DecoArt Sponsor Spotlight #1

Hi There, It's Me-Shari!!  Thanks for joining me today for our first Topsy Turvy Challenge Sponsor Spotlight, being brought to us by--

 

I refinished this little 3-drawer chest from this....

 

 

To this....

 

 

I used all kinds of cool DecoArt and DecoArt Media products to transform this once sad little antique store find, into something that can take center stage atop anyone's bureau or craft table.  Let me show you what I did!

 

 

 

I sanded the entire chest down with my hand sander to remove as much of the old paint that I could.  I also glued and clamped down a few spots that had warped and come apart. 

 



I covered the entire chest and drawers with a coat of DAM White Gesso then laid pieces of tissue wrap onto the wet gesso and pressed down and smoothed.  When the surface was dry, I brushed on a layer of Weathered Wood Crackle Medium.  I'm going to give this chest the Andy Skinner Mega Crackle Technique!

 

I mixed DAM Crackle Paint with DAM Quinacridone Violet and painted over the entire chest and drawer fronts.  The big crackles happen right before your eyes--it's the coolest technique ever!! 

 

 

After all of the paint had dried, I brushed DAM Carbon Black Antiquing Cream over the surfaces and let dry.

 

When the antiquing cream was dry, I gently wiped away the excess with a damp, soft cloth. 

 

 

I brushed a layer of Matte Decou-Page over the raised surface of the letterpress blocks and let air dry.  Then I brushed a layer of DAM Crackle Paint over the surfaces and let air dry.   

 

 

I ran a bunch of papers and tulle through my Big Shot machine with the Tattered Florals Bigz die.  I spritzed the burlap florals with DAM Misters in Carbon Black & Violet Shimmer and ran those through my sewing machine to add a little bit of stitched interest. 

 

 

I decorated the top of the chest with all of the tattered florals and wooden spools and glass door knobs that I treated with DAM Crackle Paint.  I dabbed Matte Decou-Page here and there then sprinkled seed beads over the surface, so that the beads would adhere in a somewhat random manner. 

 

 

I painted the butterfly with DAM Carbon Black Fluid Acrylic and let air dry.  Then I spritzed it with DAM Violet Shimmer Mister.  It's hard to see in the photo, but there's a really pretty purpley shimmer to the butterfly. 

 

 

I didn't forget the inside of the drawers--I painted each drawer with DAM White Gesso then lined the bottom of each with a piece of tissue wrap. 

 

 

I also lined the inside of each drawer cubby with pieces of Melange Paper Stash. 

 

I have to admit it--I'm using this at my work table and I've already filled the drawers with all kinds of embellies that were once in a variety of glass jars, taking up lots of precious table space!  This is much prettier than a bunch of glass jars scattered about here and there--now I can find everything within these 3 drawers! 

Thanks so much for joining me today for our first DecoArt Sponsor Spotlight today!

  DecoArt is generously donating a DecoArt Media Sampler Kit to one randomly drawn participant in our Topsy Turvy Challenge this month. 

You've got to be in it to win it, so bring your Topsy Turvy projects over for your chance to win some fabulous goodies. 

 





April Showers Bring May Flowers Winners

Hello Everyone! It's me Shari, and I'm back to announce the winners from my April Showers Bring May Flowers challenge. 

Thank You All so much for joining in last month--There were a total of 102 entries and ya'll did not make this an easy task to have to choose winners!  Oh No!  Not easy at all!   

There were cards, art journal pages, altered and transformed pieces, a virtual cavalcade of creative genius!  I'm completely awed by the range of creations--Thank You again! 

Now, on to the FUN stuff!!  I'll start with the random draw for the Wonderful prize package donated by challenge Sponsor--

Ryn Tanaka is awarding this winner with her Water Effects Stamps and 3 of her stencils!  A package worth $50!!  

#55-Asia King

YAY! Congratulations to Joanna - Under a Creative Spell! Joanna, we've given Ryn your details and you'll be hearing from her soon!! Congrats & Enjoy your goodies!  Maybe we'll see what you create with them in a future challenge?

Oh boy--the suspense is killing me!!  Here I go with my overall April Showers Bring May Flowers Top Winner and Top 3....

My Top Winner is--

Joi

Joi completely encompassed the spirit of the challenge theme in these GORGEOUS art journal pages!  I pretty much love every detail of these pages--it's that simple--I fell in creative love at first sight! 

Joi, Congratulations & Thank You for joining in my challenge--You will have your own Top Talent Spotlight feature with us here at Our Creative Corner in the near future!!

Now for my Top 3 in no particular order--And again, to narrow down 102 participants to my favorite Top 3--no easy feat, with all of the wonderful creations you all brought over! 

Jane

Jane created this beautiful framed memory on canvas for her son as a gift.  The backstory of the photo, the beautiful forest of Blue Bells, the delightful rustic feel of her stenciled background--Love It!! I bet Jane's son loved it, too!!   

Sam

Sam created two art journal pages that are truly beautiful in their simplicity.  I love the background, the stenciled dots remind me of great big rain drops and those bright red poppies--Lovely! Simply Lovely!! 

Yulianna

Yulianna created this stunning journal and made a matching gift bag & tag for it as well and not just one gift set, but 2!  I actually love them both!!  The irises in this gift set remind me of the wild irises that grow along the riverbank where I live--wild and beautiful and natural show stoppers!! 

Jane, Sam & Yulianna--As my Top 3 Winners, I'll be sending you your 'Our Creative Corner Top 3' Blog Badges shortly!  Keep on the look-out for that in your emails and wear them on your blogs proudly!!

We just began our June Challenge--What Makes You Smile--being hosted by my talented OCC Design Teammate Jan of Scrapbooking From The Attic.  Come on over with the creations that make you smile, for an opportunity to smile even more, with the chance of winning our Tando Creative random prize package, Jan's Top Talent Winner or one of Jan's Top 3!!  All smile generators, guaranteed!! 

Hope to see you there!! 



April Showers Bring May Flowers

Happy Friday & Welcome to the month of May!! 

It's me Shari Trumbull, hailing from North Idaho-United States, and I'm here with you as this month's Our Creative Corner challenge host! 

April Showers Bring May Flowers--

...Or so the proverb goes.  Spring comes late in my neck of the world-In the month of May (with Summer just weeks away), our Spring flowers are still, usually, under a thin blanket of snow until those Spring rains wash it all away.
 

This month, the challenge is to create something, a mixed-media project, a journal page, a scrapbook page, a card or tag...Anything, that reflects the Spring rains and/or Spring flowers in your part of the world.   



Now, I'm not going to nit-pic your choices of Spring flowers, as the growing season where I live is short and our Spring flowers don't last very long before the blooms of Summer start budding..... 

So, if you throw in flowers of Summer into your creation, that's OK, too.  


Our challenge sponsor this month is--

Ryn Tanaka, Owner/Designer of Designs by Ryn is generously donating a prize of her best selling water effects stamp and three stencils! 

That is a prize worth $50! for one of our randomly drawn participants! 


*********************************************

Now lets see what my Our Creative Corner Design Teammates have made to inspire you this month!!

Shari

I used gentle colors with watercolor stamping techniques to create the happy little blooms that adorn this rain drenched manila tag.

*******************************************

Jan

I used the challenge to make my first ever journal page! 

I played with paints, inks and stamps to create a collage.

***********************************************

Kerstin

Fabulous theme, here it's also said - Alles neu macht der Mai -

therefore I had to try something new.

It's a puzzle from various spring flower stamps tulips, daffodil, cherry blossom... 

and cheerful bright colorful spray paints in Mixed media style.

********************************************

Ana

I made little magnets with flowers, which blooms in bright, spring colors…

there you can also see few drops of early morning rain.…

the colors of the flowers seem to come alive in every drop….

******************************************

Lys

Let's have a walk in the rain says the song I illustrated in my art journal.

***************************************

Laura

I adore buttercups and daisies and decided to make a tag with a favourite quote -
 complete with springtime raindrops!

**************************************

Trish

I have combined the theme a little, a large stamped flower standing proudly next to my lady sheltering from a shower!

**************************************

Julia

I have made a tag booklet (using the large size tag) with stitched pages inside and a huge flower to follow the fab theme. I chose to use some of the gorgeously bright shades that Spring flowers give us. There's also some hidden homage to the April showers too!

**************************************

Candice

The essence of what makes my world flowery is most certainly the "showers of blessing" that I receive daily and so I created this mixed-media "shower of blessing" canvas, featuring a self-portrait to remind myself to shower my loved ones with the same kind of blessings from me. I attempted to capture the showery rain effect in the background, and used a spring-flower colour palette.

********************************************

Laurie

For my project I thought of the Spring flowers and nesting birds in my garden and the sound of the rain drops on the leaves. 


********************************************

We'd love to see your creations of 'April Showers Bring May Flowers' in our challenge this month! 

The overall winner of the challenge will be awarded a future Top Talent Spotlight--Exciting!! 

Then we've got the Our Creative Corner Top 3 blog badge honors to award, plus a random participant will win the generous prize package donated by our sponsor this month-Designs by Ryn!! 

Hope to see you here!!

Our 'April Showers Bring May Flowers' challenge is open until May 28th, 11:55pm UK time. 



Crafty Individuals Sponsor Spotlight

Hello & Happy weekend!!  It's me Shari and I'm very happy to be here with you today showcasing our March Junk in Your Trunk Challenge sponsor-Crafty Individuals!!

For a randomly drawn participant of Candice's challenge this month, they will receive a surprise box of goodies generously donated by Crafty Individuals!  So, come on!! You've got to be in it to win it!! 

Now, let me show you what I created using two Crafty Individuals stamp images.

I'm going to be using this Crackle Background (CI-116) and the 3 Wise Gentlemen (CI-077) images for my project.... 

.....This altered wood frame! 

I started by painting my unfinished frame with some burnt sienna acrylic paint. 



Then I spread a layer of white embossing paste over the painted frame and let that air dry. 

When the embossing paste was dry, I spritzed some Tea Dye and Walnut Stain Distress Spray Stains over the embossing paste.



Then I spritzed the stains with some water to get them blending and heat dried.

Here is the frame with its textured, stucco-like surface.  Now time for some stamping!

I randomly stamped the Crackle Background image onto the surface of the frame with Potting Soil Archival Ink.  Other than some paint splatters that will be added later, this is all I did to the frame itself.

This is the background panel I'm going to use to insert into the frame.  I treated it the same as the frame-Spritzed with Tea Dye & Walnut Stain DSSs, spritzed with water, then heat dried.  I'll do all of my stamping and layering on this background. 

Look at these dapper gents!  I stamped the 3 Wise Gentlemen image many times onto mixed-media paper with Jet Black Archival Ink and heat embossed several of those images with black embossing powder.  I fussy cut the heat embossed hats and the arches in the background and adhered into place with matte multi-medium. 

With all of the stamping that I did of the 3 Wise Gentlemen image, I fussy cut and layered 3 of the 3's together.  I heat embossed with Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder, but wasn't happy with it.  It ended up disappearing once I positioned it in place.  So, I painted it with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint--I think it pops a little better now! 

This metal embellie is adorned with another piece of the 3 Wise Gentlemen image.  I water colored the image, fussy cut and adhered to the center of the metal medallion, then brushed a layer of Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint over the surface and let dry.  When it was dry, I rubbed Picket Fence & Tarnished Brass Distress Paints over the medallion.  I carefully heat dried, then rubbed Walnut Stain Distress Ink over it. 

I did stamp the 3 Wise Gentlemen onto my back panel for reference, but I layered the fussy cut images on top for a little depth.  I also stamped and embossed a couple more random hits of the Crackle Background image. 



And there you have our 1st Sponsor Spotlight of the month!  I really enjoyed working with these Crafty Individuals images and I can tell you now, it won't be the last time you'll see me using these! 

Thank you for joining me today-I hope my project has inspired you to reclaim a frame of your own and transform it for our Junk in Your Trunk challenge! 

Hope to see you there!!
XOXO-Shari