Grungepaper Flowers

The Compendium of Curiosities challenge on Studio L3 this week is to create grungepaper flowers. (I am STILL waiting for my Tim Holtz book to arrive, giving credence that the mail in California DOES come by pack mule!) I love making grungpaper flowers, so I was happy to work on this challenge! I don't know if I do it "Tim's way" since I don't yet have the book.... But, here is my card.

I cut a bunch of flowers with the Tim Holtz tattered florals die, then inked them with distress inks. I used lots of colors to get the look I wanted.

Once I had all my flowers inked, I stamped over them with a variety of stamps (Hero Arts, Posh Impressions, Tim Holtz) and black soot distress ink, then I bent and folded the flowers.

I added some metal to the centers to give the flowers that "grunge look." Check out the tiny roses. They started out cream, but I rubbed them with distress ink, then dabbed them with some black soot, then sprayed them with a mist of water. Don't they look grungy?!

I made the grungepaper rose by following the directions on Tim's blog or the set on Wendy's blog. (Yes, I am on a first name basis with these folks...they just don't know it yet!) I modified my rose a bit from the directions, because that's what I do! Plus I tend to hold my roses together with a long brad when the glue does not want to dry! I also put a dot of black diamond Stickles onto the brad to create a sparkly center.

Because I got carried away, I also cut a grungeboard birdcage and inked it with black soot distress ink. I added some Stickles to that as well. I cut the bird out of chipboard, then out of Graphic45 Hallowe'en in Wonderland paper. The wing is grungepaper. The eye is a bit of bling I found in my stash.

For the greeting on the front, I cut a ticket with the Tim Holtz ticket die, then stamped Tim's Halloween ticket stamp. I grunged that up with distress ink and water.

I used Hero Arts and Crafty Secrets stamps for the inside of the card.

I also colored the clear Maya Road trinket pins. I used a black Copic marker to add color to one of the clear pins. For the orange one, I used sunset orange alcohol inks. I just put the ink in a baggie, and mashed the pin around in it until it was the color I wanted!

The paper on the front of the card is Graphic45 A Proper Gentleman. I grunged it up a bit. I also inked up the cardstock to make it look "smoky."

This card is also for the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show - they are having an AMAZING blog hop right now. The challenge was to do a Holiday project - Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. As you can see, I made a Halloween card.

Simon Says Stamp - they are in cahoots with Simon Says Stamp and Show! See above!

365 Cards Day 193 - Pam asked for Tools and Techniques. The tool was "how do you add color" and the technique was "how do you add dimension." Well, here I added color with distress inks, alcohol ink, Copic markers, and water. For dimension I added layers, layers and more layers! I have layers of paper. I have folded and curled paper. I have layers of grungepaper, grungeboard, chipboard. Even layers of ink!

Pile it On - They asked for Layers in challenge #35. See above! I got layers!

Paper Sundaes - They asked for Mixed Mediums. I guess you can see I have that! Both in inks and in types of paper! This is my first time playing in their challenges so I hope they like my card.

More Paper Than Shoes - They asked for Rustic. I think this is grungy and rustic enough! I was not sure if they wanted an actual "rusty bucket" in the project...but it appears that anything rustic is fine.

Wow! This it's been a long time since I played in so many challenges at once! But, I think this card can handle it! {grin}

On a sad note: Today would have been my brother Todd's 43rd birthday. It's been less than two months since he was killed. I miss him terribly. He was often my best and only friend; he was the person who "got me" every time. We shared a connection that was often of great joy to us both. I miss him and hope he's having birthday cake in heaven today. It's a beautiful day, and I thank God for giving me this amazing day to remember my brother. Todd, I miss you and love you. I will see you one day at the Gates.