Colored Crackle

A new technique challenge!!  Don't you love those?  Include this fabulous technique on whatever your creative heart desires.  It's found on page 53 of Compendium of Curiosities III.  Click here to get your own copy signed by T!m Holtz himself or pick one up at your local craft shop.

Sometimes when "the sky's the limit" it makes creating easier, sometimes not.  This project began for me in one place and ended up in quite another.  But that's very cool that I can be okay with my scattered self and follow my imagination wherever it leads me.  This time it led me someplace quite familiar....  Flying Things.  I'm a bird lover.  I think I'm more enamored with the idea of birds rather than those little things flying around outside.  I spend much more time with pictures and symbols than I do the actual creatures.  I'll be changing that, I think.

When I started out I knew I wanted to do a few things for sure.  I would use the Colored Crackle technique on die cut Grungeboard, use an exposed Ring Binder, and include a found turquoise charm.  My initial idea for the Ring Binder didn't work out, so I used a structure learned from Wendy Vecchi (from her Inspiration Station she taught at our store a couple of years ago).

I am having a BLAST with the new Distress Spray Stains.  I can't wait till all colors are available.  I was working from my home studio and didn't have the right color Distress ink pad, so I just sprayed stain onto my blending tool and used it with Tim's Harlequin stencil.  Worked beautifully.  I picked up some overspray on my craft sheet with a dry brush to color my bird (stamped on a scrap of white denim and cut out) on the cover of my piece.  This is powerful stuff, my friends.

On the back side of the cover piece of Grungeboard I used the Paint Marbling technique from our very first CC3Challenge!  I carefully applied the paint so that it looked like a map of the United States and Europe.  NOT!!  Crazy the pictures you can see in this marbled effect!!

Some of the inside pages:

 The butterfly is cut from Tim's tissue wrap.  I cut and tore a lot of stuff from tissue and stamped tissue.  The body of the butterfly is a vintage rusty nail.

 Same page with the Memory Glass charm pushed aside.

All inside pages are cut from various materials using the Ornamental Bigz die.  This one is cut from Sticky Back Canvas adhered to cardstock.  This is a work in progress.  I'll probably add some more flying things to this art journal.  The stamps reminded me of airmail, the birds, butterflies and bugs are more obvious flying things.  What else is a flying thing?  Our imagination? Can our hearts take flight? Does music make our hearts soar?

I really hope you'll jump right in for this challenge!!  Funkie Junkie is our sponsor for this challenge with a generous $25 gift certificate going to a random winner.  Tim and Mario are sponsors for every challenge with a generous prize package going to the Curiosity Crew pick.  YOU can win!!  We can't wait to see what you do with this one!

Find all the details you need to know for entering and winning on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  Be sure make your comments on all the Curiosity Crew blogs, work from your own copy of Compendium of Curiosity, no sharing of the technique on your write up, and include links for the current sponsor (Funkie Junkie this week) and to CC3C.

A note on how we choose our winners:  Our goals for these challenges are 

• for you to be challenged to create your best art
• for everyone to feel encouraged and supported
• for people who are newer to entering challenges to feel that they have a chance to be recognized and to win challenges
• to reward outstanding creativity
• to reward those who do their very best no matter what level they may be on in their artistic journey
• to celebrate Tim Holtz's techniques, signature products and books, AND
• to enjoy each other's artistic company.  

Please know that we have so many wonderful entrants, sometimes its almost impossible to choose.  Keep creating!  Keep entering the challenges!  We are SO proud of all of you.