28th September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
I’m excited to share my guest tutorial over at Ranger Ink today with a step-by-step Halloween themed mixed media canvas.
I hope you will take a moment to stop by and take a look. There are lots of step-by-step tutorials from other guest artists in the Ranger Ink Project Library.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with my first design team project for Frilly & Funkie.
Category Craft, Halloween, Mixed Media Canvas, Ranger Ink, Tutorial | Tags: | 6 Comments | Views: 554
26th September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
I’m very excited to share my second contribution to the Tim Holtz Halloween Inspiration series using the new seasonal idea-ology from Tim Holtz as well as the new movers and shapers coffin box die, which is TO DIE FOR, (pun intended)!
To begin with, take an idea-ology configuration box 6.75″ x 8.75. I used the lid and the insert boxes and put the base box away to use for another project.
As the lid of the configurations box is a little wider than the base, I used one of the small insert boxes to build up another box so it would fill the space.
Paint the base box frame and the edges of the insert boxes with black soot distress paint. Once completely dry, cover with a layer of clear rock candy distress crackle paint and allow to air dry.
Use a selection of the scrumptious new regions beyond paper stash to line the insert boxes.
Measure the inside of the boxes, cut and score the paper and adhere with matte multi medium.
Glue the plastic sheet that comes with the configuration box to the inside of the frame using matte multi medium. Cut and glue a panel of paper for the space where the insert boxes won’t cover. I used the funeral advert from the regions beyond paper stash which fit perfectly with my theme. Turn the box over and cover the plastic with a panel of paper cut to fit inside the frame, again using matte multi medium.
Gather together idea-ology ready to decorate your configuration box.
Paint idea-ology letterpress with distress paint and allow to dry. Sand lightly with a sanding grip to give an aged look.
The new movers and shapers coffin box die really is TO DIE FOR, (pun intended again)! There is space to use the co-ordinating tiny bat, shield and cross dies! I cut the coffin box with the tiny cross from Ranger mixed media cardstock and embossed with the wood planks texture fades folder.
Before assembling, add vintage photo distress ink with a mini ink blending tool and ground espresso distress ink lightly over the top to highlight the embossed parts. Brush over a layer of matte multi medium to seal and give a slight sheen. Mount a small piece of plastic to the under side of the coffin box lid. I glued the lid of the coffin box to the base as I wanted it to stand up in my configuration box without the lid falling off.
Take an idea-ology corked dome and cover the cork with picket fence distress stain. Once dry paint ground espresso distress stain to the lower portion of the cork. Cover idea-ology heirloom roses with alcohol inks and set aside to dry. Fill the dome with the roses and glue the cork on with glossy accents.
Adhere to the configuration box with a little hot glue.
Alter idea-ology apothecary and tiny vials. I LOVE the sheet of labels that comes with the new seasonal idea-ology apothecary vials!
These are idea-ology tiny vials covered with matte multi medium to give the glass “tooth” and then covered in metallic mixatives alcohol inks! The corks are stained with ground espresso distress stain and labels from the idea-ology apothecary vials set.
The wing of bat vial is filled with black soot distress glitter and a bat from the idea-ology adornments oddities set hung from the halloween trimmings. The spider legs bottle is covered with matte multi medium and clear rock candy distress crackle paint and once dry, picket fence distress paint brushed over the top and the excess wiped away. It gives an impression of spiders webs stuck to the outside of the vial. I covered a spider from the adornments oddities with glossy accents and rusty hinge distress glitter. All the bottles and labels are from the new idea-ology apothecary vial set.
Using more idea-ology apothecary bottles I painted a line of picket fence distress paint to the corks and once dry, rubbed regions beyond remnant rubs over the top.The texture of the cork slightly inhibits the rubs, but I love the distressed and aged effect it gives.
Screw idea-ology screw eyes into the under side of an insert box and hang wishbones from them. Use a pokey tool to gently push a hole through the wishbone. I filled an idea-ology corked vial with Ranger antiquities weathered white embossing powder and a cut up wishbone to look like bones. I rubbed “bone dust” from the regions beyond remnant rubs onto a label from the idea-ology vial labels. I cut up another wishbone and adhered it with glossy accents.
I used a whole pack of the idea-ology boneyard skulls. In fact the name of these, “boneyard,” gave me the idea for the wishbone garden and the skulls all stuffed into the smallest insert box. I left the hot glue trails to give a cobweb effect, (this was a happy accident that happened when I was hot gluing the skulls into the insert box).
My favourite insert box was this tiny skull garden using idea-ology corked domes, corked bottles, adornments oddities and boneyard skulls. I sprayed a little twisted citron distress stain spray onto some moss and glued onto the dome corks with glossy accents. I decorated with labels from the apothecary vials set and rubbed remnant rubs onto a mini terracotta pot from my craft stash. The terracotta pot is filled with texture paste mixed with ground espresso distress reinker and the boneyard skull is hot glued to a cocktail stick that is set into the texture paste.
I attached an idea-ology adornments crossbone to a mini lantern with glossy accents.
Thanks for stopping by and a big thank you to Paula, Tim and Mario for inviting me to make samples. Check Tim’s blog daily to see the other Halloween Inspiration Series.
I’ll be back on Monday to share my project for Ranger Ink featuring more of the seasonal goodies from Tim Holtz.
Have a great weekend.
Category Craft, Halloween, Tim Holtz | Tags: | 29 Comments | Views: 3,481
24th September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
I have some exciting news to share with you…
A few weeks ago Linda from The Funkie Junkie Boutique invited me to join the Frilly and Funkie Design Team. I am delighted to be joining a team of such lovely and talented ladies. I’ll be sharing my first DT project for the Funkie side of the team next Wednesday, which the Frilly side of the team posted today. I hope you’ll be able to stop by and take a look.
Have a great day.
Category Craft, DT, Frilly & Funkie | Tags: | 7 Comments | Views: 393
21st September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
Hello Everyone. Autumn is definitely in the air so I was inspired to make a couple of cards to send to friends who love this season as much as I do.
I used the pumpkin stamp from the Halloween Blueprints 2 set by Tim Holtz. I’ve said this before, but the blueprint stamps are made for colouring!
I watercoloured the pumpkin with distress markers and a waterbrush. I also coloured directly onto a background stamp, which I then spritzed with water and stamped.
I created background borders with the new regions beyond tissue tape from Tim Holtz. This is part of the LIMITED** seasonal Halloween range by Tim Holtz.
**start hoarding immediately
I embossed core-dinations kraft core cardstock with Autumn themed texture fades embossing folders.
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be back with some exciting news on Thursday!
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Category Autumn, Craft | Tags: | 3 Comments | Views: 586
16th September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
The temperature here in Switzerland has dipped considerably and the trees are starting to show the first signs of Autumn, so Halloween is ON!
Today I have a quick and simple card which could easily be adapted to make Halloween party invitations, a canvas or other home decor piece.
Take a base card and cover the edges with regions beyond tissue tape.
Emboss core-dinations kraft core cardstock with the new cobwebs texture fades folder and sand lightly over the top and edges with a sanding grip.
Place the zigzag stencil over distress watercolor cardstock and blend rusty hinge distress ink through with a blending tool. Dry with a heal tool. Move the stencil so it covers the inked parts and repeat the process with hickory smoke distress ink. Once dry, stamp randomly using background stamps from the undertaker stamp set with jet black archival ink. Spritz with water droplets and dry with heat tool. Paint a thin layer of glue ‘n seal over the top. It will spread the ink a little but give a nice vintage hue.
Mix a few drops of black soot distress reinker and texture paste with a palette knife on a craft mat. Place the batground stencil over one side of the card and using the palette knife, scrape through a portion of the stencil. Carefully lift the stencil and rinse immediately. Allow the texture paste to air dry.
Stamp the large skull from the undertaker stamp set and fussy cut. Blend with a vintage photo distress ink. Stamp a second time and fussy cut the hat and teeth. Colour the teeth with a white gel pen and glue both the hat and teeth on top of the skull with glue ‘n seal. Add a little black soot distress marker around the outside of the skull and blend with your finger to create a shadow.
Die cut “beware” and “trouble” from the handwritten halloween thinlits die set with core-dinations kraft core cardstock. Assemble card with glue ‘n seal.
Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it. I’ll be back with LOTS more Halloween projects over the coming weeks. I hope you’ll stop by again and take a look.
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Category Card, Craft, Halloween | Tags: | 6 Comments | Views: 539
14th September, 2015 by iGirlZoe
Hello friends. I meant to come back last week with another bird crazy post but got distracted by some exciting news that I will share with you next week! 😉
Today I’m sharing a birthday card I made some weeks ago using the buttefly from Tim Holtz perspective stamp set, one of my favourites.
I got so immersed making it, that I didn’t take any step-by-step photos.
Thanks for taking time to pop by, I really appreciate it.
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Category Craft | Tags: | 4 Comments | Views: 1,009
24th August, 2015 by iGirlZoe
Hello friends! I’m taking a break from Halloween, (for at least 5 minutes), to make some birthday cards, which reminded me to share a birthday card that I made recently for a special friend.
I love using recycled packaging with distress products, which is what I did here to create this bird crazy birthday card.
Cut a frame from recycled cardboard, cover with cracked pistachio distress paint and allow to dry. Gently sand and blend walnut stain distress ink over the top.
*Note: unlike grungeboard the cardboard won’t take a lot of punishment, so make sure you dry completely before sanding and sand very gently.
Cut a piece of recycled plastic packaging to fit behind the frame and emboss with an embossing folder.
Mix picket fence distress paint with a light spritz of water and paint each of the clouds and allow to air dry.
Stamp balloons from the new crazy things stamp set from Stampers Anonymous and watercolour with distress markers. Fussy cut with scissors, (for now! …the accompanying die set is coming in October)!
Stamp a bird from the bird crazy stamp set, (where all this craziness began), and watercolour with distress markers and die cut parts using the accompanying die set. Using distress inks, create a background to go underneath the embossed clouds and assemble the card.
Thank you for taking a look at my card. I will be back later in the week with some more bird crazy. Have a great start to your week.
Category Craft | Tags: | 7 Comments | Views: 755
18th August, 2015 by iGirlZoe
Hello friends! Thank you so much for leaving comments on my last post, I really do appreciate it. I knew once I popped open those Halloween Words: Block dies I wouldn’t be able to stop! So when I saw Tim Holtz’s fantastic tag this month I knew exactly what I was going to do… (Count Frightful made me do it)! 😉
With a Halloween theme in mind, I used lots of the new seasonal ideaology and added orange to the adornments to give a cohesive look. I learned this useful tip last year from a really cool halloween project by Paula Cheney.
This month’s techniques make a really sturdy tag, so perfect to load up with embellishments! I altered the spider from the oddities adornments set, (see further down for details).
I used a card from the found relatives pack and rubbed on a skull from the curiosities remnant rubs. I got really excited when I realised it was a white rubon (it’s the little things that make me happy…)! I covered an heirloom rose with butterscotch alcohol ink to tie in with the orange palette and rubbed spiders onto her dress!
I covered “poison” from the wicked alpha parts with rusty hinge distress paint. Once dry I covered in glossy accents and sprinkled rusty hinge distress glitter over the top! I am obsessed with this glitter and I’m usually not a fan of glitter!
I used the new ledger scrip stamp (CMS241) on one side of the tag. You can see the really cool mixed media background technique over on Tim’s blog!
To bling up my spider I used a spider from the oddities adornments set, glossy accents, pitch black alcohol ink, rusty hinge distress glitter and a file.
Cover your spider with pitch black alcohol ink and allow to air dry.
*Note: I use an egg cup because it acts like a bath so you use less alcohol ink and there’s less clean up.
Once completely dry, use a file to scratch the alcohol ink off the head and tops of the spiders legs.
Cover the back of the spider with glossy accents and cover with rusty hinge distress glitter. Shake off the excess and set aside to dry.
*Note: To give a faux amber look, cover the distress glitter with a final layer of glossy accents.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my tag. You can see this months tag and techniques on Tim’s blog and you can see the post translated into French on Scrapdeco’s blog.
Category Craft | Tags: | 13 Comments | Views: 988
7th August, 2015 by iGirlZoe
I can’t quite believe I am writing this…
A month ago I was asked to make some samples with the new seasonal products by Tim Holtz! As a bit of a “fangirl” you can imagine my reaction when my box of goodies arrived from the North Pole! So with dizzy excitement let me share my first sample with you.
Using the really cool new Sizzix Vampire thinlits die by Tim Holtz, allow me to introduce you to Count Frightful, don’t come too close though… he bites!
Cut a piece of core-dinations kraft core and paper from the new regions beyond paper stash. Distress and ink the edges.
Layer the papers and stitch.
Run a generous line of glossy accents along the back of the layered papers and place onto an idea-ology 6″x 8″ burlap panel and set aside to dry.
Cut a frame from grungeboard with the Sizzix postage stamp frame and rectangles movers and shapers dies.
Cover with black soot distress paint and allow to dry. Using the sanding block, gently sand portions of the frame and swipe vintage photo distress ink over the top with a blending tool.
Dab a little mushroom and espresso alcohol ink onto border strips from the new gothic industrious stickers with a cotton bud. Trim to fit inside the grungeboard frame.
Once dry attach with a line of glossy accents.
Die cut “frightful” from coredinations kraft core with the new Sizzix Halloween Words: Block thinlits dies.
Cover a manila tag with foil tape and coat with red pepper alcohol ink directly from the bottle.
Once dry, cut to size and mount underneath the “frightful” die cut.
Lay out the Tim Holtz Sizzix Vampire thinlits die.
Die cut from mixed media cardstock and core-dinations kraft core.
Fold the head down the center and gently crease the cheeks following the score lines. Cover the top of the head in brushed pewter distress paint to give a streak of silver to the hair, (this isn’t necessary). Cover the lips and blood drip die cuts with festive berries distress marker and assemble the head. There are lightly scored lines which show you where everything goes, so clever!
Assemble the body as per the step-by-step, (there are score lines to show you), but do not attach the head yet.
Lay the grungeboard frame and vampire die on top of the burlap canvas but do not adhere. Once happy with the position, use a pokey tool to mark the position of both eyes, pushing through the back board, (no vampires were hurt in the making of this canvas)!
Using the poked holes as a guide, cut the backing die with a craft knife being careful to only cut behind the eye area.
Again, using the poked holes as guides, drill 2 holes into the canvas and use a lighter or match to burn away any frayed strands of burlap.
Cover a piece of shrink plastic with red pepper alcohol ink and adhere over the holes with glossy accents.
Hot glue a battery operated lightbulb to the inside top of the canvas allowing the canvas to still lay flush against a wall. You could use battery operated LED’s or fairy lights too.
The darker it gets, the more frightful he becomes!
BOO!
To make a vial of blood to hang from the canvas, gather together the frightful ephemera pack, curiosities remnant rubs, a tiny glass vial bottle and some idea-ology findings.
Cover the cork from the tiny vial with glue n’ seal to make it water resistant. Unscrew the spray nozzle from the fired brick distress spray and drip into the tiny vial until about half full. Put the cork into the vial and seal around the join with a layer of hot glue. Push a screw eye into the cork and hang from idea-ology chain. Cut up remnant rubs from the curiosities pack and make a label.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and thank you so much to Mario, Paula and Tim for inviting me to the best party ever! You can see all the new Halloween dies on Tim’s blog and be sure to check out Tim’s social media and blog all month long for a chance to win some of the incredible new products. Have a great weekend.
Category Craft, Craft Techniques | Tags: | 87 Comments | Views: 3,210
27th July, 2015 by iGirlZoe
At the beginning of the month I made a July 4th wall hanging inspired by Tim’s July Tag. Since then Tim has announced his new Halloween products as well as some awesome accessory stamps and dies for those crazy birds we’ve all gone crazy over. It was all the excuse I needed…
I have been so inspired by Richele Christensen’s awesome crazy bird cards, (complete with names and personalities), that I had to create my own.
…May I introduce, “Count Peckula,” an Undertaker from Twittervania. 😉
The base is black soot distress spray stain sprayed on a manila tag and watercolor cardstock and paper from the industrial stash, stamped with the new Undertaker set.
The tag is edged with idea-ology industrious stickers, covered with a little mushroom and espresso alcohol ink and stitched.
I wanted to give the impression of lots of bats hiding in the dark, so stamped the bird crazy eyes onto watercolor cardstock lots of times and cut with the corresponding die. I edged the eyes with black soot distress marker to fully immerse them into the dark background.
This is how I made Count Peckula…
See a video on how to create the base bird here!
CAPE POINTS: die cut an additional set of wings from watercolor cardstock, colour with festive berries and edge with black soot distress markers.
VAMPIRE FANGS: die cut using the die pictured from watercolor cardstock, trim (as pictured) to create the fangs.
WALKING STICK & TOP HAT: stamp the candy cane from the new crazy things stamp set and elongated the stem with a journaling pen. Coloure with the black soot distress marker to cover the candy cane stripes. Stamp the top hat from the Undertaker stamp set.
Attach the cape points and the vampire fangs with a dab of glossy accents and then cover the vampire fangs with glossy accents to give an enameled look.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my tag. You can see this months tag and techniques on Tim’s blog.
CMS #240 Undertaker / CMS#237 Crazy Things / CM#212 Bird Crazy / #660954 Bird Crazy Thinlit Dies
Category Craft, Craft Challenges, Craft Creations, Craft Techniques | Tags: | 14 Comments | Views: 957
I was there in the afternoon.