Stars and Stripes Tramp Art Frame: Design

Amazing what a few sunny days can do for a soul!!  Salsa garden is planted, lawn is mowed and my next challenge is underway.  Being close to the 4th of July, I'm feeling a little patriotic and have started my Stars and Stripes Tramp art frame.

Here is the initial design!

I'm thinking vintage shades of red, white, blue and gold gilding. Lots of deep layers finished with lots of love and just the right amount of antiquing. 

Can she create it?  Stay tuned

Happy Tramping,
Angie 

 

Completion of Birdsacre FRame

This tramp art frame was finished while enjoying spring break, yard work and the start of the softball season.  After a tweak here, a little more sanding there, and many coats of varnish later, the Birdsacre: Winged Ones tramp art mirror is complete.  This mirror has been donated to the Birdsacre fire recovery fund and will be a part of the facilities' raffle on August 2nd, 2014  to celebrate their annual Cordie Day.   So happy we could help!  Please go to their website at http://www.birdsacre.com/ to read about all of the wonderful work this facility does and help them in any way you can.  It's for the owls!

After creating the pattern pieces for each piece and layer, I transferred and cut out each one.  Here is a piece check I did before picking out my palette.  Some thicker pieces with some thinner wood for the detail pieces.

 

 

With this piece, I chose to leave some pieces un-notched hoping to give those elements some pop.  After a few changes here and there, I was very happy with the whimsical elements of this piece and how close it matched my original design.  After considering several different color options, I decided to make the tree elements a brown that gradually gets lighter towards the top with a darker background to help give the piece more depth and achieve the "dusk in the forest" look.  The owls were painted my favorite orange and the toadstools an antique red.  I gave some elements that glow or sparkle with metallic paints and light antiquing, and did tryout my woodburner on the toadstools.  Here is a picture of the final piece.

 

Birdsacre: Winged Ones Tramp Art Frame/Mirror



 

 

 

Sleeping Owl detail

 

Moon and Owls detail

I hope this piece finds a good home and helps make the fire recovery at Birdsacre a little easier.

 

Happy Tramping, 

Angie

 

Mission ACcomplished

The sunflower tramp art frame came together nicely;  soft and yummy colors, solid and sturdy, and beautiful all in one.  Thank you Marguerite for your great artistic adjectives!  I have implemented several changes in my creation process and have come away quite satisfied with the results and have saved myself some time and increased the quality of this piece.

Having predrilled some of the smaller pieces of the tramp art layers, the number of pieces having to be recut, rechipped and repainted during the assembly was reduced greatly.  The predrilling will also help create a tighter bond between layers and cut down on future potential piece damage. 

I also religiously kept all pieces in sealed ziplocks so that my cat could not steal them.  No missing pieces!  Assembly was quicker than usually by keeping the pieces organized by color also.

I sometimes can't make the really tiny pieces that I would like to include on my frames.  The wood pieces gets fragile, hard to secure and hard on my hands when they are too tiny.  I don't know why I haven't done it before, but I did some hand painted detail and line work on this piece to bring it all together.  Before I started creating tramp art layers on my frames, most of my frames had hand painted designs and motifs on them.  So I'm not really surprised that the hand painted details are sneaking back in there.

The sunflower crown was created by carving two layers of petals with a vintage brass knob as the center. 

After the pieces was assembled and had had enough drying time, I coated the piece with a coat of antiquing medium.  I always look to deepen my colors and add that touch of time wear to the sanded edges and nooks and crannies.  I then gave certain areas a second coat to darken the edges and notches.  Three coats of polycrit later and we have the finished piece.

I am really excited to have been able to fine tune some of my steps and also save myself some unnecessary steps.  169 wood chipped pieces later, I'm quite happy to be able to send this piece to the Big Apple to fellow tramp art lover, Marguerite.

Happy Tramping,     Angie

Keep it Simple STupid

It started out so innocent and simple:  My need for a quick project and a crudely made birdhouse needing to be tramped.

A little uneven and rough but full of potential - built by an elderly man in my town.

With some vintage bottle caps, old Maine license plates, a vintage child's block, chipped spindles, and old flat nails in hand, the chips went flying.  A little of this, and a little of that, some wood chipping, some metal cutting - VIOLA!

A tramped birdhouse ready for occupation.

I have to say that my simple project quickly turned into a much more involved one.  Not the simple, quick one that I was aiming for.

They always start out that way.  If only I could remember and follow through with the old KISS principal.  Keep it simple stupid!

Happy Upcycling      Angie