Dreamer of Dreams - Tim Holtz Ideaology

 Dreamer of Dreams is a project I made for the Ideaology Booth at Creativation 2018 last year.  I just never got around to posting about it.

I really love this project because it was inspired by the life of Walt Disney. When I got my box of Ideaology product last year, as I opened it slowly, looking at all the new items, bits and pieces stuck out and a story began to develop in my head. So this post isn't going to be a tutorial as much as it is about how I develop a story that permeates my art pieces.

Two pieces that kick started my story were the Drawing Pins Trinket Tin and the Numeric numbers 28. Once those two items sparked a story in my mind, I went about going through the new 2018 product and my older Ideaology stash and pulling items that fit within my story representing Walt Disney's Life.

 1. The hand and bird  are from the Milagros Adornments. They represent Walt's favorite song, "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins. It was written by two of Disney's most famous song writers, Robert and Richard Sherman. They had offices in the same building, and on the same floor at the studio as Walt's office. On Friday afternoons  Walt would summon them to his office where he had a piano and would ask Richard to play "Feed the Birds" for him.

 2. The Numeric numbers 28. This is significant because 1928 is the year Walt Disney dreamed up Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  They turned 90 last year. "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse." - Walt Disney

3. The Railroad tickets from the Ephemera packs because Walt Disney loved railroads.
4. Admit One ticket ephemera representing the admission tickets to Walt's movies and his them park, Disneyland.
5. The Found Relatives photo card of the boy and dog because it reminded me of pictures I've seen of Walt as a boy and because he loved animals.

Photo Credit: Ohmydisney.com

6. The Quote Chip - Dreamer of Dreams because dreaming is a huge Disney theme.

 7. The Quote Token that says "your past does not determine who you are. your past prepares you for who you are to become." This quote so represents Walt's life. He has so many failures, trials, and difficulties, but he persevered and accomplished his dreams in the end.

8. The Drawing Pins Trinket Tin was perfect because I knew Walt and other animators would have used drawing pins to hold their paper in place when drawing their animations.

 9.  The Design Tape with the Red Cross on it represents Walt's time driving an ambulance for the American Ambulance Corps, a division of the Red Cross, in Europe as a 16+ year old  in WWI.

Photo Credit: Chicagoredcrossstories.wordpress.com

10. Photo Booth photo with a boy and a dog was keeping with the boyish dream/animal lover theme.

11. The postcard in the background represents Walt's time in Europe since it was from France and I'm sure he wrote home during his time there.

12. The milk cap represents Walt's boyhood home in Marcelline, Missouri.

 13. The stamp with Abraham Lincoln on it was chosen because Lincoln was Walt's favorite president. As a boy, for school projects he would dress up as Lincoln with a school friend. He even made his first animatronic to be Abraham Lincoln in a show called Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for the 1964 World's Fair. A modern version of this same show can be seen at Disneyland's Opera House.

Inside the tin I added several pieces from Ephemera Expedition and Layers Collector.
14. Photo Booth - these photos reminded me of a young Walt and Lillian Disney. Walt was known for his thin pencil mustache and his signature fedora.

Photo Credit: thefedoralounge.com

15. I also added a school report card several movie tickets, a piece of Film Strip Ribbon.

16. Once piece included from the Collector Layers is a bookkeeping page that is in the red. I included that because finances and bankruptcies were something Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney had to endure and recover from many times during their lives.

The Trinket Tin is sitting on a large Vignette Box and Large Vignette Panel that have been nailed to the bottom of an Etcetera Tag with the nails from the Vignette Hardware.
17. The birds on the top of the Vignette Panel go along with the Feed the Birds theme.
18. The panel and box are held together by Film Strip Ribbon that has been altered with the tiniest of the paper dolls. I wanted it to look like actual films representing all of the Disney films that have been a large part of the base that held the Disney Corporation together from the beginning.

To put the paper dolls on the film, I attached them to white paper, then secured packing tape over them. I really burnished it onto the paper dolls so there were no air bubbles.
Then I soaked them in warm water and rinsed them under the tap as I worked the paper off the back of the image leaving a transparent paper doll.
I attached these to the back of a film ribbon with Glossy Accents.
19. I added Gears to go with the steam engine/railroad theme.
20. The Pen Nibs to go with the animator theme.

I attached the film ribbon around the Vignette Box with some Ideaology Buckles, because with Disney it is all in the details.

That is how I design. I have to have a story in my head to make it work. So although I don't always tell the significance of everything in my designs, there is usually a reason for the things I pick to be in a piece of art. It might be a very detailed piece like this, or it might be a simple card, but I always have a back story....which is also a Disney thing.  They have a backstory for everything that most of the guest never notice, but it's there if you look.

So thank you so much for taking the time and looking at the details with me today. It was really fun to get to share them with you.
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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

See the Good - Architechture CMS369

 Isn't this Architecture stamp set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous lovely? So many fine patterns and details. I thought this one reminded me of the church where my husband and I were married, and some of the cathedrals I saw in Europe.

 This set consists of two stamps, the ornate arched windows stamp and a stamp with capitals, plinths and elements of columns.

The coloring was done with Distress Inks on the nonstick mat on the the Glass Media Mat. I used Crushed Olive, Chipped Sapphire and Brushed Corduroy for the top portion the bottom and the sentiment are colored with Pumice Stone.

I stamped the top image and sentiment in Black Archival ink and the bottom piece was stamped in Hickory Smoke Archival Ink.

I used a sentiment from the Glorious Garden stamp set that I thought fit the card.

Now get out there and see the good! :-)
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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Happy Thoughts - Glorious Garden

This is just a simple watercolored card with the new Glorious Garden stamp from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. 

I adore the Glorious stamps and sentiments! This is the third in the Glorious set.  The detail is incredible and they are all so beautiful.

I stamped it is Ground Espresso Archival Ink and then watercolored with Distress Inks and Distress Markers.

Thank you for visiting,
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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Dinoland - Tim Holtz Sizzix Chapter 1 2019

I hope you are ready for some Dinoland fun!  While I was using the Prehistoric dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix to make some cards and things for kiddos, I kept thinking about Claude Bell's Dinosaurs roadside attraction out on the 10 fwy on the way to Palm Springs. That inspired this retro gameboard that I imagined a child begging their parents to buy them from the giftshop when they stopped to see this iconic California roadside attraction.

Photo Credit: http://boiteaoutils.blogspot.com

If you have ever driven out to Palm Springs from the LA area, you can't help but notice some giant dinosaurs along the the 10 Freeway. They were made by Claude Bell, an artist and sculptor who had worked for Knott's Berry Farm Amusement Park.  He owned a restaurant called the Wheel Inn that was along the 10 freeway, so he built the dinosaurs to get people passing by to stop and then hopefully they would grab a meal in his restaurant.

Photo Credit: http://www.air-and-space.com

He worked on the dinos for years. If you are from my generation, you may recognize them from the 1980's movie "Pee Wee's Big Adventure." The dinosaurs were eventually sold and are now known as the Cabazon Dinosaurs, but they are still there and you can visit them! I have!

Now that you know the inspiration, let's get back to the project and we'll start with making the dinos. These are thinlit dies and they can't cut really thick items, so to make them sturdy and to stand up, I cut two dinosaurs and their layered parts from Distress Mixed Media Heavystock that I had colored with Distress Inks and Oxides. You need to cut them once with the color facing the die and once with the color facing away from the die so the dinosaurs have color and layers on both sides. Then I cut several of just the dinosaur bodies from a thick 130 lb Heavyweight Black Cardstock. When you have all the pieces cut, layer all of these pieces together.

To get the dinos to stand up, I cut some of the tree bases from the Village Landscape die from the same amount of colored MM Heavystock and the black heavystock.

I layered them and then cut a slit in the dino feet that was the same shape as the one on the tree base.

I fit them together and glued them in place on the dino legs. Do not glue any of the trees or dinosaurs onto the piece. This was supposed to be something you would buy for your child from a quirky roadside attraction to remember it and to play with.  So the dinosaurs and trees need to be able to move around and attack each other or eat the trees or get stuck in the tar. Rawwr!

 

This Splat is a crazy, fun die that can be so many things! Spilled coffee, spilled paint or ink, part of a map, just a fun blob of color, an island, a lake... you get the idea. I saw it as a watering hole and a tar pit for the dinosaurs.

I cut the pieces out of Distress Mixed Media Heavystock and then colored the different pieces in blues and greys. Then I placed them inside of each other and sprayed each piece with Distress Resist Spray for some shine.  This also kind of glued them together. When I adhered them I made sure to let the water and the tar "spill" over the sides of the gameboard.

This brings me to the sides of the Vignette Tray. I painted the top of the tray with Peeled Paint, and Vintage Photo to look like grass with some dirt showing through. Then I painted the edges of the tray with Rusty Hinge Distress Paint.

To age the edges I covered them with Walnut Stain Distress Paint and then wiped it off leaving it in the crevasses. 

 

Next I took some Distress Woodgrain Cardstock and stained it brown with various Distress Stains. I used the 8.5x10 woodgrain. 

Then I cut the piece into strips wide enough to fit around the edge of the tray. To add interest I used one of the Retro Repeat dies and instead of cutting it vertically as you would for a card, I cut it horizontally. These photos were taken to show the technique and are not the pieces I used on my sample.

 Once you cut the first run, you need to carefully lay die over previously cut parts and continue the pattern.You can see how I did this below.

 You need to really adhere the paper and the die very well to do this so it doesn't shift.

Once that was cut, I added the stained strips of Retro Repeat woodgrain to the sides of the tray with Distress Collage Medium Matte. Some of the stain comes off because Distress reacts with water and so it also reacts with the moisture in the Collage Medium. That is fine because it ages the painted portions that show through the cutouts.

The last thing I did was to make the sign to get people to visit my roadside attraction. I wanted people to see it and stop! For this I used the Atomic Bigz die.

Before I tell you what I did, look at the point on that shape. This is a steel rule die! Isn't that amazing?

I cut two of the pointed shapes and one of the rounded rectangles from black chipboard. Then I cut the same from some Distress Mixed Media Heavystock. I colored the paper with Distress Inks and Oxides and then adhered them to the chipboard and then to each other. I cut two 1/2" strips of the black chipboard as the posts. To give the sign a retro feel, I angled the posts. I had to use a box cutter to make a slit along the back of the top of the Vignette Box for the posts to slide down into so the sign would stand up and stay put.

The name DINOLAND was cut from the Cutout Uppercase Bigz alpha.

Lastly the trees were from two different dies from the Village series. They are all steel rule, so you just need to cut two pieces of DMM Heavystock for each tree you make, and one from black chipboard. Color the DMM Heavystock and adhere it to the chipboard shapes, then add the feet.

You can make as many dinos and trees as you want as well as maybe even some dinos that you cut off their feet so they look like they are swimming or sinking in the tar.
This gameboard cleans up easily by taking the moveable parts off and pulling the sign out the slots, you can put them in a bag and store it in the tray that will fit easily in a drawer.

I hope you have a RAWWWRING good time with this project!
Tami

If you would like to see Tim discuss many of the dies used on this project, watch this video from Sizzix:

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 and the ideas and tutorials I post here, and your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!