are usually meant for bureau use) which I stamped and coloured and glued to a tag afterwards. I had used this technique on an earlier tag and was asked about the how to by the girls from TIOT. You will find more details about the technique over here.

I also applied some decorating paste through a dots stencil and stamped some additional dots onto my tag afterwards using on of the Tim Holtz grungy textures stamps. The ribbon has dots on it too ;)

I did some sewing and hand writing for further embellishment. The "art" word is heat embossed using white embossing powder.

The white embossed word "art" was stamped using the Tim Holtz "Worn Text" stamps, which can be bought at SimonSaysStamp over here.

By telling you so, I enter this tag to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, where they celebrate Stamptember by using products available with their on line store.


Thank you for stopping by!
Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia x

Try It On Tuesday - "Hand made flowers"

Back from holls I am ready to join in the Try It On Tuesday team again and this fortnight we want you to use

selfmade flowers

with your projects. As easy as that (and the ways to create flowers seem almost endless).

I browsed pinterest for inspiration (and found a lot of awesome flower tutorials), but in the end I came up with my own idea of a selfmade flower (maybe because I am too impatient at the moment to play around with fiddly paper flowers...I am still in homecoming mode it seems and not completely at home - especially not with my crafting desk).

Those who know me/my blog, know that I am not very much of a flower-girl... anyway I am quite content with the outcome. (Hope, you like my flowers too ;)

I used three pieces of black wire, a cork, some wood buttons, lace ribbons and my hot glue gun to create a table card holder. The stamped image is one of the awesome Red Lead stamps!

Please, hop over to Try It On Tuesday to see what my fabulous team mates created for your inspiration! Looking forward to seeing your selfmade flowers soon!

If you scroll down a bit you will find this fortnight's challenge at FunwithATCs! I would love to see you joining in the ATC fun too ;)

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia x

"Collage!"...

...is what we want you to do for this fortnight's challenge over at TryItOnTuesday!

This means that - as always - our challenge is an "anything goes" as long as you show us a collage, which must also include some script somewhere ( ...and of course stick to the challenge rules in general ;)


I recently stumbled upon a lovely book about soldered jewelry and so I decided to take up soldering again. This is a technique I had learned over 20 years ago during my arts studies, but honestly never taken any further. But now was the time:
I created a collaged deco hanging with some of my favourite stamps, book pages and images: insects, script/words and plants!

I also wanted to use the awesome bookpages from an old herbarium, which were given to me by lovely ELLIE during a swap! (Thank you for this rare and wonderful treasure, my dear crafting friend!)
And they were just perfect for this project! I sooo love how they are displayed now.

I used 5x5 centimeter Memory glass plates, self adhesive copper foil tape and the soldering iron from dear hubby ;) - and I had a lot of fun!

In the following I will show you all six sides of the hanging ornament:

To create my six small collages, I used pages from the old herbarium, some script and animal stamps which I stamped onto beige card or scraps from the pages' borders and also some scraps from Tim Holtz papers which I stamped some images of insects on. Most of the scraps were cut to size, some of them were torn. All of them were blended with DI "vintage photo" around the edges. Then I glued them to place and put front and back images between two pieces of Memory glass. I covered the edges of the glass sheets with self adhesive copper foil tape and soldered around them afterwards.

Stamps used are from DeStempelwinkel, 7Gypsies and Artemio, stamping inks: archival black jet and sepia. 

Sssshh....my favourite collage is this one ;) :

Working on such small space is something I really like to do. But of course the collages you enter with the challenge can be of any kind and size you want ;)

I invite you now to hop over to Try It On Tuesday to see what my fabulous team mates created for your inspiration! Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to seeing your awesome collages soon entered with our challenge!!!!

I enter FSC's "Script/Books/Pages/Print" challenge with this make.(Thought I already had, but it seems I deleted this paragraph accidentally during editing :(

Hugs,

die amelie xx