A Vintage Journey April Challenge - Through the Looking Glass

Today I'm the hostess for the April A Vintage Journey Challenge -  and my challenge for everyone this month is entitled  Through the Looking Glass -  "Let's make a project involving glass (acetate) or mirrors (metal sheet), perhaps a window or a clock face, a hand held mirror or glass bottle.  Tim has lots of Idea-ology products and dies that would be just the thing for this challenge".

I chose this as my challenge because I have  had Tim's Deco Mirror Alterations Die for quite a while and I just haven't had the opportunity to use it!  My grand niece, Madelyn, is celebrating her 1st birthday this month - so I put her face looking out from my mirror.   I thought this would make a really cute creative birthday card for her.

Here's the mirror from the back.

I felt like I couldn't just stop there - with the mirror - now that I had made it I thought I should create a place to put her mirror and so I made a little bureau (with a mirror!) using several of Tim's dies (I'll describe below). 

Of course the hand held mirror is way out of scale for the bureau - I'm claiming poetic license for this discrepancy!!  OR I could have fallen through the rabbit hole where some things are bigger and some things are smaller than usual??!!!

I really didn't know what products I would use to get the surface I wanted when I first started out - so I just practiced spraying and painting various products on little scraps of grunge board to see what it would look like before I ruined larger pieces. I took tons of photos to show what I did -so grab a cuppa and settle back!

I wanted the Deco hand mirror to be sturdy - so I cut 4 of them out of grungeboard to layer and carefully cut out the center piece (it just gets scored with the die).

I covered the two pieces that would be the front and back with gesso. I did two coats that I dabbed on with the brush so it would be thick and bumpy.  I wanted a little texture look to it.  I also assembled a little metal flower for the handle using some pieces from Idea-ology Foliage and covered that with gesso.

After the gesso dried (I spent almost 2 weeks making the mirror and bureau as almost everything I did on them had to dry overnight!) I sprayed them first with Brushed Pewter Distress Spray stain

When that dried - I sprayed them with Black Soot Distress Spray Stain -  I would spray - mop some up and spray again until I got the look I wanted -  and then let them dry..... (I use a large pizza box lined with paper to help contain the mess when spraying!)

I rubbed some Autumn Gold Rub N Buff here and there over the mirror frames and flower and glued one of the plain grungeboard pieces to each side using Glue N Seal -  I used clothes pins to hold the edges together as it dried.  I also poked a hole in the handle of one and attached the flower with a brad so when I put them together, the brad would be hidden between the layers. I rubbed all the side edges with Black Soot Distress Paint

I measured the opening of the mirror and die cut my photo of Madelyn and a piece of card stock with a 2 1/2" circle die - slightly larger than the opening of the mirror.  I also cut two circles of clear acetate.  I stamped the card stock with Tim's Mini Blueprint birthday hat using Wendy Vecchi  Archival Tree Branch Ink, sponged the edges with Ranger Distress Frayed Burlap and added the year  with Idea-ology Label Letters. 

This is the photo I started with - Look at that cute little face!  She has beautiful blue eyes!

I adhered the stamped cardstock circle to the back of Madelyn's photo.  I also added a little Heart Charm (it says ' love you') onto the front of the mirror with a Mini Fastener.   

Then I laid a thin line of Glossy Accents around the inside rim of each mirror handle and laid the acetate circles over each one- being careful not to smudge the glue onto the acetate

I ran a thin line of Glossy accents over the edge of the photo and laid it over the front mirror handle, (being sure I had the photo facing out!) added more to the back frame and laid the front handle over the  back handle.

I again used clothes pins to hold it all firmly together and left it over night.

I made a Paula Bow (Tim shows this technique on his June 2014 tag) using Crinkle Ribbon, Distress Spray Stains in Picked Raspberry, Tea Dye and Brushed Pewter, water and my craft mat.

Now onto the bureau -  I used papers from Paper Stash Crowded Attic - these have vintage fairy tale images on them.  I cut the paper and grunge board using Tim's Cameo Frame die.  I used the same papers to cut 'drawers' using Tim's Match Box die.

I glued the papers to the grungeboard and trimmed off the bottom edge as I found the panels were to big when I placed the 'drawers' between them.  I brushed on Distress Crackle Paint and let it dry.

This is the underside of both panels where I used the same technique to crackle. The plain colored paper is from the same Crowded Attic paper pad.  I sponged all edges with Ranger Distress Walnut Stain ink.

I layered two matchbox 'drawers' on top of each other using ScorTape to be sure they would be secure and then adhered them together side by side.

Then I glued the drawers between the bureau top and bottom using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. The knobs are Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners

At this point I decided I needed a mirror on top of my bureau so I could lay the hand held mirror up against it for display.  I realized Tim's Mini Cabinet die was the perfect shape for it!  I cut two pieces out of grungeboard and two out of Kraft card stock to layer together so that the mirror fit snugly in the Idea-ology Label Clip that I used to adhere it to the bureau.  I used Fired Brick, Walnut Stain and Antiqued Bronze Distress Spray Stains on the mirror frame.  When it all dried, I die cut a piece of  Mirrored Sheet  with Tim's Medium Sized Oval Movers and Shapers die and adhered it onto the frame.  I rubbed some Autumn Gold Rub N Buff over the metal floral from Idea-ology Adornments Nature and glued it to the top.  SO cool, right??!!

I love the top with the vintage image showing through.

I got a little carried away with the thickness of the Clear Rock Candy Crackle paint that I put on the back of the mirror!  But it does look like the aging finish on a really old piece of furniture doesn't it?!  I was going to use this side as the front -  but decided to use the cleaner looking side!

I had these round wooden pieces in my stash - and just sprayed them with Fired Brick and Walnut Stain Distress Spry Stains and adhered them on the bottom as feet for my bureau.

Yikes - so that's it -   I'm exhausted both from making these AND from writing it all down!  But I sure do love how they came out and I think my niece will appreciate this gift to her baby daughter.

I hope you will join in on my challenge over at A Vintage Journey! (It's my first time hosting and I'd just love bunches of people linking up!  It'll make me look good to the more senior members of the team!) 

You don't have to use Tim Holtz materials on your project -  but you do have to be influenced by his style and tell us how you were on your post!

You will find all the details and more wonderful inspiration from several of the Creative Guides on the A Vintage Journey challenge post.  You have until April 30th 6 pm GMT to link up!

I'm linking my project to Mod Squad Challenge Blog - Tic Tac Toe   I used Flowers, Die cuts, Dimension

 

Art Decco Mirror
Stamps:Blue Print Assortment - Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous
Paper: Clear Card Stock (Acetate) - PTI, Grungeboard - Ranger,
Ink: Ranger Distress Frayed Burlap, Wendy Vecchi Archival Tree Branch
Accessories: Ranger Distress Spray Stains Brushed Pewter, Black Soot, Picked Raspberry and Tea Dye, Ranger Distress Acrylic Paint Black Soot, Idea-ology Foliage, Mini Fasteners, Heart Charms, Wrinkle Ribbon; 2 1/2" circle Nestability die, Glue N Seal, Glossy Accents, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Autumn Gold Rub N Buff, white Gesso, Deco Mirror Alterations Die.

Bureau
Paper:  Grungeboard and Paper Stash Crowded Attic - Ranger, Kraft card stock - PTI.
Ink:  Ranger Distress Walnut Stain
Accessories: Match Box, Cameo Frame, Mini Cabinet Card and Sized Oval dies - Tim Holtz/Alterations/Sizzix, Ranger Distress Crackle Paint Clear Rock Candy, Idea-ology Hitch Fasteners, Mirrored Sheets, Label Clips, Adornments/Nature, Ranger Distress Spray Stains Fired Brick, Walnut Stain, Antiqued Bronze, Glue N Seal, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, wood circles from stash.