Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 9 official entry!

Well, the wonderful Linda Ledbetter came to my rescue as I could not enter this challenge because I did not own a set of Tim's framelits and she sent me my prize for challenge 7 of the acorn Alterations stamp and framelits set.  It arrived yesterday, so I got to work straight away between teaching, kitting and not much sleeping, this is what I have come up with.

The acorn could not have been a better choice for me as my Art Studio is called Acorn School of Crafts or Acorn Crafts for short, hence my twitter handle of Acorncrafts!  To celebrate this, I have made a 12"x12" canvas for my studio which will celebrate its sweet 16th birthday in October!

 You might have seen my shrink plastic example using the normal Sizzix stamp and die set where I made charms for the back of my journal that I posted anyway even though I realized I would not qualify to enter this challenge.   So I decided to use it again...for the official entry into Challenge 9 over at Studio L3

Here you can see the before and after shrinking size of the acorn.

 I coloured two of the acorns before shrinking because the colour is more intense after it is shrunk. (it is best to colour on the reverse side to the stamping)

 Then I coloured the plain one after shrinking so that I would have 3 varied acorns.

 Once I had my acorns for my logo, I set about following Tim's instructions on page 63 of his book to make my 3D acorn to add to the canvas.

 I chose to curve my acorn's parts with the same stylus tool which I use to make my rose petals with.

 This is what it looked like when it was assembled, but it had such an indented back that I had to layer 4 pieces of foam tape so that it would stick to the canvas and hold its shape.

 Next I set about creating my logo which I cut out twice, once in green and the other in the golden yellow to layer in order to create a drop shadow.

 I die cut some of the tattered leaves from an old dictionary, distress inked them in peeled paint and spiced marmalade and added the veins with peeled paint distress marker.

 The canvas background was created with distress paints over texture paste through a brick stencil.

 The saying underneath my logo is:  "every little acorn grows into a big tree" done using the chit chat stickers and painted alphaparts stickers.

Here you can really see the curve of the acorn

Then I decided to fill the gap with an appropriate word band "possibility begins with imagination, which is apt for an art studio I think.

So this is my entry where this challenge's lucky draw sponsor is the generous Inspiration Emporium and Tim and Mario sponsor the winner of the Curiosity Crew's choice prize.

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 273? Kitting

Hello fellow desker.  Well it would seem that Wednesday is the day for it to bucket with rain!  We did have a beautiful weekend like an Indian Summer...long forgotten though it was only 2 days ago! Proof that the sun was shining is the photo below from a shoot I did of my son in the spring flowers on a field near my house on Saturday afternoon.

The top photo is my desk in all it's kitting glory!  I am busy cutting up the paper for each die and then I will sit and run them all through my Vagabond for a few hours...

 This is what my studio and desk looked like after I came back from teaching a class last Saturday!  Lunch Lady Jan...don't faint!  I know there is a machine on my desk, but all I used it for was to sew a line of stitching in the top of some lace for class to be able to gather it as the pre-gathered lace which I used on my sample is out of stock!  I use clear plastic containers to put all my kit stuff in as I plan the page and you can see todays desk kit on the pink e-craft (like a Silhouette) cutter all piled up and ready for prepping and another container with a kit in it waiting to be prepped on the machine cover below it on the floor!  A never ending set of containers in a not so orderly Q to be dealt with!

Here is a close up of my desk with the container that went to the store and still needs to be unpacked....

Designing, kitting, packing and unpacking is the name of the game around here.

What's on my Workdesk Wednesday 272? iPad pieces

Hello fellow Desker from Julia's place.  Welcome to my desk in a sodden Cape Town, South Africa.

This is the page I have just finished planning for my next class layout and it is hard to remember the heat of our summer as I write, cos the sky is leaking bucket loads right now, it sounds like a waterfall coming off my roof!

My son dropped the iPad...

My husband ordered the new parts and so we are at the stage where the screen is off and in taking it off we damaged the volume cable...so now he has to order one of those and then we can re-assemble my favourite toy. So for now, my desk is a repair yard.  Now to dispose of all those tiny shards of glass!

That's me for today, off to see what I can see on your desk!

Compendium Of Curiosities 3 Challenge 9

This challenge is to use stamps and framelits on page 53 of Tim's book.  Unfortunately, I don't have any of Tims sets so am not eligible to enter this time round...on my wishlist is the cupcake set...but  none of the sets seem to be available here in Sunny South Africa.  I think I might just take up the offer from this challenge's lucky draw sponsor Inspiration Emporium for 10% off my online purchase if you participate in these challenges.

(edit...Clearly I have good taste...the cupcake is out of stock, both at Inspiration Emporium and Funky Junkie Boutique!  Will have to wait till they are back in stock to place my order!)

I thought I would link up to Linda's StudioL3 anyway to give you another idea as to how to use framelits...using Shrink plastic!  My set of stamps and framelits that I own has very solid stamps, but if you use Tim's ones you could colour them with alcohol inks before shrinking them and that could be so cool!

Use Archival ink to stamp with as it sticks to slick surfaces and Don't forget to let the stamps air dry before you cut them as you can't heatgun this stuff...it SHRINKS!

 Yes!  These thin dies do cut the shrink plastic really well!  It makes using the shrink plastic so quick and easy!

 Don't forget to punch a hole in your shrink plastic BEFORE you shrink it so you can pop a jump ring through it later!

 Here you can see where I have put the shrunk items inside the die cut area!  They are so dinky now!

 I popped jump rings through the the holes and added them to my trinket chain on the back of my Journal that I made in Tim and Paula's class, earlier this year.

 I made sure the chandelier hung above the chair as I figured this how it would be in real life...yes I really had that thought as I did this.  Go figure! LOL!

What's on My Workdesk Wednesday 271? Page Layout and Snail Mail

Welcome to my desk in Cape Town, South Africa.  I have been AWOL for a few weeks while life got the better of me...Now I am BACK!

The last time I joined in two weeks ago There was a half dressed steampunk dress form at my desk...now she is finished and living in my lounge where I see her every time I walk down my passage.

On my desk is the page I will be teaching in September.  This is going to take a while to kit up as I used 7 different dies and two alphabet dies!  My Vagabond is going to be working overtime!

Then yesterday I got two snailmail letters in my post box, one from Hettiecraft and the other from Christine.  It would seem that the African snail is a speedy eater!  The one envelope was clearly tasty and got some what demolished on one corner...takes snailmail to a new height!

So this is me for this week, now I am off to see what you have to show me on your desk.

CC3 Prize has arrived! Plus an embossing folder tip!

A few weeks ago I entered my Truth canvas into the Compendium of Curiosities book 3  challenge 4 over at Linda's place called StudioL3.  I was the chosen winner for the prize sponsored by Tim Holtz and Mario Rossi!  It has taken a while to get here because it would seem it has had a bit of a history!
Linda emailed me two weeks ago to say she had relieved the parcel back in a plastic bag from US mail and it looked rather like they had heard a noise and reversed back to see what it was...thankfully she had some extra prizes and replaced the damaged items in the parcel and re-posted it to me.  I am most grateful to her for all her effort.  Customs on this end had no respect for the pretty tissue paper she had wrapped it in and ripped that open to shreds to see what was in my gift!  If only they knew that it was not JUST WRAPPING PAPER, but rather a highly prized art material!  They kindly put the few shreds left back into the parcel and re-sealed it, bunch of uncouth rotters!  But I digress!

One of the lovely items in my parcel was an embossing folder that I have had my eye on for quite some time.  I don't know about you, but when I get something new, I have to test it right away!  So I rushed to my Vagabond and ran a piece of white Bazzil cardstock through both folders in the set called Collage & Notebook.  The collage one worked perfectly, but the notebook one cracked.

So I tried doubling up the paper to see if this would help which it did up to a point.

Below is a close up of the right hand side where you can see that the raised lines are not smooth, but a bit cracked.

Below is a close up of the left hand side where you can see that it still cracked slightly between the lines.

Then I remembered how we used to damp our paper for printing etchings to stop the paper cracking where the plate edge was and so I spritzed the paper LIGHTLY on both sides with water, let it sit for a few minutes to soak in and then ran it through my VB.  VOILA!  success!  It came out PERFECTLY!  so there is a little tip for you if some of your embossing folders are cracking the paper!  Below is a close up on the left and the full sheet I spritzed on the right.

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 8

Over at Linda's place called Studio L3 she is challenging us to use Tim's latest book CC3 (for short).  This weeks challenge is No8 on page 58.  Every week Tim and Mario sponsor a prize for the project deemed worthy by the Creative Crew.  To be eligible for this, you have to comment on all the Crew's inspirational pieces.  I was lucky enough to win this prize a few weeks ago, but due to the US postal service having a mishap, I am still waiting for it to arrive...Poor Linda has had to post it twice as it got returned to her, I do hope they reimburse her for the first postage!  You will be the first to see the prize when it does arrive!

Then being the week of the even challenge a prize is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique for a randomly drawn entry.

I saw two people (Marianne Hagen and Jassy Veale) cover tins with foil for the last Challenge to house their stationery.  I thought this a brilliant idea as I am running out of wall space for yet another canvas, am all tagged out from doing the challenge on Tims blog from 1 August and could do with something to put my paint brushes in.  I don't think I have done their inspirations justice, but hey, I had fun, I now have a useful tin and that's what counts!

 As luck would have it the two pieces fitted perfectly round the tin with no extra bits required to join them.

Tim's 12 Tags of 2014 - August

I know I have said this before, but I really do look forward to the beginning of each month like a kid just before Christmas because on the 1st of each month Tim Holtz does a new tag for our inspiration.  This month is no different and so here is his tag.

I did not have the patience to put texture paste on my tag as this would mean I would have to leave it to dry...we are in the middle of winter so that would take an inordinate amount of time and so would blow drying it so...I dispensed with said embossing paste and carried on with the rest of his tag.  Oh and I don't have that yummy embossing powder, so that does not feature on my tag either, though it is now on my hunt it down and buy it list!