Tick Tock!

Hi everyone, on Sunday I was fortunate enough to have opportunity to drive down to Ruthin to visit the Lavinia shop for one of their Clockwork Carnival Open Days. I had a fantastic time, meeting the owner Tracy and watching the fab demos by Jo Rice and Sarah Anderson where I picked up some interesting tips and tricks. Of course, last but not least I bought me some new craft stash including a good selection of stamps from the new release. They are really quite different for me, but they have made me feel really inspired and I couldn’t wait to have a play.

I tried to get into the spirit of the event by dressing up .. .the team had asked people to go in Steampunk or Fantasy costumes if we fancied. I didn’t put together an outfit ahead of time as I wasn’t sure if I would attend, so on the day I pulled out my rarely worn Chrimbo “frock” coat and paired it with leather leggings, chunky lace up boots and a bit of dramatic lipstick and eyeliner!!  Although not strictly fancy dress it really put me in the mood, and while I was there Noni in the team lent me her hat to have my picture taken ❤️. So here are a couple of pics …

… Me in glam coat and Steampunk hat!

… Jo Rice mid-demo (yes that really is her under the black wig!!)

… Sarah Anderson with her dinky altered tins.

It truly was a fabulous event, and I was keen to get started with my new stamps plus my first ever metallic gilding polish. So here I am with a pair of ATC’s which I have called “Tick Tock!”.

A couple of the techniques (particularly the Distress oxide "woodgrain" effect) and the colour scheme on these were inspired by a tutorial Jo did to make an altered MDF heart.

I practiced the technique of swiping two Distress Oxide ink pads across the page to give a distressed woodgrain effect, using various snippets of white stamping card. I then cut the ones I liked best to 3.25” x 2.25”. Here's a closeup pf the individual ATC's. 

ATC 1 of 2

ATC 2 of 2

On  ATC 1  I stamped the focal clock using Pinecone Versafine Clair  then masked it and stamped a second smaller clock then masked that, and added various background 1st and 2nd generation texture and word stamping in brown, orange and grey. I then stamped various cogs in the same colours plus black. I removed the masks and watercoloured the clocks using a Distress Watercolor pencil and Distress Inks, and added highlights and spatters using watered down warm copper gilding polish. I stamped my sentiment onto an offcut of the “woodgrain” card, edged with distress ink and attached, then edged the finished piece with gilding polish before matting onto a standard ATC size piece of dark brown card stock.

I wasn’t very satisfied with how the gilding polish had covered the stamping nor with my spattering, so learning from that, on ATC 2 I heat embossed my focal clock. That gave a much better end result, so I returned to ATC 1, stamped another clock onto an offcut and heat embossed that too, then coloured, spattered, fussy cut and attached. I felt that looked quite a bit better, so I’m happy with my learning from this project and can’t wait to make more ATC’s along similar lines.

Here is an angled pic to show the sheen on the gilding polish - I absolutely love it!

Stamps: Lavinia Tick, Tock, Clock Set, Texture 1, Texture 2, Steampunk Script, Cog Set 2, Cog Set 3, Time Flies;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (List Shadow, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo); Distress Inks (Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo); Distress Watercolor Pencil (Rusty Hinge); Versafine Clair (Pinecone, Morning Mist, Summertime, Nocturne); Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Polish (Warm Copper).

Challenges I would like to enter:

ATC’s With a Heart #126 - Anything Goes

Corrosive #3 2023 - Anything Goes

C.R.A.F.T. #669 - Not a Card

Mixed Media Lovers #23 - Anything Mixed Media With a Focal Point (ATC 2 of 2) - TOP 3

NBUS #48 - Use Your Never Before Used Schtuff

( mine is all the stamps, Vintage Photo DOX  and gilding polish)

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2309 - Anything Goes

Snippets Playground #449 - Use Snippets

Stamping Sensations (March) - Anything Stamped (ATC 1 of 2)

We Love to Create #2 - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Word Art Wednesday #585/586 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

So Carnival Time is over, but I think I'll be using these lovely stamps a lot more in future ... I love my flowers, trees and fairies but as they say a change is as good as a rest!!

Take care and thanks for looking in today.

Hugs,