Tuesday 29 January 2013

DT Project #1 by Astrid Dance to the Music of the Times

Hello dear Snazzys visitors and welcome to our DT Blog!!!


Regulars will know that this month we are featuring some wonderful Steampunk cogs and wheels from The MDF Man and we had free range as what to do with. A challenge? - definitely.... great fun? - for sure!!
Make sure to scroll down to see what my wonderful teamies have created so far and if you want a chance to win a set of these fab blanks, leave a comment on this post.

Well, as to my project, after tossing around all sorts of things in my head, in the end the best I could come up with is another piece of wall art, not very original, but I had great fun playing around with paints, sprays, texture paste and inks. I started off by arranging 4 of the cogs together in an arrangement that I liked and then I glued them together with thick gel medium. Next I added texture paste through various stencils and masks. Snazzys has a great selection of these available. Following that, I added various Steampunk embellishments, again Snazzys has a fab collection and then I coated it all in a thick layer of Gesso. While that was drying I stamped my vocal image, a La Blache steampunk stamp from my stash with Black Archival Ink, cut it out with a circle die and put it aside.


Back to the cogs, - once the Gesso had dried I added various background stamps, partly straight to the mdf and partly onto tissue paper which I then glued to the piece in strips. Then the fun of colouring  mdf pieces with various inks and sprays started. When I was happy the results, I highlighted the raised bits with two colours of Treasure Gold and coloured my stamped image with Distress Inkpads in Peacock Feather, Chipped Saphire, Dusty Concord and Walnut stain..

For the background piece I covered a piece of 12 x 12 chipboard with music paper from my stash, inked and stencilled the edges and then glued the mdf to it. Finally I glued on my vocal image and computer generated a sentiment which I curled, inked and fastened with a Tim Holtz ideaology pen nib.
Here are some more close ups:






Well that's it from me for this time, - don't forget to come back next Monday to see what Hels will have created for you!


Until then ....

Thursday 24 January 2013

DT Project #2 by Minxy: Featuring

The MDF Man

Hay Snazzy Gang, Here I am again as promised with another cog project.
This time I used the clock piece cog, I say clock piece as it is a thicker cog and has an opening at the back so as to be able to fit the clock workings behind and for it to lay flat against the wall.


 I started by covering my cog edges with a layer of gesso, I knew I was going to cover the front with paper so didn't need to paint the whole cog.
I've used a sheet of my much loved and treasured 'Lille' papers by 7 Gypsies, Now you may be thinking.. wow those papers are old, and yes they are, BUT there is a reason behind me using them.
***
In case you didn't know Snazzy's Online Store has a Clearance section that is bursting at the seams with bargain stamps at the moment, And I spied the set of 'Lille' clear stamps I had been after for an age, suffice to say I snapped up a set quick smart.


 I stamped the stars from the set direct onto the paper covered clock in 'faded jeans' Distress ink, and then re-stamped and layered up on foam pads so they were protruding more, I also gave them a coat of 'rock candy' Distress Stickles to bling them up a bit.


 I gave the wording on the paper a coat of 'rock candy' Distress Crackle Paint.


I stamped, coloured and cut out the bird from the 'Lille' stamp set.
 I also stamped the word abundance with versamark ink and clear embossed with Snazzy's 'clear' EP.
Then to finish I just highlighted the hands of the clock and the edges of the clock with some 'indigo' treasure gold.
I hope you have enjoyed my project today, Sometimes it's the simple things that make the most impact don't you think!
***
Don't forget to stop by HERE and leave a comment {after you've left one for me of course!!} to be in with a chance of winning a 'random comment prize' which will be drawn in a couple of weeks time.
We still have projects from the lovely Astrid who will be blogging on Tuesday and Hels coming up the following week so do pop back for more inspiration. 
***
Till next time, Stay Inky 


Monday 21 January 2013

DT Project #1 by Minxy: Featuring:

The MDF Man

Hay Snazzy Folks
Well here I am for my first Snazzy posting of 2013.. 
I know it's a bit late now but Happy New Year to you x
I hope you have been enjoying the inspiration so far this month from both Gillian and Lesley, If not do scroll back and take a peek.
..........
So on to my project,


I have to admit that this was a fairly challenging kit as we literally had free range, Obviously my first instinct with cogs was to go grungy and brown but I stopped myself and had a little brain storm.. I have to confess I got my other half in on the brainstorming and it was his idea of making some of the pieces into a shelf that sparked my imagination and the piece you see before you.


I made a thin channel in the back cog the thickness of the mdf, and sawed off some of the cog teeth on the shelf so I had a snug fit, using the tiny cog underneath to make the shelf more stable. I glued and pinned the pieces together.


I painted the the whole piece with Studio 'black' gesso, I than stamped the very cool handwriting text from the Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 'art from the heart' stamp set in StazOn opaque 'cotton white' ink all over the gears as I thought it looked like scribbles on a blackboard.


I backed the cog onto a piece of Kaisercraft 'timeless' paper {which I thought looked like school writing paper} and then stamped in 'desert sand' & 'london fog' Memento ink with some of the Kaisercraft acrylic clear stamps {I used Numbers, Graffiti and Grid}.
I also used some of the stamps from the My Minds Eye 'funday: happy days' clear stamp set and some distress inks. I added some grungeboard arrows all over that I coloured with distress inks and a couple of die-cut man/woman shapes to finish off the piece. {oops I almost forgot, the screws to hold the piece to the wall are hidden behind the grungeboard arrows, in case you were wondering}
***
I hope you have enjoyed today's offering, I am thinking it might go down quite well with Don {snazzy boss} as he has the nickname 'The Headmaster' so I had to make the apple as a little extra prop to keep in the good books as teachers pet LOL
***
I'll be back on Thursday with my next project.. 
Till then Stay Inky


Friday 18 January 2013

DT Project #2 featuring MDF Man (posted by Lesley)

Hello again lovely Snazzy's visitors,
I made it back with another project almost at the last minute, lol!  Actually the weather is partly to blame for me being late because I couldn't take any photos till this morning even though my project was finished last night.  I'm actually feeling quite miffed (being polite here) because the blooming weather has put paid to my plans for this weekend.  I was supposed to be travelling down to Swindon tonight, taking a friend with me, for an overnight stay followed by a lovely workshop with Val and my first ever visit to Snazzy's but it looks like the snow has put paid to that and I have to say I'm really gutted.  Ah well, maybe another day but I so wanted to have a go at that fabulous mask which you can see HERE if you've not seen it before.

Before I share my second project this week with you, don't forget to leave a comment HERE if you would like to be in Snazzy's random draw to win this month's DT kit.

Now on to my project which is a piece of wall art.  First I gave the 'butterfly wing' and the small solid cog a coat of Gesso followed by a slightly thinned coat of white acrylic paint.  Next I took a selection of Versamagic inkpads and blended my chosen colours over the wing.  I followed this with some random stamping using stamps from Chocolate Baroque Lace Fragments set and Steampunk Butterfly Set and a Cobalt Archival inkpad.  I then used a script mask and applied Coffee Archival ink here and there over the stamping. 

(Sorry it's not at the proper angle but it is quite a long piece and I haven't yet put any means for hanging it on the back so had to take the photos with it lying flat)

I cut a piece of wire mesh from a roll I found in my local charity shop.  It's actually gold coloured with bits of glitter on and was in their Christmas decorations.  Not my cup of tea at all, lol, but perfect for my purpose once I'd chopped it up a bit and treated it with some alcohol inks.  I attached it to my 'wing' with Ideology Screw Eyes!

I then set about making my embellishments.  I glued some Prima script paper (in two contrasting colours) to Whiteout Clearly for Art using Ranger Glue and Seal and then cut out some flowers using my TH/Sizzix Tattered Florals die.  On the lighter shade of paper I over stamped with a cog background stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Butterfly set using Coffee Archival ink and then inked all the petal edges with the Cobalt Archival.  I set about heating and shaping all the flowers and then layered them, securing with Cosmic Shimmer Glue before arranging them all on my wing.  I attached them with silicone glue and then used the Cosmic Shimmer Glue to put blobs in the flower centres to which I added micro beads.


Next, I stamped the Steampunk Butterfly twice using Versamark ink onto Black Clearly for Art and heat embossed with gold detail embossing powder.   I've had this pot for years and it's gone a rather strange colour (pongs a bit too ;D) and I was doubtful it would work but it actually came out the perfect colour for my project.  Once it had cooled I cut the butterflies out and then heated them again to shape the wings before attaching them to my project with silicone glue.



The final bit was the solid cog which I covered with some of the lighter script paper and then inked the edges with Cobalt Archival.  The word 'LOVE' is a Studio 490 Art Part which I inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then heat embossed using an embossing powder in my stash..  I stuck this to the cog with Cosmic Shimmer Glue (note to self - need more of this fab glue) and then stuck the cog with the same glue to the wing.  I finished off with a couple of wire 'antennae'


Well that concludes my projects with this fun kit and I have to say that from starting out a bit baffled about what I was going to do, I ended up having  a fab time with lots of different products from my stash, many of which can be purchased from Snazzy's.  Next week it's Minxy's turn and she usually has something quirky and inspiring for us all so I'm really looking forward to seeing her projects. 

(Now you've seen the project I'll let you into a secret, my almost 5 year old granddaughter was looking at it this morning and asked what it was.  When I told her, the response was that it looks like a fish, lol!  I think she's not far off the mark!)

Till next time .......


Monday 14 January 2013

DT Project #1 featuring The MDF Man (posted by Lesley)

Hi lovely Snazzy visitors and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today it's my turn to show my first Snazzy's project for this brand new year.  As Gillian said in her post last week this kit certainly got the 'cogs' grinding but I have to say it's been great fun.  If you love messing about with paints, inks, pastes, stamps, stencils ...... etc., etc., to alter things, this is the kit for you and if you leave a comment HERE on Gillian's post you are in with a chance of winning a prize in the random comment draw.


I decided to make a clock using the largest solid gear in the kit and I started with a layer of gesso over the whole piece.  I added some texture paste through a stencil (Snazzy's have a great selection) on one area and left it overnight to set before covering it all with darkish blue and green acrylic paints.  I followed this with crackle paste over the large area that didn't have any texture paste on, dried it and then painted with a light colour acrylic paint.


I used a selection of blues, greens and lilac/purple Fresco Finish paints because they are the ones I have the most choice of colours in but Snazzy's have a wonderful selection of good quality acrylic paints in stock too.  I began building up layers of colour, drying with the heat gun between layers until I was happy with the result.  


I then started building up a stamped background using Archival inks in Black and Coffee with a mixture of  timepiece stamps from Chocolate Baroque and one from our Kaisercraft kit back in November 2011 (crikey, didn't realise it was that long ago) , plus a text stamp from Chocolate Baroque.  I topped these off with dabbing some blue acrylic paint through another Crafter's Workshop stencil.


I then began highlighting the texture paste area and the edges of the gear with Treasure Gold.  I cut the weathered clock with the Tim Holtz/Sizzix die, adhered it to my project and then fitted the clock mechanism.  Finally,  I decided to edge the whole thing with black acrylic paint which did take quite a while to do as I had to be very careful.  I had visions on splodging it onto the front and ruining the whole thing right at the last minute, lol!


Finally, I took a few pieces of Ideology, gave them a bit of Treasure Gold treatment and added them to my project.


I hope you like my first project of the year and I'm aiming to come back with another project later this week if possible.  If I don't make it though, our lovely Minxy will be here next week and I know she has a couple of things up her sleeve for you all.



Monday 7 January 2013

DT Project #1 .... It's All About The MDF Man!

Good morning everyone it's great to be back after our festive break .... the design team are raring to go again with this months kit (will certainly get the cogs ticking that's for sure).

This month the DT will be working with the following shapes courtsey of The MDF Man - so we have a free reign this month in terms of creativity. Look forward to seeing the design team members interpretation.


For me their was only one way to go with this .... out & out grunge (sorry folks if that is not your thing).


I started out by using Distress Ink (Antique Linen) on all the cogs, after adding a couple of layers I then inked the edges with Distress Ink (Walnut Stain). The largest of the cogs was then stamped using Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Classics #6 in Archival Ink (Sepia). I then applied a second layer of stamping using the "text" stamp from Tim Holtz World Traveller Stamp Set, this time using Archival Ink (Jet Black).

 The small cog at the top was stamped using the large background from Tim Holtz Remnants stamp Set.
I stamped the "face" image (from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Classics #5) onto cardstock and cut to size, the quote is from Tim Holtz World Traveller Stamp Set ....
.... which was cut up into small bits rather than keeping it as one long sentence.

 
I've used Tim Holtz Ideaology to decorate - Hitch Fasteners, Clock Face & Game Spinner which were coloured using Metallic Distress Stain (Antique Bronze), I've also used an Ideaology key.

I hope you have enjoyed this project, it sure was fun to do .... don't forget to leave a comment here to be in with a chance of winning the random comment prize drawn after Hels week. 
 
TFL x