Witch Postcard - Day 16 - Swap & VLVS! Inspiration

Well... it's been SEVEN days since I last posted for the 31 days of October Stamping with Smeared and Smudged. Man.. life happens, right? 

Next year I believe I will work in advance, haha. that was an embarrassed laugh if you didn't catch that. I AM Excited to share with you today's stamping, though! And it is has multi-purpose functions! It IS my day 16 stamping project. it is ALSO my postcard for the Fall Harvest Postcard Swap in the Viva Las VegaStamps! Groupies facebook group, AND It is inspiration for the Viva Las VegaStamps! Monthly Challenge! You can enter to win your own blog spotlight and VLVS! rubber grab bag. Plus I just REALLY like my project :) 

A Witch Postcard! I'm smitten! I started with a 4x6 piece of Canson Watercolor paper and gave it a nice layer of Liquitex Basics Gesso. I knew that I wanted to incorporate the circles from the VLVS! inspiration and was interested to see how Distress Ink would play on the Gesso.

After the gesso was dry I got a foam blending tool, Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink and the Chunky Circles Stencil from UmWowStudio. I applied the ink through the stencil and then spritzed SO slightly with water to make the delicious distressed droplets Distress Ink is known for. HUZZAH. The ink played really well with the gesso AND I have some nice texture in it between the water and the brush strokes during gesso application. 

Then I did some stamping using the Numbers Set and Waybill/Invoice Background from Viva Las VegaStamps! The Invoice BG was stamped in Archival Ink black by Ranger, but the Numbers Set was stamped in watered down black gesso from Prima Marketing. I also splattered some of the watered down gesso around the background to add another layer of depth. The Witch Holding Broom from Viva Las VegaStamps! was stamped in Archival Black by Ranger on Bristol board. Then I fussy cut her out and glued her down with UHU.

Next I grabbed a piece of black cardstock and trimmed it up to create a border around my postcard. I sewed it in place with white thread and my Brother machine. I also gathered up some chipboard stars from the Star Confetti set by UmWowStudio and applied them to the postcard with a pair of craft tweezers and more UHU. I'm becoming a HUGE fan of UHU.

And last but not least I put down some alphas from a dollar set I picked upat JoAnn. I'm a huge fan of the font, plus I got a black set and a kraft set. There are 180 alphas and they're the perfect size for this type of work! I think I need to go back for more. x.x

Well that's it I think! I'm so glad you were able to join me back up here.. and I hope I didn't disappoint you too much missing out on the last few days. Let me know what you think about my Witch Postcard and good luck to everyone who's in the running for the grand prize! 

Also please don't forget about the other participants on this journey. Hop around, leave comments, and be entered to win:

Terra Black Dragon Alison Julia Lyneen Kelli Maureen Sue DominoART Lost Coast Portal To Creativity

Susan Sarah Keren Lisa F Teresa Fiona Lisa H Stampendous Stamps Shell Sarah S

Airless Chambers Susan R Dream In Darkness De Stempelwinkel Leslie Rahye Kat Rebecca Lee Suzi Sara DeeDee

Be True {Button ATC Swap}

I'm up over on the Amazing Crafting Products blog today with a bit of inspiration in the
form of this ATC trio.

The base is Canson watercolor paper. I've distressed the paper using Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut STain and water. Probably my favorite distress technique. EVER. I also sprinkled on a bit of Color Bloom in leather by Prima and stamped the newer Weathered Tree stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps! in Archival Ink by Ranger Ink. Be True was stamped in Smoky Gray Versafine.

My ATCS have tons of dimension to them from found objects like leaves, metal embellishments, Chipboard Buttons from UmWowStudio, and ribbon from May Arts Ribbon. I layered all the pieces up with a nice heavy duty glue. The ribbon has been knotted and trapped between the leaf and stack o' buttons.

But the leaves are really my favorite part, they've been covered with new Heavy Gesso from Prima, dipped in Resin from Amazing Crafting Products, and then sprinkled with Donna Salazar's Fairy Dust Glitter.

Thanks for visiting :)


♥

Chunky ATCs

I've joined the VLVS! Fans in a Chunky ATC swap. And they're AWESOME.

I've made a sort of "statement piece" but tried to keep it a little light. Here are tons of detail shots and info. But if you're interested in a bit of info about using more delicate papers in your mixed media works, Join me on the VLVS! blog for a Time2Stamp video.

Now. Onto my ATCs!
{photo info heavy}

The rules were 2 ATCs -- one for the VLVS! Retail store, and one to swap with another participant. The base for my ATCs is light colored pine wood that's been coated in coffee stain. Three of the four sides have been covered in a vintage Card Catalog Card that the dear Amy has sent me.

The card has been distressed with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and water. I used two vintage drawer pulls from the wood section at Michaels (if you follow me on instagram @deedeecatron you'll have seen the power tools on my desk recently!) and some UmWowStudio Star Confetti to decorate the bottom portion of the front panel.

The kind of.. Shining Star of my ATC is a  Frozen Charlotte doll -- I ordered a set of them from Etsy and then molded them in Amazing Mold Putty so that I might use them over and over. The originals are sitting high up out of 3 year old reach ;) -- This doll is the 2nd smallest and has been cast in Amazing Casting Resin then splattered with coffee. It's held in place by adhesive, net and staples. Sort of a "body preservation" statement. The wings are Bat Wings from VLVS! and have been stamped in archival ink on vintage book paper. (That's the tip I talked about before.. visit VLVS's blog to see)

The right side is comprised of a piece of that card and a sneak peek at something coming to UmWowStudio soon!

The back is really great -- I didn't put any paper down, so that you might see all the hard work I did staining with coffee. It's really cool. I stamped with my new Clockface design from VLVS! Straight onto the wood for a really great grungy weathered look. More use out of my awesome Dymo Label Maker, and those big letters are the brand new DIY Printers Blocks from UmWowStudio.

The block bases have been painted with Distress Paint in Black Soot, and the letters have been left raw chip. I should say.... paint the bases before you adhere down the letters. Seems very "DUH" to me now, but I tried to adhered the letters first, and then was stuck painting in all the empty spaces. You can see some of them got a little dirty, lol.

The left side panel has a single stamp of the new vintage Penny Farthing from VLVS!, again in archival ink. If I don't use something permanent then I always smear it or make it run. With Archival I can stamp, heat set it, and then work on top of it with whatever I like. There's that NAUTICAL star sneak peek again ;)

 You can really get a good taste of the depth on these babies. I adore going 3D. I really do.

And one last final good looking shot of a single ATC.

June 2014 Tag {My Version}

It's been A LONG time since I participated in a challenge or a contest of any type... I loved the June Tag challenge of Tim Holtz's so decided to give it a go.

You'll also know that I LOVE making things my own.. and went a little neutral with it :)

I followed Tim's instructions about using distress pads on watercolor paper. Instead of using those bold beautiful colors he did, I grabbed my Vintage Photo, Brushed Corduroy, and Black Soot pads. I used them on the Star Confetti Mask from UmWowStudio, spritzed with water and stamped. I was pumped to read his tip about burnishing with a paper towel to pick up excess water and ink. Every other time I've tried this, it got a bit outside the lines. What a simple SUPERB solution. 

The paper base is a piece of 7 Dots Studio Cold Country cut with Tim's Sizzix Tag die. It's been distressed with Walnut Stain distress ink. The ribbon is the SK series of Silk from May Arts, and has been run through the same 3 distress inks used on the stencil/mask. Both of the stamps used are 2 I designed from Viva Las VegaStamps! (Butterfly Specimen, Wanderlust) in Archival Ink by Ranger. There's also a tiny piece of UmWowStudio's Layered Hexagons poking through the layers at the bottom.

The final sentiment (Believe in magic) is from Nature Walk by 7 Dots Studio. You can see in this shot I used a couple extra pop dots for more layers... and adore it! Siiiigh. Thanks for the inspiration Tim!

Stop by, get the info and see what everyone is linking up.