Flaming June At Our Creative Corner. . . . . . .

Hi everyone. It's my turn to host the challenge at Our Creative Corner this month. I'm excited to bring this challenge to you because I chose a beautiful painting as the inspiration for your work:

Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton 1895

Now for some, this is an overtly romantic image which perhaps fails to ignite their creativity. However, love it or not, I don't think anyone can fail to be moved by the quality of the painting and that glorious range of orange tones. So, for your challenge this month, you are asked to make a project which features orange as the main colour on your work. You may also take inspiration from anything else in the painting that appeals to you.

We have a new sponsor this month, the wonderful Tando company who produce so many amazing chipboard items just begging to be altered. They also have a range of other items including a range of quality stencils which can be used for endless styles of work. Never used Tando products before? Click on the image below and have a good look around their website - I dare you not to spend money once there!

Here's what I made this month using die cutting and stamping as my main techniques. Oh, of course, it wouldn't be me without a little crackling so that's there too! I should warn you that there are lots of photos so get a drink and put your feet up before you start!

A gift bag with matching gift label and a small matchbox style gift box. 

Gift bag and matching label.

Matchbox style gift box with floral embellishment.

View inside the gift bag showing stamped and inked reverse and matchbox in situ.

Various die cut florals. Inked with distress, stamped with distress, edged with versamark followed by gold EP then shaped before assembly. The flower centre is made from fimo clay. Shaped and stamped to create depth then antiqued with DecoArt acrylic paints.

A die cut flourish is coloured with distress ink and finished with gold EP as before.

More fimo clay was cut into heart shapes, stamped with a clean stamp then when dry, antiqued with DecoArt acrylic paints. The crinkle ribbon was coloured with distress stains and dried. When applied to the bag, the two hearts hold the ribbon in place - on both front and back of the bag.

Close up view to show detail on fimo heart.

A hitch fastener was covered with DecoArt One Step crackle. When dry some acrylic paint was applied to highlight the cracks. Sadly, I can see little fibres from a baby wipe very visible in this image!!

The inside of the box is lined with card which has been stamped with distress ink, embossed with clear EP then inked with a lighter distress ink shade. Some areas of the stamped image had the colour removed/lightened with a waterbrush.

A die cut gift label was stamped and coloured using the same techniques as before. Some tiny punched flowers were made from the scrap pieces of inked card. Each flower was shaped and a small jewel was added to the centre. The edges were roughly embossed with gold powder and some gold embroidery thread attached to tie the tag onto the gift.

Close up to show the ink removal on certain areas of the stamping.

Time to reveal the contents of the little box! I decided to make some small treasures on a favourite theme.

A purchased rusty bell which had some rusty wire attached. Two pieces of miniature art and clay heart pendant.

The small piece of art on the left was made by stamping the image onto frosted shrink plastic and a hole punched for the wire. The piece was then shrunk using a heat gun. Rusty wire was twisted through the hole and finally a Krylon pen was used around the edges.
The heart was made by rolling out fimo clay and cutting a heart shape. A stamp was then applied to the clay to provide a relief pattern. The heart was baked then painted and antiqued using DecoArt acrylic paints and crackle medium. The rusty wire hanger was attached to the back of the heart and covered.

The final treasure is a little tile made with clear shrink plastic. The image was stamped onto the plastic as before. The plastic was shrunk with a heat gun. Alcohol ink was applied to the reverse of the plastic followed by a piece of metal tape. Finally some utee was melted on the face of the tile to give a more luxurious finish.

I do hope you enjoyed looking at this make. Not so much paint and crackle this time but still fun to make! I do hope you go over to Our Creative Corner and see what the other members of the DT have come up with - you're certainly in for a treat! 

It's your turn then to come up with a mainly orange creation and link up at Our Creative Corner. There's a wonderful prize available from Tando if your name comes up in the randomly generated draw or you could be the challenge winner and feature on our blog next month - now there's a chance to showcase your amazing work! You may even be one of our top three talents - you have to enter to have a chance at any of these though.

Thanks so much for visiting. Enjoy your Sunday.