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

Mini Top Hat for CHA

So excited to finally being able to share this top hat I designed for Kim of Emerald Creek Dares. She has a new stamp designer, Gail, of Crystal Media Arts, and asked if I would like to have a go at these new stamps. The stamps are burlesque themed and so perfect for a mini top hat! I couldn't refuse and was so thrilled to get started.

I started the usual way and used craft foam and my template to cut out each piece. This hat is made from scratch. It doesn't matter what color your craft foam is because everything gets a coat (or two or three) of paint.

Good scissors and contact glue are so important! You just can't make this hat without contact glue. Here is a shot of the gluing process. 

I left the top of the hat off because I wanted to stamp one of the Crystal Cookie stamps on it and heat emboss the image using the new Epaulette Blue powder from Emerald Creek. The base of the hat is painted with metallic blue paint. The stamp is called Boots Before Corset

Once the hat was completely glued together I went to town on decorating it to achieve the burlesque theme. Black lace with some bling went around the top and the bottom. Black feathers and a black rose, with a mini metal rose in the middle are a must! I applied black alcohol ink to the little boot and added those near the black rose 'cause these boots are made for walkin, and that's just what I'll do!

I used a metal frame that I heat embossed with another new Emerald Creek EP, Metabaloid Blue. I then stamped the Playful and Full of Life lady onto some tissue paper and then glued the tissue paper onto some tinfoil. 

I then cut the foil to fit inside the frame and hot glue it to the front of the hat. 

Some more feathers were added and I wanted a surprise pop of color so I added bright purple feathers as well. I found these purple feathers on a rather cheap mask and since it was falling apart at the store they sold it to me for a dollar! Score!

Then I got out some clear vellum and stamped the words "Boots Before Corset" using Versamark and heat embossed it with the Metabaloid Blue powder as well. 

Every girls needs a sassy hat and this one sure turned out sassy. Haha. Huge thank you to Kim for the opportunity and also to Gail for creating these wonderful stamps! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would like to share this hat with these wonderful challenges:

Altered Eclectics-Anything Mixed Media

Mixed Media Place

I used the feathers and the overall blue hues and the sentiment inspired me as well.

A Vintage Journey-Words that are Special

I used Boots Before Corset. These words are special to me because this was my first design made for CHA and without this stamp, it wouldn't have been possible. 

Craft Stamper February Take It, Make It-Anything Goes Stamping

Elements of Nature and Guest Designer

Hello y'all! Happy day to you and what a good one it is so far. I am happy and excited to share some news with everyone. I am a guest designer today over at Stamps and Stencils. Hehe! The very talented team has been challenged to design something inspired by the Elements of Nature! Hop on over to check out what they have created, you'll enjoy looking at everyone's creative talents. I decided to make something that features moss, bark, sticks, rocks, butterflies, paints, and a secret door. Here is my mini garden top hat.

If you would like to see more details and close ups head on over to Stamps and Stencils where I do a step out about the process. 

I used so many materials and tidbits from nature, even some coffee beans for the dirt. The hat is made from crafters foam (that's how all my hats start out). 

And here are some pictures of the sides of the hat. The door was made with polymer clay that was stamped into. The brow edging around the door is leather and the door itself was painted with about 3 colors of brown paint, a white wash and some Emerald Green Viva Decor. 

I wouldn't mind living in this hat! The "feather" looking piece in the picture above is made with polymer clay and an Iron Orchid mold #6. Then it was distressed with the same paints that were used on the door. 

Thank you to the entire team for letting me share in such a wonderful challenge theme! You all rock! Carpe Diem!

I would love to share this top hat with these lovely challenges:

Always use Rubber Challenge #2-Winter/Spring
I used Spring. Flowers blooming, gardens growing, butterflies out and about.

Creative Artiste Challenge #19-Anything Mixed Media Goes

Mixed Media Place #21-Paint the Sky, Make it Yours!
I totally enjoy making mini hats and this design is my new favorite. Anything mini makes me smile and laugh.

Mixed Media World #19-Assemblage/Altered Art

September Tim Tag of 2015

Well it has been a doozy of a week so far. I have been laid up with a back injury since Friday. Apparently pain meds and muscle relaxers make me silly for art. I had so many ideas in my head but not much made sense so I did my tag.

The weather is dreary here so my pic doesn't capture the vibrancy of this tag. The only reason I was able to do the tag this month is because of my love for alcohol inks and a very sweet dearie from the Tim Holtz addicts FB page. Without her, I would not have had the AI paper. 

I did all the techniques Tim did but not exactly the same. You can see his Here. The picture below is of my trials before I decided on the perfect background one for my tag. Love doing this technique! Messy and fun! 

 The texture paste had to dry and I didn't want to activate the embossing powder I had added to it so I waited, and waited, and waited!

I used the package backing from a stamp set to make the "frosted film" butterfly overlays. The packaging doesn't take heat well. Lol! 

I also added some Glossy accents and sparkle embossing powder to the transparent texture paste because I only have matte. I am happy with the results even though it still is a bit muted. 

I would love to share this tag with these sweet challenges: 

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 1015

Rubber Dance Art Stamps-Anniversary Challenge!

I used the September colors of red, orange, and yellow. This is a celebration for their one year anniversary! 

The Mirror Crack'd-Tic Tac Toe/Art Shrine. 

I used the bottom row-Free Choice, Frilly and Funky, Texture. The colors used in this design are more girly/frilly than I usually go with. Hehe! Broaden those artistic horizons!

NBUS Challenge #5

My NBUS are the transparent texture paste, the bottom 2 butterfly stamps, and my Alcohol ink glossy paper, and the alcohol ink technique

Making Magic at Anything But Cute #4

The fourth challenge is here at Anything But Cute! Can you believe we started this only four months ago? Wowzers! This month the skilled artisan, Georgie, from Little Blue Craft Box is our hostess! She has chosen the theme MAKING MAGIC and this is what she had to say, "Most of us are drawn to the magic of fairy tales and fantasy. The colours are often hypnotic and your mind is free to explore outside the limits of reality. For this challenge, I would like you to create a magical mixed media project strongly inspired by the moodboard. Be inspired by the theme, the colours, the textures or all three. Lets bring a little magic back!"

To me, Knowledge is magic. It opens the doors to so many wonderful adventures and the most magical adventures I have had the pleasure of taking, are usually through a book. That is how I came up with my design for this month. 

This is my first altered book. My background is made from polymer clay that I stamped into, first time with this technique as well. I inked up the clay with Silks, LSG sprays, Inka Gold, DecoArt Metallic paint, and so much more.

The large TH butterfly die was purchased at Alleystamp.com. The lady that runs this store (Janine) is so very sweet and has such amazing prices on her items, plus she loves animals! Wowzers. I just love how versatile this die and embossing folder are (you will see plenty more of this butterfly die!) I sprayed the butterfly and used Inkagold then used UTEE over the entire piece. I added the pen nib for the body after rubbing Inkagold over it.

The dew drops that you can sort of see are made by using glossy accents and randomly dripping a drop here and there. The chippie word was embossed and then embossed again. The chippie clock was painted with gold modeling paste, then I added some sand texture paste and used LSG sprays to age it and patina it. I left the roman numerals raw.

I wanted to do something different to represent the inside of the book so I used Twisted Citron DI and applied it over some tissue paper that was already stamped (this tissue paper was what my stamp was wrapped in from my win over at 12 Tags of 2015) I then used the end of a paintbrush to make rolls from the tissue paper. I applied some glue and glued the rolled up piece to the top and side of the book=pages!!

I do hope you enjoyed this post and join in the magical fun! My teamies have designed some wonderful mixed media pieces so don't forget to stop by their neck of the woods. Thank you for stopping by! Hugz and Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would be thrilled to share this design with the following challenges:

That Craft Place-Mixed Media Anything Goes

The Artistic Stamper-August-Anything Goes

ABC Challenge-"O" is for Open-Anything Goes

Simply Create Too #91-Anything Goes

Sisters of Craft-August Anything Goes

Take Time To Create

Wowzers! Summer is here with a bang as it is 111 degrees Farenheit outside. Thank goodness for air conditioning! I am inside all nice and cool sippin on an iced Caramel Machiatto enjoying my art time, my me time. Know what I mean? Summer means vibrant yellows, blues, greens, and pools so I made this card with that in mind.

The layout for this card was inspired by my friend Georgie (LittleBlueCraftBox) from a Birthday card she sent me. She's such a sweet and talented lady! 

I wanted to enter Linda's CC3 challenge as well because there are only 3 more challenges and I am determined to enter all of the remaining ones. This time around, we’re using Tim’s Layering Stencils for a cool and easy Paint Resist project.  Check out Tim’s tutorial on page 47 of  A Compendium of Curiosities, Vol.3 for the technique instructions because I won't give away the details for this technique. :) 

There is also a rather large prize from Inspiration Emporium up for grabs. They are offering a FIFTY DOLLAR SHOPPING SPREE for one lucky CC3C entrant! Yes please! 

I started with a plain yellowish piece of cardstock and did the Paint Resist technique to create my background. Lovin the twisted citron color! 

I think it turned out awesome sauce! I then started adding my embellies and cheesecloth. The coral and light blue- green chippe reminds me of sea coral so I added it to my underwater ocean type theme. 

I stamped a script stamp on the background to add interest then layered my cheesecloth, flowers and chippie. We all need time to create this summer so this was the perfect sentiment for my card. 

This card is for a crafty friend that creates fantastic cards (Wish some of that would rub off on me for making cards. Lol) Hope she likes it! 

I do hope you have an awesome summer and make plenty of time to create in between pool fun and picnics! Hugz! Carpe Diem! ~Niki

I would love to share this card with these amazing challenges: 

Linda Ledbetters CC3 #31-Paint Resist Technique

Frilly and Funkie-It's Summer!

Runner Dance Art Stamps-June Challenge Use these colors: Sunny/Sand Yellow, Ocean green and Blue

Beyond Grey Challenge #69-Cards Only! 

Flutterby Butterflies

I wanted to create a canvas with a layered tag look to it and incorporate soft colors. This is not my usual art but I think I did a good job. :)

I started with the tag and used the colors from that to design this piece. I found this amazing metallic acrylic paint and just had to have it. Lol! The blue, purple, and green are metallic paint and it is so gorgeous! I used a TH edger tool to roughen up my paper edges (paper is from Scraps of Elegence/Scraps of Darkness store) and then layered the papers behind the tag. I stamped the bottom two layers to give depth and to tie in my chipboard embellies that I also stamped. 

I then started on painting the canvas with the green metallic paint. I added some cheesecloth that I sprayed with Luminarte sprays and glued it to the canvas. 

I painted the chipboard flourishes with gesso and stamped words on both. I then used a butterfly cutout to make the small blue butterflies that are around the canvas. 

One of my favorite pieces on this is the small little container in the bottom left corner. It started as a bronze color and I hand painted the blues, green and purple to make it look like it belonged with this canvas. I thought it looked like I let the small butterflies out of this jar. :p

I then glued everything where I wanted it and added the finishing touches. Carpe Diem!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your lovely comments, it brightens my day! Carpe Diem!~€

This canvas will be entered into the following, you can enter as well:

SOE/SOD mid month challenge on Facebook (HERE)

Country View Challenges-Word Play (HERE) I used the words Unlock Your Dreams and Explore Your New Reality to express my open mind about all things crafty I will, or may, get in to.

Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog-August Challenge Anything Goes (HERE)

Our Creative Corner-Summertime (HERE) Summer to me means plenty of color and butterflies and exploring!

Craft-szafa-Challenge #42-mood board (HERE) I used the soft colors and texture I took from the welcome sign.