Compendium Challenge #11 - Effect Powders

Hello, happy Saturday to ya, and welcome to another great challenge from the Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III book by Tim Holtz. Are you playing along in these fun, fabulous creative challenges? To find out all the details, simply go to the end of my post today and it's all there for you. I hope you'll join us!

Challenge #11 is Effect Powders which you can find on page 52 in the book. I'm just getting rolling on my Halloween crafts this year, so I thought I'd see what I could come up with for some treat buckets for my daughter and her friends. Very particular teenagers are hard to please, but I'm thinking they might just like these.

These were very fun to make and the Effect Powder technique was perfect for the words Boo and Eek on my buckets. Let me show you how these came together.

I grabbed up these orange tin buckets last year at Target in their Dollar Spot. Don't you love the Dollar Spot? I stop there every time I go to Target. They have some great little things for us crazy crafters. These were perfect with those scalloped edges and orange color. I tucked them away until now.

I have TONS of paper, so it was easy to grab some spooky prints. These are from Tim's Laboratorie paper stash and Graphic 4's5 Steampunk Spells.

I cut strips, two different widths for each bucket. Sometimes I inked right over the top of the Laboratorie paper, sometimes not.

I distressed the edges of ALL those pieces and then inked them.

I adhered the narrower pieces to the wider pieces like this, then adhered them to the bucket using 1" wide Scor-Tape.

Six per bucket worked well.

I sprayed some small ivory flowers with Black Marble Dylusions Spray. What great coverage this spray provides!

I also sprayed some with Tangerine Dream. Nothing has as vibrant color as Dylusions sprays!

After they dried, I spritzed them with Perfect Copper for a bit of eerie shimmer.

Perfect!

I hot-glued the flowers around the top of the buckets.

Then I adhered some tissue tape around the bottom on some, and ribbon on others. I like to make them each a little different.

As for the Effect Powders technique, I can't share that with you. That's the whole point of these challenges. Get the book, try them out yourself and be amazed. I cut the letters for Boo and Eek from the Sizzix Alterations XL die "Word Play" from grungeboard. I did the technique and then joined them with staples using my Tiny Attacher.

Rather than just pop the words onto the buckets, I cut these layered labels on my Cricut machine. These came from the Art Philosophy cartridge. I used this fun bat print paper from Graphic 45's An Eerie Tale 6 x 6 Patterns and Solids pack. There's also a decorated ribbon that wraps around the bucket that you can't see in this photo.

Then I popped my words on the labels using foam squares for dimension. I added the skull and crossbones with some metal glue.

I tried different colors and combinations when I did the technique. I loved the "effect" every time.

See what I mean?

To finish off my buckets, I tied big ribbons to the handles of each. One of my favorite, cool things to do is heat ribbon with my heat gun to force them to crinkle and curl. Makes them a little spooky.

This heat gun technique works best on synthetic ribbons and should not be done near chocolate. (wink) Oh, and those bones mixed in there? Those are also a great find in the Target Dollar Spot last year. They're erasers!

I hope you give this technique a try. It's one of those super easy ones with a very cool effect.

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Do you have the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III book by Tim Holtz? (the master of all things vintage and distressed.) If not, you can find one at your local craft store, scrapbook store, or you can get a signed copy by Tim himself by going here. 

You can find all the CC3 Challenge details and FAQs here.  The lovely Linda Ledbetter is our hostess of this fun series of challenges, and all you have to do to participate is create your project, and upload to her site. Be sure, though, to read through all the FAQs so you're eligible to win...

We're working our way through this fantastic book of techniques and tips, and challenging you to join in the fun. This round's challenge is sponsored by the great folks at Inspiration Emporium who have a fabulous gift voucher to give away to one lucky random winner. Also, the Curiosity Crew's Choice scores a giant prize pack of goodies straight from Tim and Mario!

And don't forget, you can find these great products I've used today at Inspiration Emporium's online store.