Personal Projects

Here are two projects I have had completed for forever, but life happened and I never shared them on here! Better late than never...

The first one I actually started right before Alan Rickman passed away. I had just finished re-reading all the Harry Potter books, and I re-watched all the movies and was in total Harry Potter world. This project is relatively small - only a 6" x 6" canvas board. I didn't have a doe chippie, so I removed the antlers off of a buck chippie I had (sorry Bambi!) I then heat embossed the chippie with silver embossing powder. The flower quilling is really fun for me as you know - so I made a ton of those out of white copy paper and colored them with various glimmer mists. I used Prima's crackle stencil and modeling paste on the background and sprayed with glimmer mists. This is another piece that I'll add to my wall! Even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, I hope you like it!

The second project is another one I did for myself. This all started with the "The best day ever" chippie. As soon as I got that, I knew what I wanted to do with it.

Now, almost 10 years ago when I married my husband, I thought that was a pretty good day. But the Best Day Ever was when Makayla was born - hands down.  A friend of mine came over when Makayla was 8 days old and did her newborn photo shoot (she's amazing) and I had tons and tons of gorgeous pictures to decorate the house with and to put in albums etc.

Example: 1. Tiny, gorgeous baby child.

I had a black and white photo from the shoot I knew I wanted to do something with, so I grabbed an 8"x10" canvas and went to town! 

This little beaut is hanging on the wall next to my computer, and it shall stay there as long as my mother doesn't try to steal it from me!! :-D 

Thank you for taking the time to check out my projects. I hope you enjoyed them!

Toodles,

Amber

aka TMCL

Altered Chipboard Heart Box

Clearly it has been a while since I was able to sit down at my craft area and play! Things in my life have slightly changed (for the better) but it meant that crafting couldn't be my number one anymore.

Well, that wasn't making me happy, so I decided to do some juggling and here we are! I will maintain a regular blog again - which means I get to craft regularly again!

Anyhoo, I sat down yesterday and started working on this little gem. I have a plethora of chipboard pieces just waiting to be altered, and decided this one was due!

As per my usual M.O. I had no idea what I was going to do so I just started doing. I glued all sorts of random pieces I have in my stash from old poker chips, to buttons, to charms, and beads. I also mixed some soft gel matte medium with some 13arts fine-grained grit and applied it to the sides of the lid and bottom with a palette knife.

Have you attempted one of these pieces yet? Covering the whole thing with gesso is almost impossible to make sure you get it in every nook and cranny! But after a lot of patience (A LOT) I managed to cover every square inch!

Now, here is the fun part! I grabbed a bunch of my mists (Dylusions Bubblegum pink and vibrant turquoise, Tattered Angels Glimmer mist in Pop Rocks, Verdigris, English Ivy, True Turquoise, and Iridescent Gold to top it all off) and went to town spritzing and spraying (& drying in between each color.)

The fun thing about the colors on the black gesso is they don't react the way you think they will! The Bubblegum Pink actually turns gold on the black gesso while the purple of the Pop Rocks turned teal! I sprayed and sprayed all over the piece until I was happy with the results. Finally, I dry brushed the relief areas of the piece all over with Finnabair's Art Alchemy Opal Magic paint in violet/gold.

I hope you enjoyed my latest piece! I can't wait to keep sharing more with you :)

Thanks for taking a peek,
~Amber
aka TMCL

Seahorse Decor

Hello everyone!

So, when I got the May Kit from Flying Unicorn, I LOVED the paper mache seahorse that came with it - I just had no idea what I was going to do with it!

Luckily, I have a husband that didn't realize that fabric shower curtains can be washed and reused, so he threw ours away right after he went to the store with our three and a half year old to pick out a new curtain. What does she pick? Fish. Bright, bold, blue in your face under water FISH shower curtain. (Now I get to feel like I'm taking a shower in Bikini Bottom!!) Not only does this please my three and a half year old to no end, I also got a reason to create this fun seahorse canvas to hang on the front of the door!

I started off with a blank 12" x 12" canvas board and some of my acrylic paints to create the ocean-y background. I spritzed it with some Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist to give it a shimmer and then moved on to the seahorse. I prepped it with gesso, and then painted the whole thing with some beige paint. Next, I took some brown paint and mixed it with water and applied it to the raised edges of the horse playing around with the amounts until I was happy with the look. I also sprayed the whole horse with some Royal Amber Fire Lindy's spray, then I used a darker brown around the very edge of the horse to make it pop more, painted the eye black, and finally lightly brushed on some Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers ink (which you can see more of in the close-ups below.)

I colored some Art Stones and used them in various places on the canvas and on the horse as well as some green Roxs. I added two 2Crafty chippies for some foliage action, various star fish and shells, random piece of burlap, as well as some Finnabair Melange art pebbles for bubbles! A big thank you for the Fabri-Tac for holding out on keeping everything in place so I didn't have to bust out the dreaded glue gun and sear my fingertips off. Now to hang this up on the bathroom door.. until the husband and child decide to change the decor again!

Until next time, happy crafting!

~Amber

aka TMCL

Paint Palette

Two posts in one day?! What is happening!? As stated in my last post, the Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints are just a blast to play with. The different effects you can achieve depending on whether or not you use black or white gesso to prime your surface with are limitless! I really enjoy working with the black gesso at the moment.

Here is a paint palette I finished last night.

Just like the art journal covers, I used only Opal Magics and Lindy's sprays. I had actually started working on this palette a while back, but got distracted with other new pretty things in various kits and stores and such. At the moment, I am quite happy that I waited to work on it until now since I have the paints!

The cameo jewels were purchased for this project specifically when I first bought the palette because I just absolutely loved them even if I wasn't sure what the rest of it was going to look like! The flowers in the cluster are random Prima flowers from my stash, and the cross in the center is actually from a Halloween costume many, many moons ago that I just held on to.

This time painting I panicked a little more than with the art journal covers. I didn't like what the paint job turned into! I shall sing the praises of mixed media again - the mistakes made it better! I dry brushed over the parts I didn't like with a small amount of black gesso to blend it all together a little more, and then sprayed (like a mica maniac) the Lindy's all over until I was pleased.

I hope you like it! This is definitely going to be going on my wall.

That's all for now. Happy crafting!

~Amber
aka TMCL

Finnabair Inspired Art Journal Covers

Hello again crafty people! About time I finally found my way back to my craft desk and computer, isn't it?!

I'm here today to share with you my completed Art Journal covers. I had an absolute blast working on this project, and I'm even more excited to start working on the pages in the future!

I started out with the 7.5" x 9.5" Prima Art Journal, and covered it in black gesso. After that, I used various stencils with modeling paste randomly all over the front cover. On the back cover, I used the whole The Crafter's Workshop 6"x6" "Art Is" stencil as my focus point.

I recently got the Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints, and oh my goodness I can't stop playing with them! So many times while I was making the covers, I panicked slightly because I wasn't completely happy with how it was looking, but the amazing thing with mixed media, is that sometimes the mistakes are what make the project truly unique and awesome. To achieve the final look, I also incorporated some clear gesso over the Opal Magics and then sprayed various Lindy's (making a giant mess in the process) until I was pleased with the final color results.

I actually had to put the project down for a couple of days because I just wasn't sure how I wanted to embellish the cover. Eventually, I just sat down, picked it back up and started slapping things on there - seriously. I didn't think about what I was doing, I just did it! I know that doing mixed media projects like this can be a little intimidating, but I've really learned over the past few months that you can always have a general idea of what you want the finished project to look like, but the best thing to do is to just go with the flow!

The majority of the trinkets I added are all from Flying Unicorn with a few here and there that I've hoarded in my stash for quite some time. I have so many of those wooden pieces that come with canvases and I decided to use a few of those to reduce my stash and add a little more interest to the cover. The title is two chippies from Creative Embellishments, and finally I tossed on one of my old brushes and grunged it up a bit.

Now for the close ups!

I'll be uploading a fun project I completed last night in a few minutes as well (that is if the miniature human will allow me to! ;-) Until then, happy crafting!

~Amber
aka TMCL

Butterfly

Hey everyone! Goodness, it feels like forever since I've been able to sit and really make something. Any time the three year old gets sick, I get it. Finally after weeks of being sick off and on, I think I'm on the upswing!

Here is a project I wanted to share with you all today. It's something that I just threw together because I *needed* to create something! My sad little neglected craft area was just screaming for me. Normally this would have taken me no time at all, but due to the coughing and such, it took me a few days to complete.

First, I started out with a 9"x12" canvas board and made a rough butterfly shape out of flat Petaloo flowers. Then I went over the flowers with various embellishments and quilled flowers (of course there would be quilled flowers in there.) I covered the whole board with a few layers of black gesso and let it dry. Once everything was dry and set, I literally just played around with various Dylusions and Glimmer Mist colors to see what I could do. The really neat thing is that the colors you see on the finished project were no where near what the actual colors I used were! This definitely turned into a happy accident for me! When I was satisfied with the colors, I went over it all with some Iridescent Gold glimmer mist. Now for some close ups!

I really enjoyed the final outcome of this project and have a feeling I will be incorporating the style in to some of my future projects! Next time, I think I'll try playing with some Mica powders and other goodies I have in my stash!

Look out for my next project soon! 

~Amber

aka TMCL

January Flying Unicorn Kit.. and other goodies.

Now that the holidays are over, I'm finally getting some time to sit and craft again! I just wanted to share a few things that I've finished over the last couple of months.

First, I wanted to share the cover of the monthly mini album I made for Makayla. I started working on this when she was only a couple of months old. (I think I've mentioned the flower quilling in an earlier post, and yes - still obsessed with it.) I used Bo Bunny's Isabella Collection on the album with coordinating cardstock colors to make the flowers.

Next, here is a small 6"x6" mini I made to use the rest of Makayla's newborn photo shoot pictures I hadn't yet done something with. It worked perfectly! I used Bo Bunny's Enchanted Collection. (Which is probably still one of my absolute favorite collections of all time - despite the glitter.)

Now this storage box was something I started playing with a couple of years ago when I first started with the mixed media. I essentially had no idea what I was doing, and I didn't know what I wanted it to look like in the end.. so I just left it. Until recently! Here is the updated pic. (Again, note the copious amounts of quilled flowers!)

Finally, I got the Flying Unicorn January Kit in the mail yesterday!!! There were so many goodies in there that I just had to start playing right away!

First, I whipped up this canvas using the Mixed Art Kit.

I had to keep going so I made this card as well! (I'm still getting used to the whole card-making scene, but enjoying it!)

Today I plan on working with the kit some more to see what I can come up with! That is - as long as the cold medicine does its job! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

~Amber
aka TMCL