Thanksgiving Goodies

My husband just got back from the post office to mail our Thanksgiving cards. Thanksgiving is only four days away, but I made my cards so many weeks ago that I almost forgot to send them. So much for getting things made too early!

I thought I took some quick snapshots on my phone before sending them, but when I started writing this post I discovered that I had taken videos rather than photos. After exploring how to isolate a single frame from the video using my phone rather than resorting to using iMovie on my computer, I read about an app (video 2 photo) that easily does it. I purchased and downloaded the app and quickly converted them to stills and emailed them to myself so I could edit them through iPhoto. HOWEVER the images were saved as .png rather than .jpg, and they wouldn't import to iPhoto or upload directly to this blog. So it was back to searching the web on ways to convert them. No problem according to an OS X site, just open them in Preview, pull down the edit menu, hit Save As, and choose ,jpg. Easier said than done. My Preview version only had Save and not Save As. Here comes the weird part. When I went to Help in Preview it brought up a picture highlighting Save As (nonexistent on mine) but when I clicked on it in the Help section it brought up a screen allowing me to save it as .jpg. Go figure!

Here's proof that my Preview file menu does NOT have the Save As option:)

Anyway, back to the actual projects. My Thanksgiving cards were made using a terracotta card stock that I embossed with the Cuttlebug 'Autumn Type' embossing folder. I highlighted the raised type with a lighter colored chalk ink and then mounted the piece on a darker piece of patterned card. Embellishments include ribbon, leaves, flower, and tags.

For this year's Thanksgiving favors I made treat boxes using the Sizzix 'Carry All Box' die. I used a variety of autumn themed card stock for the boxes and added paper flowers and Happy Thanksgiving tags to spruce them up.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Chalkboard Tag - November 2013

Tim Holtz's November tag for 2013 uses a chalkboard technique on a black tag. I chose a dressmaking theme for this tag. My images were stamped in white ink, and then I rubbed white chalk over the tag with my finger. The bodice on the dress form was embossed and then applied atop the stamped image of the form with foam tape along with the button, scissors, and Paris tag for added dimension.

Fall Flowers

I've been busy making paper roses in fall colors (using mostly Graphic 45 papers) and have attached them to wooden skewers that serve as stems.

Today I found the perfect container for my arrangement at Michaels where all Halloween items were 80% off. Flower arranging is not my forte, but after much trial and error I was able to come up with a passable autumn arrangement.

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!