Friendship Altered Tin

 Hello Friends!

I am so excited to share with you my project for being the Guest Designer this week at The Funkie Junkie Challenge! This week it's about Friendship.  Be sure to check out the Design Team's project and maybe submit one of your own! :)

A first I didn't know what I was going to make. I am in Halloween mode-LOL. And I didn't know who I would make something for-my husband and sister get many things as it is. :)  And I love all of my friends-but it hit me-I would make something for my friend that lives down the street. She makes life easier and definitely more fun.

I started off with an altoids tin. And I altered it using mostly Tim Holtz products and a little Finnabair.  Funny side note--I don't eat altoids. A different friend of mine a long time ago gave me tins, and this is from her collection.

Here is the front:

And when you open it...

So if you would like to see how I created this stay with me. If not-I understand that too :) 

I gessoed the tin with black gesso around the outside.  I put light modeling paste on the lid and let that dry. Then I used Tim's matte texture paste and a Tim stencil to create the stars. I used distress stains-mustard seed and carved pumpkin. I also took a little prize ribbon and used the spray tube to add drops of color. Then I spritzed with a little water and let that dry.

I sprayed some more stain on a piece of cardstock and added a little elixir mica spray. Then I used a garden green sizzix die to cut some leaves. I didn't use the leaves like how they are cut in the die. I cut the leaves in their little sections and created a bunch behind the flair piece.

To make the friend word card more fun I used this stars die cut which was the special die last year from Simon Says Stamp.  Then I used gathered twigs distress ink around the card.

For the inside I used liquitex gesso and a piece of paper from Tim's backdrop volume 1 papers.

I added walnut stain with a small brush to get into the corners.

Then I painted the inside left and the frame part of the right this beautiful finnabair sparks paint-unicorn hair. so magical :)

I just have to share that I love these thimbles as pots for the flowers. I used them before and glazed them with Tim's embossing glaze but the few colors of glaze didn't match what I was going for here. So I got out the Finnabair wax rusty brown and here's the difference. 

I sprayed my flowers-I think with tumbled glass and snowflurries mica for the blue, raspberry and hocus pocus mica for the pinkish, and flickering candle mica for the yellow. I did think that the flowers would stay nicely in this thimble pot. But they don't--LOL and I had to go back and glue them down with hot glue.

For the paper doll ladies I cut some craft foam and adhered it using glossy accents so they would have a little dimension.  And I added craft moss-I used the q-tip to put the glossy accents on the bottom of the tin. Also, I glued the thimble in first so I had small spaces on both sides to put the glue so the q-tip was awesome. And then I used craft tweezers to add in the moss. 

Here is the left inside. The stars are last years ideology christmas stars--I didn't know they had stars so small. It was a great surprise (and it was a brand new pack which means I guess I haven't needed any stars in like 11 months.)

The moon is made from paper clay I bought and a Finnabair mould. Those nice words are from the everyday clipping stickers and some more little stars.

My friends-here is the back. I took a piece of cardstock and added distress ink--crushed olive, scattered straw, oxide antique linen. Then I stamped the lines using a super old stampin up journaling stamp (2002 lol) and distress ink gathered twigs.  Later I will tell my friend how great she is :)

Thank you for making it to the end.  I appreciate your vising. :)

Cobblestone Church

 Hello Friends!

This is sooo exciting--I am a guest designer today for The Funky Junky Boutique Blog challenge. This is the first time I have had a project win overall winner.  I am very honored. :)

The challenge "Rather Blustery Day" is all about using supplies or techniques that you having a hard time using. I chose the Village Collection dies from Tim Holtz.  I have made 2 houses and they are still floating around in my craft space. They are ok-I didn't like how they turned out.. And after I made those two houses-I haven't touched this die set again.  Until now! I thought this is the perfect motivation to use this die set.  So I set out to make a church. I was going to try to make a steeple. deep breath

Here is my finished project. I used a lot of products and techniques, and it was super fun.  I know why I don't automatically reach for this set and that's because it is more of an exact type of craft. I'm not great at measuring (I like to eyeball) and I am not always tedious-a little more messy and just see how something turns out kind of person. However when you build a structure there needs to be some precision.  

This church makes my heart so happy! So I am going to post more pictures of it.  Here the lights are dim to show off the tiny lights and "stained glass" windows.

 Also, I am going to post process pictures-those will show what colors I used (for the most part). I take photos to remember what I used-it's a little easier that way. You will see my messy desk LOL just disregard that. Yeah, I'm a messy crafter for sure. LOL :)

So first more pics of the cobblestone church. One goal I had was for the bell to ring. And it does! 

Before I show you my process here are the links to help. They helped me. And I just want to show how I created mine-but these are better tutorials:

Tim Holtz's Village Collection

Cottage Tutorial by Bibi Cameron -It was cool to see her create the house from start to finish.

I used these embossing folders for the cobblestone and wood (bell tower roof).  As you see-I have the whole collection but didn't use the bricks or foundry on this project.

At Christmas I received two set of cutting pads. So one set I saved for the day I would use the sticky grid and cut out houses. Yeah that the day has come! :)

So I thought I measured right-but no I didn't. The windows on each are different. So I cut more and maybe have enough for another house. (that's in a pile marked later lol)

So the base of my house is regular cardstock. I have watched videos and Tim says to build it out of something a bit more stronger. Next time I will. LOL maybe that's why things get a little wonky.

We have windows and doors.

So I think next time everything should be cut out of black cardstock. Originally, I wanted to save time and just do the front and tower out of cobblestone but when I added black distress ink to the corners it wasn't clean. So cobblestones for all the walls! 

Here are the inks and crayon I used for the cobblestones.  The crayon is awesome!

I have mica tiles which I have never used before. I used alcohol inks and cut the pieces down to size. Then I glued them to the windows before sealing up the house.

Love! And that's when I knew that I needed to find my clear tiny lights.

It's shaping up. I used Allene's tacky glue to adhere it together and put on the cobblestone. 

So for the tower before I put on the cobblestone piece I colored the windows with this marker from faber-castell.  Below the marker you can see the cobblestone and the gold frame windows. The gold is from Tim's gold cardstock. 

I got out my heavy mixed media paper from Tim and sprayed it. This is what the roof shingles are made from. I chose this paper so it wouldn't warp. 

So here is the front of the church. I am mounting it on a vignette box-the 2nd largest one. I painted it with white gesso.  The tiny lights are on.

Here is the back side. I used a hole punch to make a small notch in the back of the church for the wire to go through.  I made a hole in the vignette box using a hand crank drill by Fiskars.  The battery pack is on the underside and the lights fit through the hole.

I painted the vignette box.  Here I'm trying to figure out how I am going to cover the vignette box around the church.

I used grit paste mixed with black paint to make a mortar type thing, and I put it where the tower is on the roof and underneath the roof and the spire.  I applied it using a toothpick since those spaces are so small.

I added a gravel walk way.  The little little rocks are from the dollar tree.

Then I decided that I didn't like the green paint. I repainted the base black. The arrow is pointing to where the wire comes in.

Here's a close up of the gravel walk way.

I sprayed mica spray on these ideology flowers. 

I had to watch another video to see how to glaze metal-LOL This was magical. 

This isn't the best picture but here are the thimbles glazed. I am going to use these for planters :)

Here is the battery pack. I hot glued it to the roof of the vignette box.

And that's it friends. Thank you for stopping by today. Extra thanks if you made it to the end! 

I'm so thankful for this challenge to make this church. It was a lot of fun. I look forward to the next structure in the village collection. :) 

Until next time my friends-keep on makin'! 

Guest Feature

Hello Everybody!

I am very excited to share with ya'll that I am the 1st Guest Blogger at Dr. Sonia's blog-Cards, Crafts, and Kids Projects.  Dr. Sonia has great projects from flowers to homemade birdcages out of an appliance box.  She is very inspirational, and I am so happy that she picked me to feature on her blog!

Here is the link for the feature about me--here.  :)  To all of my new visitors-thank you!  And if you have become a Cut and Paste Pal-a big Thank YOU! :)

I'm off to go make something!  Until next time my friends...have a good night! :)