Frilly and Funkie Guest Designer

Hello Everyone:

Today is a really exciting day for me! I am the Guest Designer over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog!!

This is a challenge blog that I have been following for a while...long before I started my blog. They were the inspiration behind my very first Tim Holtz purchase, a Vintage Photo distress ink pad. The talented designers on that team continue to inspire me to push my creative boundaries and to go beyond the limits that I believe I have. Thank you to the entire team for the inspiration and the honour!!

And the challenge is...A SUMMER GARDEN

Last time I did a summer garden project I, I told the story of my Mom's garden in the country when I was growing up. Today I thought I would share my city version of a summer garden. I live on the 11th floor of our building, situated in the middle of the city. I have a balcony, but there's certainly no waterfalls or pond on it. What I do have are flower boxes, they are a compact way to spruce up a balcony and they can be easily moved for the construction and maintenance guys. My balcony full of flower boxes is my little piece of the country, in the middle of the city.

So this is my FRILLY AND FUNKIE - SUMMER GARDEN FLOWER BOX

For the Frilly half of the team, I made lots of flowers and foliage!

- the flowers are handmade using a old poinsettia die, of all things, and coloured with Tim Holtz distress inks Spun Sugar and Squeezed Lemonade. The foliage is made up of dies from Spellbinders Foliage and Create-a-Carnation, Marianne Designs Ivy and Garden Branch.

- for the lattice, I took a large piece of cardboard and textured it with a home-made crackle technique and DecoArt Acrylic paints Tan and Burnt Umber and then overheated with my heat gun to make it all bubble up. I cut the piece into 3/4" strips and then made a weave pattern. Then I just trimmed it to size.

- for the sign, I used a combination of distress inks and stains, blending and dragging and smooshing until I got a texture I liked. For the final touch, a little spritz of diluted DecoArt Titanium White paint. I just cut the pieces out with scissors. The sentiment is from BoBunny.

- I made the butterfly from polymer clay and a Martha Stewart mold, painted it bronze and then applied Crackle Accents. I rubbed Black Soot distress stain into the cracks for a wonderful texture!

For the Funkie half of the team, I really put my Tim Holtz skills to the test and made a bronze box.

- OK, so it's not actual bronze, but it looks pretty close, don't ya think! It's actually made out of a Rice Krispies cereal box!!

- I drew out my template, glued the box together and added my design with a Prima stencil. I made the flower embellisments out of polymer clay and a Martha Stewart mold, then glued them to to box. Painted everything with DecoArt Ebony paint, then painted everything with my home-made bronze paint (gold, green and black mixed together).

- then I applied a layer of Black Soot distress stain over everything and lightly dabbed the highlighted areas with a cloth to remove some of the stain. I then highlighted the raised areas with a tough more of the bronze paint and a little gold paint just for good measure!

- I love to make my projects functional, so I decided to add a little drawer in the box. I am going to keep all of my little bronze embellishments in it and place it in my craft room window for a little inspiration!

Thought I would include a couple of in-progress pics...just so you can see the cereal box before, during and after the transformation.

 

I am entering my Summer Garden Flower Box into the following fantastic challenges!

- Oldie But A Goodie Challenge - Anything but a card

(my flowers are made with an old poinsettia die that I haven't used in a couple of years)

- Scrapping4fun Challenges - #24 - Technique Challenge
(I used a couple of my favourite techniques - home made crackle paint texture for the lattice and home-made texture paste with a stencil to give dimension)

- The Corrosive Challenge Blog - #206 - "B" Unique

(They asked that we use at least 3 things that start with B - I used butterfly, black paint, bronze paint, a box, blossoms, blooms and brads)

- Open-Minded Crafting Challenges - #17 - Last Days of Summer
- Come and Get It Challenges - Anything Goes with a Sentiment

- Tuesday Throwdown - Challenge #210 - Anything Goes

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.