The Laughing Magpie

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Leslie Rahye's, A Very Fall Steampunk Blog Hop

Welcome to my post for Leslie Rahye's Very Fall Steampunk Blog Hop!

HELLO!!
My name is Becky Voth & I am on the Design Team with Leslie over at Altered Pages!
In addition to being a mixed media artist & photographer, I am also 1/3 of a team that includes my mom & sister designing for our little Etsy shop - The Scrap-a-Teeny Girls!
I'm so happy to have you stop by today!

Be sure to leave a comment at the end of my post to win this little trinket I made just for this hop:

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

flying man image from Graphics Fairy

Ok, let's get to it!

I have two creations to share with you along the Steampunk line, although one of them is an old creation & has nothing to do with Fall, but it's one of my favorites!

First off, I created a fortified, Steampunk birdhouse just ready for the blustery winds of Fall!

I started by covering one of those $1 pine birdhouses from Michael's with foil tape from the hardware store (an idea I got from Tim Holtz!). Then I inked it up with some alcohol inks to "rust" it & then just started adding my Steampunk elements! Finally, I added some "rivets" with Liquid Pearls from Ranger. Hope you like it!

(I have also done a paper mache dressform like this & you can see that post HERE)

Secondly, is an altered Barbie I did in my art group last year...

My Travel-Punk Barbie

That's it...

Now you are probably wondering how you can win that FABULOUS pendant???

I have 3 simple steps for you:

1. Become a follower of this blog

2. Like my Facebook page - The Scrap-a-Teeny Girls

3. Leave me a comment that you have done all that & you will be entered into a random number drawing!

BONUS ENTRY!!!

Become a follower of my sister blog - Teeny Scraps of Us & leave a separate comment that you've done so & you'll have 2 chances to win
**The drawing will be open until midnight next Sunday, 9/30!**

Good Luck!

Cheers!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

An Altered Pages Challenge!

Be sure to check out my post on the Scrap-a-Teeny Blog Monday, 10/17 for a fun

"Alter Your Creativity" Challenge

I participated in...And you can too!

{Click on the image above to take you to the challenge blog for more details on joining us for this challenge!}

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Who looks inside, AWAKENS...more journal play

First, let me start by remembering all those that fell on this terrible day back on 9/11. It was a day that rocked & changed our world forever. I am saddened to remember the images of that day & of all the people that lost their lives from such a senseless act of violence against our country.

A special thought goes out to those that lost loved ones that day & to all the amazing citizens who came to the aid of so many.

***

So, I posted a little bit about my new-found love for art journaling over at the Altered Pages blog on today & mentioned that I would post over here a few more pages & how I created a couple of those pages...

I recently went out of town for a long weekend with a girlfriend & our kids & I knew that we would have some downtime & that I would want to "play" a little. So, in the interest of space, I limited my color pallet to a handful of blues, greens, a yellow, white/cream, black & brown all in inexpensive craft paints. Then I packed a few texture stamps, stencils, ink, quotes, some images & of course, some light modeling paste. Here are the results...

After gesso-ing the front & back of my journal page (to keep it from buckling) & then covered the background in cream & then a burnt umber, rubbing off some of the brown so the cream showed through.

I found a really cool Photoshop brush of Steampunk elements that included faces with these eyes, so I printed some of those before I left home & then cut out only the eyes to fit with the Carl Jung quote that completely spoke to me when I found it:

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, AWAKENS."

On top of that I stamped a Hero Arts Alphabet stamp in black here & there. Then I used a Crafters Workshop stencil with a light yellow (Couscous by Martha Stewart); a strip of BINGO #'s border stamp from Altered Pages in a Folk Art Sky Blue & finally a script stamp from Christy Tomlinson's She Art Unity line.

Then I dripped some Burnt Umber Acrylic Ink down the page on the left side, spraying with water & blotting a little bit. When all that was dry, I used a black pen to write the quote & doodle a little over the BINGO stamp. (I love the look, but HATE my handwriting! HA!)

On the next page, I mixed Blue Jean (Craft Smart) with a Heavy Gel medium to create a heavy body paint & spread that all over the page with a pallet knife, leaving some of the page exposed around the edges & gaps here & there too. While wet, I stamped into that with a Blockhead Arts Coffee Stain stamp. Let that dry...then using my fingers, I rubbed a Winter Blue by Americana all over the page. Then I applied another layer by stamping a ledger stamp (Red Lead Paperworks) in Martha Stewart's Cloud & Christy Tomlinson's "When you are through changing, you are through" Butterfly stamp from Unity in a Camel color by Americana. Finally, I rubbed a little of the burnt umber liquid acrylic ink here & there. Now the page is ready for some journaling...if I'm ever so inclined! :)

For this page, I started using a Mister Huey's stencil & spreading some light modeling paste across it 3x with a pallet knife, not really caring if I got the whole thing covered or not. I let this dry for a while. Then I rubbed four colors throughout the circles with my fingers, letting dry between coats so as not to muddle too much: Orange Spice & Aqua from Craft Smart; Bright Yellow & Calypso Blue from Americana. Then used the same colors with a dry-brush technique all over the page. Amazing the difference from the above pages - so much more vibrant color choices! :)

Lastly, I have to admit, that I don't know what colors I used for my "Home is where the Heart is" page...I did this one the week before this little trip.

I can tell you that I used papers from Kaiser Craft's "Black & White Timeless" to create the houses & another Crafters Workshop stencil for Dylusions sprays (the alphabet) & then I just doodled here & there. The script on the upper left side is just a series of sayings about home, like "home sweet home;" "to make a house a home; "home is where we start from," etc. I wrote it small, because I feel that my text is not the focal point of my page. I also tend to feel that it's sometime better for the viewer to interpret the work instead of me "telling" them what it means by placing prominent words on the page. What do you think?

That's it for today!

If you wanna see some fun, really OUTSIDE the BOX creations, check out the unique challenge I participated in with the other designers from Altered Pages & vote for your favorite & maybe join in on the fun! You can see that post HERE & maybe play along!!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Cheers!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Strikin' it Rich!

With some great family time, that is!

We three had a great day yesterday driving down to Cripple Creek, CO (about 2 hrs south) to tour the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine!

(I have been on this tour 3x now in my lifetime & it just keeps getting better!!)

A little history...

Mollie Kathleen struck gold on this day in 1891 while stopping to rest on her way up Poverty Gulch to view the elk. As she glanced down at the rocks around her, one of them twinkled back at her, using a rock to scrape away a little of the surface, revealed to her was a vein of PURE gold laced in quartz! Mollie became the first woman to strike gold in the area & stake the claim in her name!

Gold was mined here until it got too costly at $70/oz in the 1960's, even though 3 foot wide veins of gold can be seen throughout the mine during the tour!! Today, gold's up to $1700/oz! Our guide said that many of the old mines are re-opening now that it's not so costly to mine the ore & make a profit. He's a 3rd generation miner & intends to be there if they re-open the mine in the near future!

Although I had been on this tour just over 15 years ago, I was still not looking forward to being crammed into a tiny cage & dropped into the earth 1000 feet below! But I sucked it up, shelved my panic for small spaces & got in this cage with Nick, the Magpie, an average-sized tourist-fella, our guide & another not-so-average sized tourist-fella! Yes, 6 of us in an approx 7x7 cage that can hold up to 9 miners! I started off with my eyes closed, but our guide was aware of my situation & turned on his light. Although I was still confined, it was easier being able to see.

We dropped 1000 feet in less than 2 minutes!

I only took a few photos inside because I knew they wouldn't turn out great...but the tour was awesome!

how to get around underground!

ore carts in one tunnel

Mollie Kathleen's strike 1000 feet above

the magpie was super inquisitive!

getting back on the cages to go up

The tour was 1 hour long & totally worth it! We learned about how the miners drilled the holes for the dynamite (with a hammer & spike to go 2ft deep!); what lighting they had (3-4" candles for an 8hr shift!) back in the early days of mining all the way up to the early 60's when compressed air was used for drilling & a clean burning fuel used for light. We rode on an air-powered tram through 200+ feet of narrow tunnels & got to see (& take one of our own!) the first strike, real gold ore specimens from the 5 surrounding mines in the area, including the piece that caught Mollie's eye!

We also enjoyed walking around above ground, where we had great, fresh burgers at the grill & looked at all the cool old equipment & outbuildings.

the grill

the magpie & the jalopy!

Unfortunately, we had to head home because it was late in the day, so we didn't have time to walk around Cripple Creek & Victor. Hopefully someday soon I will go back with my camera! We did capture these images of the back side of Pikes Peak...It's just a beautiful area!