Clean / Dirty flipper - Through the Craftroom Door - Prismacolor pencil, hose decor

The theme for the March-April web challenge of the Through the Craftroom Door magazine is Mixed Media!

For my project, I made a two-sided flipper for a dishwasher using a chipboard base and characters from Wonderland. The character stamps are Kraftin' Kimmie sets, the die cut letters are Spellbinders, the colouring is Prismacolor pencil, and the chipboard hexagon is Kaisercraft.

The March-April issue of the Through the Craftroom Door magazine is full of articles and tutorials for a wide variety of crafting and card making. My own tutorial on glittered and embossed lace is also in the magazine. If you're not already a subscriber, this might be the month you want to join us! The issue is coming soon!

Putting It Together

To me, mixed media means, simply, a mix of different media, not necessarily a shabby chic distressed. I have a lot of different medium in my craftroom/workshop from beads, wire, and sheet metal to resins of different types to clays of polymer and epoxy to various canvas and wood/chipboard to scads of stencils and dies and paper and and and.. stuff. I'm not a hoarder, though my room might look a bit like that *laugh* Generally (but not always) mixed media pieces tend to be house decor items, made on a bigger scale than a card.

I was trying to come up with a project idea when my friend, who has a new kitchen, asked if I could make her a Dirty/Clean magnet. When I asked if there was something specific she wanted, she told me to do whatever. So... because she likes tea, an idea popped into my head.

I have two Wonderland stamps by Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and Art Nouveau Font dies from Spellbinders along with the base to a Kaisercraft hexagon chipboard frame left from when I used just the frame for another project (Sleep Tight). I dry fit these 4 elements together to see if they would fit and.. was pleased my idea looked plausible.

I stamped both images on to Canson Mi-Tientes paper with light coloured ink so I could do a 'no lines' colouring.

Mi-Tientes is the paper preferred by Kit & Clowder for pencils. I had been looking for it for a while and only found a couple online places to get it until, on my birthday weekend in Seattle, I found large sheets at a Joanns. I got 2 sheets to try. This is my second project trying the paper.

Mi-Tientes has a texture on one side that's slightly bubbly in small hexagons. Like very textured watercolour paper, it's not easy to get a crisp clean stamping. I'm glad I have the Misti since I needed to stamp each a couple times. I still have to try it with a digital printed stamp. Colouring on it, though, with Prismacolor pencils is a nudge better than with 185gsm student-grade watercolour paper. The Mi-Tientes, at 160gsm, is even lighter weight and thinner than the light watercolour paper.

Using the colours are in my friend's kitchen colour scheme (navy, spring green, orange, and mustard yellow, with a slight emphasis on yellow since it's her favourite colour), I coloured the two images with Prismacolor pencils. I kept track of the pencils used on a scratch piece of paper. I gave Alice a mustard yellow dress with blue under ruffle and sash because of my friend's love of yellow. I almost gave her dyed hair, too, but decided on the traditional blonde.

I fussy cut the pair.

In my stash, I found background perfect for each. I considered doing stenciling but these papers were just too perfect for the look I wanted. I die cut the letters using the Spellbinders Art Nouveau Font with gold foiled cardstock.  I think those letters go so well with a Wonderland look.

I used Distress paint, Twisted Citron, to cover the edges of my chipboard hexagon base.

I traced the hexagon base on my backgrounds and fussy cut them. To cover the cut edge (with it's slight raggedness), I found ribbon for each side. I used Dapper Denim from Stampin' Up on the "clean" side and a Spring green ribbon repurposed from some package I had gotten at some time.

I used Tombow glue pen to adhere the backgrounds on each side.

To adhere the ribbon, I cut it into small pieces for each side and backed it with double-sided tape the same width as the ribbon. The tape will help prevent unravelling.

I slipped some magnet strips under the "clean" side ribbon, keeping the nice, tidy, clean look. I used three strips, one at the botom and two on upper edges.

For the "dirty" side, I used three small round magnets covered with puched foiled cardstock in nearly the same colour as the ribbon. VVV

I adhered the letters and images with Tombow glue pen keeping the "clean" side with a clean and tidy layout and the "dirty" side more chaotic. I added a glittery Doodlebug Sprinkles enamel sticker to dot the "i".

Since the magnets I used aren't strong enough to hold the chipboard on their own, I added a couple Tim Holtz eye screws and some cotton baker's twine to the top so it can hang from a hook. The magnets will help to hold it from wobbling and moving around. I really should have found stronger magnets.

Check out the Through the Craftroom Door magazine webpage for the supply list and all the other Design Team inspiration projects and then make one of your own for the challenge! As I am posting this, the issue and challenge hasn't come out yet. You can start on your project, though, to be one of the first to join :)

Other Challenges entered

Creative Moments: 137 Fairy Tale
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Scrappy: Anything But a Card
Inspiration Destination: Real Stamp
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty: 368 Anything Goes
A bit More Time to Craft: 62 Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart: 195 Anything Goes
Sketchy Challenge: 136 Anything Goes