So Much Fun!

 

As soon as I saw Tim's tag for this month, I couldn't wait to make it and knew it would be my favorite.  For those of you who live in a cave and don't know what I'm talking about, it's Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 and you can see his April tag and get all the instructions here.

I usually make the tags with my friend, Grace, but poor Gracie has been dealing with a lot of crap and overtime at her job this month, and we could never get together.  I realized it was the end of the month, so I had to make this one without her.  :-(

 

I started by making the background for the tag using Tim's Distress Paints with the new metallics.  So awesome!  I usually just wipe up any excess ink/paint on my craft sheet, but I wanted to save this goodness, so I swiped a 2nd tag in...

And a 3rd.  I had to stop myself at this point, cause now I was adding more paint, and was having so much fun, I could've kept covering until all my blank tags were done!

Since I was adding paint to finish covering this one, some of the paint was a little thick.  Tim suggested dabbing up excess paint with a towel, but I kept it.  The thick areas bubbled up when I used my heat gun and left some really cool textured areas.

I had to make a tough decision and choose one for my tag, and I'll save the other 2 for another day.

Next, I chose some Idea-ology and a plastic number to do faux patina on.  While drying these with the heat gun, I realized the metal gets HOT!  Yikes!

Like I said, I loved Tim's tag so much, I wanted to do everything he did.  But, I decided to use a 3 instead of a 4 so I'd be a little different.  lol

Edges were distressed and inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I really love this tag, and I had the most fun creating it!  Here are some close-ups ...

I used Tim's Texture Hammer to bang up the brads in the centers of the gears.

Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art is so much fun to play with and mold.  Very easy too!  It just takes a little patience and practice.

I rubbed some Broken China paint in the crevices of all the text and wiped off with a towel before adding the other colors of paint to the top & edges.

And, those pen nibs are really sharp!  I like the little touch this added to the tag, and I'll be using more of these in my projects in the future.  And, my plastic number 3 came out better than expected.  Love it!

A Little Bit of Whimsy

Pics and details for my Happy Art Flag entries for Beautiful Impressions in CT this weekend.

I was inspired by the challenge on the EWV group (Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group) to use Wendy's Metallic Paste over some spray ink so the color is picked up by the paste.

I knew I wanted to enter this in the Happy Art Flag contest at Beautiful Impressions in CT this Friday in honor of Tim Holtz's classes this weekend, so I decided to work on a 4" x 6" (dimensions required for each flag entry) piece of chipboard.

I started with heavy applications of Ranger's Adirondack Color Washes in the colors of denim, Lettuce & Stream.  I then lightly sprayed some White Linen Dylusions Spray Ink.

Then, the fun part ... using Wendy's Polka Dotty Stencil For Art, I schmeared some of her Metallic Paste on (carefully remove stencil, and wash immediately).  When it was dry (I gave it about 2 hours to be safe), I thought it was screaming for some alien spaceships!

I hit Michaels in search of a spaceship stamp with no luck.  Then, I realized I was going to the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Festival in Allentown, PA over the weekend, so I figured I'd find one there.  No luck ... not one alien, spaceship or rocket.  None, nada, nil.

I was hosting my scrapbooking club at the local library on Tuesday, and I decided to demo how to make some fun, layered embellishments with the Cricut, and guess what I found by accident?  Yes!

I made a few ships in different sizes, and this is what I came up with ...

I typed the words on my computer and hand-drew the thought bubble; cut it out & popped it up.

Here's the background so you can see how the metallic paste picked up the color ...

I think I'm going to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge which is "backgrounds" this week.

This is my other entry for the Happy Art Flag challenge ...

I saw on someone's blog (I can't remember who for the life of me!) about using Distress Ink as a background and covering with a layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I thought that would make for a cool underwater background.

I finally used one of the many jars of Mudd Puddles I've been hoarding for the ocean floor.  I also glued on some teeny tiny shells I got in a jar when I went on the Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise.

I cut up some pieces of Wendy Vecchi's Clearly For Art and colored them with Alcohol Inks; I heated each of them one section at a time and gave it a little twist.

I needed a great Tim Holtz sentiment ... after all, he'll be judging the entries.  tee hee

I wanted some fishing net, but I didn't have any small enough ... then, I remembered about this piece Tim gave us in one of the classes on the cruise.

I just realized I should have put a little rhinestone for the eye.  Oh well, it's long gone since I mailed it to the store last week.

I used more of Wendy's Clearly for Art in white to stamp this beautiful seahorse.  I was able to heat it and mold it so it could hang out in the middle of my kelp bed.

I'm soooo psyched for the classes this weekend with Tim!  I'll be on my way to CT in the morning!

Shrink Plastic Tattered Florals

Just some quick pics of some shrink plastic flowers I made using the Tattered Florals die for Tim's challenge.  I quickly made these using Shrink Plastic, Adirondack Alcohol Inks, and a Viva Pearl Pen.  These would make adorable little embellishments for a scrapbook page or greeting card.  When my head's not so stuffy, I'm going to make more in different colors!

Tim's Tattered Floral Challenge

 Tim's had this Tattered Floral Challenge on his blog for a month now, and he's choosing the winners tomorrow.  As always, I've waiting until the last minute, and to make matters worse, I've had a sinus infection all week!  Even though my head is stuffed up, I can't stop thinking about this challenge!

I decided to get out of bed and play a little.  I found this printed burlap when I went to JoAnns to find some crinoline (Tammy Tutterow made some beautiful flowers for this challenge using this stuff).  I wanted something between the layers, so I took some used dryer sheets and sprayed them with Black Marble Dylusions Spray Ink.  I ran that through my Vagabond w/copy paper between each layer.  I held it all together with an Antique Brad from Stampin' Up!

I'm thinking this would make a beautiful pin on a black sweater, or a nice embellishment on a black/kraft card.  I'll have to work on that another day when I'm feeling better.

Britta Swiderski Creative

I was introduced to Britta Swiderski Creative blog today, and her tutorial was so inspiring, I had to try it out!  The video was quick and clear ... I hate when I click on a tutorial and the person stammers, blathers on endlessly, doesn't have their supplies on hand, camera angles are off, and they take 15 minutes to do a 2 minute technique.

Here's the card I created using her techniques:

The base of the card is Stampin' Up!s Crumb Cake cardstock with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the edges.  The background was done using Wendy Vecchi's polka dot background and Aqua Adirondack ink from Ranger on white cardstock.

I used Britta's technique of painting on some white scrap with two colors and blending them together with my finger.  Beautiful!

Black Staz-On ink was used for all the black stamping.  Britta had a fabulous tip when paper-piecing:  use a black brush tip marker around the edges of your cut piece so it looks like you cut it out perfectly.  Simple magic!

I love these techniques, and I can't wait to teach this card at this week's Technique class!

Tim's Tags of 2013--March

 So far, Grace and I are 3 for 3 this year.  I enjoy the Tags of the Year much better than the Tags of Christmas.  Not only do we get different themes throughout the year, we also have 4 weeks to get each tag done!  lol  My tag is above with the leaf, and the Master's is below with the bunny.

My colors are more muted then Tim's, but we had a ball doing the techniques, and that's what counts.  We worked on these tags about 2 weeks ago, so I figured I better post it before April rolls around.

As always, I didn't have everything Tim used, so I substituted.  I used green metallic pipe cleaners for under my leaf.  I had silver pipe cleaners, but not enough for both Grace & I, so I gave them to her so she could color hers pink (she used a flower die).

 I like the extra texture I get on my paper from my (very) used cutting plates.  If you click on the picture of the banner below, you can see the lines from previous cuts.

We made our own grass by cutting long slender triangles out of a strip of Bundled Sage Co'ordinations cardstock.  I then added some Vintage Photo Distress Ink with my ink blending tool.

These flower stick pins were alot of fun to create.  Can't wait for Ranger to release the rest of the Distress color palette for the new Distress Paints.

Tim's Feb. 2013 Tag

I finished this tag a couple of weeks ago, but haven't been in the blogging mood.  Considering it's the end of the month, I figured I'd better get my butt in gear!

For some reason, my blog doesn't want to cooperate and post a copy of the pic of Tim's actual tag, so you can check it out here with all the step by step instructions.

I am married to the love of my life for almost 23 years now, but I'm really not into the pink/red heart-y stuff that goes with Valentine's Day.  I had no problem substituting things out for this tag!  lol

My friend, Grace, who has become my Tim tag buddy, joined me once again to make tags.

The Queen of Hearts stamp that Tim used on his tag has three 'layers' to it.  There's the blueprint lines, then the outline & details of the playing card, and then the actual Queen.  He stamped the blueprint background directly onto his tag, then stamped the card twice onto watercolor paper--the full card and then he cut out the Queen.

Although I used one of his (the actual artist of this line is Mario's son) blueprint stamps, there are only 2 layers, so I stamped a background on my tag before using the 2 layers that I stamped & colored on watercolor paper.

I also used Dimensionals behind the pear to give it shape.

I used some Black Soot Distress Co'ordinations paper and embossed with Tim's Alterations Bubbles embossing folder and sanded before adhering at the top of my tag.

I used Tim's Damask embossing folder to run more of the same paper through my Vagabond and sanded & distressed that as well for the bottom of my tag.

I used some Mustard Seed Distress Co'ordinations paper for inside my charm and put in a couple words from Tim's Chit Chat stickers.  I also wrapped some Stampin' Up! Bakers Twine around the tag and this held my charm.

Tim must really love this pointing finger stamp, because this is the 2nd tag in a row he used in on, and in the same way!  OMG!  lol  I do love it tho!  I still didn't have his Vial Labels yet, so I created my own again using the back of an Adage Ticket and drawing my own lines.

The final touch was this fabulous idea by Tim ... using Tissue Tape as a ribbon!  Kind of a 'duh' moment for me.  lol  You just fold a length of tissue tape onto itself, crumple it up, and put it through the hole like a regular piece of ribbon.  It's a little trickier, but I love the look!