Tale-ing Fragments #6: She Dreams + Varnished wood tutorial

"She dreams of faraway places and daring adventures.

Her eyes gleamed with the first step in the journey"

It's been a while since I made one of these fragmented story-collages, I had so much fun! Part of the fun in this particular project was the combination of using older technique-testers and the accidental discovery of a new technique - a yummy varnished wood look! (tutorial below).

What started me going was a Steampunk theme challenge in two blogs, the SanDee&amelie's challenge blog and the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog that also had a Steampunk theme (I actually missed the deadline for the later, so will be entering this work to the Anything Goes theme challenge Simon has on their Weds challenge 😅).

Like many of us these days, I've been at home a LOT, and I used some of this time to play with craft supplies, so I wanted to incorporate some of my trials in this piece. The large mosaic-like image in the back was done with the distress crackle-paste + embossing glazes technique shown by Tim Holtz & Stacy Hutchinson a couple of weeks back. The nautilus piece below is from playing with alcohol ink lifting. I did not expect them to work well together, but it's always a great surprise when that happens. I then picked a paper doll and found her story in my mind - doesn't she look like she'd be a great adventurer? Not the flashy kind, a clever time-traveler that can go, observe, learn and come back without causing a mess.

Clearly she needed a Steampunk\time machine.
My association of Steampunk includes, beside the industrial grunge, also the slick decorative Victorian style design that had polished wood and glass elements beside the iron and steel. I was thinking of how to get that polished wood effect when my eye caught my Distress embossing glazes - would it work? It did! I was so excited with the results I had to share them and some kind fellow crafters asked me for a tutorial - challenge accepted! And embedded below, but first, a few more details of this lovely adventurer and her machine:

I love how the stained gear fits with the nautilus pattern, in some angles it almost disappears!

Now for the promised tutorial:



This is my first attempt at making a video tutorial, so I hope it's clear enough...
If you have any questions about the video or anything else in the project please feel free :)

If you're looking for more inspiration take a look at these wonderful challenge blogs, they always have amazing inspiration and treasures in the entries

SASPC

SSS Wednesday Challenge

  

For now, a shiny farewell

xx

Muses #1: Alterman's Moon

We all have muses in our lives: poems, movies, books, a sentence that caught with us and stayed around. One of mine is this poem by Natan Alterman (1910-1970) titled "Moon":

* Based on a translation by Lewis Glinert.

This poem was written in 1938, it's one of Alterman's best known works an much can and has been be said about it. For me, reading it years back, I was left with two main impressions: the idea that a familiar, everyday sight can seem new again and the visual of a moon at the spear of a cypress tree. (Alterman talks of a Mediterranean cypress, Cupressus or "Brosh" in Hebrew, that is characterized by a tall and narrow canopy that is often spear-like in shape). I've often found myself reminded of this poem when seeing just this sight: the moon at the point of a tree, and it always made me smile because it felt fresh and wondrous, no matter how many times I saw it :)
I love this poem always, but in these crazy times it warms my heart even more. It's not without poignancy, but it expresses wonder before minute, everyday things that we usually don't acknowledge, and I think that within the craziness and uncertainty we currently live in it's more important than ever to remember the little things that make us smile.
So look out your window tonight, find the moon at the point of a tree and smile back at it 🤍

This collage was in my head for a while, working out how I want it to look when, a few days back, I saw a demo of the paints I used (Distress Crayons, demonstrated by the one and only Tim Holtz) and bam - I knew they would be perfect!

I wanted the background to have the lyrics repeatedly, so I printed them on the blank Collage Paper (my new best friend in collage making) in different font sizes and scattered them about. Then I colored over the background with Distress Crayons, they gave the exact vivacity I was looking for while keeping the text visible. The tree is an Idea-ology half-tree that got a tint and a new hairdo to look like a Cupressus tree. The lovely moon was made with alcohol inks - I love how textured it looks!

For the trail I used the new Distress Glazes + Crayons technique Tim shared in his demo that creates all these little pits, isn't it the coolest??

This was one of these projects that took a lot of time hibernating in my brain before I started working, and maybe that's why it didn't take very long to finish. It's nothing too fancy, but it's close to my heart (and already on my wall). I felt like sharing it, so aside from posting it here I'm entering it to the Simon Says Stamp weekly Wednesday Challenge, which has an Anything Goes theme this week.

I hope this project will give you a smile, keep safe and find the little things that make you happy,

xx
Naama

Vintage-ing a LED Lantern

 Hi all ^^

This was a fun little project I thought I'd share, it only took me half a day or so (including waiting for paints to dry - so very quick!) and it's such a HUGE difference.

I got the lantern in Ikea, this is what it originally looked like:

Cute right? It's actually pretty nice for a piece of plastic, but I saw immediately that it had potential for so much more ;)

The first thing I did was cover all the black parts in Collage Medium, even though it's a glue it works great as a primer for sleek\non-porous surfaces. Then I started adding details to make the lantern look more authentic.

I removed the string from the top and replaced it with wire, then I drilled a hole at the top of each side-handle and added a long wire handle. I also wrapped a wire around the lamp part, which I connected at the bottom by drilling two small holes and inserting the edges. the wires are all a bit crooked, but hey - it's supposed to look vintage right? ;)

The last wire detail was a small lever that I inserted at the bottom part into another little hole I drilled. next to it I glued die cuts of numbers. I cut them from black cardstock to save on painting them, but really it can be any color.

On the other side I added a little knob. This is supposed to replicate the opening where they'd add oil, and it's was the hardest detail to find. I tried a lot of options and ended up using some rubber part I got from an old computer I took apart (I think it was meant to keep some parts in place, but not sure...). I think it looks pretty good, but it so funny when you touch it and realize it's rubber 😂

The lantern already looked pretty authentic once everything was glued, and I could just leave it in black, but I really wanted to rust it up ^^
I added Finnabair's metallic waxes to the black to create a metal base and then used her Rust Effect Paste trio - I LOVE this stuff! It took some layering and playing (and waiting), but finally I was happy with the rust illusion.

To finish it, I added some highlight with the waxes and a bit of patina with Tim Holtz's distress paints in blue and green. It was barley a drop of paint on the whole thing, but it's amazing what difference it makes!

I liked the results so much I decided to add it to the SanDee&amelie's March 2020 Steampunk Challenge, there are some seriously amazing works there so do check it out!

Hope you enjoyed this little project! Now excuse me while I go look for other things to 'rust-up' ;)

Have a great weekend and take care xx

Guardian of Lost Souls

Between this world and the next they hover aimlessly, lost but not alone. Some carry the sadness of their departure, others harbor hate and foster wrath over their unjust end. In that fine membrane between worlds they hover under the guardian's watchful eye.
But who is he guarding? Us or them?

Those of you that follow my Instagram or Facebook already know this work, but I felt like sharing it here where I can get a bit crazy with detail shots ;)

This piece is definitely one of those 'a simple idea that escalated' cases.
It started with the skull, I wanted to see how dimensional I can get this paper die-cut, and I was really happy with the results. It's pretty amazing what some forming and ink can get out of flat paper!

I knew this skull deserved to be the center of something special, and from the beginning had the idea to have it's eyes glimmering wickedly  (muwahahaha), so I decided to use LED lights. If you're familiar with these light strings, you know that they are pretty long, so I started thinking how I can use the rest of the lights in the background and it came to me - ghosts!
I dug through my stash of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and found all the 'disfigured' ones - they come cut out in detail, and every now and then the cutting isn't exact and something get cut off, you can see the girl and man in the photo bellow have part of their head missing. It's very rare to find a Paper Doll this off so it's lucky I have quite a stash ;)

 

 For the lighting to work the background has to be translucent, but not clear so the light is diffused. I used Tim Holtz's alcohol inks and pearls on acetate. The mica in the pearls makes them more opaque, so when the lights are off it kinda looks like shimmery dirt lol

 I twined the lights behind the "ghosts" and used hot glue to make sure they stay in place.

I wanted the frame to continue the vibe of the work, so I used some texture paste with stencils in different places to get interesting patterns and dimensions. Once dried I covered the paste with black acrylic paint and finally added some of Finnabair's metallic waxes for color and shine. 

I really like how it all came together in creepy-cool goodness. Finishing with lights-on-lights-off shots, hope you like this guy as much as I do :)