The LEAGUE of EXTRAORDINARY SALESMEN?.......CrazyBird Style!

Hi All,

Recently I revisited the film 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.'

Love the Steampunk style of this movie with a little action, horror & fantasy thrown in.

This has given me some Inspiration for some Crazy Bird ideas.

I wanted to stack the Crazy Birds in a Steampunk style.

I will enter this wall hanging in the Wednesday Challenge 'Boy oh Boy!'
over at the Frilly & Funkie Challenge Blog

I  had previously stamped, coloured & diecut quite a few of the whole set of  'Crazy Birds' & the 'Crazy Things' Accessories.  

I had chosen lots of different combinations of colours of Distress Inks to colour these in.

I used plain white cardstock not watercolour paper so the blending of colour is limited.

I still think they turned out quite fun.

Richele Christensen inspired me with her project of stacked Crazy Birds.
Her colouring of these birds is fantastic.

I experimented with the same stacking but also included their hats & ties.

This made me think they looked like 'SALESMEN' not Gentlemen!

Read on further if you want to know how I made this Extraordinary Wall Hanging.

The base of this Wall hanging is a partially curved section of a file folder made of very sturdy chipboard.

I gave it a couple of coats of White Gesso to protect the base from the layers to follow.

I have pictured 3 different brands of Gesso here (any one ok they just vary in how liquid they are)

I wanted to include a Ledger as the base for my 'Salesmen'

Found this perfect paper in the Tim Holtz French Industrial 12 x 12 pack.

All paper applied with Prima Art Basics Soft Matte Gel.

Another page from this pack included all these Adverts, which I cut up & arranged

as a border around the page.

I darkened the edge of each advert with the Faber Castell Black Brush Pen.

The Tim Holtz Tiles stencil was used with Art Basics 3D Matte Gel from Prima 

to cover the whole ledger in the centre of the piece.

When dry, the paper can still be seen even after I applied white gesso over to lighten the base.

This technique was inspired by Jenny Marples from her blog 'Pushing the Right Buttons' 

Making Mistakes is Fun 

(I wish I had Picket Fence Distress Ink to cover but see below White Gesso worked ok as well)

I trialed the composition of the hanging & slipped extra Adverts in behind the Birds & added some more accessories like tumbling hats, papers & pencils.

To add the Steam Punk style & Industrial look for my Salesmen 

I wanted to add some rusty cogs & numbers.

The new Art Extravagance Rust Effect pastes from Prima & Patina Green Antiquing Cream from Deco Art Media were perfect to age & rust the combination of die cut paper, chipboard & metal cogs, clocks & numbers I used. Dab on with a small dry sea sponge or cotton tip.

The Birds & rust elements were all applied with 3D Matte Gel medium.

The Sentiment was printed off my computer & distressed before attaching to bottom of hanging.

The Rust paste gives a very realistic colour & texture.

Tim Holtz 'Crazing' Distress Collage Medium was applied to the Adverts & over the Rust pieces.

It has added a subtle antique layer when Antique Linen Distress Ink was rubbed over it.

Shading around the Adverts, Birds & Rusty pieces was done using a Faber Castell Gelato in Chocolate. Rubbed & smudged with my finger.

Faint highlights were done using a white Gelato.

The new distress crayons would be great for this too, but sadly haven't got the dark range.

Tim Holtz Ideaology Trinkets & Chains were used for the hanger & embellishment.

Whoops! The 'Fat Cat' (Bird) on the top of the heap is about to take a tumble on the Stock Market!

The Adverts matched some of these birds so well.  

Above 'Easter Confectioner'

Below is the swish 'Undertaker'

Solid Business in 'Iron Ore & the Railway'

The Bird on the bottom represents my husband.

He is a Drilling Contractor so the references to water really suit.

He also has cute chubby cheeks just like the green bird.

I am really happy how this hanging turned out.  The background really adds to it so much.

You may be thinking how does this relate to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Well lets just say this is version 1.  

I have plans to make a fantasy version to suit the story.

Have to redesign a few of those nice birds to suit some of the characters.

Think I am going a little Crazy myself!!

Cheers     DEB

MINI ALBUM - 'Make Life So Sweet' Simple Stories, Jillibean Soup & Tim Holtz Distress Crayons

Hi Thanks for stopping by to view the MINI ALBUM 

It was made as a project for the

HOBBYSEW ECHUCA CREATIVE TEAM

The Summer Red Raspberry Soup Paper Collection Pack from Jillibean Soup 

& Distress Crayons from Tim Holtz inspired me to make this 

bright, fun album.

The Album is a 6 x 8"  SN@P Binder from Simple Stories.

The vibrant colours made me immediately think of making a light, bright Album that I will give as a gift to my Sister in Law to display photos of her Grandchildren.

I will comment on the other products I used as I write this tutorial.

Most of the products used are readily available from HOBBYSEW ECHUCA.

I have included lots of photos, so this is quite a long post.  

Grab a coffee!  Hope you enjoy.

For the Base of the Album I chose to use a 6x8 SN@P Binder in Yellow & Kraft from Simple Stories.

These binders are very sturdy & come with 3 thick kraft divider pages as well as an assortment of plastic pocket pages & other base pages.

To start decorating the cover of the Album I masked off the Yellow Canvas Binder with 3M blue painters tape & applied a layer of Prima Art Basics White Gesso with my new Texture Brush from Finnabair & Prima Marketing.

The cover was then coloured using the bright set of Distress Crayons from Ranger & Tim Holtz. 

I smeared on stripes of the crayons in a Rainbow pattern, overlapping the colours slightly.

I used my finger to blend the colours.  

As the crayons dried out on the surface the pigment was harder to move.  

It was necessary to just moisten my finger tip with a baby wipe or to dip finger in a small amount of water to get the pigment to move.

If it became too wet, the pigment was diluted & rubbed off.

I suggest working on a small area at a time.

Add more pigment as necessary to give a deep rich colour.

They glide on softer than lipstick.

Stencils from Wendy Vecchi (dots & stripes) & Studio Calico (circle mesh) were used to create a Tie Dyed effect over the rainbow coloured background.

This was achieved by wiping away the colour through the stencil with a moist (not too wet) baby wipe to reveal the white gesso layer underneath.

My fifteen year old son is very into Tie Dye effects at the moment. Might have to use this effect on some backgrounds for cards as well.

Once I was happy with the effect I lightly sprayed the cover with a Sealer to protect the surface.

This is a view of the paper collection used - Summer Red Raspberry Soup from Jillibean Soup.

To finish the cover I layered die cuts from the collection above with Prima Flowers.

The Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz Die Postage Frame was cut from Thick Foam sheet & sprayed with Perfect Pearls mist from Ranger. (I love the way it cracked & appears to be sunk into the cover)

The sentiment in the frame is from the collection pack.  

It is covered with an acetate sheet to appear as if under glass.

The blue ribbon & the bike die cut are from my stash. 

Pieces adhered with Prima Art Basics Soft Matte Gel, Double sided tape & foam squares.

The inside dividers were masked off  about 1" in from the edge & coloured with distress inks.

The tape peeled away some of the kraft paper when I removed it.  This was easily fixed by attaching a strip of patterned paper to each divider.

The Summer Red Raspberry Soup Collection Pack contained all the papers that I used inside the Album combined with some kraft cardstock from my stash & pages included with the SN@P Album.

The Collection pack also includes Journaling cards, Font sticker sheets, & Die cuts that were used throughout to decorate the Album. 

I repeated the use of the frame & ribbon from the front cover on the first few pages of the Album 

to add some continuity.

I alternated the double sided papers & made various flaps & pockets to add interest to the pages.

A scallop border punch was used on a few different pages as well.

 

All of the pages coordinate so can be made up in any style you choose.

Hope this gives you some inspiration to make your own Album or to try out the new

Distress Crayons.

KEEP ON CREATING                                      CHEERS FOR NOW

DEBORAH ADAMS