Tando Creative Sponsor Spotlight No.2 - Any Cheering Up Needed?

Servus, dear visitors and friends of Our Crafty Corner!
Claudia here to share with you a creation made from another product from this month's generous prize sponsor Tando Creative!

I got the huge pleasure to play with one of their lovely printer trays with cover

and this is what I came up with:

*giggle...that reminds me: when chatting with Laura about this sponsor spotlight some weeks ago, when she asked me about a project I had done earlier that had circles/dots on it, I said to her "I am afraid I have done too many circles recently. So there won't be any on my sponsor spotlight as I need to do something different! I hope you'll understand."...well, obviously I haven't done too many circles yet. (honestly...I can't stop making them...some kind of desease?) ;)

Well, you might want to grab a cuppa something before I take you through the how-to (and, please, bear with me on the poorly artificial light some of the pictures were taken in. At least the finished project was photographed in broad daylight. Promise!)

Before I assembled the tray I used one of the window layers as a template to mark the four background panels on a colour copy done from one of my abstract paintings.

Why use a colour copy? Well, I wanted to blend the edges of all four background panels with Distress ink "black soot" and found that it does not stick well to gesso or acrylic colours if you want an even border. But it works perfectly on a colour copy ;)

Next I assembled the printer tray and gave the insides and outsides of the frame a thorough coating with white Gesso. I also swiped some of it over the front as a sealant for the next step.

The front of the frame was given a coat of Distress crackle paint "picket fence".

While this was set aside to dry I stamped my favourite friendly monsters (from Stampotique) onto some white card and fussy cut them for later use.

 In the meantime the first crackles had started to appear (and as I am a very impatient girl I speeded up the process with my heat tool). Then I rubbed in some Distress ink "black soot"...

 
...and whiped the excess off with a damp cloth to make the tiny cracks more visible.

Time to insert my four panels and glue them in place.

My friendly monsters needed a bit of colouring, so I grabbed some brush tip pens and lightly added some colour here and there.

Then I typed my saying on the computer and printed it onto some heavy printer paper. Afterwards I cut out the single words and blended the edges with Distress ink "black soot" before I attached some cut to size sticky foam pads to the backs.

My monsters were treated the same way (I'm afraid this one didn't like what I did to it as it looks a bit grumpy).

After glueing them in place I browsed my stash of cut out "happy mess circles" - circles I randomly cut from scraps of my more colourful experiments (originals and colour copies) and stash for later projects.

After I had chosen three, I placed them (right side down!) in the tray's compartments.

Then I stacked two layers of sticky foam pads on their backs...

...removed the backing foil and closed the tray's cover, pressing down in the spots where my circles were...

..opened it again and "Wallaaah!":

No measuring needed at all and my popping circles were in perfect place so the cover could be closed and opened easily. Yay!

Then I added some circle shapes with a watercolour pencil and a waterloaded brush,...

...stamped some random circles with the ends of felt tip pens using black jet archival ink...

...and for a finish I added some spritzes of Distress stains (using a thin detail brush to sprinkle them on) and one of my coloured monster cuties.

The cover was done merely the same way, but I glued the cut out circles flat to it instead of using sticky foam pads.

Then I covered the remaining sides of the printer tray with white Gesso and let all dry. My "Cheer Up Monster Frame" was done! Yay!

I hope you have cheered up too now! Don't forget that by entering our April challenge "With a Song in Your Heart" you get eligible to win a prize donated by this month's sponsor

or make Top3 or maybe even win the challenge and therefor get featured with our Top Talent, guesting in an extra post on OCC!

Alison (and the rest of the team of course too) is desparate to learn which songs you chose (don't forget to mention them in your posts) and which projects they inspire in you! There's still a bit more than a week's time to join in our actual challenge!

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia xx