COMPENDIUM OF CURIOSITIES CHALLENGE #33 - ALTERED METAL ALCOHOL INKS

Hello again! A big THANK YOU to Linda Ledbetter of Studio L3 for hosting the Compendium of Curiosities Challenges!  These are wonderful because it gets your creative juices flowing and also teaches or reteaches Tim Holtz' wonderful techniques from his book Compendium of Curiosities.  If you don't have a copy of the book, it's well worth having.  The tips and techniques he shares in this book can be used in so many art forms.  Whether you're a scrapbooker, a card maker or a mixed media/altered artist, you can enhance your work with Tim's techniques!

Here is my challenge piece for Challenge Number 33 - Altered Metal Alcohol Inks.

While I can't tell you the technique of the alcohol inking part, I can tell you how I constructed the rest of this piece.  I used Tim's Hanging Sign die cut to cut the top two pieces.  Then I used Tim's Styled Labels to cut the bottom piece.  I added the keyhole Movers and Shapers die cut to the bottom piece.  I turned it upside down to resemble an exclamation point.  More about the bottom piece in a minute.

I cut all the dies out of black chipboard and then again with metal aluminum.  Then I die cut the letters "CREATE ART" from Tim's Vintage Market die cut strip.  I used cardstock and cut them twice and glue each letter together to make them a bit thicker.  Next I laid the letters out on the signs and glued them in place.  Then I glued the metal on top of the signs and the chipboard letters.  Then I took a paper stump and embossed around all of the letters; working in and around all the curved and indented areas.  Next, I alcohol inked the signs and the hanger.  The colors I used are as follows:

The Hanger - Ginger and Expresso

The "Create Sign" - Caramel and Stream

The "ART" Sign - Purple Twilight and Bottle

Next, I wanted to make the letters stand out so I used a QTip and rubbed it onto an Archival black ink pad.  Then I rubbed it over the letters to remove the alcohol ink and take the metal back to the silver that I started with.  Waterproof inks will remove alcohol ink!  Just keep rubbing off the alcohol ink with the waterproof ink and then wipe the letters with a paper towel when you are finished to polish up the letters!  That simple! 

Next I punched holes in the bottom of the "CREATE" sign and in the top of the "ART" sign.  I joined all of my pieces together with jump rings. 

To finish off this challenge piece, I added a portion of a Wendy Vecchi stamp behind the keyhole.  I stamped it on cardstock and colored it in with colored pencils.  I liked the face image peeking out from the keyhole.  Then I added some butterflies that I double stamped and stacked by gluing them on the "body".  I colored the top butterflies with colored pencils but used soft, muted colors so that they would accent and not compete with the more brilliant alcohol ink colors.  I pulled the top set of wings up a little to create a fluttering effect. 

Since this is a free hanging piece, I am sure I will find some place fun to let it hang!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Take some time to play...it's SOUL FOOD!