Altered Tree Bark

Hello all! My have the hands been busy this summer! Between my crafting and my power tools, I don't know what keeps me more happy. I have decided to alter a piece of a tree trunk that was leftover from a recent cut down. The tree was dead and needed to be taken down because it was so close to the house. This piece is for my guest spot over at Xanderous Crafty Stash. She has everything from metal trinkets, bling bling, rhinestones, lace appliques and so much more!

I started with applying a white wash to the bark just to lighten it up a bit.

 After the wash I used multiple stamps with black Archival ink and added some more interest to the bark. 

While that was drying I started heat embossing all of the wonderful metal trinkets from Xanderous Crafty Stash. Each metal piece got at least two coats of embossing powder just so I could make sure none of the metal peeked through.

I layered the metal pieces to create a butterfly and some metal coral colored flowers. Then I added some moss and grass. The sign "This Way" is from Prima. 

Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

The stamping is subtle but in real life it pops more. Hopefully this picture below shows the stamping okay. 

I would like to share this design with:

Altered Eclectics-Anything Goes 

Mixed Media Place-June Moodboard

I was inspired by all things nature

Her Tool Belt Linky Party 179

Country View Challenges-Things with Wings

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge-Anything Goes

Steampunk Skeleton and DecoArt

RHappy October y'all! Thank you to everyone that swings by my little blog and has a gander! And a big thank you to my new followers and my regulars!  Over at SanDee&Amelie's Steampunk Challenge we dare you to create something involving Top Hats and Moustaches. I am super duper excited for this challenge and without further adieu here is Mr. D. Debonair! He knows he looks good and he is the perfect gentleman, although a bit past his prime. :)

I started by making the top hat. If you would like to see more of the process for the hat HERE is a step by step. It all starts with craft foam and some scissors. 

This is the hat almost all glued together. Then the fun begins with paints and accessories! 

I wanted to showcase the DecoArt Media products. I don't have many of the mixed media line supplies (YET) but I make good use of what I have. All it takes is a good product and creativity! I started by painting the entire hat with DecoArt Media Fluid Carbon Black acrylic paint. Then I used DecoArt Media Crackle Paint, thin coats and thicker coats to get lots of different sized cracks and set it to the side to dry, naturally. No heat gun (it will warp the shape of the hat)! The craft foam soaks up paint so some splotches were used instead of covering everything up. 

I then added some lace leftover from my last project. Brads and an old piece of chain from a necklace were used to create the cross-stitched pattern on the front. I adhered the lace with DecoArt Media Matte Medium and added the black beaded piece around the bottom rim with my hot glue gun.

Who knew trying to find a skull stamp would be difficult this time of year?!? I did find this paper bag (set of 12) and knew I could fussy cut the skull out! Winning! I then placed it on the top of the hat and sealed it with DecoArt Media Matte Varnish (I varnished the entire hat before placing the lace).  

While the paper bag skull was drying on top of the hat, I used DecoArt Media White Gesso to paint a wash on the skull head. I wanted him less dirty looking. The picture below is before I painted him. 

I then added the feathers and brooch to the top hat and started working with polymer clay to create a moustache, an eyeball, and a mold of the brooch. This is my first time making any of these polymer clay creations! The eyeball was the most fun but kept rolling around on my art desk. Lol!

Once all the polymer clay elements were baked and cooled down, the details were added to each. I painted the eyeball with white acrylic paint and then added a wash of DecoArt Americana Camel to give the eye an aged look on the sclera. I added red acrylic paint to the iris and drew silver lines around the iris to show pigmentation. The pupil was painted black with a small white highlight to give it a gleam. Mr. D. Debonair's moustache was painted with DecoArt Dazzling Metallics-Shimmering Silver and then dry brushed over with the Carbon Black. I attached the monocle chain to the hat and glued it to the skeleton head with hot glue.

The neck tie bow was a piece of ribbon from my stash, it adds a little sumpthin, sumpthin. I used some Halloween rub ons for the base. The damask pattern is one of my favorites and I have been hoarding it since April!

I added some silver paint to create the small dots around the base and then some washi tape around the very bottom, along with the white bat, skull, spider, and eye.

Thank you for having a look see, and letting me know your thoughts on this design. I sure know that we all put a lot of work into our creations and feedback is greatly appreciated (the bad and the good)! The blog land I know, is a wonderful place, filled with so many creative and inventive peeps! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I am stoked to be sharing this creation with these wonderful challenges please:

DecoArt Mixed Media Haunts Challenge-Showcase DecoArt Media products

The Mirror Crack'd #14-Wall Hanging/TicTacToe

I used the Tic Tac Toe of Halloween (my entire design), Time (a couple of weeks to finish this piece),
Red (the rose and the eye)

Scrapbook.com-October Spooktacular Challenge-Use 1 piece of Bling OR washi tape
I used washi tape around the bottom of the base and also Bling in the form of the cross chain pattern on the front of the hat, as well as the Brooch.

Crafty Calender Challenge-Halloween

Beyond Grey Challenges-Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday-Its Frightening-/-Halloween

A Total Tim Time

Hello fellow artists! I do hope March is going well for you all. I wanted to share this latest piece, it is finally done! Enjoy!

This is the first time I have ever altered a piece like this (along the lines of a printer tray but not as big, baby steps! Lol) and it was a total blast to do! 

I started with this:

I inked up the edges and sides with TH DI in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. Then I used the paper series: French Industrial and Destinations for the backing in each compartment. 

I treated each compartment like a separate place but with a total Tim theme in mind. I fussy cut the gentleman in the upper left compartment and inked his edges with DI. The butterflies are punches that I layered and edged as well. 

I love to make the gears look like they work and always try to keep that in mind when working with gears. And who can go wrong with keys?!? Awesome sauce! 

The bottles were glued using Glossy Accents (my go to glue for anything metal) and I added copper wire around some and other metal tidbits to others. 

This was a fun and carefree project and I am more than happy with the results! I do hope you enjoyed this altered tray. Happy Crafting! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

This project will be shared with the following wonderful challenges: 

A Vintage Journey-Anything Tim-HERE, I think this piece needs no explanation. lol 

NBUS(Never Before Used Schtuff)-#4 HERE. All the metal pieces and even the tray are NBUS

Artful Times-In the Style of Tim Holtz HERE Everything I used, except the tray is from Tim Holtz

Crafty Calendar Challenge-Add Metal HERE I do believe I nailed adding metal. :) 

Steampunk Design Team and Giveaway!

Hello and happy day to you all! my exciting exciting news day is here! I am so very excited and thrilled that I am now on the Design Team for Sandee&Amelie's Steampunk Challenge!

We all know that I really love Steampunk and try to incorporate it into most of my designs so this is the perfect team for me! If you haven't checked out this Steampunk blog head on over HERE or click under my DT badge at the bottom of this post and it will take you to the challenge blog. Never tried Steamounk before? It is okay. We welcome all makes and manners of Steampunk inspired art. Want to win a prize? You have to be in it to win it!

As a way to say hello and thank you, I decided to make something! 

I am going to give this tag to one of my amazing followers (due to shipping costs I can only ship to USA). Just leave a comment and I will announce the winner next week. I purposefully left most of this tag blank so the winner could add to it. 

Hopefully you will check out our challenge and Steampunk it up! Carpe Diem!

My first DT badge! How cool is that? Steampunk cool!

Rusting Powder?!?

I have been itching to do a Steampunk inspired piece even more so than I usually want to because of a new product I got during Christmas: Rusting Powder!

I started with my leftover red paper and used the TH embossing folder Riveted Metal. 

I painted the first piece with silver DS and then Metallic FolkArt copper. When dry I then added glossy accent to adhere my rusting powder. I sprayed the powder with vinegar to activate it and set it aside for an hour to let magic happen. (while it was drying I did add some AI-Pool for the  patina part). Awesome!!!

For the other red paper I just applied glossy accent and the powder, again activating it with vinegar (TIP:Work in a well ventilated area! The vinegar stinks). When the powder was dry I sprayed the entire piece with Smooch Spritz-Copper

(Forgot to take a picture of that piece so here is what I have leftover)

Next I started on the clock piece. I used the TH Weathered Clock die and my leftover piece of cardboard from Christmas. I painted it with gesso and then dabbed DP-Bundled Sage to part of it. After it was dry I sprayed it with the Smooch spray and Perfect Pearl Mist-Perfect Copper. Then edged the entire clock with black StazOn ink. 

All this rusting turned out really good IMO! So I adhered all the papers to my canvas and added the "Unique" muse token with a brad. I glued the metal corner pieces after applying a small amount of Rub N Buff, and got started on the gears and cogs. The chipboard cogs are from Creative Embellishments.

3 cogs were rusted with the rusting powder, 3 other cogs were painted with the metallic copper, some were left raw and I used metal ones as well. 

I put some dimension dots on the clock so I could fit the gears under it (I like to make it look like they actually can work) and adhered all the gears with glossy accents. I added the sentiment, "live the life you've imagined" with some brads and foam dots. 

The first picture is my layout of where I thought everything would go and the second is the end result.

I have to say I would recommend the rusting powder to anyone that likes what it can do. Like what you see? Leave a comment because it sure brightens my day! Carpe Diem!

This project will be shared with the following: 

Craft Your Passion: Anything Goes HERE Love me some Steampunk mixed media.

Our Creative Corner-Christmas Leftovers HERE (I used paper leftovers and a canvas leftover-I was trying to make waves, it didn't work so I scrapped this piece and that is how I got this canvas and a piece of cardboard that was the backing from my calendar for 2014)

Artful Times-Time HERE. I used a clock and a lot of time to get the rusting powder to do it's magic.

SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenge-3's My Lucky Number HERE (I used 3 different rusting techniques, 3 cogs were colored with Metallic Copper FolkArt paint, 3 cogs were embossed and rusted)

Creative Embellishments-Inspiration Board HERE. I used the brown, greens, and reds from the picture and the chipboard gears/cogs are from CE