NEW YEAR ~ OLD FAVORITES

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  

LET ME BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO WISH YOU A VERY BLESSED, SAFE AND PROSPEROUS 2014.

To start the new year off at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, we are ringing in the new year by dividing the Design Team up with some glitz and glitter projects or some of our old favorites!  Since I am not what I would consider a real "glitzy girl", I opted to share some of my old favorites.

I created this 6x6 board in a steampunk style using some of my old Tim Holtz favorites: his hot air balloon from Remnants and Tiny Things stamps, some Rubons, the Weathered Clock die cut, Grungeboard, his Riveted Metal Texture Fade, Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, my trusty Gold Paint Dabber, Ideaology Mini Gears and of course, Distress Inks! 

 I particularly love the hot air balloon on this piece.  I gave it a really fun twist....by creating the balloon with Cream Honeycomb paper so that it can ...

Open up and attach to the other side of the balloon with the small paper clip to look like ....

This ... creating a fun interactive element and more dimension.  I'll get more into how I created this element in second.  But first, let's start at the beginning.

I began with some Neenah Cream Paper and stamped Tim's hot air balloon (twice) from his Remnants stamp set and some images from his Tiny Things stamp set using Jet Black Archival Ink.  I then cut one of the balloons in half (a little smaller than the halves should be) so that I could cut half of the balloon out of the Cream Honeycomb Paper.  You only need to cut out half of an image. When it folds out, it will be the complete image.  Then I colored the balloon halves with a Detailer Water Brush and some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I glued them onto a piece of kraft cardstock and cut them out again, leaving a small edge of the kraft cardstock showing around the balloons.  I then glued a half to each side of the Honeycomb Paper.  As as after thought, I decided it might look really cool to add some Gold Embossing to the edges of the kraft cardstock and also randomly on the honeycomb of the balloon, so I inked the edges of the kraft cardstock with Embossing Ink, sprinkled them with Queen's Gold Embossing Ink (a great vintage gold) and heat set the powder.  

Then I lightly wiped the ink pad onto the honeycomb paper that was still being loosely held together (not opened out) and sprinkled it with the gold powder.  I brushed off some excess with my finger and gently heat set it.  When the balloon opens out, it is a very cool effect and certainly gives my steampunk balloon not only a vintage feeling but also a touch of a metallic look on the honeycombed paper.

I apologize for not having taken more pictures during this process.  As with almost all of my work, I experiment and play as I go with ideas.  This was totally experimentation ... but it worked and I love the end result!

After loving the honeycomb balloon, I decided that the hot air balloon itself should be partially gold embossed, so I stamped out another hot air balloon using Jet Black Archival Ink only this time, I sprinkled Queen's Gold Embossing Powder over it while it was still wet.  I removed the excess powder and then heat set it.  I really like the added gold and it will certainly tie in better with the partially gold embossed honeycomb balloon. 

The next step was decorating half of the balloon so that when I wanted the balloon folded up, there would still be something very vintage, very steampunkish and very cool to look at.

So I lightly colored several of the Tiny Things images and cut out around them.  I added Glossy Accents to the wings and body of the bee and to the typewriter keys.  I made my own little banner and stamped "FLY" onto it.  I had distressed the manila cardstock with Vintage Photo Distress Ink (on both sides of the paper because when the balloon is opened out, the backside of the banner will be exposed) and edged it with a Black Soot Distress Marker.  Then I coated it with Rock Candy Distress Crackle.  When dry, I attached it to the typewriter.  I then pop dotted those images on top of the balloon half.  On the other side, I had created "INSPIRE" letter blocks out of manila card stock, distressed with Vintage Photo and edged with the Black Soot Marker.  I painted over the blocks with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  When dry, I glued the blocks in place with Glossy Accents.  I used a black Stabilo Pencil to go around them, smearing the ink with a Q-Tip.  I like the little bit of dimension it added to that exposed side of the balloon.

Again, I apologize that I got so carried away with the creating process that I did not take a bunch of pictures of the construction!  But, it was so much fun to just keep coming up with more ideas as the balloon was evolving!

Next I decided that it would be really neat if something would spread across the balloon as it opened out.  So, I created a little "SOAR" banner out of manila cardstock and a piece of black elastic cording.  It doesn't show up in this photo very well, but I distressed the banner with Broken China and then Vintage Photo around the sides and a Black Soot Distress Marker on the edges.  Then I brushed over everything with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  When dry, I then secured the banners in place on the elastic cording with 1/4" Scor Tape and glued the little back tabs in place with Glossy Accents.  I then figured out how much of the cord it would take to comfortably go across the balloon when the balloon was folded out.  So I cut that piece and then hot glued each side to the balloon edges.  As it worked out, the one edge of the cording perfectly fit right under the typewriter on the front of the balloon....so no raw edges of the cording show.  Yay!  Happy Accident!

Next, I added three more tiny images to the exterior of the balloon by attaching them to long coiled pieces of wire.  I attached one end of the wire to the basket of the balloon with hot glue.  The other end of the wire is attached to the tiny images:  at top hat, a clock and a butterfly.  All of the images are colored using a Detailer Water Brush and Distress Ink.  I also used Glossy Accents on the top hat and the clock face.  In the photo above, you can see all of these pieces and the wire attaching them.  The clock face wire was purposely placed beneath the cording so that the clock face can become part of the balloon when it is opened out.  When the balloon is closed, the clock face looks just like the butterfly and top hat; sort of floating on their own.  I had stamped and embossed another basket that I cut out and pop dotted on top of the original, hiding all of the "construction" underneath.

My balloon assemblage was finished.  Now what was I going to make to go along with it?

I covered a piece of 6x6 chipboard with Tim's Riveted Metal Texture Fade design that has been dry embossed onto Metal Foil Sheets.  I had to piece portions of it to completely cover the 6x6 chipboard.  Then I covered the whole board with black paint mixed with a little water and dabbed off the excess.  I then added touches of gold paint dabber over the seams and rivets and finally added a little Juniper Paint Dabber to add a patina effect. (This photo is just of the bare silver metal covering the chipboard).

I cut a Weathered Clock out of Plain Grungeboard and covered it with Wendy Vecchi's Gold Embossing Paste.  I blotched it in some places because I wanted an uneven, "weathered" look.

I kept the center portion of the Weathered Clock and covered it with Manila Cardstock.  I distressed it with Broken China and edged it with Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress Inks.  I stamped "DISCOVER YOUR PASSION" from Indigo Blu's Discover Your Passion" stamp set using Jet Black Archival.  (You can also see the distressed metal background much better in this picture).  I then figured out where I wanted the clock to be, hot glued the center in place.  Next I wired a few of the Mini Gears onto the clock so that they would stand up off of the Grungeboard.  Then added 1/2 pop dots around the underside of the clock and popped it into place.  Next I added a few more Mini Gears with Glossy Accents.

Next I hot glued my hot air balloon in place on the right side of the board.  It was really starting to take shape now.  I just needed a few things here and there to finish it off!

I stamped this very cool light bulb stamp from Donna Salazar onto some Manila Cardstock with Jet Black Archival.  I decided to add some gold embossed highlights on this as well.  So, I used my Inkessentials Embossing Pen to allow me to add gold to the filament, at the bottom and lightly on the top of the bulb.  Once this was done, I distressed the bulb with Broken China and covered it with Rock Candy Distress Crackle.  When dry, I added "JUST FOLLOW YOUR HEART" from Tim Holtz' Words Remnants Rubs. 

I added a strip of metallic stars (originally antique silver, turned gold with a Gold Paint Dabber) across the bottom of the board.  I then added some chain to the light bulb and trailed it over to a heart locket that I had in my stash.  I hot glued the tiny light bulb on top of the heart and attached it to the chain using a small Jump Ring.  

Above the balloon, I added another dimensional butterfly from the IndioBlu stamp set.  I gave it acetate wings and attached them to the body with Glossy Accents.  I fashioned wire antenna and glued them underneath.  The wings are distressed with Broken China Distress Ink.  This butterfly is also attached to the balloon with a coiled wire so that it can look more "free floating".  I then hot glued one of Tim's Light Bulbs above the hot air balloon and my piece was finished!

And here is the finished piece ... balloon closed

Balloon open!  

I hope this has inspired you to take some time over this New Years' holiday to pull out some of your old favorites and PLAY!  Don't forget, just because we're not having a challenge this week, Simon Says Stamp is always open to satisfy all of your crafting wants and needs!

Below is a list of all of the products available at Simon Says Stamp that were used in this Steampunk Style Board:

Tim Holtz Remnants Stamp Set, Tim Holtz Tiny Things Stamp Set, Tim Holtz Diamond Plate & Riveted Metal Texture Fade, Tim Holtz Weathered Clock Die Cut, Tim Holtz Elements Rubons, Tim Holtz Words Rubons, Rock Candy Distress Crackle, Ideaology Mini Gears, Gold Paint Dabber, Inky Antics Ivory Honeycomb, Neenah Smooth Classic Cream Paper, Detailer Water Brush, Jet Black Archival, Broken China Distress Ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Black Soot Distress Ink, Black Soot Distress Marker, Wendy Vecchi Gold Embossing Paste, Queen's Gold Embossing Powder, VersaMark Embossing Ink, Emboss It Ink Pen, Discover Your Passion IndigoBlu Stamp Set, Glossy Accents, Pitch Black Paint Dabber,
Juniper Paint Dabber, Ideaology Light Bulb, Ideaology Jump Ring, Ideaology Mini Paper Clip, Plain Grungeboard, Metal Foil Sheets, Tim Holtz Industrious Borders,1/4" Scor Tape,IndigoBlue Discover Your Passion