August Flamingo Four

It's time for August's Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these four items:

                                        1) Fancy Pants rub-ons

                                        2) Maya Road Vintage Trinkets

                                        3) miscellaneous empty box

                                        4) two chess pieces

Abigail's Take

I took the red handle off of the clear plastic box and replaced it with a piece of twine. I wanted it to be more of a shadow box. I used some Pink Paislee Secret Crush paper to make backgrounds for the shadow box. I used the rub-ons to decorate the paper, added the flower and then the chess pieces.

Erin's Take

We always get the oddest items for our Flamingo 4 projects, which is so much fun.  I never know what I am going to create until I let the objects sit and marinate for awhile.  I knew I wanted to do something with the box as a hidden object inside it, then it hit me, the chess pieces are the hidden items. I played with the beaded flowers and bam - pull them apart and you got wings.  This got me thinking of the Disney movie Fantasia on the scene with all the mythological creatures, and in it were the Pegasus mom and dad with the babies.  Dad is a black winged horse and mom is a white winged horse (the babies are all different colors of blue, pink, yellow, etc).  I envision the box as their secret love nest, the hidden romance of good and evil, light and dark, or something like that.  So this is our glimpse of the mythological hidden romance.

I pulled apart one of the beaded flowers and placed 2 petals on the white chess piece as "wings" and then placed the remainder of the flower on the black chessmen for his wings. They are nestled in a "bed of grass" which is Maya Road trim.

All around the box I used the rub-ons to decorate the love nest.  I overlapped and surrounded all sides of the box with the flowers, vines, and dots from the rub-on pack.

After taking off the red handle, I used wire to secure hold the front of the box open and then used Zip-Dry glue to glue the hinges in place so the box would stay in a permanent open position so it appears that we are peaking into the box.  I then removed the wire once the glue dried.

Alicia's Take

The chess pieces really presented a challenge for me this month!  I started out by coating the entire inside of the box with Staz-On ink in Teal Blue and let it dry.  Then I put a rub-on accent across the bottom of the lid of the box and around the sides.  I knew I wanted to adhere the Maya Road flower to the lid of the box, but I needed to figure out what to do with the chess pieces.  I decided to use them as "stamps" to stamp the circle images in Gesso on to the box. After they dried, I colored them with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Sweet Cherry.

Here is a look at the back side of the box.

Now I have a little box to house some of my sequins when I travel to crops.

Cindy's Take

When I begin a Flamingo Four project, I try to focus on the most difficult item(s) first.  Rub-ons and flowers could go on anything... layouts, cards, tags, altered items, etc.  But an empty box and chess pieces can't, so I decided to start with those.  As I played around with them, I realized that the chess pieces fit perfectly in the box.  Hmm.. what if I filled the box with all sorts of game-related items?  

By happy coincidence, I had a deck of miniature playing cards sitting 2 feet away on my desk, so I pulled out the 4 aces and put them in the box.  The fit was perfect.  I added some poker chips, dice, and Scrabble tiles until the box was stuffed.  

On to the rub-ons.  One of them said "Play," which was perfect for my theme.  I transferred it on the box, then added a few white dots to draw attention to the word.  

Finally, the sequin flowers.  After experimenting for awhile, I took apart the flowers and put the sequins in the bottom of the box along with some additional gold sequins.  They provided a great bed for all the items to sit in and helped give the box a more finished look.  

Here's my project:

 

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!

June Flamingo Four

It's time for another Flamingo Four!  This month, three other designers and I worked with these four items:

                                1) wood frame- Sheffield Custom Frames

                                2) snowflake stencil- Tattered Angels

                                3) dimensional quotes- miscellaneous

                                4) cupcake topper- miscellaneous

Melissa's Take

I'm not going to lie! This Flamingo 4 was a challenge for me. I started off with the frame, and painted it with gesso as a base, and then misted it with Primrose Color Shine. Then I took some modeling paste and tinted it with Georgia Peach Color Shine and used the mask to lay down the modeling paste. 

Next, I played with the cupcake topper and decided I liked the color, the texture, but not the stick or the clip for it, so I took it apart! From there, I decided it made a nice backer on the frame and gave it a great burst of color, so I used some glue dots to stick it to the back. I decided that I would feature one of the dimensional quotes, so I cut a small piece of chipboard, painted it with gesso and then sprayed it Primrose to match the frame. Once it dried, I attached it to the cupcake topper and then stuck the quote over it. For added interest, I attached a few flowers.

Abigail's Take

The first thing I did was to paint the frame with Tim Holtz Distress Paint. I used the Walnut Stain and let it dry completely. Then I used the Weathered Wood to go over the surface, but avoiding the nooks and crannies. Lastly I used the Snowflake stencil from Tattered Angels and misted over the frame with a light blue. I then I used some Pink Paislee Secret Crush paper to make a background.

I could have put the paper closer to the front, but I wanted to make kind of a shadow box effect.

I love the slight hint of a pattern created with the stencil and the faux vintage effect of the layering of the paint. 

Alicia's Take

For this month's Flamingo Four, I decided to create a frame with a bit of a "textured" look to it.  I painted the frame with a base coat of yellow paint, and let it dry.  Then I used the snowflake mask across the face of the frame and applied the pink paint to it.  After that layer dried, it was a bit too bright for me, so I watered down some apricot colored paint and did a light coat across the whole thing, then followed that up with a watered down whitewash coat as well.  Once I had it toned down, I decided to cut the stick off of the paper flower and adhered the "Life is in Bloom" saying to the front.  I adhered that to the frame and tucked the "Beautiful" metal embellishment behind the flower to create a little cluster in the bottom corner.  Now, all I need to do is find the right picture to put in it!

Cindy's Take

Last time, I struggled with incorporating the very heavy metal clothespin into my project.  This month, it was the cupcake topper that really challenged me.  That and the fact that none of my quotes had any of the same colors as the topper.  Then there's the stencil.  A snowflake stencil would be easy for a winter project, but there are no winter colors in any of the other items... and besides, this is June!  

As I played around with the frame, I realized that the opening was the perfect size to hold a gift card.  I popped a Baskin-Robbins gift card into the frame, then noticed that the pink of their logo matched one of the dimensional quotes I needed to use.  I cut down the quote from "Enjoy your life" to just "Enjoy" and started playing around.  What if I used the blue of the logo to paint the frame, then used just part of the snowflake stencil to stamp in pink?  That would have more of a summery tropical feel instead of a wintry snowflake feel.  It took awhile to mix the perfect shade of pink and to decide what part of the stencil to use as a stamp, but with three items used, the project was definitely coming together.

But what about the green and orange cupcake topper that was nearly as large as the frame?  It just wasn't working.  Eventually, I tore it apart.  I used the chipboard hook end and painted it the same blue as the frame and attached it as a hanger.  I cut the tiny bit of green tissue paper from the orange and used it as an accent color.  Here's the finished project:

When the gift card is removed, the recipient can use it as a frame.

 

That wraps up another fun Flamingo Four! We'd love to see your take. If you make something using the same four supplies as our designers, send us a picture and we'll feature it here on the blog. To find the materials we used (and so much more!) visit the Flamingo Scraps store!