June Tag of 2013

I was happy when I got the full set of Distress Markers for Christmas and, to be perfectly honest, I haven't had much luck using them as blendable water color. That's why Tim Holtz's June tag (12 tags of 2013 - June) posed a good challenge. I feel like I finally had success using them on my tag for the month of June.

First I stamped my pear on 130 lb. watercolor paper using Jet Black Archival Ink. I applied several colors using my markers and then blended them with a fine water brush. It took a couple of attempts to get satisfactory blending. This attempt wasn't the one I ended up using since I overdid the text.

When I was happy with another version, I applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the roughed and torn edges and blended the ink with the water brush.

Next I prepared the tag itself. The formula was a mixture of misted Distress Ink, Distress Paint, and Distress Stain. I was really happy with how it came out, so I am sure that I will use this combo on further projects. After it dried I covered it with stamped images.

After adhering the pear to the tag with Glossy Accents I felt like my tag still needed a little something. I have a stockpile of die cut, stamped, and colored tickets which seemed to do the trick.

The finishing touches were attaching a sprocket and spinner as well as stained crinkle ribbon. What a fun project to lighten a dreary June day!

Recent Cards

Things have been pretty busy here with our family in from Boston, so I haven't been spending much time crafting. Here are a few cards that I managed to finish just before they arrived.

The first is a congratulations card for a baby boy. I used my favorite "boy" colors and papers that I had originally purchased for a baby shower (also for a baby Nolan).

I love my daughter-in-law and wanted to make her a special card for her birthday. I was inspired by a similar card that I saw online that used "inches" stamps (each image is one square inch) and white embossing. I created the background color for the squares using Distress Stains, then stamped and embossed several full size collage stamps. To create my faux inches, I punched out sections of the images with a one-inch square punch. I added a stamped pear on the background paper of the card since it was rather bare without it. I added a tiny Eiffel Tower charm to the ribbon.

This last card is an anniversary card for my son and his wife. It was inspired by a box lid decoration I saw at candycreates.blogspot.com. Her work is outstanding, and the dragonfly she created using fantasy film is breathtaking! I had the Tim Holtz dragonfly stamp already and didn't want to invest in the film (a bit pricey and I didn't want a lengthy wait had I ordered it),  so I experimented with some iridescent cellophane. I stamped the image using black archival ink on several sheets of cellophane that I had sandwiched between sheets of parchment paper and fused with a warm iron. I also followed her directions for creating the frame using the fleur de lis rectangular Spellbinder dies. Please check out her completed project because it is awesome!

May Tag (and not the washing machine!)

I’ve been wanting to experiment more with my Distress Stains, so when I saw that Tim Holtz’s May tag used them for its background (tags of 2013), I figured now was the perfect time. I followed the detailed steps outlined on Tim's Blog to create my tag. The wings in the picture have primarily green hues in reality, but the camera flash made them appear quite purple :)

After applying pieces of Remnant Rubs and removing the excess with a sanding grip, I dragged my tag through pools of Distress Stains. Using Archival and Distress inks, I then stamped several images and inked the edges with Distress Inks. I wanted to try the rubs on other surfaces, so I painted a metal number and coated the inside of a corked vial with Distress Paint before applying the rubs to them. I think the rubs add an interesting dimension to the embellishments. The wings were created by stamping them with archival ink onto the top of several layers of iridescent Easter basket cellophane that I fused with a warm iron. They were layered over a cardstock base that had been inked with Distress,  highlighted with Stickles, and attached to the tag with Glossy Accents. I embossed metal foil tape with the Riveted Metal embossing folder to make the armored bodice. A patina muse token was attached to my stained and stamped crinkle ribbon to complete the tag.

My husband thinks my tag is somewhat strange, but I prefer to think it has Steampunk flair!

Materials used:

manila tag
Distress Stains (Broken China, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint)
Numbers Remnant Rubs
Distress Inks (Broken China, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo)
Stampers Anonymous (Regal Flourish, Haberdashery, Life’s Possibilities)
Picket Fence Distress Paint
Idea-ology (Metal Number, Corked Vial, Muse Token)
Stickles
Iridescent Easter basket cellophane
metal foil tape
Tim Holtz Sizzix Riveted Metal embossing folder
crinkle ribbon
Glossy Accents
sanding grip

I Spy Update

The I Spy quilt I made for my grandson was a huge hit. We weren't sure if he was old enough at 19 months to interact with it, but he began identifying new pictures daily. Here's a short clip of us putting him through his paces.

I Spy Quilt

Last week I had dinner with college friends and saw a picture of a baby gift called an 'I Spy' quilt. I had never heard of one, but the number of search results I found online made me wonder why I hadn't. For those of you who don't know, the quilts take their name from the children's guessing game, 'I Spy With My Little Eye'. The quilt fabric is chosen for the pictures that children will be able to find when asked. I decided to make one for my 18-month-old grandson and went through my fabric stash to find suitable fabric. I needed 80 different pictures, so I added some finds from ebay, JoAnn's, and Walmart to what I already had.

I decided to make a four patch quilt where the 4 inch fabric squares are arranged in groups of 4. I spent an inordinate amount of time arranging and rearranging the pieces until I was mostly satisfied with the color and object placement.

To make the squares pop I used yellow sashing and machine pieced the top. I had a new light blue fleece blanket from Ikea that I wanted to use as backing. I wondered if others had had success using fleece and omitting the batting and found lots of discussions about the pros and cons of this combination. The biggest con seemed to be the stretch of the fleece, but I decided to take a chance. After all, I wasn't creating a masterpiece; I just wanted a cuddly blanket that would be fun to play with.

I attached the top to the back by putting right sides together and sewing around three and a half sides, leaving about a 9-inch opening to turn it right side out. I then machine quilted it by stitching in the ditch and was pleased to only experience minor puckering on the back.

I added the phrase "I SPY" in the center row and his name and date in the lower corner.

I hope he has fun spying!

Odds and Ends

These recent cards are quite similar because I love using these soft colors and fun watercolor stamping technique. The floral stamps were inked with Distress inks and markers and then spritzed with water. When the images are stamped on watercolor paper the effect looks like impressionistic painting. The bottom card has seam binding that was inked, sprayed with water, scrunched up, and then dried with a heat gun and used as a shabby chic ribbon over a wider voile ribbon..

Last night when I was adding photos to Pinterest, I found many great ideas that I wanted to try today. The first is a tag that was inked with Concord Grape and Vintage Photo Distress inks. I dry embossed the tag with a collage embossing folder and then I sanded the raised areas to remove the ink. I wish the colors were more intense but it still is useable. I intend to add embellishments later.

I found this next tag online and loved the effect of first stamping an untreated tag with script, heat embossing floral images in random locations, and stamping one or two images using Adirondack archival black ink. I made the larger one first but realized it was too big for the card I was making so had to make a smaller one to fit and ended up making two more.

I hope that these colors aren't too drab for a get well card! The card base is brown kraft card stock. The outside has a collage of dictionary pages and tissue script paper inked with Vintage Photo under the tag, sentiment, and glimmer misted butterfly.

coordinating tag on the the inside

My last project today was to assemble a duplicate of a tag I recently gave to a friend. All four stamps in the Tim Holtz Air Travel set were used and I tied some more dyed seam binding to it.

Victorian Card

Just a quick post to show a birthday card I recently made. I have a friend who loves Victorian style who had birthday coming up. Inspired by the Victorian Easter postcards I used for my Easter cards, the first and easiest thing was to do a Google search for Victorian birthday postcards. I narrowed the image choices down to these two, one for the cover and the other for the inside sentiment, and printed them on cream cardstock.

All that was left was to choose the papers and embellishments to create this Victorian-look card.

inside