Collage and Assemblages

Today I was inspired by one of my Pinterest pins, a collage by artist Michael Wilson. Its central element was a vintage family photo and the background reminded me of a package of card stock that I recently found at Goodwill.

I used a photo transparency of my grandfather's family (parents and siblings) as a starting point to create this weathered collage. Although my great grandfather had Swiss roots and my great grandmother was 100% English, the children they produced look like a U.N. conglomeration of ethnicities: my grandfather looks Irish, his brother definitely Scandinavian, the two older sisters appear to have Mediterranean and Mideastern roots, while his red-headed youngest sister looks somewhat Russian. Their combination of genes is fascinating!

I've also done more experimentation using embossed and aged foil tape. This "doll" assemblage uses the foil as the skirt with assorted metallic pieces, charms, and photo in a bottle cap to create the rest of her body.

Here is a Tim Holtz die cut embossed bird with Rub 'n Buff metallic accents followed by a birdcage ornament with hanging charms.

Hocus Pocus

My craft room and I are covered in glitter. I am not a big fan of glitter since it attaches itself to you and follows you around for days. But in order to complete my Tim Holtz October 2013 tag I threw caution to the wind.

Because I don't have the new Distress Paint colors, I blended some of my own. Some of my efforts doing the background for the tag(s) were too intense, but I finally achieved a result I could live with. I used black archival ink to stamp two different scripts as my next layer. 

These colors were too intense!

I then used a combination of TH and Cricut cuts (Teresa Collins's Chic & Scary cartridge) for Halloween elements that I inked, coated with Glossy Accents, then covered with black, white, and orange glitter before attaching with Glossy Accents. I embossed a spider with black embossing powder and attached it to its web with a line of diamond Stickles.

This was my first effort; I liked the background but thought I got a little carried away with the glittery elements.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Mothers Day Card

I know it's not the season for a Mothers Day Card, but I just came across a photo of one that I did for my mom. It was made using my go-to tools: embossing folder, stamps, and Distress inks. The unique feature of this card is the 3D butterfly. I used an Elizabeth Craft metallic Peel-Off sticker which was applied to double-sided tape (leave the backing on one side until applying it to the card). Typically ultra fine glitter is used to fill in the open areas, but I used alcohol ink and Stickles instead because I didn't have the glitter colors I wanted (very expensive) while the others I had on hand.

September Tag of 2013

After seeing Tim Holtz's post featuring his new layering stencils, I preordered some right away. That's why I was so excited that his September tag used them in so many different ways. However I was really bummed when I got an email saying that my order won't be shipped until late September, so I had to rethink my options without spending any more money. Then I starting wondering whether I could cut my own stencils from acetate using my Cricut mini. Several people posted success stories online so I decided to give it a try. Overall I was happy with my results.

The embossing paste and Distress paint techniques using the stencils went smoothly. The problem I ran into was using Distress stains for the background color. I sprayed the tags before applying the stain and although it went on smoothly, the colors were too vivid for my taste. Here are the first ones I did.

Next I tried diluting the stain, and I was getting closer to something I liked.

I think the bright red was the jarring note, so by eliminating it I was happier with this next background. Still it wasn't to my taste.

Finally I decided to stick with shades of blue and I finally achieved a background that I was happy with. Instead of introducing a lot of other colors with the Distress inking portion, I just used a variety of blues for my next layers of stenciling (Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Faded Jeans, and Tumbled Glass) as well as Black Soot. The pear was stamped using black Archival ink and the words were shaded and outlined with Pumice Stone ink and Distress marker. The tag was embellished with a keyhole and a charm that I first painted with black acrylic paint (which I partially removed) and then highlighted with patina Rub 'n Buff (although the pictures don't show it very clearly).

The last step was staining the crinkle ribbon, then stenciling stars in Faded Jeans ink. This is probably the first tag of 2013 that I really liked! The process was also a lot of fun!

Recent Birthdays

Our older son just turned 30. I finally can do numerals in any size with my Cricut Mini. The upper section was embossed with an embossing fold and then the raised images were inked with Distress Ink.

My sister and I play lots of games through Facebook which gave me this idea for her birthday card.

This last card is for my good friend, Nancy. We've been friends since high school and even though we rarely see each other, we always pick right up where we left off. She is my "forever friend."

I used the same embossing folder that I used on my son's card, and I used music card stock both outside and inside since we became friends through choir and madrigals. I've been using a lot of frames and shadows lately because there are so many options in my Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge. Completing the cover is a favorite vintage photo, a layered flower, and a Tim Holtz "forevermore" token.

I usually try to make the coordinating inside special, too!

Back-to-School and August Tag(s) of 2013

As a retired teacher, I can't break the habit of anticipating the start of school at the end of each summer. When I saw Tim's August Tag on his blog, the techniques he used were really appealing and I especially liked his tip about misting the tag before running it through the stains; it seems like they blended better than usual.  I made quite a few that were okay but didn't really seem that special, so  I thought I would look through my stamps for inspiration and realized that school was still on my mind. 

Below are some tags I made at first, but most of them look kinda dirty rather than vintage which is why I really muted the intensity of the background stamps on my school tag.  All the tags began life using Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap stains, and all had the focal stamps applied using a combination of black StazOn and Ranger Archival Ink.  I masked the main images - and I might add that I detest the fussy cuts needed to create the masks for them - before I overstamped.

I like the general effect of this overstamping but think I overdid blending the Distress Inks in the background.

I tried some of my Asian stamps here and added a couple of Chinese coins.  It's pretty ho-hum plus I have no idea what it even says.

Here's another less-than-stellar attempt even though I love the little girl clown stamp.  The mask wasn't tight enough so there's too much empty space around her.

Another set of stamps that are favorites are the Oxford Impressions Civil War set. The mask used on the cannon again wasn't tight enough, so the overstamp was too far away.

Another unsuccessful masking job.

Overall it's been a fun challenge!

A Birthday, 2 Anniversaries, & 1 Whatever

There were quite a few cards I wanted to make last month for special occasions. I wanted to make something bright and cheery for for my sister-in-law's birthday. I love a cupcake theme, and  I have plenty of stamps and stickers to choose from.

Both of my sisters-in-law have August anniversaries and I wanted to incorporate their wedding photos into their cards. The first card has the photo inside (and I forgot to take a picture of the inside :), but the outside uses squares and a heart that were embossed with a variety of embossing folders.

The second card used the wedding picture on the card cover. I used my new Cricut to create the photo frame layers and edged strip across the bottom. I embossed the bottom frame layer and used Distress Ink on the raised pattern. The rosette was cut using my TH rosette die and topped with an enamel embellishment.

This last card used my favorite vintage child photo once again. I stitched around two of the papers with the battery operated, hand held "sewing machine" I found at Good Will. I layered the stitched papers on top of the background paper and added the photo mounted on a paper doily. The flowers were made from a combination of silk and cardstock petals.