Sunday 28 June 2015

CC3C - Challenge 31

Hi all

During a visit to 'The Spirit of Christmas' last November, a craft fair specialising in Christmas themed items, I spotted a pair of metal wings about 8inches long and decided I had to have them.  I have several pairs of wings around the house and thought these would look good behind my bed side table.  However they sort of disappeared into the decor so I needed to mount them onto something.  There the tale stalled until challenge 31, I decided, mostly cos they fell off the shelf in the craft room onto my foot! that now was the time to make the background for them.  So here we go.....



The wings had a sort of 'old' finish so I rustyed them up a bit with a dirty wash of Deco Arts quinacridone gold and carbon black acrylic paints in lots of water and dried them with a heat gun.  I dry brushed them with some Pebeo Dyna paint in Iridescent Copper and added a little gold gilding wax round the edges to finish off and I then set them aside to work on the background.



Wow, paragraph three and I still haven't mentioned the technique to be used....opps!  Its Layering Stencil, paint resist, page 47 in the Compendium of Curiosities.  I decided to use an A4 size canvas board for the background.  I used a Sheena Douglas stencil, Clouds and Antique linen and  a combination of salty ocean, mermaid lagoon and tumbled glass distress ink for the technique background trying to make the canvas a little darker at the bottom.

I found I needed to add a little more distress ink at the bottom so I used faded jeans distress ink.  I then discovered just how mobile distress ink can be,  I had to hold the canvas while adding the extra ink and ended up with a lovely, LARGE, finger print right in the middle of my work!X@***  I just about managed to shade this out using mermaid lagoon but luckily I decided to do some extra stencilling on the canvas and hid it under one of the stencilled wings! (Breathe... there are no mistakes just happy accidents)

Having decided to stencil the wings I had to mask off quite a bit of the stencil as I only wanted the wing.  I stencilled the wings with faded jeans distress ink.  I used post-it notes to mask the stencil and just about managed it even though it was a humid day and they didn't seem as sticky as usual, yes I know the UK doesn't get that humid but we cannot cope with much anyway!



I added some stamped text for a bit more texture using black archival ink and the Sheena Douglas stamp set Aging Beautifully.  To finish the edges of the canvas I stamped some cracks from the same stamp set in walnut stain distress ink and edged with a little more walnut stain ink.

The bottom of the canvas looked a little empty so I used Tim's stencil, Rays to add a sunrise.  I first used white gesso as a base and then blended spiced marmalade, wild honey and scattered straw distress paint over the top for my sunrise.

Once the background was completely dry I attached the wings and was just deciding on the sentiment when my daughter wandered in to see what I was doing. When I told her what sentiment I was going to use, she said I should change it.  I was going to use 'If life gives you wings learn to fly' but she suggested 'If life gives you wings Flap'  I must admit this made me laugh soooo......



The words were printed onto kraft card and cut out individually and inked with walnut stain distress ink.  I then drew round them with a fine black pen and added a few white high lights, then added them to the canvas.

The Curiosity Crew have been hard at work as usual and their wonderful creations can be seen on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  A big thank you to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring the challenge.

One last thing I bet you cannot guess where this piece is going to end up?  Yep thats right at University with my daughter, I'll just have to find another pair of wings for beside my bed! LOL

Lyn


Sunday 14 June 2015

CC3C - Challenge 30

Hi all

Faux cracked glass...hmmmm, I may have lost the plot completely but here goes!


I don't know why a light bulb sprang to mind but there you go.  I followed Tim's technique on page 54 of the Compendium of Curiosities on both the light bulb and the wings.  The wings are cut from acetate using Tims Sizzix die, Layered Dragonfly.  I tried the wings from the Layered Bee but they were a little too small, he is quite a rotund bee after all!

Once the cracking was dry I used Adirondak alcohol inks in aqua for the wings and sunshine yellow for the body.  The end of the bulb was coloured with pitch black alcohol ink.

       


To make the stripes I used some double sided adhesive sheet and cut a circle, using a punch, and then cut into the circle so I could make it into a cone.  I then covered the outside of the cone with black flock and attached it to the back of the bee.  The stripes were some thin double sided tape that I covered with the black flock and then wound round the bee.



To make the legs I wound three lengths of black wire together and formed them round the body of the bee and then glued them with hot glue.  When all three sets of legs were attached I was able to bend them so the bee could stand on his own legs.

The antenna were originally just wire which I bent into spirals at the ends and attached the the head of the bee, however I decided that this looked wrong so I cut off the spirals and added beads to the ends of the shorter antenna.

I love the way the crackle is shown up by the alcohol ink.  I just have to decide where to put my bee, I think I'll put him into my faux orchids, A Faux bee in a Faux Flower  LOL.


A visit to Linda Ledbetters blog will blow your minds with the gloriousness of the Curiosity Crews offerings for this challenge.  As usual a big thank you to The Funkie Junkie for sponsoring this challenge.

Ah well time I buzzed off, bye for now!

Lyn