Spaceman

Today I have a birthday card to show you.  I made it for a special 4 year old little boy and I thought he might like an interactive card. I used the Space Explorer set from MFT.  I started by making the background on Strathmore watercolor paper.  I smooched some Distress inks onto my craft mat, sprayed a little water on then dropped the watercolor paper on and moved it around, then I dried it.  I wasn't thrilled with the results because it was way too light.  Next I put some Worn Lipstick, Broken China and Faded Jeans Oxide inks on my craft mat, spritzed a little water and dragged the paper around through it.  After I dried it, I still wasn't happy because it was still too light.  Next I took Ranger blending tools and sponged on Blueprint Sketch, Wilted Violet, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot Distress inks.  I was a lot happier with the darkness but felt it still needed something so I got out my Denim Adirondack Color Wash spray and spritzed it a couple of times...bam...it finally looked like what I had in mind!  I watered down some white acrylic paint and splattered it on to look like stars and my background was done!

Next I took two circle dies that cut two circles about 3/8" apart, taped them together with Post-it Tape and cut a channel out of the background for the interactive part.  I stamped the astronaut, 2 planets, a bunch of stars and the little space ship and colored them with Copics.  

To assemble my card, I attached the space sky background and center circle to a folded Night of Navy card with extra thick foam tape.  I punched out a 1/2" circle of Night of Navy and glued a Spin & Slide Disc (MFT) to it.  I then glued that onto a washer and put it into the channel.  I glued the little space ship onto the disc so it would slide freely around the channel.  The weight of the washer made it move much more easily on it's own. 

I finished the card off by gluing the astronaut onto the center circle, and the planets and stars around the edges.  I loved the sentiment from the Space Explorer set!  It was perfect for the inside of my card.  I added a "Happy Birthday" from the Ocean Pals set from MFT.  I hope little Oliver has fun with my card.  

Thanks for visiting.  Keep stamping!!

Janet

Mixed Media Canvas #1

Doing the Tim Holtz tags is definitely reducing my anxiety about mixed media.  It's working...hooray!!  I got together with some friends to make this canvas.  Everyone in the group had a different theme.  Wynema and Vicki did ephemera collages using lots of things from their relationship with their husbands, Wynema let me post hers so make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post so you don't miss it!  Carolyn's canvas had a beach theme and I decided on a botanical theme.  We had boxes full of stuff EVERYWHERE, which gave us a lot to choose from when embellishing!  Our canvases were 9 x 12 and were painted black with acrylic paint.  We used Adirondack sprays to put color onto the small cards and then began using our imagination to add ephemera for texture and interest.  Oh what fun!!

Here is my canvas...

I was a little worried that the background colors on my card pieces were too bright, but I was going for garden colors and pink, fuchsia, and greens are my favorite garden colors. I went for it and I'm happy with how it turned out.  I think Tim Holtz has some amazing ephemera and I used some of it on my canvas, but to me just using that isn't enough.  I think it's so much more interesting to use found objects, vintage papers, and embellishments made from combining this and that so that is what I focused on while making my canvas.  It was a challenge to place the cards so that my completed piece was well balanced and pleasing to the eye.  I feel like I made one mistake but once it was all glued down it was too late to change it.  What do you think?  Do you notice something?

I'm not going to bore you with a close up of each little piece of my collage, but here are a few of my favorites...

I loved doing this so much that I'm going to make one more, with a beach theme next time!

Below is Wynema's gorgeous ephemera canvas!  I just love the combination of the teals and blues with the orange and rusty color...gorgeous!  You can see more of Wynema's work on her Pinterest page here.  Make sure to check out her jewelry and painting boards.  She is a very talented lady!!  I'm still waiting to see Vickie and Carolyn's work.  Once they get them finished, I'm hoping they will let me share them here :)

Thanks for visiting.  I'd love to hear what you think of this project so if you have a minute, please leave a comment!

Love,
Janet


Supplies used:
The basic supplies were a 9x12 canvas, black acrylic paint, watercolor paper and assorted Adirondack and Dylusions sprays.  Some of the other things we used are wire, encaustic wax, cheesecloth, metal sheets, embossing powder, slide frames, stamps, plaster tape, twine and fibers. Just about anything will work on this project!