Altered metal drawer set.

 After finishing the next set of drawers, I was again left with the decision of what to use for drawer pulls. I had a few ideas, but  decided on these Tim Holtz faucet knobs. I used black alcohol ink to make them darker. I knew there was a reason I bought that black alcohol ink, it just took me a few years to figure it out! 

 This set has 3 drawers, all the same size. I'm going to be keeping my metal embossing tools in it so it seemed appropriate to use metal for the drawer fronts. 

This is the same technique  I do when teaching this mirror. It's kind of like a puzzle once most of the metal is embossed. It takes me a while to figure out where it all fits together. As I was working on this I thought I would want to do some kind of design on the sides but once the drawers were put in, it didn't seem to need anything else. So here it is all finished.

My next metal embossing workshop is Sunday, April 7 at Laura Daub Studio.

What are you creating this weekend?

Wendy

Hand made stamps.

Yesterday in my Art journaling group we focused on hand made stamps. These ones are made with fun foam cut with dies and mounted on scrap chip board. It doesn't get much easier than this.

We also played around with rubber stamp carving and I just kept going last night. I've seen a few square stamps made so they line up when you stamp them beside each other and have been wanting to do this. So this is my first attempt at it. This was a quick stamping to see what needed to be fixed so I think they'll line up better when I take more time. Hmm the possibilities are endless for these.

Here are a few more I did. I've done a few houses before and wanted another variation on it. The tree was inspired by a small tree stencil that was given to me and the mushroom was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest. I will definitely be doing more trees and mushrooms. Now just to find a few more hours in the day for this.

We didn't actually get much done in our journals but we did have fun and I'm ready to try these out in my journal! 

Please share with me if you've made some stamps. I'd love to see them.

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Procrastination stamping.

   The Tin Man has just about finished renovating the backhall/laundry room, so today we started getting things back into place. Of course we needed to do a little purging and decide what needs to go back into that room or somewhere else. And now that everything is all nice and freshly painted with new flooring I want the little things to look nice too. So as I so often do at this stage, I decided a little crafting make over was in order. I thought of replacing these boxes because they're really just glorified cardboard boxes, but they still do the job and fit well on the shelf. They're just for storage of items we don't need year round.

   Unfortunately I don't have a before photo but you can image what they looked like, just plain cardboard on the sides with some, kinda interesting rope handles on the ends. When they're on the shelf you just see the side, so that's where I did the make over. I used a hand carves stamp that I made after taking Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Stamp Carving 101 last year. I was originally going to put paper all over the boxes but when I mentioned this to the Tin Man he thought I should paint them. As soon as he said it this stamp popped in my head and I knew that's what I wanted to do. I love it when an idea is that easy. At first I tried to use permanent ink but it didn't give me a very good image because of the softness of the box, so I switched to black acrylic paint which I applied to the stamp a little on the thick side with a sponge brush. The image is still a little hit and miss but I'm happy with it. I then used chalk board paint on the lid edge so we can label them and change it if need be. 
   This is one of the fastest and easiest make overs I've done. Now they're ready to put on the shelf. I guess I should get back at cleaning up!

If you're interested in learning to carve your own stamp check out Julie's course.
Or if you live in the Ottawa area, you can go to the Laura Daub Studio where she teaches stamp carving also.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Hoarders or collectors!!

 No I'm not ready to call the hoarders in for help! The Tim Man isn't too busy with work right now so we're doing some renovating. This is my oldest son's bedroom where some of the stuff from our closet and bedroom is. He doesn't live here any more, although the stuff on the bookshelves at the back is his, just the stuff filling the centre of the room is ours and well the stuff covering his bed, oh and the overflow in the hallway... We may not be hoarders but we are collectors and we do have our share of stuff but we both like it that way so it's all good. You don't really realize how much stuff you really have though until you have to completely clean out a bedroom and walk in closet. We decided to paint and put in new flooring.

 I didn't get any before pictures because I hated it too much to share. Imagine dark green on the lower half of the wall, with an odd washed colour on the top and grey carpet. This is the first room I've done white since we started to paint after moving in 23 years ago. The whole house was builder beige and I was glad to see it go. I guess maybe things have come full circle!

 I'm picturing the room with many layers and shades of white and lots of texture. Have you ever done an all white room? I keep saying whites but maybe I mean creams or beiges. Well I'll let you know if and when I figure it out.

In between working on these changes I've been trying to get another drawer set done. As you can see it's going to be all about metal embossing. There are three drawers and they're almost ready to start adhering here. I'll keep you posted when I get it done. Hopefully in the next day or so.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

A whole lot a texture on one canvas board.

 I think it's safe to say that I love texture. Whether it's doing mixed media, jewelry design or any other creative play I can't get enough texture. Sometimes it's visual texture from adding layers of paint and ink in my art journal but the best kind is real dimensional texture like in this piece. I think it has every kind of dimensional paste and product I own on it.

It started off being sample squares of different paste product I had. Once I started to paint them I knew I had to make some kind of grid canvas with them. I'm always surprised at how often my work becomes grid like or linear. I think I like swirls and circles and a little craziness but then when I started creating, things become orderly and everything needs to be in the right place. I think it's an interesting thing to think about and explore. 

I'm thinking of doing this as a workshop. So if you live in the Ottawa area let me know if you're interested.

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Distress Ink cards

Well once I get started on the Distress ink backgrounds it's hard to stop so I made some cards while the table was a mess. Here are a few of them.

What have you been creating this week?

Wendy

Distress ink bookmarks.

I think this is my favourite thing to do with Distress Inks... make backgrounds for cards and bookmarks.

Have you tried this before? You just dab 3-4 colours of ink right onto the craft mat, spritz with any liquid, I used glimmer mist and then swish your paper in it. Instant colour splashes. The Tin Man thought a little wine would help while I was creating that night. Well it didn't seem to hurt!

I then used my ink dabbers and stencils to add some more colour and designs here and there.  The most difficult part is choosing which stamps to use to finish it off. I used  black Versafine for the stamping. Once dried I mounted them on coloured card stock for a little extra support and to hide the mess I usually make on the back of them. 

What's your favourite thing to do with Distress Inks?

Happy Creating

Wendy