Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 15

It doesn’t matter how many times I use AI’s, I fall in love all over again! They give such amazing results (usually!). So, for this week’s Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at Linda’s fabulous blog the technique is called Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge (it’s on page 53 of T!m’s amazing book).

I departed from making cards again for this one because I have had it on my list to do for far too long to make one of these earbud holders that I saw here. That one is leather and much more costly, but I knew I could duplicate this with Grungeboard the minute I saw it. I just created a pattern, traced and cut it out of grunge board (harlequin). For the strap, I just cut a straight rectangle of grunge and notched it so that you can easily hook and un-hook it. I used glossy accents to glue the strap to the shape and voila, my creation is fini (mixing my languages a bit there I think). Of course I could punch the hole and add a grommet/eyelet and chain to be able to clip it to something, but I've chosen to not do that just yet until I decide how i plan to carry it. I made 2 of them (including the strap) quite easily out of one sheet of grunge board and I plan to make more as gifts. The blue one is for my phone earbuds, so I stamped it with the words Call Me! and Hello from Club Scrap kit called Gimme A Ring. The pink/purple one is for my ipod and is stamped with the words Rockin Girl and a very small stamp of sheet music. You could also add your name or initials or anything you want.

Pardon my blurry photos...not sure why I had such trouble photographing these.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 14

Mask Basics - Oh how I love a good mask! For my card I used T!m's mini mask called Florets and a mask i made from my butterfly cut on my QK Silhouette. I cut the butterfly and the square in the lower right from T!m's Lost & Found paper pack. Initially I used the mask on that square, but i didn't feel like that was quite enough, so then I decided to ink the entire front of the card. Once again, I'm using the wonderful papers of Club Scrap. This time from the Castaway collection. I sprayed the whole works with pearl glimmer mist. Oh, and I followed sketch # 71 on Priscilla Styles Midnight Madness Sketch challenge blog.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 13

For this weeks Studio L3 challenge, Linda has us making Grunge paper flowers using the instructions found on page 65 of T!m's Compendium of Curiosities.

I don't normally do "cute" Halloween...I'm much more into the macabre, but I chose to use my flower as an embellishment to a paper drawstring basket which I will fill with Halloween candy for my desk at work. The instructions for how to make this cutie can be found on the Club Scrap site here (I'm not sure but you may have to be a member to view the video tutorial....so, if you wanna join, let me know!!). It's very easy to make, and if you can't view the video, i'm happy to send you written instructions. The green paper is from Club Scrap's Wheel & Sprocket kit and the black is from the Expressions kit. The patterned paper is from a DCWV Halloween pack.

My flower is inked with DI's (peeled paint & dusty concord) and embossed with the checkerboard & retro circles texture fades. Leaves were cut with pinking shears. I added the eyeball eraser center & plastic spider just for fun.

Thanks for looking and be sure to take a moment today to say a prayer for all of those touched by the events of September 11, 2001.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge Week 12

Hard to believe, but this challenge puts all of us playing along at Linda's Studio L3 site a mere 1/3rd of the way thru all the fab techniques T!m shares in his Compendium of Curiosities book...this one is on page 44 and it's called Chipped Enamel.

I took my inspiration not only from T!m, but also from another creative hero of mine; Jennifer McGuire. As you can see from her post here, my card is a shameless re-creation of her work (with substitutions).

I followed some/most of her instructions, except that i used sepia accents (instead of glossy accents) on my leaf and I didn't use mine as a mask, just made it a separate element altogether. I really couldn't tell you where i found that acorn charm, but I've had it for a very very very long time. It began life as a bright & shiny brass with a hole in the top (presumably to hang it from something), so I gave it the chipped enamel treatment to grunge it up a bit. My 2 bracket shapes were cut with my QK Silhouette and my card base and panel are both from Club Scrap (Matrix & Ornamental kits respectively).

Thanks for looking...feel free to leave a comment or provide feedback. For those of you who get to celebrate Labor Day, have a nice long Holiday weekend.