Altered Mini Mister Holder ::or:: The Day I Fell in Love with Glossy Accents

Or...the day I made a thing that looks kind of like a pinball machine, or the day I was really bored and had a lot of new Tim Holtz idea-ology stuff to play with. Or the day I channeled Martha Stewart - remember how she was always obsessed with decanting dish soap and mouthwash into 'pretty' containers? That's pretty much what I did!

It all started with this. A very functional, handy Mini Mister Organizer that a kind friend gifted me with. Super useful, but not at all pretty! I had been using this:

 It's a vintage flower frog. Insanely cool, but I'll be honest...it's a pain to use. So I sez to myself, I sez.....couldn't you tart that Mini Mister thingy up a bit? A little TH paper to cover it? A few do dads here and there? A bit of stamping? Why not?

So, that's what I did! I first created a base by covering the edges of a thin piece of craft wood with Tissue Tape. I 'stained' some unfinished wood pieces with Vintage Photo Distress ink and attached them to the bottom, as feet. I wish I'd had the new Ranger Distress Stain - it would have been so much easier!

The back was made using the same wood. To decorate it, I stamped a panel of Tim's paper with the quote from his Life's Possibilities clear stamp set. I wanted it to stand out more so I highlighted the letters with Glossy Accents. The umbrella man - from the same stamp set - was stamped on Grungeboard, cut out, and attached using Glossy Accents. Various idea-ology pieces were also added using Glossy Accents. Sense a theme yet?

The block was sanded and then covered with paper (using Glossy Accents) from one of Tim's pads. It's hard to tell, but there's some stamping underneath the letters. Speaking of which...they are all Grungeboard and have been inked with various distress inks and adhered with - you guessed it - Glossy Accents. The idea-ology pieces were also attached with Glossy Accents.

On the other side, I added more Grunge letters and a couple flowers cut from Tim's Tattered Florals die. I also added a Grungeboard flourish that I used my Faux Tarnished Metal technique on. I love the effect on Grungeboard! A vintage Bingo piece and an idea-ology gear were added to the center of the flower using Glossy Accents. Indeed, EVERYTHING on this entire piece was attached, adhered, and just plain glued using GA. I actually tried another type of glue and it didn't hold. So, I tried the GA and it held like cement!

After the individual pieces were finished, I glued the whole thing together (GA) as shown. A gorgeous idea-ology Ornate Plate holding an Adage Ticket completes the piece.

Ok, so....am I crazy....or inspired? You be the judge. All I can say is this looks pretty cool sitting on my table!

Tagging Along with Wednesday Stamper

My Wednesday Stamper submission is a birthday card I made for someone on the All Things Tim Yahoo group. The tag background was created using the Pulled Glimmers technique from the June/July '10 issue of the Technique Junkie newsletter. I also tried out a little bleach stamping on top of my background. I haven't done much of that - it's a great technique.

All stamps are from a Tim Holtz clear stamp set. The layered flower was cut from vintage French book pages using the Tattered Florals die, also from TH....of course. I mean....seriously....who else is there? ;-)

p.s. Be sure and come back tomorrow - I have something SO cool to share!

Very Cool iPhone App!

After seeing Elizabeth's amazing picture that she edited using an iPhone app called Photo Studio, I had to download it and try it out. The first picture I played with was one I'd taken awhile ago. It's one of our chickens - Buttercup - hanging out on the picnic table. I think I used the 'Ancona' effect on this one.

Yesterday, I was on my way home from stamp club and visiting a friend (tell Henry thanks for the checkup, Robyn. I saved my $20 copay!), and the sunset was gorgeous! I whipped off the road into the cemetery (good unobstructed views) and took a few quick photos with my camera. Last night I played around with it using the 'Ancient Canvas' effect and came up with the above. I'm so impressed with this app! It's only $1.99 to boot. Thanks so much, Elizabeth, for sharing this app with me.

Tag Tuesday - Fabric, Wednesday Stamper - Music, Plus a Tut!

Back when I first used my Faux Tarnished Metal technique, I promised that I would post a tutorial, and I've finally gotten around to doing it! My ATT friend, Mary-Beth, graciously offered to send me some birdcage and bird die cuts so I could recreate the metal cage. Thanks so much Mary-Beth! :-) Here we go:

Supplies: Versamark watermark ink pad; brown (not pictured), bronze/copper, black acrylic paint; Ranger silver embossing powder; Ranger Ultra Thick embossing powder; birdcage or other die; heat gun; sponge or sponge brush. Tip: the plastic from an Idea-ology package makes a great palette!

Step 1: Paint birdcage with a combination of brown and copper acrylic paint. This color will peek through your melted embossing powder in the end.

Step 2: Cover entire die cut with Versamark, or other clear pigment ink.

Step 3: Cover entire piece in silver embossing powder. Tap off excess.

Step 4: Emboss using a heat gun. Let cool.

 Step 5: Reapply Versamark, covering silver embossing. It's ok to leave some un-inked areas, if you like.

Step 6: Cover with Ultra Thick embossing powder. Tap off excess.

Step 7: Emboss UTEE using heat gun. You'll notice the UTEE causes the silver embossing powder to dissipate, creating little 'windows' through to the base color. Very cool!! At this point, you can decide if you want more silver, more UTEE, etc. I added another layer of silver and another layer of UTEE, proceeding as shown above.

 

This is my piece after I was done with embossing. Don't you love the way the silver embossing is broken up? It's really starting to look like tarnished metal!

Step 8: Using a cosmetic sponge or sponge brush (one of Tim's Dabbers would be great for this!) cover the entire piece with black acrylic paint. Be generous.

Step 9: Wipe paint from birdcage using a tissue or paper towel. You can leave on as little or as much paint as you like. If it dries too soon, dampen your tissue and re-wipe.

Finished!!

My tag background was a second generation Antiqued Glimmers (Technique Junkie Newsletter) 'swipe' after making my tag for Day 1 of Tim's Christmas tags. I spotted it on my work table and decided it would be perfect with the bird cage. My bird was stamped with a flourish from one of Tim's clear stamp sets, and then clear embossed. I sponged Faded Jeans and Bundled Sage over the top. Love that technique!

To give some contrast to the tag, I added a scrap of music from an old hymnal. Since the Wednesday Stamper theme was 'Music', it works perfectly for that challenge. I used Elmer's large glue dots raise the birdcage slightly, to give some dimension, and the thin glue dots hold the bird securely.

To fit the 'A Bit of Fabric' theme over at Tag Tuesday, I created a fabric flower using a technique my friend Debi Vincent taught at our stamp club. It's so cool! Maybe I'll see if she minds me posting a tut for that one of these days. Finally, I edged both the tag and bird with some of Martha's glitter and then mounted it to a French text covered wood block, just like I did for all my Christmas tags. The stamps I used are all from Tim Holtz. Whew!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and try it for yourself. There are lots of different ways this could be used, and endless variations and combinations you could try. I would really appreciate you crediting me with the technique if you post it anywhere. :-)

**Be sure and click on any image to see a large version and more detail.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #27

This week's CCC challenge is Distress Misting Masks, which can be found on page 60 of Tim Holtz's book. As you can see, I'm still on a bit of a Steampunk kick! 

For my masks, I used cardstock gears that I made using the Double Cog punch from Stampin' Up (Yikes! Glad I borrowed that one from a friend, it's expensive!). I also used the smallest gear from Tim's die.  Since they weren't stuck down, they ended having a soft edge, which I really like! I misted first with red Perfect Pearls mist and then brown homemade PP mist. I thought the red would be stronger, but it all combined to make a rusty color (you can see a bit of the red shimmer in my pic). Again, a nice happy accident!

The stamps are all from Artistic Outpost's SteamPunk collection. The vintage paper is from an old math book a friend gave me. A strip of cloth measuring tape is attached using Tim's tiny attacher. Tip: I always color my staples before I load them by inking them with black and brown StazOn ink (just press down onto them directly using the pad). I think it gives them a nice rusty look. Oh, one more thing....I created the clock by cutting out a clock face from one of Tim's paper packs and layering it onto a gear, along with a spinner. The whole thing is held together and attached to the tag with a long fastener. I love how it came out!

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #26

This week's CCC challenge - Rusty Grunge - is very cool! I combined my rusty pieces with the always fabulous Faux Designer Paper technique from the Technique Junkies newsletter. I used stamps from Oxford Impressions to create paper similar to one of my favorites from Graphic 45. Who needs to buy paper when you can make your own?

My card pic is a little dim (and my colors are a little off - I hate that!), but here is a close-up that shows the true color of the gear. Pretty dang rusty, isn't it? That Tim Holtz is a genius!

On my way from my studio to the house, I snapped this pic of my kitty, Thor. He's so weird, but looks perfectly normal in the photo. Cats are tricky that way.....