Altered clock "3 Generations, 1 Passion" CCB May challenge!

Hi everyone, 

Today I would like to show what I made as an example for the May challenge that the Canvas Corp Brands cooked up for you guys!

It's really worth it to join us for this challenge, because there are some amazing prizes to be won!

Head over to their Blog now!

This is the moodboard:

The Canvas Corp 'Heirloom' paper series are perfect for scrapping your family history. When I laid my eyes on the paper 'Cameras on Ivory' I had an idea immediately. 

My mom, her dad and I love(d) taking pictures very much. Something in our genes I guess. My grandfather photographed professionally (he was a detective) but loved doing it as a hobby as well. My mother always loved taking pictures as well, and I am also known for always dragging my camera everywhere ;)

Lucky enough I own a picture of my grandfather holding his camera, and another picture (he took) of my mom. Holding that same camera that I have in my possession still. Sadly it's broken beyond repair, but I cherish owning a camera that meant so much to my grandfather. A man I hardly knew since he passed away when I was 1,5 years old. Which makes him all the more enigmatic to me.

The fact that my dear mom in her late teens is portrayed holding that same camera means so much more to me now she's gone as well. I'm so proud to follow in both their footsteps.

Anyway, "3 Generations, 1 Passion" seemed a very appropriate sentence. And altering an old clock seemed the right choice for a project depicting several generations...

I started out by cutting a circle from the 'Black & kraft reverse sonnet' Canvas Corp paper to fit in the middle section.

Once this was glued down, I blended crackle paste with black gesso to cover the outer edges and inner circle transitions.

When it was dry, I sprayed some 'Boardwalk' glimmermist over the painted sections as well as the rest. 

I cut out some of the 'Heirloom life story' cards and adjusted them so they would fit underneath my pictures. Made small cuts at the top and bottom to shove the pictures in. 

From the 'cameras on ivory' Heirloom paper I fussy cut some cameras to use as embellishments. 

The flowers that weren't in the correct colors, were sprayed with several glimmermists, Pomegranate, Periwinkle Bouquet, Pink Coral.

The word 'Generations' was painted with Glimmerglam Tanzanite first, then covered in plain white glue, then painted with Decor & Diy Rose. The white glue was supposed to make it crack but it didn't quite work out that way. However, I like the structure the word has now, because it sort of looks like leather. Of course I wasn't satisfied with the color just yet so I sprayed some more glimmermists on it.

The 'Tanzanite' glimmerglam had a mind of its own and chose to color more than just the few flowers I had intended to do....

Made up my title by using tags and typewriter key stickers, which I coated with one step crackle medium.

Added transparant baubles to emphasise the cameras/lens in the pictures. Used some Rusty Paper on the clock hands and some other things. Added leaves, flowers and berries, some (real) light bulbs, old (real and empty) negatives and splattered everything with the 'Decor & Diy rose' paint.

 

My grandfather, Ale (yes, I know, it means 'beer', LOL) and my mother, Henriëtte.

Hope you'll like it and will feel inspired to join our challenge over at the CCB blog! 

Questions and comments are always welcome.

Find me on Facebook too: Less is bore!

And Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping and good luck with the challenge!

"Fleeting Moments" Altered mixed media Fan

Hi everyone,

I've noticed some fans being altered lately, you too? They made me finally work on the wooden fan that I had lying around too.

My in laws got this fan for me during one of their world trips and I had different plans for it initially. 

Until I remembered the vintage photograph of my mom holding up an umbrella. Her dark hair was up in a tight bun, which she hated because her hair was thick and heavy. Her mother had even sewn two of those bun-spunges together, to make it even worse. My mom was a living doll and she hated it. I depicted that by caging one of my old Frozen Charlottes in a birdcage. 

Needless to say once she was mature enough she was thrilled to make her own decisions when it came to her hair and clothes. From a young age she already learned to make the best of (her) life.

My grandfather, whom I hardly knew since he passed away a year and a half after I was born, loved to take pictures. I'm proud to still own his camera and so happy he took so many pictures/slides of my beautiful mom. Precious memories, even more so since she passed away too young as well.

I wanted to stick with the colors from the picture and guess what? They match the March challenge over at the 'Words and Painterly' blog. Again. And yes, again using a picture of my mom. LOL.

(I already did an entry with a heart-shaped canvas starring my mom as an angel, check one of my previous blog entries.)

I started out by painting the fan with gesso. White was my first choice, but I realised black would make the picture pop even more. So I gradually blended the white into black.

By the way, I took these pictures with my new cellphone and I absolutely love them! I can do decent close-ups and the colors are almost perfect as is. The little editing I have to do is also done a whole lot faster than with my previous phone. I'm so happy! 

Once dry I sprayed everything with several Glimmermist colors: 'Cranberry Zing' (which turned out to be too purple for this color scheme), 'Crimson' and 'Pink Coral'.

I altered some of the embellishments I wanted to use. Covered the clock and Frozen Charlotte in crackle medium, then added some paint and ink.

You don't want to know how many mediums I put on the swirl. It didn't do what I wanted it to do. First I painted it with black gesso and then I added a crackle medium. I finally used one of my new Prima Opal Magic paints, pink gold. The idea was that it would crack and show some of the black gesso underneath. It didn't crack though. (On another project I noticed it didn't work either, but I blamed it on the wood surface being too coarse and soaking up all the medium.) I tried some black crackle Nail Polish and sanded everything. Not the result I wanted either. So I mixed another Prima Opal Magic paint, blue pink, with Tim Holtz clear rock candy crackle medium. That sort of worked but the color wasn't really what I hoped for. Later when I sprayed everything the color blended nicely.

The Scrapiniec ornament above the picture was done with several layers too. Black gesso, Prima Opal Magic paint pink gold, some Rusty Paper, etc.

The chipboard words "Fleeting Moments" are from 13Arts and I painted them with Prima Opal Magic paint pink gold, then added clear crackle medium and a bit of pink ink later on.

To enhance the 'Chinese' feel of the picture I made and altered some chopsticks sticking out from behind the picture. 

The little fan-like chipboard piece is from Scrapiniec as well and was simply covered in Glimmermist 'Crimson' and a bit of white gesso.

The branch underneath the picture was covered in Rusty Paper and later some crackle medium and pink ink.

The metal leaves, frames and birdcage were covered with white gesso and some Glimmermist 'Crimson' as well.

Added my glittery branches, flowers (sprayed them with Glimmermist Crimson and added white gesso) and bead/heart string for the finishing touch. Fussy cut the picture because it looked better.

Hope you like it! Comments and questions are always welcome!

Come find me on Facebook too: 

"Less is Bore! "

Or Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping!