Stamped crafty giggle

18/06/2010 by UKMA 9 Comments

I am a firm believer that art should be fun. But sometimes, I like it to be funny, and a bit surreal. Like my milk carton – riffing off the scary kids from The Midwich Cuckoos – or the surprise inside the pyramid of the “happy couple” if I can get a smile I’ll do it.  Even on my scrapbook layouts, if I can hide something that makes viewers giggle, I’ll do it.  One of my all time fave layouts has on the main part of the layout a couple shots of DS creeping through the tall grass, trying to sneak up on his sister.  I caught him, finger to lips in a SHHHHH! pose scowling at me, then a far shot of him and DD, him behind her in the grass, then her turning to see him, then a hidden flap with a photo of her sitting in his head.  Payback is a wonderful thing for a little sister!

Sometimes a joke or weird juxtaposition will come to me and when it does, no matter how bizarre or indeed time-consuming it might be, I tend to go with it.

I made this little … shrine? shadowbox? not sure what the right artsy fartsy term is for it, but I was just giggling inside the whole time I was working on it.  The visual joke is something only a crafter will truly appreciate.  I hope it gives you a Friday giggle.

It was all sparked by some  cow girl images I saw at some vintage image site.

First, the outside of the box – it started life as a holder for a massive number of juice boxes, but it had scores in the cardboard that fit perfectly the size I needed.  I covered it in a mass of old collage bits that have been languishing in my drawer for at least 8 years, maybe more, and did a bit f inking n it.  I did the title by scuffing up some Thickers to get to the white core then rubbed ink over them.  The little 7 Gypsies closure has come out and gone back again so many times as it NEVER worked for what I thought it might.  But it was perfect for this piece.  I also unearthed some very old – now we are talking 12 years at least! – Rust embossing powder that I bought on sale and had never opened.  It’s a bit rough and reminds me of Distress Embossing powder without the release crystals.  A handful of Life’s Journey stuff and some downloaded images from the net and here it is closed:

I loved the casual stance, the comfort with her gun, and her serious expression…

Open…. a totally different story!

If you stamp, or craft at all, you should “get” the joke – maybe easier to see in  a closer shot?

It may be hard to se but that is an EMBOSSING gun she is holding.  I grabbed the best image I could find and reduced it them printed it on photo paper and cut it out.  I excised the bleeding heart and scissors from the figure and replaced the with the gun and a bit of elastic to mimic the cord – you can’t see it because it shifted but there is a little knot at the end of the cord to mimic the plug.

Now I have to make a sidebar comment about unintentional humour in art.  I thought the heat gun in PINK was very girly, but when I cut it and put it in her other hand, at first, it looked a bit like…well I’ll let you imagine that, shall I? Angled up or down, made no difference.  All I could think of was that line from the Spinal Tap song Big Bottom “I want to sink her with my pink torpedo…” I tried lightly colouring it with a Sharpie to a more lavender shade, but it really didn’t help.  So I had to shift it to the other hand, where it looks more like a heat gun and less like….you know.

I also hade two pots of that embossing powder called Desert Tapestry, which fit the overall theme fairly well, so I added that at the back to reinforce the joke.

and there you have it – a whole boatload of work to set up a very elaborate crafting joke.  If it made you smile, it’s done it’s job!