Birds & Words

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Altered Surfaces - CC3C #33

Hey, CC3Cers!  How's your summer?  Hope you're getting lots of time to create and experiment with your inks, powders, and paints and to study your copy Compendium of Curiosities, Volume III!!  Just two more challenges counting this one and we will have completed our course of curiosity.  Our last two challenges are techniques (YAY!!)  

This week's challenge is sponsored by Inspiration Emporium with a fantastic $50 gift certificate.  Nice shopping spree there!  The Curiosity Crew choice gets a nice little bundle of swag donated by Tim Holtz and Mario Rossi.  Wouldn't that make your day??

All the rules & regs are found here on Linda Ledbetter's blog.  Be sure and leave a little buzz on the Curiosity Crew blogs to keep your eligibility alive.  This crew is so varied and talented, you're sure to find some inspiration to get you going!

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Now on to this week's project....
I decided to make a tag this time.  I began with a #8 manila tag.  I did the technique, found on page 45 of Tim's book, on a few different pieces.  You are going to have a high rate of success achieving this one. Its really easy and Tim's instructions are great.  Pay attention, though, when he says to let your embellishment piece cool a bit during the process!  I do recommend multiple colors, it really adds grungy goodness.
This piece got a little hot.  Its supposed to be a grungy piece, so its not ruined.  I'll use it somewhere else.  I LUV ampersands.
The technique requires a nonporous surface, so I thought I'd experiment with sealing a piece with metallic paint and making it nonporous.  Its a different look, but I really did like it.  I included it on this piece so you'd see the technique on a couple of different kinds of surfaces.  This is from Wendy Vecchi's Mat Minis Flower Pots.
I cut a lot of tiny snips slanted right and then left along the cone of the coneflower.  It created an irregular edge that made the flower look a bit more natural.  I inked the edges with Vintage Photo and then Hickory Smoke.  I'm tellin' ya, Hickory Smoke is going to be a new favorite for inking and distressing edges.  The background is made with embossing paste tinted with Aged Mahogany and one drop of Vintage Photo reinker.  I sprayed the tag with Hickory Smoke Distress Stain Spray.  The flowers are colored with Vintage Photo, Fossilized Amber, and Twisted Citron Distress Markers.
I selected a Small Talk sticker phrase.  I snipped it and applied to a scrap of black card stock and then traced the edges with a Twisted Citron Marker to tie in color.  I trimmed around the word blocks and popped them out.
I've got a feeling you guys are going to rock this one.  Can't wait to see what surfaces you dig out of your stash!!

45 comments:

  1. I LOVE the heated amperstand!!! I should have overheated something to see what it looked like...so cool! Anyway, your potted flowers are MOST EXCELLENT!!! Love the coloration and the pot!

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  2. Absolutely beautiful Cheryl. Great variations of the technique on several surfaces! Love your piece! The flowers in the pot are so striking. Love ALL of it!

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  3. Beautiful, meaningful and inspiring...just like you! Love what happened to the ampersand...that is really cool...now I want to go overheat, lol...such a cheerful inspiring card girly! Love ya!

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  4. Beautiful, meaningful and inspiring...just like you! Love what happened to the ampersand...that is really cool...now I want to go overheat, lol...such a cheerful inspiring card girly! Love ya!

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  5. Love your flowers and how the green makes the arrow and ampersand pop.

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  6. Oh cool - what a great idea to make a piece work with the technique! I always learn so much from you "curious" gals and really appreciate the inspiration and all the time and effort you put into making such beautiful and accessible projects.

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  7. Oh cool - what a great idea to make a piece work with the technique! I always learn so much from you "curious" gals and really appreciate the inspiration and all the time and effort you put into making such beautiful and accessible projects.

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  8. Your ampersand has character! Wonderful tag. Love texture on the brick wall and the weathered flower pot. Isn't the Twisted Citron an amazing color and I can see why you like using the Hickory Smoke. Beautiful water coloring on your flowers. I just love everything about this tag.

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  9. Cheryl very nice and inspirational tag. The saying is so nice sentiment. Your brick background is wonderful too. Thanks for sharing it.

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  10. So much inspiration here ... so many little amazing details . LOVE the sentiment !!! Your technique pieces rock and the colors ( twisted citron and hickory smoke ) :) ... love it ! Flowers and flower pot look so real too !

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  11. I don't know, Cheryl--I don't know how we can possibly rock this technique any more awesomely than you have!! Well, like I told Candy--All of the Curiosity Crew is knocking my socks off with this challenge!! Each project I visit and drool over is CC3 AWESOMENESS!! Your tag is so fun, Cheryl!! I LOVE your flower pot of Coneflowers--I want one!! :) :)
    Oh, and I appreciate you showing us the melted alpha part, too! That's why you have to be careful when using a heat gun :) :) You're -almost- ending CC3 with a creative bang!! XOXO-Shari

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  12. Now that's a great idea. Don't have anything non-porous? Make it non-porous with metal paint. I'm so happy you shared your ampersand with us to reinforce the point of being careful not to over-heat. Love this tag and the sentiment says it all. Wonderful!

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  13. So Nice, the flower pot is just fab. The Clip is so cool, love it :)

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  14. What a fantastic tag and a fantastic post Cheryl. So many amazing ideas here (and yes I've melted a few plastic embellishments of my own along the way :) ). Gorgeous flowers in that beautifully altered flower pot. And the Twisted Citron on black -- wonderful. Really terrific inspiration for CC3C#33. Thanks so much! -- Mary Elizabeth

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  15. You rock! I have to try that metallic paint sealant trick!

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  16. Lovely tag! I really like what you did with the flowers!

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  17. What an adorable tag and the ampersand melted looks cool I am sure you will use it on another of your always very innovative creations!

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  18. What an adorable tag and the ampersand melted looks cool I am sure you will use it on another of your always very innovative creations!

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  19. Fabulous tag Cheryl...love what you have done with this technique.. I also love the brickwork and cool little flowerpot!! :)

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  20. Fabulous tag, Cheryl! Love the altered ampersand along with your wonderful brick background and lovely flowers! Well done!

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  21. brilliant.. simply brilliant! love love love your flowers/tag

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  22. Great tag! I love how the flowers came out, and I quite agree, that Hickory Smoke rocks!!!

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  23. Omagosh- that brick is so REALISTIC!!! The overall look of the entire tag really shows off this particular technique!!! U aced it, hon!!! 😎👍

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  24. I like how you cut the flowers, making them more alive. Beautiful sentiment and great tag!

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  25. I like how you cut the flowers, making them more alive. Beautiful sentiment and great tag!

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  26. I love this I'm not the only one who overheated a piece! This is a beautiful tag, especially like the groovy flower pot.

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  27. Heheh - love your ampersand - it's great. Can't wait to see where you use it!!! The best part of your creation for me that you said the irregular edges made the flower look a little more natural. Why? Because when I saw your sentiment I immediately thought... how did she make those flowers look imperfect? It makes the sentiment mean so much more..your flowers look really authentic but still have such a sense of gracious beauty about them. This really touches my heart Cheryl. j.

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  28. Heheh - love your ampersand - it's great. Can't wait to see where you use it!!! The best part of your creation for me that you said the irregular edges made the flower look a little more natural. Why? Because when I saw your sentiment I immediately thought... how did she make those flowers look imperfect? It makes the sentiment mean so much more..your flowers look really authentic but still have such a sense of gracious beauty about them. This really touches my heart Cheryl. j.

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  29. Fabulous!! The saying is great, the flowers lovely, and it all comes together in one awesome piece!

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  30. I am still smiling at the ampersand, I love it and may make one 'too hot' too to see if I can achieve your fantastic result!! Your tag is beautifu. I just love the brick background and your cone flowers really do look more realistic with the snipping! Love this! Anne x

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  31. I am still smiling at the ampersand, I love it and may make one 'too hot' too to see if I can achieve your fantastic result!! Your tag is beautifu. I just love the brick background and your cone flowers really do look more realistic with the snipping! Love this! Anne x

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  32. What a fun tag! Loving the bright pops of color. The potted coneflowers are so pretty. Thanks for sharing the overheating results. That ampersand looks cool.

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  33. Great tag! I love the flower pot and how natural your coneflowers look! Yes, I've experienced several meltdowns in the past using this technique on plastic. Thank you for sharing your beautiful tag with us! I'm going to miss the CC3 Challenges! Perhaps IV???

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  34. Great tag! I love the flower pot and how natural your coneflowers look! Yes, I've experienced several meltdowns in the past using this technique on plastic. Thank you for sharing your beautiful tag with us! I'm going to miss the CC3 Challenges! Perhaps IV???

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  35. Wonderful techniques here - love your flower pot and overall creation. xx

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  36. Wonderful techniques here - love your flower pot and overall creation. xx

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  37. Tim and Wendy's style works so well together. This is fabulous Cheryl and those blooms are gorgeous!

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  38. Tim and Wendy's style works so well together. This is fabulous Cheryl and those blooms are gorgeous!

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  39. Cheryl, your tag is lovely. I love how you experimented with the flower pot...it works perfect with you flowers. I was so worried about over-heating that I am scared I didn't heat enough :)

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  40. Cheryl, your tag is lovely. I love how you experimented with the flower pot...it works perfect with you flowers. I was so worried about over-heating that I am scared I didn't heat enough :)

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  41. Wonderful colouring on those flowers. I am with you on using multiple colours for this technique. I love the way it ages it.

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