Curiously Tinted...

Gooooodly Morning to all you lovely Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a packet of Digestives :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the Funky Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As ever, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 41 of the book and playing with Distress Photo Tinting.  Now, as usual with the Compendium Challenge neither I nor the Curiosity Crew will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule. 

My entry this week isn't a tag!  The main reason for this - as actually it did start life as a tag - is because once I had the photo tinted, it was just too special to bung on a tag which would then be hanging with a load of other tags.  And what makes the photo so special?  Well, allow me to introduce you to my Grandma!  This photo was taken on 26th June 1929, making her 16 years old at the time.   Another special reason is it would have been her 102nd birthday yesterday.  So this little shadow box is in memory of my wonderful Grandma who taught me so much about life, the natural world and how to make a complete mess of every available surface in her flat making Christmas cards using glitter, a dab of Gloy glue and cotton wool.

As detailed in the book, I did the technique on the photo and then mounted it onto black cardstock, scuffing the edges of the photo to make them a bit shabby to give the photo a bit of age.   The shadow box was painted with a mix of Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy Distress Paints, sanded back and then inked with Vintage Photo to add a bit of a distressy feel to it.  The insert is a piece of Wallflower Vellum, popped onto cardstock to give it a plain background and then I used my good old harlequin stamp to add a few diamonds to the background.

Next came the embellishmentising:  when I was little, Gran and I used to go for walks along the Leeds/Liverpool Canal and the River Aire, both of which ran close to where she lived.  We always came home with a jam jar of tadpoles, a bunch of wild flowers or pockets full of acorns and conkers, depending on the season.  One particularly chilly day, it must have been late March/early April, we arrived back home with that pink cheeked look one can only get whilst walking in the cold air.  To our dismay, we saw two baby blue tits had fallen from a nest that was a-top of an out building and were on the path outside Gran's bedroom window.  Never one for ignoring such things, Gran quickly looked for the Mummy bird and she was no where to be seen.  I remember her saying that these little babies would "perish of the cold" if we didn't do something, so she bustled off and found a shoebox, filled it with and old towel, some cotton wool and some leaves and after donning a pair of gloves, she lifted up the babies and popped them into the box.  She said it was important not to touch their feathers as Mummy might come back and she would smell us on them.  After a few hours, the babies were still alone and Mummy bird was no where to be seen so in came the shoebox and so began a late night vigil... a vigil that lasted weeks!  And sure enough, as soon as those little babies were big enough and strong enough to fly, off they went.  And back they came... daily!  Oh yes, the little birds came back daily to dine on fresh lamb fat (off the chops, cooked of course!), bacon rinds (fried just for them!) and morsels of her rather delish cakes and pastries.  My Gran was a character - she was a one in a million special lady who gave me such a good grounding, she was a sage, wise old owl who knew a fair few curses in her native Welsh tongue - a few of which were directed at me when I was being cheeky or naughty but my lasting memory of my Gran is her laugh, we used to laugh 'til tears ran down our faces... so this little piece of art is for her... for my Gran.

So you see, when I saw this sheet of Tim's Wallflower paper had the little blue tits printed on it, I just had to cut them out and add them to my memento box.  Along with the blue tits, I added a few bits of Idea-ology, some off cuts of lace and a couple of paper flowers, layering them all up and finishing off with a little acetate butterfly.

That's all for now - don't forget, you will have two weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!   I will just say a big thank you to every one of you who has taken part in the challenge so far, it has been great to visit your blogs and see your wonderful interpretations of the challenge themes!  Thanks for looking, have an inky inspirational day!  TTFN

Hels x