Idea-ology Altered Trophy Fun

Hi! Ruby Craft here. This is my second Wednesday as guest designer on the eP Blog and I'm having a great time. For this week I wanted to use one of the Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trophy Cups to create a desktop photo holder for pictures of my Grandson, who I think just happens to deserve a trophy for anything he does. The photos I am using here are Fuji Instax Mini instant photos and are about the size of a credit card. They already have a white border and are heavy weight so they don't need a frame. They remind me of the Polaroids my Dad had. Tim Holtz Trophy Cups were the perfect size for this project.

To start I used a mini blending foam and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint to colorize the silver trophy. The blending foam allowed me to get into all the crevices and get a nice thin coat which allowed the flourish around the top band of the cup to shine through. The cup looks almost pearlized thanks to the silver finish acting as an undercoat. Since the trophy has a slick surface I decided to add a coat of Ranger Ink Glue N Seal. It gave the paint added protection and a nice sheen.

The next step is to create the Laurel Leaves. I'm using Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Clearly for Art Modeling Film, BoBunny Stickable Stencils and BoBunny Glitter Paste in Sugar. The stencils have repositionable adhesive on the back which made it easy to apply them to a sheet the Clearly for Art and then spread on the BoBunny Glitter Paste with a spatula. Once I had the glitter paste like I wanted it I carefully lifted the stencil and stuck it to an acrylic block to clean and then reapply it on the Clearly for Art repeating the process until I had the number of stems I wanted. Then I set them aside to dry.

Once the glitter paste was dry I was able to trim out around the stem of leaves with scissors but cut off the bottom two leaves. This made the stem portion longer at the end. Heating them with a heat tool I shaped them into Laurels. By working in small sections I was able to mold the film into the shape I wanted. I used Glossy Accents to attach the glitter side of the film to the stem at the base of the trophy cup and the back of the trophy handles. I had to hold them in place till they were dry enough to hold. It didn't take long but it might help to use some type of clamp to hold them until they are dry.

I placed the Flourish Tim Holtz Layering Stencil on a piece of watercolor paper and sprayed it with Prima Color Bloom inVintage Metal Gold Foil. Once it was dry I cut out a square, applied some Micro Glaze with my fingertips to seal the surface and lightly inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I used Ranger Multi Medium to glue the paper to a square coaster I wanted to upcycle.

acrylic block as weight

I weighted the paper down with a large acrylic block to help it dry flat. After allowing time for the multi medium to dry, I glued the Trophy cup to the center of the base. The coaster is small enough that it won't take up a lot of room on my desk but large enough that I won't have to worry about the trophy and photos toppling over.

I already had a pack of Tim Holtz Idea-ology Memo Pins in my stash. I took a good size clump of moss (I found my moss at a dollar store) and stuffed it into the cup of the trophy so that it would be thick enough to hold the photos in position. I placed 2 photos into memo pins and stuck them into the moss with the laurel leaves going behind the photos. I thought the memo pins were perfect. but you could use some mini clothes pins on little dowels or little clips on wires. An alternative for the moss could be a cork stopper.

I created a banner by cutting a thin strip from the scrap of the flourish paper, snipped the ends with the scissors. Each end was then folded twice once back and then a space about 1/16 of an inch folded forward.  The edges were then inked to match the inking on the base.

I hand lettered #1 Kid and drew the little heart then folded the banner ends and put it in a memo pin to place in the moss in front of the photos.

My daughters really liked my desktop photo holder and I had fun making it. Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trophy Cups are 3 to a pack so I still have 2 left and can make them both one for their desk too.

Post Box Red Flowers for May

Hi, Ruby Craft here. I’m so excited that Kim has invited me to be guest designer for May. She asked me to share a little bit about myself. A little over 10 years ago I had taken early retirement but had a little too much time on my hands. I decided I needed a hobby so I started Scrapbooking. Then I took a part time job at a local scrapbook store and a co-worker showed me Tim Holtz and Alcohol Inks. When Tim started his blog with a tour of his workroom and then began posting 12 Tags of Christmas I was hooked on inky fingers and multi media. I began blogging so I could post my tags for Tim’s challenges. I still scrapbook from time to time but enjoy challenges, making tags, cards and the occasional 3 dimensional project. I'll be here every Wednesday this month with something new for you to see.

For my first project I looked through my stash and found a naked spiral book I had bought a while back. I used 3 different stencils along with paints, so I worked on a non-stick craft sheet. It made clean up easy and also made a great pallet. The first thing I did was to carefully open the spiral and take out the covers. I then laid them face up on my work surface and placed the first stencil, Weaving for Prima Finnabair Elementals, on the front cover. I used Prima's Color Bloom Spray Mist in Gold Foil. This was the first time I used it and I loved working with it. It has a trigger sprayer which allows you to get quick solid coverage but also allows you to get a spatter effect if you want. I sprayed through the stencil onto the cover front. Instead of wiping off the beautiful mist that had beaded up on the stencil, I flipped it over and placed it on the back cover. This gave me the same beautiful shimmery gold but a negative of the pattern on the front.

I used a fun stamp from Catherine Scanlon Designs called Catherine's Alphabet. This is a large one piece stamp that has open letters that would be perfect for water coloring. I thought it would make a terrific illustration for my cover. I used a brayer to "inked it up" with some Post Box Red Paint from Dylusions and stamped the front cover. I didn't get a perfect impression but it was perfect for the look I was going for.

I decided I wanted to add a Flower border along the sides and bottom of the front cover and along the bottom of the back one.  Tim Holtz Wildflower Stencil was perfect for this and the second stencil I used. I used a couple of mini blending tools to apply the Post Box Red Paint to the stencil flowers and then Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint for the stems and foliage. Distress Paints have a dauber top but the paint is very fluid and would run under the stencil if you tried to apply it directly from the bottle. The mini blending tool works great with the stencils and paints. The thin stems can be a little tricky with the blending tool. Once I removed the stencil I used a fine detail water brush to pick up some Cracked Pistachio from my craft sheet to touch up the stems. The water brush allow me to keep the color soft.

I also used the water brush to paint the inside of the  letters with Post Box Red at the top and Abandoned Coral Distress Paint from the bottom of the letters fading the color out before reaching the middle of the letters. This allows the Gold Foil Spray to peek through. Another thing I liked that the Gold Foil Spray as a background is that once it was dry it was not disturbed by the water or paint.

Along the very top and bottom of the front cover I used the third stencil, the hearts from the Love set of BoBunny Stickable Stencils. Again using the blending tool and Dylusion's Post Box Red. Once I finished the hearts I felt they needed something else. BoBunny Glitter Paste in Sugar! I used a palette knife and the stencil to apply it. These stencils are sticky and reposition-able making them easy to use. I finished off the edges using the blending tool and some Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I decided I wanted to make a band to hold the book closed. I painted a piece of white elastic with Cracked Pistachio Distress Paint. Using the dauber top made it easy. Distress Paint does not effect the elasticity or stiffen the elastic. Once dry I attached the strip to the back cover with eyelets.

I die cut a flower from Wendy Vecchi's Clearly for Art Modeling Film from Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die. Clearly for Art Modeling Film is NOT shrink film. When you heat it you can bend it to what ever shape you want and when it cools it will hold the shape. It comes in clear, white or black. Before you mold it you can paint it, stamp on it, or glue paper to it and then stamp on the paper if you like. If you don't like the shape you can reheat it flatten it and start all over again. I used clear and painted one side red by simple spreading the Post Box Red paint on with my fingertips. Once dry I flipped the flower over and used the spatter stamp from Wendy's Faux Graniteware starter kit and some Jet Black Archival ink to stamp the black spots. After the ink dried I attached the flower to the elastic band with a black eyelet. Then I was able to heat the flower with my heat tool and shape it. I just wanted the flower to have some subtle modeling since it was on the cover of the journal. I slipped a pencil under some spots while heating to get a little lift and did the rest of the modeling with my fingers.  You don't have to heat the whole flower, just a small section at a time. Once I had my flower shaped the way I wanted it, my cover was finished and I put everything back together.

I want to thank Kim for inviting me to be the May Guest Designer. She generously sent me quite a few fun products to use and she is wonderful to work with. She has designers for June, July and August, but if you are interested in being a guest designer in the future send her an email. I included a little information about myself and a few links to projects on my blog that I thought she might like and she got right back to me.

Here are a few quick links to some of the products I used from eclectic Paperie.
Dylusion Paint, Distress Paints, Stencils, BoBunny Glitter Paste,  Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist,  Tim Holtz Products,  Wendy Vecchi, Catherine Scanlon Designs 

I Hope you enjoyed seeing how I created my first project as guest designer and that you'll be back next Wednesday.