A Vintage Journey Challenge #7 - Texture - (on an elephant!)

I'm am over the moon excited about my project today -  I made it for A Vintage Journey Challenge #7 - Get Some Texture.  Here is Host Jenny's description of her challenge for us:

"Hi fellow travelers and welcome to the next challenge here at A Vintage Journey. Jenny here from Pushing The Right Buttons as your host for the next fortnight with a theme I hope will get your creative juices flowing.  I want you to 'Get Some Texture' into your projects, but not just any texture; Tim Holtz has shown us so many techniques for getting texture into our projects over the years. Use one (or more) of these on your piece - just remember to tell us which one(s) you've chosen!"

For my texture project -  I turned this little cutie-pie papermache elephant that I got at Michael's for $1 about a year ago -

Into this textured elephant - using Tim Holtz Riveted Patchwork Technique found in The Compendium of Curiosities Vol II page 57. (I learned this technique when I was lucky enough to get into a class that Tim himself taught a few years ago.  We decorated a papermache heart inside a box for the class)

I also decorated her with lots of Tim Holtz Ideology 'stuff' and mounted her to her own little circus wagon (ie ATB!)  (The box is 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" so you can figure the approximate size of the elephant.)

First, I have to say - I was totally inspired by this post I saw some time ago - by Nicole Eccles where she painted this same elephant and mounted her to a wood block.  

And now I'll share how I made mine:

First I cut many small differently shaped pieces out of Foil Tape Sheets.

I adhered the pieces over the entire elephant - overlapping the edges and smoothing the pieces with a paper nib as I went along.

Here she is finally covered (it took me about an hour - it gets a little tricky to get a flat surface around the small areas like trunk and legs!)

Then I made the 'rivets' by pushing the point of a pushpin and the end of a metal tip ball point pen (the kind you click open and closed) around all the edges of the foil tape.

You can see examples of both the pen and the pin marks below.  With the smaller foil pieces on this it was easier to use the push pin - so most of my 'rivets' were made with that.

Next I sponged over the entire elephant with Pitch Black, Stonewashed and Butterscotch Adirondack Alcohol Inks (I should have worn plastic gloves as my fingernails got really stained!)

Then you sand most of the ink off with a piece of steel wool. You end up mostly seeing the black ink with just touches of the other colors.

I colored the wings and crown from Adornments/Regal as well as the Time Pieces and Compass Coins that I used for the wagon's wheels using Tim's Faux Patina Technique on Page 58 of Compendium of Curiosities Vol II - using Pearl Mixative and Cranberry and Butterscotch Alcohol Inks.

I cut the box from Black Little Sizzles Matboard with the Blocks/Cubes Sizzix Die using the largest block.  I covered the panels with paper from Paper Stash 8x8 Collage, sponging the edges of the box and papers with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I adhered the wings and crown (more texture!) with thick glue dots.  I made her eyes with Black Enamel Accents.

Another piece of texture is her tail - where I used a piece of Trimmings - Naturals/Black/Cream and feathered the end of it.  I placed a Wendy Vecchi Blossom Bucket black mini star at the top of her tail, adhering them both with a thick glue dot.  I also used the glue dots to adhere Miss Ellie to the box 'wagon'.

I added a Keyhole to the front, punching a hole at the top of the keyhole opening to thread a piece of Jute String for the pull cord adding a button from the button box I inherited from my mother-in-law, Marjorie. (she'd be happy to know I'm using her long hoarded buttons!)

For the wagon wheels, I used Time Pieces and Compass Coins.  I also inked a strip of Industrious Stickers/Borders with Archival Jet Black ink  and adhered it along the top edge of both sides.

For the back - I attached an Ornate Plate framing two Chit Chat Stickers that I sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Here's a view looking down on Miss Ellie

and a side view -  Gosh -  isn't this the cutest thing (if I do say so myself!)  I've presently got this sitting on my desk at work so I can look at her all day!

Thanks so much for this challenge Jenny! I might have never been inspired to make my little textured elephant!

Be sure to check out ALL of the "Get Some Texture" inspiration over at A Vintage Journey Challenge - hope to see your project linked up there too!

Paper:  Foil Tape Sheets - Ranger, Little Sizzles Black 6" x 13" matboard  - Sizzix, Paper Stash 8x8 Collage - Ranger

Ink:  Ranger Distress Vintage Photo, Adirondack alcohol inks - Pitch Black, Stonewashed, Butterscotch, Pearl Mixative, Cranberry, Archival Jet Black.

Accessories:  Ideology - Jute String, Trimmings/Naturals/Black/Cream, Chit Chat Stickers, Ornate Plates, Industrious Stickers/Borders, Adornments/Regal, Time Pieces, Compass Coins; steel wool, thick glue dots, Scor Tape, button from stash, pewter Brads - Making Memories, Wendy Vecchi Blossom Bucket Mini Black stars, ball point pen, push pin, paper stub, applicator and felt pad - Ranger, Blocks/cube die - Sizzix.