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New Relic & Artifacts PLUS Artwork by Laura Carson!
Filed under Art Projects, Giveaways, Laura Carson, Newsletters, Sale, Steampunk, Tutorials, Vintage Vagabond Kit
Note: most of the links on this post no longer work, as we moved to a new Web site in 2018. However, you can see the supply list items from Laura’s project that are still available on the new site.
A couple quick announcements before getting to the eye candy…
First, we have a NEW FREE collage sheet offer starting today: a FREE Steampunk Collage Sheet with every order! Your free sheet will be Leslie’s choice from the Steampunk Collage Sheets. PLUS: that section is ON SALE for 50% off for this week only (and remember: all the collage sheet are on sale for 15% off). Note: if you order any of the Steampunk Collage Sheets, we’ll try to give you a free one that doesn’t duplicate your order (so you’ll have a surprise). Steampunk Collage Sheets Sale ends Friday night, April 24th.
AND the Spring Cleaning SALE announced in Thursday’s Newsetter continues through tomorrow! The ENTIRE Scrapbook Papers Section is On Sale for 40% off! Except for the New Junque Gypsy Papers (still on sale at the 15% discount price that all scrapbook papers and paper pads are normally priced at), everything in that big section is priced to clear some space! (Big section indeed: over 250 designs to choose from! Note: that may have decreased a bit as a few have already sold out.)
The Scrapbook Papers Sale ends Monday night, April 20th.
It’s time for another spectacular creation by Design Team Member Laura Carson. Expedition Africa — which includes Out of Africa & Vintage Maps Collage Sheets (and a Vintage Maps Digital Image Set). (And I’d recommend beginning by scrolling down a bit to see the broad view of Laura’s artwork.)
Perhaps you would like to join a group of intrepid explorers armed with only cameras and an adventurous spirit? You would? Well then get ready to delve into the heart of the Dark Continent… where animals are the esteemed explorers and humans? Meh, the mere species to be studied. (Which sounds about right to me!)
To start you’ll need a good travel trunk (that is made from our Steamer Trunk Mini Kit). I bet you thought that was a leather trunk, didn’t you? It’s actually covered in this amazing Kraft-Tex Paper Fabric (New and On Sale!) that looks and feels like leather but sews, cuts and washes just like fabric! Laura stained it with Vintage Photo Stain and then after it dried, coated it with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint. Pretty fabulous how it looks like a real little animal skin trunk, don’t you think? Then again, it is Laura Carson we’re talking about so moving on!
What’s next? A clever little suitcase made out of a Blank Altoid Tin, painted with Metal Patinas and then covered with cork sheet from the Tim Holtz Texture Surfaces pack to cover the front and back of the tin. The Texture Surfaces is pretty handy-dandy; it’s collection of adhesive-backed textured surfaces that can also be altered. Laura used a section from the burlap piece on a matchbox to make the smallest suitcase, put travel labels on all of the suitcases from the Vintage Travel Tags & Hardware Collage Sheet while the straps and handles are made from the Faux Suede Sheets.
The chest is made from a Paper Mache Treasure Chest and covered with paper from the Serengeti 8×8 Paper Pad (and is the paper pad that Laura used for her entire project). I love all of the tiny, rolled-up maps in the chest. Those are from the (New!) Vintage Maps Collage Sheet (also as a Digital Download Set — with 10 additional images not on the collage sheet) that Laura created just for this project. I think they’re adorable. Know what else I think is adorable? Sir Stompington III in his boots and hat looking into the trunk! I definitely need the Out of Africa Collage Sheet where he and all of his friends can be found so that I can create my own little story with them.
The crates which start from a 2 Inch Wooden Cube Block are SUPER easy to make, as are the trees which are made from the Kraft-Tex Paper Fabric. By the way, the Kraft-Tex Paper comes in TWO different colors! Natural and Black, both of which I need to get my hands on…
We have Laura’s Out of Africa Supply List for you to explore before you end up at Artfully Musing. Once you get to Artfully Musing, you’ll find a lot more pictures, tutorials and some free images (including Sir Stompington III’s cute little boots!) and bios on each explorer!
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New Relic & Artifacts Casts – ALL On Sale! View All New Items | |||
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Hooray for the Mini Hardware Giveaway!
I’ve included these goodies from Laura’s Expedition Africa (note: that’s a link to photos of ALL the supplies — yes, lots more than this list!):
– Vintage Maps Collage Sheet
– Steamer Trunk Mini Kit
– Haunted Ship Travel Collage Sheet
– Out of Africa Collage Sheet
– Tiny Vintage Letters & Postage Collage Sheet
– Vintage Travel Tags & Hardware Collage Sheet
– Blank Altoids Tin
– Bronze Binoculars Charm
– Bronze Small Box Hinges
– Pronged Metal Handles
– Tiny Gold Buckles
– Fluted Ring Pull
– Mini Fancy Latch Set
– Small Box Latches
– 1 Inch Bronze Keys
And from the Steampunk Collage Sheet Sale:
– Hardware Collage Sheet (which brings us up to 7 collage sheets… so many I had to take another photo below to show them all)
And one of the new items:
– Antiqued Brass Winged Heart Charm
To enter the Mini Hardware Giveaway drawing all you have to do is leave a comment BELOW on this blog post TODAY or TOMORROW (the deadline is 11:59 pm PST, MONDAY NIGHT, April 20, 2015). AND tell me either what part of Laura’s project you’d like to try your hand at OR what technique Laura used that you found most surprising.
Don’t forget to leave your (hello! correct) email address, too, so I can contact the winner; your email address does not need to be made public. Note: I’m offering free shipping, too, but only within the USA. International shipping will still apply.
Please be patient! Spammers try to post crap here a lot so comments are moderated. So if you don’t see your post in the comments section, be patient and check back in a few hours before re-posting it, please!
After midnight, I’ll randomly pick the winner (via Random.org). So make sure to check back to see who won! And check your mailbox on Thursday morning for the next Giveaway and Newsletter!
Hey, who won the Bookcase of Darkness Giveaway? That would be Dana Desmond! Please check your email for my message about getting your mailing address. (And Dana commented, “I would make a cabinet that might be found in the Dark Arts classroom at Hogworts.” Can’t wait to see it!)
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I would love to try the tent and some trees. But I always love me some hardware!
I would love to try making the animals in expedition outfits, I think I might make them into movable paper dolls and create a book for my nieces and nephew. That would be fun. They could get “housed” in a steamer trunk. Hmmmm… sure would be fun to win this.
This is just fabulous! I hope luck is with me to win this one lol! Laura is so talented that it didn’t surprise me what she did for this theme. The texture of the suitcase she did makes me want to make one, just so I can feel for myself how realistic it is lol!! Fingers crossed!
I would like to try everything! But I’d probably start with the treasure chest because it reminds me of one my parents used to have!
Wow. Wow. Triple Wow. This is the greatest ever. That mini hardware makes me want to pack my mini clothes in a mini suitcase and go on a mini vacation!!!! 🙂
I see lots of inspiration in this giveaway. Love the hardware and graphics! Hope I win!
I especially love the vintage maps collage sheet. Makes me wish I could pack mini-me in the steamer trunk and go around the world!
Wow another masterpiece by Laura. Really hope to win this fabulous prize!!
Love the African theme.
These are so cool! I like the leather fabric and how she worked that. Plus I love miniatures!
loved the suitcases
I am loving the tent…..but truly love the suitcases….I would like to see if I could duplicate that look……and the crates are awesome…..animals are always good…and would love to mini frame a map I think to go with all the above…..
I’d like to try the finishes she used on the suitcases. Laura obviously had a great deal of fun creating her African safari!
I love this giveaway! The hardware is fantastic! I’ve got some altoid tins just waiting to become suitcases!
Love this!!!!
Love alpha stamps!
Would love to try to pull off the travel case!
Love all the mini hardware pieces and the great collage sheets
This is just stunning. Heading to the blog now to check out her post!
oh I just Love Laura’s blog and have been a ‘follower’ for a few years now! Her technique’s are great. I would like to try the Explorer travelers trunk with the ‘leather’ faux look on the outside…she really has achieved a realistic leather look and I love all the sweet metal embellishments inside…sure would love to win them! 🙂
I would like to play with all this stuff. I’d especially like to try making a little suitcase out of an Altoid tin, the way Laura did. Her use of the metal patina with a cork texture sheet was brilliant.
I would love this streamer trunk and suitcases////
The suitcase out of the Altoid tin!!!!! Love it and need to make it!
Nothing surprises me about Laura Carsens creativity. She is so exceptionally talented. I like tent and the open trunk full of maps. I also like how the safari animals are dressed as though they are the ones on safari. Hope to win.
What a wonderful assortment! Plus a map to show the way!
I love making things with Altoid tins! Thank you for offering another great giveaway.
I would love to try the Kraft-tex paper fabric. I would use it on the steamer trunk, and for covering teeny tiny books and journals.
I have tried the Kraft-tex paper fabric on other projects, but using it in this application in the giveaway would be fun to try. I am most interested in the trunks, and suitcases. I love the trunk with the drawers and etc.
Laura’s project is amazing. I want to duplicate it all!
Oh my! I’m all over this luscious hardware. Would LOVE this package of goodness!
The suitcases Laura made are fabulous — I would love to create them, too! 🙂
Happy crafting,
Birgit
I am not familiar with Kraft fabric sheets or the texture sheets by Holtz. I use the linen and cotton fabric sheets in my miniature scenes, and am anxious to try these. This kit would be great to try in a miniature room box.
I love everything here I want to win so bad thanks for the chance
My first instinct was to say how much I love the suitcases that Laura did but I would love to try the trees!!!! I also love the giveaway of the mini hardware and see some great steampunk collages that they could be used for!
omg! This is amazing and a fabulous project.
I love expedition maps!! Think I’d have to try the treasure chest!!
Laura’s projects area constant inspiration. As a travel agent, I am amazed by what people travel with. I really want to try the trunk as it has so much amazing detail.
the trunk, love it!! not only am I getting one for myself but my two mini friends (we make 1/12″ Doll house miniatures). Yes thank you so much.
A trip to Africa without leaving home.
Love the Zebra, very fun!!! Great for homeschooling 🙂
Laura is crazy talented. I would also love to attempt making one of her suitcases but the item that really caught my attention was the the little compass made with a cutout from the collage sheet glued to a vintage typewriter key. Didn’t Alpha Stamps offer typewriter keys once?
This brings to mind one of my favorite heroes, Osa Johnson. I am going to make this in honor of her.
What cool stuff. Right up my traveling alley.
I love the leather look on the trunk, I’d love to try that. I love the whole scene here, it belongs in a shadowbox on the wall proudly displayed. The elephant looking in the trunk. I think it’s my favorite part.
Wonderful Giveaway!
I’d like to try making the luggage. It looks quite fun!
The steamer trunk and treasure chest are the two things I’d start with. Love all of it!
I am so impressed with all of the artists that design for Alpha Stamps. Their imagination and creativity are boundless. I am very interested in the idea of making a suitcase out of an Altoid tin.
Gosh, I would love this!
The hardware…the collage sheets. How cool is this give-away.
The suitcases from tins are amazing—and the Rock Candy Crackle effect is wonderful. I’d begin with those.
Is there anything that Laura can’t do? The suitcases and trunks are amazing. Nancy
I would love to use her technique on the steamer trunk with the Kraftex paper applied to some blank altoid tins for inserting little accordion mini travel journals and rolled up maps of my imaginary trip to Africa! Thank you for another generous and fun giveaway!
I love a great adventure! Awesome kit!
I love travel themes and the supplies can take us most anywhere in the world.
I have been a follower of lauras and think the travel cases would be fun to try
thank you for a chance on this giveaway
I would like to try painting the artifacts.
This is the perfect giveaway.
I have always wanted to try making
something from an Altoids tin.
Thanks Alpha Stamps for a chance to win.
Thanks again for all the great ideas.
Laura blows me away with her amazing creations! I really want to try making the suitcases with the texture surfaces! LOVE her Safari scene so much!
I love everything about Laura’s project and her collage sheets are perfect. She is so amazing if I had to pick one thing about her project it would be trunks. I love the travel trunk and the roll top trunk. I am definitely going to make those. I would LOVE to win this giveaway-all of the design team ideas for the serengeti are awesome. Alpha Stamps is the BEST!!! I LOVE getting your emails so much inspiration!!
Oh, I would have to say the safari hats on the elephant and lion.
I love it!Would be so fun take a trip.
Love the mini hardware!
I’d like to try out making the fabric paper look like leather.
Would love to win this awesome giveaway! I’ve been wanting to try making a mini-trunk and this would be perfect! Blessings, Lori
lori082259@yahoo.com
I love Laura’s art! I would try and make her whole scene! Love the animals as the characters! LOL
I adore that the animals have come into camp and are wearing the missing safari members accessories! Very special when you want to be in that scene, wonderful!!
Maps, maps, maps. As a retired travel agent I love maps and vintage maps are the best!
Loving it all. I’d love to try the suitcase. I just bought some mini size travel brochures and travel docs for my dollhouse. Now all I need to do is make the suitcase.
Those whimsical animals! What a hoot! Laura has a very fertile mind.
simply delightful!
Another fantastic giveaway!!
I like the altoid tin suitcase the best. If I were to try to replicate something, that would be it. (Maybe not a suitcase but the patina.) It’s hard to pull off miniatures that look authentic (as opposed to, say, doll house furniture) but that one really looks like a (functional?) miniature suitcase; it’s well done.
I think Laura Carson have the imagination of 10
OMG, I would LOVE to try my hand at those adorable crates!
I love the cute miniatures!
Lovely! Thank you for another opportunity!
What a great giveaway! Love the suitcase and travel theme!
I would like to make the trunk with the animals or I would like to make the tent with the suitcases in front of it with all the maps. Thanks for giving me a chance to be in these giveaways.
Just so much fun!!!
I love the suitcase. Just in time for a mini-vacation!
I’d like to try to make the steamer trunk! Love it all. Thank you!
Definitely love ALL of Laura’s technics but what I find most intriguing are the awesome stories she comes up with! How fun! Thanks for taking us on safari with you Laura and thank you Alpha Stamps for the opportunity to win this giveaway!
I love those little suitcases. Thanks for the chance to win those wonderful supplies.
Oh my this project is amazing.love the story it tells.
0h my, definitely the steamer trunk and Altoid tin suitcases! Been looking for something cute for my grandson to put a lost tooth in. He will shortly be at the age. Altoid tin suitcase will fit nicely under a pillow
I lve how she made the tent and all of the little things inside it. I would like try making the little luggage.
I would love to try the mini suitcases…so cute….can’t wait to win this one. Thanks!!
I’d like to duplicate the whole thing- it is so darn cute. But definitely want to do the steamer trunk and the luggage. Would love to win this.
That little travel trunk is a project I’d particularly like to try! I love it all, though!
I think the elephant with shoes and a hat is brilliant. Laura always teaches to think outside the box…like the book on the desk…whodda thunk it? Not I. No, not I.
Please enter my name in your
drawing.
Thank you
More fun things! I’m going to try my hand at making the trunk and suitcases. Can’t wait to win this one!
When I opened the email & saw this it immediately reminded me of the dioramas I made as a child!That was a pleasant memory….thank-you……….
just trying mini things. Love it
The trunk and suitcases are something to try. I like the use of the Kraft Tex, going to have to get me some and play with it. I love the entire scene.
Neat stuff to make a journey…
Of course I love the tent and would love to give it a go- but those trunks,steamers and suitcases- wow! So cool!!
ps..Laura’s new sheets are fab!!
This is really cool!! I would love to try and make all of it! The new relic stuff is amazing!!
I’d love to try altering the altoid tin! Have always wanted to and the post is very inspiring to try! Thanks so much for a chance!~kim
I am in love with all of this but am totally in awe of the the steamer trunk full of maps. Would like to try making one.
I would definitely make the travel trunk using Laura’s supply ideas. Her creative mind and willingness to share her talents makes this 80 year old crafter thankful I have found your websight.
I would really like to make several diorama frames for my great-nephews room; what kid (young or old) doesn’t dream of travel and adventure?! Laura did another outstanding job on this one; thanks very much for the opportunity to win!
I love the suitcases! I collect vintage suitcases so making the miniatures is very interesting to me. And I love all the mini hardware. This is definitely a drawing I’d love to win!
I would definitely love to try the tent and the altoid tin suitcase. So cute and clever!
Laura’s project is amazing! The steamer trunks are my favorite. That is also what I would want to try my hand at.
I would like to try the steamer trunk, actually there isn’t anything I wouldn’t like to try!!!
I love miniatures and African safaris from times past. I know I would enjoy making miniature luggage and steamer trunks.
I’d just love to try my hand at the mini suitcases and perhaps expand to mini matchboxes with doors that open…..
Well, I’ve always wanted to go on a (photo) safari – this would be great!
Your work is no joke. The attention to details and finishes is quite breathtaking. I would start with the tent, only because I need the assurances that I could build around it. Incredible.
I would love to win
Amazing attention to detail – as always – thanks for the chance to win 🙂
There is nothing of Laura’s I wouldn’t want to make!! One of my favorite designers!! I really like the steamer trunk and suitcases. Thanks for the great giveaway!!