Pieces of Eight - Part 2 Sizzix Chapter 3 Skelly

Now that we have learned how to make a pile of Pieces of Eight treasure, today I want to focus on putting the rest of this piratey vignette together using a classic retired die, and two new Chapter 3 dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix.

Begin by covering a large Idea-ology Vignette Box. I used paper from the Abandoned paper pack. Cut pieces to fit the back and sides. Then brush a nice thin layer of Distress Collage Medium over one side at a time. Adhere the paper, then press in down evenly and push out any air bubbles. Do this to all four sides and the back. once it is dry, I lightly sand all the edges and then ink them with a dark brown Distress Ink.

Do the same thing to the inside of the box, but this time I chose the black and orange paper from the Abandoned pack. Once it is dry, I drilled a small hole in the bottom back of the box near the right side. Thread all of the Idea-ology Tiny lights through the hole. Leave the battery pack on the back of the box.

I make these holders for the Tiny Lights battery packs. They make it easy to turn the lights off and on and to pull the whole battery pack out when it is necessary to change the battery. I made a tutorial on just how to make the Tiny Lights Paper Holder here.

Using an old, but classic Tim Holtz Alterations die called Candlelight, I cut and assembled both candles. Then I stuck them together and lined the back with a piece of heavy cardstock to give them stability as one piece.

I used my Tonic scissors to cut a piece of Little Sizzles Mat Board (white chipboard) so that it would fit perfectly behind the candles. Then I wrapped the tiny lights around the mat board piece.

This piece is going to be adhered to the back of the candles and then the back of the Vignette Box. Attach some foam adhesive squares to both sides.

I always assume that some of the adhesive will quit sticking, so I add drops of Collage Medium to the foam squares.

Here you can see the back side of the lights that will attach to the back of the Vignette Box. This next little step is optional. I did it because I wanted the light to shine through and up from the candles, but not out the sides. If you want both, then skip this step.
I trimmed two pieces of black chipboard about 3/8 of an inch wide and long enough to fit on the sides of the candles. Adhere the chipboard to the sides of the lights.

Here you can see how I added Collage Medium to the black chipboard and the foam squares on the back of the lights. Then hold the lights in place until they stay adhered to the back of the box.

To layer the pieces of eight, I used some retired Bingo chips for thickness. It allows you to lay the coins on an angle so that you can pile them up without having to make hundreds.

Here you can see how the coins are at different angles. See how there is a piece of a bingo chip stuck on a coin? It will give one coin a great angle that will look like there are more coins than there really are.

Once the coins are piled up pretty well, it is time for Skelly! I put a whole Bingo chip on the back of the top of his head for some dimension.

To make Skelly, what I did first was to pull from my stash, or make several neutral colors of cream and brown Distress Mixed Media Heavystock. You can see the bottom two here were used to cut some of the pieces including the teeth.

I wanted to point out, that once I had the pieces I wanted, I used the Craze stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous, and I stamped it on several of the pieces to give Skelly kind of an old, cracked skull look.

See? I love that little detail! Now, once you have all of the pieces cut for Skelly, you will want to line them up and watch the video below to get him together.

Attach Skelly to the back of the box on an angle so his chin is near the front edge of the box.

Cut about 5 of the spiders from the Spider Web die. Then with scissors, trim the web off the back legs of each one. Spray the spiders with Distress Resist Spray to make them shiny.

When they are dry, use something (I used my finger nails) to bend the legs so that the spiders are kind of 3D. Attach them on Skelly and the coins.

Cut one of the cobwebs from some dusty color paper. Then trim it so that it fits into two of the corners of the Vignette box. I put them in the top left and bottom right.

The last thing to do is to cut four 1/4" strips of the paper used on the sides and back of the box. Adhere these to the front, unfinished edges of the each of the sides. This gives is a finished look.

 

Finally, you have a glowing box of pirate treasure.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for stopping by. I hope you found something to inspire a treasure of your own.
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Pieces of Eight - Part 1 Sizzix Chapter 3 Skelly

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me! Look at that cool Colorize Skelly die from the Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 3 release. He has a definite pirate vibe to me and so I was compelled to make a fitting scene for him.
For those of you who know me, that means I was probably inspired by Disney, and you would be correct. From the time I was a little girl, I loved the musty, wet smell of Pirates of the Caribbean, but even more than that, I really loved going through the caverns with all of the gold and treasures piled high. It was the stuff of dreams, right?
Another inspiration from later in life was the Goonies. It came out when I was in high school, but it is one of my all time favorite movies and I would be remiss if I didn't admit to a bit of One-eyed Willie inspiration as well.
What do both of those have in common? "The Rich Stuff!" to quote Mikey. So let's get started learning how to make some.

Let's begin with the dies. From the Stacked Circles dies, you need to remove all five of each of the two smallest circles. You will also need the tiny skull die from the Trick or Treaters die set.

As for paper, I colored some Distress Mixed Media Heavystock with Distress Spray stain in Tarnished brass with a little bit of Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy mixed in. I also made a few with more Brushed Corduroy in the mix so they were darker. You will need a couple of pieces in order to be able to cut enough.

I put the five Stacked Circle dies on some Sizzix Sticky Grid to hold them in place. Start with the larger of the two dies and cut a bunch of circles. I cut about 25, so I ran the dies through 5 times. Then add the small circle to the inside of each larger circle. This will form a ring. I ran the darker paper through and cut 25 rings.

You will be left with spaces between the circles as well as a bunch of the smaller circles left when cutting the rings. Use any of those scraps to cut 25 of the tiny skulls from the Trick or Treater dies.
You will assemble the coins by attaching one ring and one skull to each circle. I used Distress Collage Medium to attach them.

Next I wanted to add some "nuggetty goodness" to each coin so that they looked like old, imperfect coins, not something made in a mold.

Spray the coins 5-6 at a time, making sure to get some good droplets on them.

Put the coins immediately on a different dry paper and sprinkle Gold Fine Detail Embossing powder over them.

Shake off the excess, return it to the bottle and then heat emboss the powder on the coins.

This is what they will look like after that step. They are really cool right here, but I wanted a bit more distress.

Using your fingers, rub a bit of Vintage Collage Medium over the top of every coin. Let them dry.

They will look something like this at the end of that step. Again, pretty cool, but we aren't done yet.

Using a Black Soot Distress Crayon (you could use Walnut Stain or Ground Espresso also) scribble a bit of crayon onto each coin. Then using your fingers again, lightly dampen your fingers with a wet wipe or a tiny bit of water, and rub the crayon into all of the indentions on the coin. it's cool to let the color pool along the inside edges and in the eyes, nose and mouth of the skull. This adds great age and detail to the coins.

This is what you should end up with when you are done. A whole pile of "the rich stuff!"

In the next post I will talk about how to backlight the candles, stack the coins, and add the spiders, webs and cover the box.

Thank you, each of you, for the support by visiting today. I also greatly appreciate those who take the time to leave a comment or order through one of my affiliate links below. I grateful for any an all of the different kinds of support I get here.
Tami (B)

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Quick Stacked Circles and Stacked Squares Banners

I made some quick and simple banners to hang behind a few projects for photo shoots and thought I would just do a quick post discussing how I made some of them.

They were made using the new Chapter 2 stacked dies, Stacked Squares and Stacked Circles.

They come in 5 different sizes and you get 5 of each size, so you can cut 25 circles in one pass if you want.

This is what it looks like if you cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock in half (6x12) and place the Stacked Circles on the paper facing a cutting pad underneath.

Here is what the Stacked Squares look like. I cut 25 of them 2x. So I used both 6x12 pieces of paper.

I cut squares and circles out of two colors each. I used papers from the Ideaology Lost and Found paper stash.

Once all the pieces were cut, I glued the 3 largest like-sized shapes back to back, so that one side would be say blue and the other gold. Once the 3 largest were double sided, I adhered the two smallest shapes inside the two largest shapes to add interest, as seen above.

Then I set my sewing machine to the zig zag setting, and just started feeding the circles through under the foot to attach them together and make a banner.

I sewed the circles through the center and the squares through the center on the diagonal. This is a really fast and easy way to make a banner. I've used this technique for years when making a banner for a party or class just to add a bit of color, theme and feeling of celebration to any occasion.

If you didn't have a sewing machine, you could punch a hole on each side of the circles and squares and then thread some string or twine through the holes to make similar banners.

Thank you so much for checking out this quick tip!
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!