Welcome 2014

With the snow piling up and the wind creating swirling snow cyclones,  I resolved to stay inside all day and work on my December 2014 tag.

The inspiration tag incorporated many materials that I love to use: embossing folders, foil tape, stencils, and idea-ology elements. I began by inking my tag with Pumice Stone DI (didn't have the Distress Stain in that color), then stenciling over it with the honeycomb stencil (didn't have the stencil with the gears but I really want it!).

I applied a rub-on from my stash and then began my foil tape embossed elements.  Unfortunately I don't have the wonderful pocket watch die, so I used a frame die with a scalloped circle center to cut from the metal foil. I then embossed the center with a gears embossing folder and used TH's texture hammer on the outer frame. After applying black acrylic paint to both sections, I rubbed off most of the paint just leaving it the the depressions. I also used the sanding block to expose the silver on the edges of the frame.

I added a variety of Idea-ology gears and mini gears and chit chat stickers before splattering the assemblage with black paint.  

I created the sentiment from a die cut ticket and dyed seam binding with pumice stone DI. 

After stamping the binding with a border stamp, I added a trinket pin with a type key attached to the end, and my tag was complete! Maybe the snow will disappear by morning :) Happy New Year!

Tim Holtz December 2013 Tag Turns into a Candle Decoration

The TH December tag was gorgeous. Tim used his poinsettia die to cut petals from his Clearly For Art modeling plastic coated with his Frosted Film. I do not own any of those products so I decided I wouldn't be abler to create a December tag. However I began wondering if I could use clear packaging acrylic and mold it the same way he did using a heat gun. To my surprise, it worked pretty well.

I used my two largest petals from the Tattered Floral die, and I also cut the Tattered Pinecone greenery as Tim did. First I tried roughing up the acrylic pieces to imitate the frosted look and then applied red Distress Ink instead of the archival that Tim did (I don't own archival red). It was fairly successful, but I really wanted a more vivid color, so I ended up applying red Alcohol Ink and skipped roughing the surfaces. I used citrus and lettuce alcohol inks on the greenery. With a bit of trial and error I was able to mold the petals after heating section by section with a heat gun. After assembling the flower and attaching the layers with a brad,  I splattered white Distress Ink on it to resemble snow and hot glued a bit of bling to the center.

Since it's Christmas and I needed a hostess gift, I decided to apply my faux poinsettia to a candle rather than a tag. I wrapped a glittery ribbon around the candle near the bottom and then hot glued my flower and greenery to it. It may not look exactly like a poinsettia, but it's definitely festive!

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!