Welcome to the Laboratory - by Claudia

Hi, servus and thanks for stopping by today!
This is very likely my last Halloween-ish project on here for this year, but it is also a gift for a dear friend who is a chemist - so it refers to real life rather than Halloween to be honest.

But the new Laboratory craft shapes are of course perfect for creating the laboratory of some spooky scientist, searching for the formula to dominate the world ;)

Doesn't look too crazy, does he? But we know it is always the nice guys we need to take care of in any horror movies, right? ;)

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Chemistry Laboratory Apparatus - MDF Wood Shape 01
- Chemistry Laboratory Apparatus - MDF Wood Shape 03
- Laboratory Apparatus - MDF Add On Sheet 01

And there are many more Laboratory Apparatus wood shapes to find in the "Latest Products" section of the store! Check them out - you will love them!

Of course this needed to be taken - into my shopping cart at the Calico Craft Parts online shop. ;)

I once more altered a wooden box (that once contained an Austrian speciality, Linzer Torte (a special cake recipe from Linz), I guess).
Boxes are one of the most rewarding things to alter from my point of view - once an altered box is finished you do not only have a piece of mixed media art but also a cool looking storage for your favourite ephemera, letters or other treasured bits 'n bobs.

I kept the colour scheme quite simple this time so the Calico Craft Parts remained the shining stars on this project. I started out with priming the box lid with a scraped on thick layer of DecoArt Chalky Finish paint "escape". But first I used DecoArt media white Modeling Paste to hide the engraved label in the middle of the lid. I simply scraped on a thin layer and made sure it was evenly smudged out and had enough time to dry overnight.

Once the Chalky Finish paint had dried I also added some DecoArt media White Crackle Paint here and there. The box looked rather weird at that stage - the blue was quite intense (which was almost a bit intimidating to be honest), but I had planned to tone it down with some paint washes anyway...

But first I needed to dry brush the glued on craft shapes with a thin layer of DecoArt Americana Snow White acrylic paint. "Glued on" is actually the wrong word - I just put the craft parts in place while the Chalky Finish paint was still wet - and as that was a quite thick layer it worked perfectly as a glue.

Dry brushing the Calico Craft Parts is always the best thing to do when you want to keep the laser engraved textures and patterns (and honestly these would be a shame to lose, right?)

I obviously forgot to do some steps images during the next few steps (sorry for that)...what I did was stamp the chemist, the heart remedy advert and the sketched bottles images (from Tim Holtz stamp sets "Mini Halloween #4" and "Eclectic Adverts") in yellow archival ink in the places I wanted them, then I dried that with the heat tool and painted over the images precisely with white DecoArt media Gesso.

The images got stamped once more - this time in black archival stamping ink onto tissue - and fussy cut. The top layer of the stamped tissue images was glued on top of the white areas using DecoArt Paper Decou-Page. The images below still show traces of the yellow lines from the stamped on and painted over images...

 ...but that was not going to be an issue as I was going to shade around the outlines anyway with a darker brown acrylic paint later.

I also stamped some of the tinier labels on directly using black archival stamping ink. To add my friend's initials to the centre of the box lid I die cut these from black card stock (using the Tim Holtz "Handmade" Alphabet die) and glued them in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page this time.

 Once all had dried I went in with a first thin wash of DecoArt media fluid acrylic Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide. It is always a good idea to start with a lighter wash - just to see if things are going in the direction you want them to. A dark wash isn't that easy to cover up with layers of other washes, but light washes can be "hidden" this way if you do not like the outcome.

The first wash showed that I was heading in the right direction, so I dared go in with another wash - this time with Burnt Umber media fluid acrylic. As it was only a wash the layer from the Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide still showed through and the two paints formed a lovely mix and beautiful depth this way.

Once that had dried I went around the box lid's edges and painted a smudged edge with a detail brush using the Burnt Umber again.

I also painted fading brown edges around the decou-paged images to make these stand out from the background.

Finally I added a thin wash of the Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide to the Laboratory craft parts to paint the contents of the flasks, vials and bottles. I also painted in some details on the decoupaged images to fuse all the elements on the box lid.

The initials were painted with Burnt Umber first and then given a wash of the Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide as well.

You see - I've really used only three colours this time and didn't go wild with too much texture which fits the laboratory theme I had in mind: a clean, organised space of a very organised chemist. Still the washes add a bit of a vintage feel to the make - so it isn't too clean to become boring or any close to a clean and simple project.

The crackle from the white Crackle Paint turned out just beautifully and together with the smudged brown edges it really adds some delicately aged feel to the box.

I really love how it turned out. I hope you like it too! 

See you in two weeks!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

See the World - by Claudia

Hi, servus and welcome back to our creative little corner here!

I guess you all know by now how much I love autumn (even if it is the hardest time of the year for me when it comes to health issues...but the beauty of this season always makes up for this) - and I do not only love the rich colours of mid-autumn, when there is this explosion of warm reds, oranges and browns, but also that time when the colour palette gets more reduced to warm greys, matte browns and last traces of faded yellowed whites and light greys.

I think what I love about it is that there is less and more subtle contrast and you have to look closer and rather have to distinguish objects by their textures and patterns than by their colours. I tried to capture that in this little "beer mat make" (and it was quite a challenge, but using paint washes always helps with tweaking lightly until you are finally there and have nailed it).

I have used this fabric already in one of my Halloween themed makes over here (which you can check out HERE) and loved that so much that I used it again - this time to kind of form the forest ground with loads of fallen pine needles, little dried twigs, grasses and other forest ground texture.
It was a find in the Halloween decorations section of a dollar store, but I can see it be used for so much more...

Calico Craft Parts used: 

- Square MDF Beer Mat
- Flat Cap Mushroom -  MDF Wood Shape
- Sheet of Mini Insects - MDF Wood Shapes Style 1
- Sheet of Mini Insects - MDF Wood Shapes Style 3
- Sheet of Mini MDF Acorns & Oakleaves


I started with priming all the MDF wood shapes with a layer of DecoArt Americana Chalky Finish paint "primitive". I painted the flat shapes that had no engraved patterns and dry brushed the engraved ones so no detail got lost. I used the Flat Cap Mushroom shape flipped over - without the engraved patterns so it matched the rather "flat" design of the background I had in mind.

Then I painted the forest background using Chalky Finish paint "relic" which is a beautiful dark grey.
I kind of painted in watercolour technique - using very light washes, starting with the lightest wash and working my way towards slightly darker washes (=with less water added to the paint).

I watered down the paint on my palette and started with the trees that were farthest away and almost fading in the foggy forest background...

...and ended with the layer that is closest to the spectator and the darkest in the foreground.

I have taken images of the single layers being added so you can see how it all developed:

Don't think too much about which tree should go where when adding the layers, just work each layer on top of the other as if the layers before weren't there - this leads to the most natural looking results!

Then I put the painted and dried beer mat into my spray box and added sprinkles of diluted DecoArt media Translucent White and Burnt Umber fluid acrylics using a loaded brush and tipping it with my index finger.

I painted the mushroom using DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints Burnt Umber, Translucent White, Paynes Grey and Titan Buff.

I worked wet on wet to create blends and shading.

Then I sprinkled some Burnt Umber dots on the cap, dried these with my heat tool and added white highlights and dark shades with a very fine detail brush (using Translucent White and Carbon Black media fluid acrylics).

Once that had dried I added a thin wash of Burnt Umber on top.

The acorn was done the same way (just without the dots of course) and I painted it very dark as it is already dried out and has started to rot on the forest ground at that time of the year. To highlight the laser engraved texture on the acorn's cap I dry brushed that with a mix of Titan Buff and a little Paynes Grey. The little spider and the earwig were painted and shaded too using the same colours.

I added a generous coat of DecoArt Triple Thick to the earwig and used the left overs on my palette to add thin layers to the mushroom and the acorn (but I left the acorn's cap untreated). 

Time to glue the mushroom and the other bits in place (with matte DecoArt Decou-Page). In the picture below you can see the back of the acorn to which I have glued a left over scrap from some Calico Craft Parts Mini Craft Shapes. I always keep these left overs because they are perfect for layering the pieces and do not dry out or warp over time as sticky foam pads tend to do.

The spider got two large dots of DecoArt media Liquid Glass once it had been glued in place.

The acorn was glued on top of a layer of heavily frayed fabric (a kind of "mummy cloth" from the Halloween section of a dollar store) and I added a bit of watered down Burnt Umber to the fabric here and there once the glue had dried.

Then I found I needed more texture on my forest ground and the mushroom, so I quite thinly scraped white DecoArt media Crackle Paint onto some spots using the very tip of my palette knife. I sped up the crackle process by putting my beer mat project under the warmth of my desk light bulb.

Once that had dried it was time to go in with some washes!
I used a heavily watered down mix of Burnt Umber and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide fluid acrylics and added that to the crackled areas and an even thinner wash of that to the mushroom.

I was still not content with that as it still lacked some texture from a different "kind of forest ground". Some Irish Moss here and there was the perfect addition!

Now I only didn't like that the mushroom and the forest looked too same-ish (colour-wise), so I decided to be brave and add a VERY light wash of a contrasting colour to the background - Prussian Blue Hue became the colour of my choice as it is a "cold" blue that rather tends towards green instead of purple - so the best fit for a forest themed project!

The wash seems as if it is really almost not there - but it makes a huge difference!!! It's maybe one single drop of paint diluted with three to four brush loads of water on the palette! But it was exactly what my forest background had needed to be turned into a cold, foggy November forest.

To finish off my project I added a word sticker and shaded the beer mat's edges with black archival stamping ink using a piece of blending foam. 

Some detail shots: 

...and once more the finished beer mat. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again in two weeks! 

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx