Timeless Tuesday #242: Burlap or Canvas

I just can't get over how quickly this month is passing by! Halloween is almost here, last week my mother and I were discussing Thanksgiving arrangements for this year, and...well, I'll just throw this out there, too--71 days left until Christmas! :-@ But, that does mean 10 more Timeless Tuesday Challenges. Ah, that silver lining. ;-)

For the Timeless Tuesday Challenge this week, the super talented Deborah is challenging us to...

Rather than make a card this week, I decided to make a vintage wall hanging for the upcoming holiday season. I'm a huge fan of distressing, vintage, shabby, grunge--you name it. If I can age something (besides me, of course!), I love it! So the new, fabulous, Winter Berries stamp set, which reminds me of a vintage botanical print, was perfect for my project.

My project is built onto an 8" x 8" base of corrugated cardboard that I painted with green, dark brown, and metallic gold acrylic paint. The next layer is a square of kraft cs that I spritzed with Dylusions Ink Spray in Dirty Martini and White Linen and punched with a Martha Stewart Around the Page Punch Set. Over that, I layered red cs and dry embossed dark brown cs and zigzagged around the edges. Then, the fun part started.

The red square is a die cut stamped with a crackle bg stamp, edged with a gold Krylon marker, and backed with a piece of polka dot dp and a scalloped layer of kraft cs, edged with gold acrylic paint. The striped rectangle is a piece of scrap dp that I edged with Forest Moss Distress Ink and "stained" with Tea Dye Distress Ink using a little bottle as my stamp. Just for fun, I used mini staples to attach it to a mat of Capers cs, from Flourishes Color Made Easy Evergreen Paper Collection. The big sparkly flourish in the upper right corner is a chipboard die cut. The horizontal strip is another piece of corrugated cardboard, painted and wrapped with a piece of red burlap. The dark, sparkly holly die cut along the lower edge of that strip is a holly die cut, out of the Capers cs and painted with Sparkle Mod Podge.

The little frame came from the bargain bin at Michaels. I couldn't believe how perfect it was for the Season's Greetings sentiment! I used the little individual berries and leaf stamps from the Winter Berries set, along with some masking, to create the image under the sentiment. It is colored with Copics, and after die cutting the sentiment, I kept it in the die and sponged Tea Dye Distress Ink as a background color.

I had so much fun with the winter berry branch image. The stamp only has berries near the base of the branch, and not so many leaves, but since there is an individual leaf, as well as a tiny bunch of berries included in the set, I was able to fill out the branch quite a bit more. To add the extra elements to the image, I cut masks for all the leaves on the branch, several for the individual leaf stamp, and also several for the individual berry bunch stamp. Since I wanted some of my extra berries to be in front of the branch and some to be behind the branch, I needed to stamp a few berries first, before stamping the main branch. To make sure I had everything lined up, I first stamped the branch in Memento Angel Pink ink. Then, I was able to stamp the berries and leaves that I wanted in front of the branch directly on top of the light colored image. After masking those berries, I then stamped the entire branch in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, making sure to line the stamp up as close as possible with the pink lines. (I used a black Micron pen to add in any lines that didn't quite meet up). Finally, I masked off the branch and leaves and stamped more berries and leaves that I wanted to appear behind the branch. Then, I colored the entire image with Copics and added white highlights to the berries with Copic Opaque White Pigment. I had a beautiful photo of a winter berry branch that was covered in frost, and I wanted to try to recreate that here, so I added Distress Dry Glitter in Clear Rock Candy to the image, concentrating mostly on the edges of the leaves, then I airbrushed the bg with a Copic marker. (Note to self: next time add the glitter last so the airbrushing doesn't discolor it.) To add to the vintage look, I tore the edges of the cs close to the image, crumpled it up a little bit, and sponged the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. After gluing everything to the base, I strung 3 little jingle bells onto a piece of bakers twine and hung it from the bottom of the image.

The hanger is a length of red and white striped ribbon that I distressed with Dylusions Ink Spray and Distress Ink. I put a couple of large eyelets in a square of strudy chipboard, threaded the ribbon through them, then attached the chipboard to the back of my project. Something I didn't count on was the weight of the frame. Because it is not centered on the project, it caused it to hang crooked. To counter balance it, I had to find something flat, but heavy enough to tape to the back of the chipboard. I ended up using several magnetic strips, a few metal washers, and even a broken money clip. After taping them to the side opposite the frame, I added a square of very lightweight cardboard to the other side, just to match the depth of the weighted side so that when it is against a wall, it will hang right. Not pretty, but it works! ;)

So, now it's your turn! I hope you'll play along! I can't wait to see how everyone takes on this challenge!

You don't have to use Flourishes stamps, but if you do, you get two ballots toward the weekly prize! You can find all the details for the challenge here.

Also, take a moment to be inspired by all our designers' blogs, and be sure to leave some love for them, too! :)

• Allison Cope
• Broni Holcombe
• Cheryl Lea...that's me!
• Deborah Anton
• Jenny Gropp
• Katie Sims
• Angel Rivera, our October Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

I'm entering this project in the following challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use a Rubber or a Clear Stamp

~Hugs,

 

Supplies:

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