RANGER MELT ART MANIA

I hope that everyone is having a happy and creative week!  

ALERT!  ALERT!  ALERT!  

 RANGER INDUSTRIES is hosting 

"MELT ART MANIA" from May 15th through the 31st.

Every day, a new melt art project is being featured on Ranger's Blog with a link to the artist who created it, so you can read about it's construction in greater detail.  

I am so honored that Tim Holtz asked me to be a part of Melt Art Mania!  Ranger truly is a great company and they are offering a wonderful prize package of melt art products to several lucky recipients simply by leaving a comment on the blogs of those artists who are participating in Melt Art Mania.  Just leave a comment on the blogs and winners will be randomly chosen to receive a wonderful prize package of Ranger Melt Art Goodies.  
I will be choosing the winner from my blog on June 3rd. 

 

And here is the prize package YOU might receive!  WOW!  

•  TWO Texture Treads
• One Set of Reheat Inks
• One 8 oz. Jar of Clear UTEE
• One Melt Art Project Craft Sheet

Now THAT is a prize package!  

 Check out the RANGER BLOG HERE for further details.

MY MELT ART PIECE IN CELEBRATION OF MELT ART MANIA

There are several different Melt Art techniques that I used on this piece and I will describe them throughout this post.

My wall hanging is a 5x7 canvas with a smaller 3"x4" canvas stacked on the right side.  

I brushed Matte Multi Medium onto the canvas and covered it with Tim Holtz' Melange Tissue Wrap Paper.  Then I used a combination of Wild Honey, Broken China and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks to distress the canvas.  I covered the canvas with with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint and sat it to the side to dry 
and I started working on the smaller canvas.

I first distressed a piece of manila cardstock with Broken China and a touch of Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  Then, using Tim Holtz' Rulers Texture Fade, I dry embossed the measuring tape background.  

~ Melt Art Technique Number One ~

Tapping the raised areas of the embossed paper with Distress Embossing Ink Pad and then sprinkling Queen's Gold Embossing Powder over those areas.  If you have extra powder you don't want on there, take a small paint brush and brush it away before heat setting it with a Craft It Heat Tool.

I lightly tapped a Distress Embossing Pad over the raised areas of the measuring tape image and sprinkled it with Queen's Gold Embossing Powder.  After it was heat set, I gently distressed the edges and into the interior of the face of the canvas with Gathered Twigs and Black Soot Distress Inks.  Using more Matte Multi Medium, I covered the canvas with the embossed paper. Then for the FUN PART...adding the melt art pieces...

~ Melt Art Technique Number Two ~ 

Pouring hot Clear UTEE over a surface and then using a cookie cutter to create a shape out of the UTEE.

The little boy is from and older Tim Holtz' Distressables CD.  I cut him out and inked the edges.  Next, I cut out a piece of chipboard that would be big enough to encompass the little boy in an oval shaped cookie cutter.  I covered the chipboard with various Tim Holtz' Tissue Tapes, distressed them with Distress Ink colors and glued the little boy in the center.  Then I poured hot melted Clear UTEE over the little boy and slipped the oval cookie cutter into the hot UTEE, centering it around the little boy.  Leave the cookie cutter in place until the UTEE is cooling and then remove it.  Trim around the edges if necessary while the UTEE is still warm because the UTEE is still pliable at that point.  

~ Melt Art Technique Number Three ~ 

Inking the edge of an object with the an embossing ink pad and then sprinkling over that area with embossing powder.  Brush away any excess powder with a small paint brush before heat setting with a Craft It Heat Tool.  If you are working on (as in this case) a UTEE edge, be careful not to overheat the area and remelt the UTEE.
 
I inked the edges of the oval with Distress Embossing Ink and sprinkled the edges with Queens Ink to further accentuate the shape of the oval.

Then I glued a piece of dark brown cardstock behind the oval and cut around it, leaving a little matting.  I repeated the embossing powder technique to accentuate the edges of the oval.  Then I glued the piece in the center of the canvas.  

I added a couple of Tim Holtz' Pediments die cut from plain Grungeboard to the smaller canvas.  I die cut them three times each and glued them together.  Then I colorized them using Tim Holtz' Tarnished Brass and Antiqued Bronze Distress Stains.  I added some Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges for a more aged look. 

~ Melt Art Technique Number Four ~

Pouring hot UTEE directly into a mold made from Mold 'N Pour.  Caution: Mold 'N Pour can be very addicting! Once you make one mold, you'll be going around your house looking for anything and everything you can mold!!!  Seriously!!!

I used Mold N' Pour to create a mold of Tim Holtz' crown from his Adornments set.  Once the mold was ready, I poured hot melted Black UTEE into the mold.  Within a minute or two, I had a black crown that I then added an iridescent quality to with various Perfect Pearls Powders.  Then I centered it and glued it onto the upper Pediment.

I added Jump Rings, small pieces of chain and altered Pen Nibs (colored with Gold and Silver Paint Dabbers-touch of Pitch Paint Dabber at the tips) to a Tim Holtz Keyhole and then glued it onto the lower Pediment.

~ Melt Art Technique Number Five ~

Pouring hot UTEE directly onto a piece of chipboard and then stamping a rubber stamp image into the UTEE.

To make this panel of brushes, I cut a piece of 2" x 5" chipboard. I combined Clear UTEE, Platinum UTEE, Bronze UTEE and a touch of Black UTEE together and let it melt.  While it was melting, I inked the brushes from Tim Holtz' Artful Tools stamp set with Distress Embossing Ink and put it onto an acrylic block.  Once the UTEE was melted, I poured it all over the chipboard piece that was sitting on my Non Stick Craft Sheet and pressed the stamp down into the hot UTEE.  Let it sit for a minute or so and then remove the stamp.  Wash it right away.  While the UTEE is still warm, you can clip away any excess poured UTEE because the warm UTEE is still pliable.  I then used various Perfect Pearls Powders to colorize the UTEE piece.  I used Perfect Copper, Sunflower Sparkle, Forever Green and Blue Raspberry to create the iridescent effect.

~ Melt Art Technique Number Two Repeated ~ 

Using a cookie cutter to create shapes out of UTEE.

For the "ART" circles, I first distressed some manila cardstock with various Distress Ink Colors.  Then I stamped the small letter from Wendy Vecchi's Believe In Art stamp set onto the cardstock. using Coffee Archival Ink.  Then I used Tim Holtz' Worn Text stamp set to stamp the "A", "R", and "T" from Jet Black Archival Ink.  Then I used the same technique that I used when I poured Clear UTEE onto the chipboard and used the oval cookie cutter to cut out the little boy image.  This time, I used a small circle cookie cutter to cut around each of the letters.  Once cool, I glued the letters onto a brown piece of silk ribbon.

I added two "pens" (made from skewers and altered pen nibs) on top of the UTEE piece. I wrapped the pens with string and glued feathers to the ends of the strings.  I glued them into place and added the smaller of Tim Holtz' Regal Adornments wings onto the piece.  I altered the wings with a Gold Paint Dabber and touches of a Juniper Paint Dabber to give it that patina look.

The ART ribbon is glued in between the UTEE brush imprints and the smaller canvas.  I used a graphite pencil to add dark areas around the circles, further emphasizing them.

Here, you can see a closer up look at the Melt Art Techniques and the dramatic textures and results you can get when using UTEE in several different ways.

So...there you have it, my Melt Art Creation for Ranger's Melt Art Mania Giveaway!  So fun and easy to do!  And....no waste!  Once you are finished with your melted UTEE, just pour it onto your Non Stick Craft Sheet and let it cool for a couple of minutes.  Then you can save your hardened UTEE and reheat it, melting it back into liquid form to reuse again and again on your projects!  How THAT'S value! 

You ought to try experimenting with UTEE.  It's so much fun!  And...if you leave a comment and you're chosen as alucky random winner, you will be receiving a Melt Art Mania prize package full of goodies that will help you get started!

So, leave a comment NOW and share this post with your friends!  

The drawing will be on June 1st. 

Good luck!!!

Here are the products available at Simon Says Stamp that I used in the creation 
of this Melt Art piece:

InLinkz.com