Sunday, December 27, 2020

Challenge Winners - Deck the Halls!

Thanks for joining us today as we announce our final winners of 2020, this time for our 'Deck the Halls!' challenge. A special thank you goes out to everyone who played along at what we know is a busy time of the year.


The Design Team really enjoyed seeing all the love and care that had gone into making your own decorations, festive packaging and ornaments and were torn between so many of the entries. In the end we picked #2 Suzi Mac as our overall winner this time. Suzi made the most wonderful decorative packaging to hold her presents, with trims and tags that made them all so special. You can see each of them in more detail on her blog.

Congratulations to Suzi on winning an opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. You will be contacted shortly with all the details.

And now our picks of three additional outstanding entries for the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog Top 3 Badges. In numerical order they are #1 Bonnie in Kersey, #4 Lyla Larimore and #5 Tracey (Hotchpotchcreations). Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the Top 3 badges so that you can display them proudly on your blog.

And finally for the lucky randomly drawn winner for the $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique; our congratulations go to #6 Elle (Empire of the Cat). Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the gift certificate details.

Thank you again to everyone who took part in this challenge from all of us here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and congratulations to all our winners. Our first challenge of 2021 will be launched at the beginning of January and in the meantime we would like to wish you all a healthy, positive and safe 2021.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas

(image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy)

It has been a difficult year for so many of us and as we pause to take time to celebrate Christmas, Linda, her team at The Funkie Junkie Boutique and everyone here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog want to take the opportunity to thank you for joining us throughout the year and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

We will be back on Monday December 28th to announce our final winners of 2020 and the Design Team will launch the first challenge of 2021 at the beginning of January. For now stay safe xxx

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Guest Designer - Cathy Frailey

Say hello to our Guest Designer for the Deck The Halls challenge. Cathy Frailey of It's Oddly Appealing was the top pick from the Home Is Where The Heart Is challenge.


My name is Cathy and I blog about my creations and art at It's Oddly Appealing. I also have 2 challenge blogs of my own: Bleeding Art and Steampunk Challenge Blog.

I live in West Virginia in the USA and love it here! I've been married for 36 years and have 2 kids, 5 grandchildren, and a black lab named Buster! I love mixed media the most, especially grungy, industrial, or vintage but can adapt to any style. I use all kinds of materials from store bought to found items - nothing is wasted!

I love the Christmas season with the colder weather and all the decorations! Homemade, especially the chenille pipe cleaner decorations, are so fun and kitschy. So I went to work making these vintage-looking pipe cleaner decorations using different embellishments and printable faces - even Buster has his own!

They're super simple to make and you can find so many neat mini Christmas goodies in the craft stores to add to them, like mini lights, tinsel, sisal trees, packages, and more!



You can see more about them in my blog post.

Thanks, again, for having me as a part of your Deck the Halls challenge! Ho ho ho!!
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Do check out the details of Cathy's fabulous vintage ornaments and then come back and share any last minute creation you have made to decorate your house or tree. We would love to see it.

The challenge can be found HERE and runs through 11:55 pm EST on Tuesday, December 29th.

Monday, December 14, 2020

Challenge Winners - A Time to be Grateful

Thanks for joining us today as we announce the winners for our 'A Time to be Grateful' challenge and a big thank you to everyone who played along with your lovely gratitude projects.
 

It was wonderful to see the entries and find out what everyone was grateful for. The Design Team picked #7 Jo (Let's Art Journal) as our overall winner this time with her ATC commemorating the end of an era. With a tutorial and some fantastic festive ATC's included we'd recommend popping over to Jo's blog to see more.

Congratulations to Jo on winning an opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. You will be contacted shortly with all the details.

And now our picks of three additional outstanding entries for the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog Top 3 Badges. In numerical order they are #3 Lyla Larimore with her spectacular journals, #4 Kim Costello with her amazing interactive card and #10 Titbelsoeur with her imaginative cards. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the Top 3 badges so that you can display them proudly on your blog.

And finally for the lucky randomly drawn winner for the $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique; our congratulations go to #9 Tessa Serrano with a fabulous seasonal card. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the gift certificate details.

Thank you again to everyone who took part in this challenge from all of us here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and congratulations to all our winners. The current challenge 'Deck The Halls' can be found HERE and runs through Tuesday, December 22nd at 11:55 pm EST so there's still plenty of time to link those projects which remind you of home or bring you comfort.

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Saturday Showcase - Eileen Hull's 3D Teacup and Spoon, Sizzix 3D Knitted, and Tim Holtz Snarky Cat Christmas

Welcome to our Saturday Showcase feature, a time to share tutorials and showcase products available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Today's post will bring a few easy Christmas decor and gift ideas featuring Eileen Hull's 3D Teacup and Spoon Bigz die and Sizzix 3D Knitted embossing folder, along with Tim Holtz Snarky Cat Christmas stamps and Ideaology. The 3D teacup table decor was my Design Team project for our current challenge, Deck the Halls!, and as promised, today I will share my process steps. I am also sharing a few gift card holders using the Teacup die.

First, here are some photos of each of the teacups, front and back. Click on any photo to zoom in.






Let's get started on the making! Starting with an idea to make a teacup with the appearance of having a knitted wrap, I chose a scrap of heavy white denim fabric from my stash and trimmed it to cut three teacups using the 3D Teacup and Spoon Bigz die. The Bigz dies cut through just about everything!

I embossed each of the teacups using Sizzix 3D Knitted embossing folder, first spritzing the die cut with water and then running it through my die cut machine three times.  There is a broad and a narrower side to the folder. By placing the surface you wish to emboss with the desired side facing toward the wider side of the folder, you get the lovely knitted pattern shown below.

I trimmed the handle and the bottom from each of the fabric tea cup die cuts and discarded them.

Next, blend the teacups with Hickory Smoke Archival ink to bring out the pattern.

Cut a total of nine additional teacups from chipboard. Six die cuts were coated front and back with gesso. It would be a lot easier and require fewer cuts if you have white matboard, but I had to use what I had on hand. (You will see the remaining three die cuts cut from white card further down in the post.)

Using one of the stamps from the Ornate Trims set inked with Hickory Smoke Archival ink and holding the stamp in both of my hands, I shaped it to fit the curved of the rim of each cup and made my impression.

After stamping, this portion is trimmed from the cup and set aside. I adhered the remaining die cut to a second gessoed die cut, before taking the following steps (not pictured): I heat embossed the handle and just the base of the teacup with Eileen Hull's Glistening Glass Molten Dimension Embossing Powder. (I borrowed this idea from Jenny's Saturday Showcase post. Thank you, Jenny!) I finished assembling the front of the teacup by gluing the fabric portion to the layers shown below, and then adhering the reserved rim of the cup over the fabric. I did need to do a little trimming of the fabric cup once it was adhered, since when it is embossed, the fabric stretches slightly.

Next, I covered the reverse side of the three remaining gessoed die cut teacups with Collage Paper applying a coat of Collage Medium Matte to the die cut, laying the paper over it and smoothing out any bubbles or wrinkles with a paint brush loaded with more of the collage medium. I chose an older neutral paper, but I've linked to the more colorful Holly below, which is currently available in Linda's shop. You will notice that I goofed on one of my cups by applying collage paper to the wrong side initially. My plan was to keep all the interiors plain white. 

When the paper/glue is dry, I trim the excess paper and sand the edges with a file. I blended the edges with Hickory Smoke Archival ink and heat set. Having cut and gessoed three of the middle supporting pieces, I assembled the cup. (Please refer to Jenny's post to see how this is done.) 

Now for the fun part--decorating! I chose three Milk Caps from Tim Holtz Christmas pack and aged them with Hickory Smoke crayon. I scribbled crayon on my craft mat, spritzed with a very little bit of water and picked up some of the color with my finger, smearing it on the cap. Allow to dry or dry with a heat tool.

I stamped three of the Christmas Snarky Cats in Black Soot Archival on Distress Watercolor card and colored them with Distress Crayons and a water brush.

I fussy cut them and blended the edges with Pumice Stone ink. The caps were adhered  to the assembled teacup with Collage Medium and the cats with dimensional foam adhesive tape. 

Lastly, I cut some of the tea bags from the die to make tags for each of the cups.





The tea bags were cut from Heavystock and other card scraps and dipped into diluted puddles of brown inks, dried between colors. I heat embossed the Snarky sentiments from the Snarky Cat set using Black Soot Archival ink and clear powder. The cats were stamped on two with Black Soot and Hickory Smoke Archival inks and highlights added with a gel pen. The one with Jingle Your Own Bells was glued at the bottom after each of them had a string attached with my Tiny Attacher. 

If you're still with me, I made some gift card holders I'd like to share using the same 3D Teacup die, but these are flat, so they can be tucked in a Christmas card and be easily mailed. Below, they are shown from the front.



 And here are the backs.



They are really simple to make. Here's what I did... After cutting two teacups from white card and mixing texture paste with Pine Needles ink, I smeared the paste through Tim Holtz Tree Lot stencil on each. 

After the paste dried, I blended the cups with Pumice Stone ink.


I thought this one needed more, so I realigned the stencil and blended Pine Needles ink through it to add more trees. I also used the mini version of this stencil later on to add yet more trees.


Smooshing the ink pad on my craft mat, I used a water brush to apply the ink around the trees as whimsical shadows. Since I had more ink on my mat than I needed, I added some water to it and using a paintbrush, splattered the teacups with the watery ink. This is a cheap brush with very stiff bristles, and I just pinch/strum them a bit to release tiny droplets of color. I love my Tim Holtz Splatter Brush, but I love to use this one for really fine droplets. 

I cut the backs from Christmas Worn Wallpaper and blend them with Pumice Stone ink. You can see the difference between one inked and one left 'clean' below.

To finish the cups, I splattered with Picket Fence paint. I ran a line of collage medium around the edges and over the entire handle to adhere front to back, leaving them open at the top to insert a gift card. In the end, I decided to stencil one of the cups with Flurries and Faded Jeans Distress and Archival inks.

I cut two tea bags from Distress Specialty Stamping Paper and blended them with Pumice Stone ink. 

After drying them, I stamped trees, pine branches and snow from the Into the Woods set with the inks shown below. I fussy cut the Santa on a reindeer and house from the same Worn Wallpapers as are on the backs of the gift card holders, adhered to the tea bag and trimmed. I left the bag open at the bottom so I could write a personal message inside.

Finally, I made one more Teacup gift card holder using linen which I stiffened with Prima Clear Sculpture Medium before cutting. I decorated it simply with Funky Festive Florals die cuts, Ideaology Metallic Trimmings, and some trim from my stash.


Thanks for hanging in there with me! I hope you have found an idea or two to use in your last minute Christmas decorating or gift giving. But don't forget that this die and embossing folder can be used year round in your crafting endeavors. 

In the meantime, there's still plenty of time to play along in our current challenge, Deck the Halls! which runs through Tuesday, December 22th at 11.55pm. I can't wait to see what you will make!

Happy Crafting and *Merry Christmas*!

 Sara Emily

These products were used and can be purchased at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Chapter 4 Eileen Hull Bigz L Die - 3D Teacup & Spoon

Chapter 4 Jessica Scott 3D Textured Impressions Embossing Folder - Knitted

Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits Die Set - Funky Festive Florals

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set - Snarky Cat Christmas

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Ornate Trims

Tim Holtz Cling Stamps - Into The Woods

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stencils - Tree Lot, Tree Lot Mini, Flurries Mini

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads- Black Soot, Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans and Hickory Smoke Archival Inks, Pine Needles, Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap, Hickory Smoke, Walnut Stain, Faded Jeans

Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - Antique Linen, Antiqued Bronze, Brushed Pewter, Candied Apple, Crushed Olive, Evergreen Bough, Fired Brick, Hickory Smoke, Pumice Stone, Spun Sugar, Stormy Sky, Tarnished Brass, Vintage Photo

Emerald Creek Eileen Hull Molten Dimension Embossing Powder - Glistening Glass

Ranger Tim Holtz Alcohol Pearls - Smolder

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Mixed Media Heavystock

Tim Holtz Distress Specialty Stamping Paper

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Collage Paper, Holly

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Worn Wallpaper Christmas

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings Metallic

Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Tiny Attacher


Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Deck the Halls!

Hello and welcome to a new challenge! It's Sara Emily here, and I'm challenging you to 'Deck the Halls!'. Be sure to read the following description...

For this challenge, we would like to see those vintage or shabby chic Christmas decorations! This is not about Christmas cards this time, but think about tree ornaments, wreathes, vignettes, mantle or table decorations, etc. with a Christmas theme. 

The winner will earn a chance to be a Guest Designer at a future date here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique challenge blog, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There are also Top 3 Badges for three additional outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team.

The guidelines for entering are simple; create a new vintage or shabby chic project following the challenge theme, link it below to your post (not just your blog) and also include a link back to this challenge in your post. You can combine our challenge with up to 10 challenges (including this one) to be in with a chance of winning. If you are entering through a public forum (such as Instagram) you'll need to include the words 'Funkie Junkie Boutique Challenge'. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our Design Team can leave comments on your blogs. Make sure you follow these rules as unfortunately, we have had to eliminate entrants from the prize draws in the past.

The Design Team has shared these wonderful projects to get you started. To see all the details of their projects, just click on their blog name to be taken directly to their blog.

Suzanne Czosek - Suzz's Stamping Spot 

Cec Wintonyk - CW Creations

Sara Emily - sarascloset


Now it's over to you - we would love to see your shabby chic or vintage Christmas decorations that you have created with your crafty goodies! Use the link below to enter them and be in with a chance of winning one of the great prizes. Happy crafting!

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Guest Designer - Lisa Hoel

It is time to introduce our Guest Designer for the A Time to be Grateful challenge. Say hello again to Lisa Hoel from Creative Juice Fresh Squeezed who was the Design Team's top pick from the Purple, Orange, Green! Eek! It's Halloween challenge.


Hello, my name is Lisa Hoel and I’m a lifelong craft lover. I’ve been ‘arting’ ever since I first picked up a crayon! Paper crafts have been my main focus for the past eighteen years or so and I love to make detailed, layered, textured, mixed-media type projects. I am not usually a clean and simple type artist. My background is in graphic design and I'm blessed to be married to the greatest guy in the world and have two dynamic boys.


To help me focus on gratefulness, I have created a little keeper using Eileen Hull's Post Box Die. Each day for the month of December I will write something I am grateful for on a slip of paper and pop it into the box. I think it will help me to be mindful of things and not just let the month blur by in a whirl.


I raided my Ranger products stash and Tim Holtz Christmas hoard to aid in the creation of the post box. I've been watching his weekly Facebook Live videos and some of those techniques found their way into this make too.

* * * 
To find out how Lisa created this box to hold her grateful reminders just pop over to her blog. Once you have taken a look around come on back and share your project for the challenge with us. It can be found HERE and runs through 11:55 pm EST on Tuesday, December 8th.

Monday, November 30, 2020

Challenge Winners - Celebrate

Thanks for joining us today as we announce the winners for our 'Celebrate' challenge and a big thank you to everyone who played along with your wonderful celebratory projects.

 

We had lots of beautiful entries and in the end the Design Team picked #22 Lyla Larimore as our overall winner. The team loved this fabulous double-sided festive tag the incredibly clever way of creating a starry night sky and wonderful inky 'stained glass' for the window. A trip to Lyla's blog 'A Chief's Wife's Heart's 'aFire' is highly recommended so you can see how each side was created.

Congratulations to Lyla on winning an opportunity to be a Guest Designer at a future date here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. You will be contacted shortly with all the details.

And now our picks of three additional outstanding entries for the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog Top 3 Badges. In numerical order they are #11 Repolainen with her wonderful illuminating festive easel card, #14 Esther Asbury (Shoregirl's Creations) for her beautiful layered Christmas card and #15 Carol (Carol Stamps) with her sparkling rainbow celebration card. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the Top 3 badges so that you can display them proudly on your blog.

And finally for the lucky randomly drawn winner for the $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique; our congratulations go to #2 Bonnie in Kersey with a gorgeous Thanksgiving card. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the gift certificate details.

Thank you again to everyone who took part in this challenge from all of us here at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and congratulations to all our winners. The current challenge 'A Time to be Grateful' can be found HERE and runs through Tuesday, December 8th at 11:55 pm EST so there's still plenty of time to link those projects which remind you of home or bring you comfort.

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Saturday Showcase - Eileen Hull Designs 'Box, Snowman' and Pam Bray Rock Candy Embossing Powder

Hi everyone and welcome to another Saturday Showcase, the Design Team's chance to share tutorials and products available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique with you. With the run up to Christmas now in full flow today's tutorial brings an idea for creating a set of festive cards using Eileen Hull's 'Box, Snowman' Sizzix Scoreboards Die and Pam Bray's Rock Candy Embossing Powders available now from The Funkie Junkie Boutique. There's plenty of mixed texture and yet it lays flat to make posting easier, with the Rock Candy Embossing Powder adding that special touch of sparkle that will reflect beautifully in Christmas lighting.

(click on the photos to see them closer)

Let's start with creating the sparkly snowman beginning with the body; from a sheet of A4 white card (you can use a standard 8 1/2x11 US size) cut a couple of strips 3 1/4 tall (8.5cm) across the width of the card - you should be able to get three snowman bodies from each strip with a little left over. Cover the card in 'Marshmallow' Rock Candy Embossing Powder and heat set. You'll find there are much larger 'rocks' in the powder which are fabulous for adding dimension but since we'll be die cutting this card those can be allowed to fall away when you remove the excess powder before heating. If preferred you can give the card a second coat of embossing powder depending on how well the first has covered. It's hard to capture here but there are sparkly bits (not glitter) and mixed grain sizes in the powder which give the heated results a beautiful shimmery textured finish. 


Allow the powder to cool properly before picking it up and die cutting the snowman figures from chunks of card that are 2 1/4 inches (6cm) wide. Since Eileen's 'Box, Snowman' Die is a big one it will cut through the embossed surface easily. You'll see below how you'll also cut the triangular 'nose' section at the same time. Save these for the next step.


To give the nose bits a more traditional 'carrot' colour use a drop of 'Butterscotch' Alcohol Ink on each - this will keep the embossed shine evident in the finish.


Cut a strip of black card 1 1/2 inches (6cm) tall and cover with a single coat of 'Licorice' Embossing Powder. Use this to cut the 'hands' and eyes for the snowman - I find it's easier to cut an initial sample of the hands from scrap paper and use this as a guide to cut appropriately sized chunks from the card which can be placed over the relevant sections on the die.


Back to the white card and you'll need to cut a strip and a half across the card that are 1 1/4 inches (3.5cm) tall. Cover the strip fully with embossing ink - you'll need to ensure there's plenty of ink on the card to capture the textured embossing crystals. Sprinkle 'Peppermint' Embossing Powder across two thirds of the card, tap off the excess, then cover the remaining one third with 'Butterscotch' Embossing Powder. It's ok if the two powders blend a bit where they meet. Heat set before cutting the strips into 1 1/2 inch (4cm) sections, then cut the bobble hats using Eileen's die.


With another full strip of white card, this time 1 1/2 inches (4cm) tall, repeat the process of covering it in embossing ink before covering with two colours of the Rock Candy Embossing Powder. For the scarf I used 'Cotton Candy' with 'Butterscotch' as seen below. This time cut the heat set strip into 1 1/4 inches (3.5cm) wide and cut the scarves using Eileen's die. You can now 'build' the snowman by adding the scarf, bobble hat, hands and eyes to the main body piece using strong wet glue. I found it helpful to place the snowmen under a heavy box to flatten them until dry.


Moving on to the background I took some of the tissue Gel Print pulls from my latest journal project and tore them into strips. To recreate the look use a mix of 'Rosy', 'White', 'Buff' and 'Heather' Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paints.


One piece was stamped with Wendy Vecchi's 'Register' Background Stamp using some pale grey Archival Ink.


Another piece was stamped with Wendy Vecchi's 'Tiled' Background Stamp using a deeper pink shade of Archival Ink.


I stamped one of the decorative strips from Tim Holtz 'Ornate Trims' Stamp set on one side of pieces of tea stained copier paper and blended brown ink around the edges.


Finally cut pieces of kraft card slightly smaller than your card blanks (A6 UK, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches US) and run through with the Kath Breen 'Jeweled Snowflakes' 3D Embossing Folder - I find lightly misting the card with water before embossing gives a deeper impression. Dry brush the surface with a little White Gesso.


To finish the card I stuck the various torn strips of tissue and pieces of tea stained paper onto the background, drawing stitch lines around some with a white gel pen. Machine stitching with black cotton around the edge of the kraft card creates a border for the card and the sentiment came from Tim Holtz 'Yuletide' Stamp set. Finally the snowman can be mounted on top of the background using more wet glue.



Thanks for visiting to catch today's Saturday Showcase tutorial featuring Eileen Hull's 'Box, Snowman' Die and Pam Bray's Rock Candy Embossing Powder.

There's still plenty of time to enter the current Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog challenge 'A Time to be Grateful' which runs through Tuesday, December 8th at 11.55pm. We look forward to seeing your amazing creations.

Jenny

Products used to create this junk journal are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Kath Breen 3D Textured Impressions Embossing Folder - 'Jeweled Snowflakes'Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Tiled
Wendy Vecchi 490 Background Stamp - Register