Napkin Swap, Anyone?

So, I have some great napkins that I find, oh, I don't know, in CLEARANCE isles, that I know I will never use the whole package of. Would anyone be interested in a little napkin swap? I thought if you were, we could just do it like this:

Email me if you're interested.

I'll email you my address.

Send me some napkins you might have excess of.

Whatever you send will be how many you get back.

Easy, right? 
Remember, you can use napkins for sooo many things. Beeswax, collage with plain ole glue, etc. I have some cool Santa napkins that I swiped from last year's Christmas dinner that I want to glue to cards for next year. It went something like this:

We had barely sat down to dinner, and I spout off, "Hey, do you have any extra of these here napkins?" LOL. It wasn't my side of the family, either. 
Everyone stops talking and looks at me, like, what, did you spill something?
Like I would ever spill anything. Snicker. 
No, I just have an idea for these napkins. Much rolling of eyes, snickering,  and back to dinner. They're used to me by now. 
Needless to say, they're still sitting in the same place as I put them after dinner LAST year.

So here's a pic of the napkins currently in stock, lol, just so you know. You can decide if they are way too ugly for your tastes...or not. 

I thought the "I'm not a housewife, but I am desperate" ones were pretty funny.  I have no idea what I'm going to use them for. As you can see I like floral and leaves. My nephew liked the camoflauge napkins. As a matter of fact, he used beeswax, that napkin and a scrap piece of board to make a name plaque for himself. He did a good job, too. My other nephew did one with a leftover turkey napkin from Thanksgiving. So, click on Rocky on the right sidebar to email me.

Let's see....last day of 2009. Wow. Where did this year go?? My resolution for 2010 is:

To use up supplies in my stash, and make more art (ok, that's two things). Find new ways to use older stuff. Reinvent the wheel sort of thing.

 I never do the "lose weight" thing. Totally unrealistic. Everything in moderation, and be happy with who you are. What fun is it to eat rice cakes all the time? Yuk.

Have a safe and Happy New Year friends, and I'll see you NEXT YEAR!!!

Roses to Die For.....

...you'll put it together in a minute.

Before I forget, Linda had a question about the house from yesterday's post. Kind of an important question that I completely forgot about mentioning. The roofs of the Maya Road houses do come off, and yes, the tags or mini book or whatever fit nicely inside. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, Linda. I'm sure everyone else was like, so where do the tags go? LOL.


So the grungepaper roses or, roses made from paper, or from some other flexible material lol, are quite the rage now. Wendy has a stamp specifically made for this purpose, and Tim makes them too. Wendy's stamp set is called the Dimensional Rose Art:

Obviously, you stamp on grungepaper, then cut the image out. Her instructions are here.


And Tim uses this Sizzix die, (from what I've heard):

Flower Layers #5

Now, I also use a couple of other dies to cut out grungepaper or paper to make roses. Once I heard it was just a six petal flower, the hunt was on. I should be an investigator. I love chasing stuff down, lol. Did I ever mention that I like to watch reruns of Murder, She Wrote? And Perry Mason? Let's see how many followers I lose after that admission. LOL. 
The following Sizzix dies are retired, I believe, but I have bought a lot on Ebay and also from www.itscheaperthantherapy.com, a gal from Colorado that has a storefront and also sells online. She sometimes has a lot of the hard to find Sizzix stuff. Anyways,  these are the two I use quite frequently:

Along with a Cuttlebug die, the Scribble flower (it has two dies in the set). Here's a pic of the actual cutting area:

The Charms die is on the left, the Daisies on the right.On the Charms die, I just use the one in the upper left corner there. The Daisies die is actually the one I used on my Day 12 tag for Tim's 12 tags of Christmas. It makes the rose look a little more dimensional because the petals are deeply cut towards the center. I'm sure there are other dies out there that have six petals. I'm going to try using other dies to make dimensional flowers, not necessarily roses. I figure if I just cut out a couple of petals here and there and start gluing, I'll come up with a process. It's all trial and error. I think I have just about every Sizzix die that is a flower of some sort anyways. Yeah, and how about the fact that Tim is partnering with Sizzix to make dies? About time, in my opinion. I think Wendy's stamps would make great dies, too. Would be great if they coordinated with her stamps. 
And speaking of dies, I got some Spellbinders Nestabilities and Shapeabilities for Christmas. Can't wait to start making stuff with those. I want to test to see how well they cut Grungepaper.
So that's my take on Roses to DIE for.......let me know if you've tried anything else to make roses, inquiring minds want to know!!

The House That Lori Built.....

....with a little help from Maya Road and Webster's Pages (sorry Habitat for Humanity).  This was another Christmas gift, for my sis. This one was pretty time consuming, but she's worth it. I have to say that because she reads this...kidding, Sis. But you'll see what I mean about time consuming, that, and I'll be interjecting my little comments along the way.

This was an online class that I took from Lisa Pace, waayyyyy bacccckkkk in, Lord, I don't even remember, early summer?? Spring?? Suffice it to say, sometime this year. And didn't really start on it till September or October. Lisa has wonderful online classes, and her style is very unique and vintage. Kind of shabby chic vintage. I don't know. That's how I describe it. Look at her blog, and you'll see. So, I'm sharing pics, but no specific instruction, other than my twist on it.

We were supposed to use the Maya Road Townhouse and tags, but I happened to have a Maya Road Bungalow, so I substituted that. The instructions called for Webster's Pages paper, the Reflection of Nature series. When I saw the paper, I knew I was definitely going to order and use that. It's just gorgeous, and me being a nature freak, well, I just loved it. It's kind of hard to find, of course I had to resort to online sources. 
I had to come up with something that resembled grout, since I didn't have the product that the instructions called for, so my concoction consisted of Snowtex by Delta (I don't want to even hazard a guess as to how old that was, I can tell you that there was a little rust on the inside of the lid, however...lol) and white acrylic paint. So you applied that first, let dry and then placed pieces of paper to look like tiles, and then covered the "tiles" with glaze - Glossy Accents or a similar product. So, here's some pics of the finished product:

Front

Back

Side

Roof

See what I mean about time consuming? LOL

The original MR Townhouse comes with tags, the Bungalow comes with a little accordian mini book. I wanted to keep the original idea of tags, so I just cut some with a Sizzix die out of heavy chipboard. 

Speaking of chipboard, can anyone give me a good source for heavy GRAY chip? 'Preciate it.

So, here's some pics of the inside tags:

 I used little grungepaper hinges to attach the little shutters to the windows, that way they were flexible. I loved the mosiac look so much, I went a little nuts and covered some other chip with the grout, and now they're waiting for some paper piecing. It's a little harder than you think making sure all those little pieces of paper fit together. Trust me. 

Oh yeah, did you notice what's above the front door? I'll wait until you go back up and look....

hmm.....

..hmm.. 

yes, it's a ROSE made with just paper. That spot was reserved for a little bunch of vintage flowers, which I didn't have, so I made a little paper rose instead. Blinged it up with some diamond stickles.  So, there you go, another Christmas gift shared. Sis seemed to like it, and I hope it inspires you to BUILD YOUR OWN HOUSE!!!!!

Take care!!

I've Been Framed, PART DEUX ET TROIS!!

Pretty pathetic for two years of high school French, no? Oui.

So, hope you're not tired of altered pic frames, 'cause here comes two more. Now that gifts have been given, I can share!

Now, keep in mind, these people wanted a picture of me swimming with the dolphins. I'm not that egotistical that I give out pictures of myself all the time, lol, like my ever sarcastic brother-in-law mentioned (love him dearly, however).

So, I was given a frame that no one wanted, complete with glass and mat. Nice simple rectangle of wood. Here's what it looked like before alteration:

Kind of a cobalt/dark blue with white mat.
I decided to ink up the mat with Peeled Paint, Broken China and Vintage Photo. This was after stamping the Fabulous Flourish stamp with gold paint dabber in the two alternating corners and letting dry.

Sheesh, I have to stop taking pictures in my kitchen, the halogen lighting is really terrible. Oh well. Also stamped a sentiment from one of Tim's sets on one side:

I also sanded the frame to take off the shine so paint would stick and painted the entire thing white. Then painted a heavy layer of Delta one step crackle over the white paint and let dry overnight. Then used acrylic antiquing medium and rubbed all over the frame to accent the cracks, and went over all that with some Making Memories gold glaze.

Also stamped the Fab. Flourish stamp with black Staz On on the front of the glass.  Here it is all finished:

The people I gave it to seemed to like it. On to the next one. This was another one of those canvas frame clearance deals. Here's the before alteration, actually it's not too bad of a pic, if you had a beach house, lol:

I started by stamping with the Fabulous Flourish AGAIN and some other stamps:

Then, I thought it needed something around the inside, but didn't want to cover up the first stamping too much, you know how that goes. So, I stamped on tissue paper and adhered it with Studio medium-matte. Then inked over that with the same trio of inks as the above frame. 

And as I sat there, staring off into the distance, I thought to myself, I wonder how these metallic finish crackle paints would look done in splatters all over? Let me tell you, I should have stared a little bit further into the distance on that one. And I might add, the metallic finish crackle paints do take a lot longer to dry than the regular crackle paints. And yes, it does clearly state that on the bottle. After I was done screwing that up and waiting for it to dry, I'm like, now what the heck am I going to do? Well, try to cover it up, that's what. Don't they call that an opportunity for embellishing? LOL. So, in comes some salvage stickers, and other stuff. But first, here's a close up of some the metallic crackle, it is pretty cool stuff, just not on this piece so much, lol.

The salvage stickers are dimensional because I attached them to grungeboard, and on some letters and numbers, I put an extra piece of grunge on the back to pop it up even further.  Here's the finished piece:

Looks a lot better in real life. Thought you would be tired of looking at my picture too, so I took this one before I inserted myself. LOL. So, I just wanted to show you what's possible with an ordinary picture frame, or those things that you buy that "might come in handy later". 
And if you went on the Artful Voyage to Mexico cruise, do you notice that I'm using a lot of the stuff that we received on the cruise?
Let's see, what else today. Oh yes, shall I pick the last winner from the tree tutorials? Yes, let's. LOL. (cell phone dialing.......hey, pick a number between one and seven...ok......see you later) and, number FIVE, LINDA.....email me your address please!!! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, I for one received lots of cool stuff and consider myself terribly fortunate. Later dudes!

It's TIME for the THURSDAY TREE TUTORIAL!

Awwww, aren't you sad? This is the last one! LOL

Well, folks, we're getting rain right now, changing to freezing rain later, then maybe snow. Yippee! We lost power yesterday for a little while, but fortunately, it came back on within a short time. One thing about being out in the middle of nowhere, no electricity = no lights AND no water AND no heat. We are fortunate in the fact that we have a corn burner, so we can hook up an inverter to a car battery with which to run the small fan and motor on the burner. So we can at least have heat. When the wind is blowing 35 mph, even though it's 32 degrees out, it's still pretty darn cold. The only other hardship was making sure the satellite dish was free of ice, so like idiots we could watch the weather and they could tell us how much more crap we MIGHT get.


Ok, so, on this last one, I knew I was going to be incorporating metal, somehow.....lol. Without further ado, I give you:

The Bling Bling Tree

Supplies used:

Maya Road Chipboard Triangle Banner

Chipboard star

1 ½” chipboard square

German Glass Glitter – silver

Art Glitter glue-clear

Pearl string

Fiskars Threading Water punch

Jump rings

Ten Seconds Studio: Brrr Blue metal, various tools and molds, humungo killer tape
Beaded trim

1) Trace the triangle chipboard piece on the back of the metal (umm, yeah, silver side). This gives you an idea of where your designs should be going, lol. You can also trace the chipboard square on the back side of the metal and cut out. I use TSS humungo killer tape to attach all metal to chipboard. The square of metal contained no design or embossing, so you can just attach it to the square, DON’T attach the triangle piece! You need to emboss your design first!

2) Now, this part is totally subjective. Emboss your metal however you wish. I used the wheels, ball and cup tools, and then free hand designed “O Holy Night”. I filled in with some of the molds, the “25th” is from one of the Kabuka molds. Once completed, I put tape sheet on the back, cut out and placed on the chipboard triangle. No, I did not use spackle on the back like you’re supposed to, lol. I didn’t think this piece will get much manhandling, so I skipped that.

3) I used the Fiskars Threading Water punch to cut some borders for the side of the tree from the blue metal. Cuts very easy in the punch. Then placed a small strip of tape on the blue side of the strip near the edge and adhered to the BACK side of the triangle chipboard. This takes a little planning, because you want to make sure the scallops meet at the top, you’ll have to do a little cutting on the curve afterwards.

4) I used Art Glitter glue to add glass glitter to the chipboard star (FULL COVERAGE, lol), and in between the wheel designs on the tree, and the edges of the scallops on the border, and also the edges of the chipboard square, which should already have the metal attached to it. Let that dry.

5) Line up the square (trunk of tree) with the base of the triangle, and punch two holes in the square and then two matching holes in the base of the tree. Then I took string pearls, put some glue on the back of the chipboard square, held with alligator clip and wrapped the pearls around the square, and finished on the back again with glue and alligator clip, set aside to let dry.

6) Also glued the string pearls to the side of the tree, on top of the scallop borders.
7)  Glued beaded trim pieces to base of tree, on the back.

8) Use jump rings to attach the square (trunk) to the tree base.

That’s it! This is one of those projects that takes more time to think about how to complete than the actual “doing” part. Yeah, and it’s pretty blingy for me, but I do love glitter, surprisingly. I just don’t use it as much as I would like to, because I’m afraid things will look too garish. But, I decided, Hey, this is my tree, I’ll make the darn thing as blingy as I want, gol darn it.

I have to admit, I haven’t used German glass glitter much…. ok, this is the first time on a major project. I received a little packet of it with some online class supplies. I had heard of it, of course, just haven’t purchased any. One of the reasons is, I hate buying a little packet of stuff and then paying $5 to have it shipped. Although, I’m sure there’s some store out there that would ship it for less…..anywho…I’ve found a new addiction. That stuff is AWESOME. I’ve seen people that have used it and they say the pictures don’t do it justice, and they’re right. You just can’t appreciate it until you see it in person. Just great stuff. So, another thing I just might have to have in the “stash”. LOL.

Here's some close ups:

So, I hope you have enjoyed the tutorials, maybe I'll think of something good for next month. Hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS, and I'll probably see you Monday, maybe before, depends if we have 'lectricity! lol.

Tip and Joy

Sounds like the names of two of my cats.  Ah, no. I have four cats, and none of them are named Tip or Joy. Yes, two are outside cats, two are in and out. All strays. Here in the sticks, we find a lot of those. I'm a sucker for animals. Somehow, the animals know this and find their way to our house, lol. I think it's one of the reasons I'm here on this earth. To take care of animals that the other idiots of my species decide they don't want to be responsible for anymore. And, by the way, woe be it to the idiot that I catch dumping off an animal. There would be much weeping and gnashing of teeth......, and not by me. 'Nuff said.

Ok, tip 'o the day, matey.


You know you can buy replacement tops for the paint dabbers by Ranger, right? Visual aid:

When I first saw them, I thought, hopefully these will fit my other (numerous) acrylic paint bottles. (From my decorative painting days) Finally got some with an order, and....I'm happy to report....they do! So, I plan on getting more and converting all my acrylics (the ones that are still good, I don't want to mention how old some of them are) to paint dabbers. Nice way to apply acrylic paint. Very easy, and no brush to clean. Cool. K, there's the Tip part.



Now for the JOY. Like I don't give you enough already, LOL


I made this for the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo! group at the beginning of December. It's been posted to group for a while, so I felt safe in sharing it here. I came up with a Christmas project that uses all Wendy's stamps, but weren't Christmas stamps, follow me? Her stamps are so versatile, a lot of ideas came to mind. But this is what I came up with. I call it, "The Joy Hanging". I know, usually I'm more creative than that, but, well, it pretty much sums it up. 

The leaves for the wreath are from the Ticket to Art set, of which I made six,  placed mirror images beside each other like this:

Then intertwined like this before adhering to the chipboard circle underneath:

Of course, a lot of distress inks were used in the making of this project, some Maya Road chipboard letters and jewel flowers, Heidi Swapp chandilier pieces, Ideaology trinket pin, red wool strips, and did I mention, the stamps were all Wendy's? Oh yeah, I did.  Like the backdrop in the picture? That's the peak of Rocky's dog house, lol. Actually, I think it makes a pretty awesome backdrop, what with the peeling paint and all. So, there you go, a little Tip and Joy for your Tuesday before Christmas!

I've Been Framed!!!

No, not literally. I love thinking of catchy titles. Sometimes they're good, sometimes...not.

Anyways, this was one of those, OMGChristmasisFridayandthisneedstobeinthemailbyMondaymorning
Ihavetohurryandgetitdone
kind of weekends. You know what I'm sayin'?

Saturday I spent finishing two quilts. Done. Thanks to help from Mom. Thanks Mom!

That left yesterday, I think it was Sunday, LOL.

Now, let me just say, this was all self inflicted pressure, as if you didn't know by now. I'm one of those, "I won't buy it because I know I can make it" and, "it will be so much cooler if I did "this" or "that" to it. Yeah right.  Afterwards, I'm thinkin', "this would have been so much easier to go out and just buy the damn thing" Another...yeah, right. 

So, I brilliantly decide that a picture that someone wants, needs a cool frame. Ok. Have some canvas frames in my stash that were just begging for alteration. Yeah, one of those, "wow, this is in the clearance isle and I'll buy it now in case I need it" moments. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout. After opening the package and looking at it, I'm like, WTH? There is no opening to insert a flippin' picture? Then, I read the package a little more careful and come to the determination that it is a canvas frame with a ready made hotel picture in it, not meant for a picture frame. Crap. Well, ok, it's going to contain a picture anyways. I hope you're still with me and laughing. Because otherwise this post is meaningless drivel. Well, ok, it's still drivel, but at least you can laugh at me. I don't care. I laugh at myself all the time. Am I digressing again? Sheesh.

On to the frame, again. I try to ink it with distress inks, for some reason, the surface is not absorbent, and the inks aren't soaking in. Another crap. On to alcohol inks. VIOLA! Finally, success. Here's a picture of the frame with the hotel pic in it, and yes, I came to my senses enough to realize that I should take a picture of the "before":

See the yellow portion? That's the original color, kind of a real pale yellow. Obviously, you can see where I'm applying the alcohol inks. I used Bottle and Denim. Here it is all inked up:

I just love how alcohol inks look. Here's the finished product, complete with another hotel quality pic, wait a minute, that's me!

 
I stamped the corner stamp from the Floral Tattoo set (Tim's) in silver paint dabber in opposing corners, and the other stamp from that set in the upper right corner of the frame, going down the one side with a portion and then across the top to form a corner stamp. Then stamp MEXICO with silver paint dabber using Tim's foam stamp set. I'm SO glad I bought those on the cruise. I just love the font. I realized the letters didn't quite fit in the frame, but they always say you should stamp off the page, right? lol. Then I used the flower from the Floral Tattoo set and stamped that randomly over the frame using Jet Black Archival. I put two Ideaology corner frames in opposing corners, and slapped my pic in there, DONE. Lord, I hope they don't discontinue the corner frames (like they did the SNAPS). Love those things. So yeah, the pic is not behind glass or professionally framed, but so what? In a hundred years, it won't matter. The lighting when I took the pic wasn't the greatest, but I think you get the general idea. It was much cooler in real life.Another project done, and a couple of more left to go.  What do you mean? There's still three more days till Christmas!

Tim's Totally Tremendous Tags, Day TWELVE! and someone will be happy!

Wow! I think it's a record! 13 comments on yesterday's Thursday Tree Tutorial (at the time of this posting)! It really pays to post on the Yahoo! groups, lol. And all nice comments, too! Thanks peeps, you're the best! Called the mobile random generator and number 11 is the lucky one! So, Shelly Hickox, please email me your address! 

Ok, on to the last tag, (insert big sigh and regretful moaning here). I loved this tag. The beauty part was that I already had some roses made up in just the right colors, so it went together pretty easy. Oh yeah, and when I make the roses in the future, I'm going to use my friend, Eileen's suggestion on putting a brad thru the base layer and glue the other layers on top of that. Is that the best suggestion since the invention of distress inks or what?  Ok, here's my version:

The large red rose I stamped with Wendy's gingham background stamp, it was inked with Fired Brick and Aged Mahogany ink, then stamped. Then I decided to bling it up, so I brushed Perfect Pearls Forever Red, I believe, over it. Well, actually I put a little scoop of the PP on my craft sheet, added some water, and made a wash out of it. The photo doesn't pick all the glisteny goodness, let me tell you, it glistens. Same with the gold one. Obviously, I used the Heirloom Gold PP here. The original color was Mustard Seed distress ink. So, at the time of the making of this tag, I didn't have an adage ticket, but I did have a vintage ticket, so I inked it with FB ink and stamped the BELIEVE stamp on it, from the Mini Holidays collection.  The only real issue I had here was the rhinestones and pearls. Didn't have the "already in a swirl pattern", but I did have a circle frame pattern, so cut that up and pieced together to make a swirl. The glare of the adhesive tape shows in the photo, but it's really not that obvious in "real life". Although it does kind of give that "shooting star" effect on the top, lol. Duh, why didn't I just put little dabs of glue, then pick off the rhinestones with a pliers and place on glue? I'll tell you why, because it was late and I was tired, that's why. So I went what I thought would be the easy route. Didn't have pearls at all, so went to the Liquid Pearls. It was ok, but if someone can give me a tip on how to make perfectly rounded little dots with the applicator on dimensional paints without the end result looking like a nipple on a b**b, I would greatly appreciate it. lol. I'm working on it. All in all, I was happy with the result.
I love the grungepaper roses, and usually have parts drying all over my workspace in between doing other things. I've also made some with just paper, but it needs to be a heavy cardstock that won't rip easily. I'll show you some later. I also have various dies that I use to cut out the roses, besides the one Tim uses. Maybe I'll share those as well, if you're nice to me, lol. As a matter of fact, the roses on this tag were made with another Sizzix die I have. Wendy's rose stamp is a lovely size for a rose, too. And I certainly use that a lot to make roses, but if I'm in a hurry and need one, I'll run to the Sizzix. 
Speaking of being nice, I'd like to hear what you like to see most on blogs. Tutorials? Tips? Just other art? Challenges? Well, everyone likes giveaways, silly. What makes you keep coming back on a daily basis? Is it just because you know the person and want to be nice to them, lol? Let me know, bring it on!

It's TIME for the THURSDAY TREE TUTORIAL!

I bet you just couldn't wait to get to the computer today, right? LOL  Oh stop, you're making me blush.  LOL

Ok, second to last one, peeps!  I do appreciate your comments, by the way. It's always nice to know that someone is at least looking at your stuff. LOL

Without further ado, I give you:

 The Tim Tree

Not the greatest pic, but there will be closeups along the way, not that they are much better, but, you'll get the idea at least, lol.

Supplies I used in this project:

Maya Road Chipboard Triangle Banner

Vintage sheet music and text paper

Distress inks – broken china, faded jeans, walnut stain, vintage photo, fired brick

Snow Cap pigment ink

Idea-ology masks, flourish and crown

Fabulous Flourish stamp

Idea-ology pieces

Grungeboard

Domino

Beeswax

Perfect Pearls

Art Glitter glue-dries clear

Black embossing powder

Manila folder

Dymo with black cardstock, white pigment ink

Platinum stickles

Distress edger - Tonic

Studio Multi Medium matte

Foam dots or tape

As far as the background is concerned, I’m going to explain what I did, but it’s very hard to tell in the finished product, because, well…..I used a little too much beeswax.

1) First thing I did was trace the chipboard piece on a manila file folder and cut out. I did this so I could glue the piece to the chipboard later, instead of working directly on the chip.

2) I then glued strips of old text paper and sheet music to the cut out with Studio Multi Medium, matte. Just tore the paper in about 1” increments, then glued. When dry, I tore the excess paper along the edge of the cut out.

3) Using the masks, inked over with BC and FJ ink, with some WS in some areas and around the edges with WS. Stamped fab flourish with WS in bottom corner.

4) Distressed edge with distresser tool, applied more WS around edges

5) Glued piece to the chip base.

6) Applied WS around the edge of the chip.  Here's what it looks like, prior to beeswax.

Now, I thought it looked a little busy at this point, hence the decision to use beeswax.

7) Applied melted beeswax to piece in light coat, also coated the domino. Now, here’s where I may have made a boo boo. I thought it needed texture, so I put down some netting from an onion bag, applied wax over it, and pulled it off before it cooled completely. I then realized I had a little too much wax on the piece, so I ended up scraping some off in some areas, while leaving the texture in others.

8) I then applied some perfect pearls while the wax was somewhat warm, I used the Patina collection, the blue, green and then pewter.

9) I let it cool and buffed it with a cloth to bring out the shine. I did the same with the domino, which I left smooth and untextured. I also cleaned out the “spots” on the domino, (notice the significance of the domino I chose? LOL) and filled the “spots” with Platinum Stickles. Set that aside to dry for a bit.

Now, I’ll just tell you how I made each of the embellishment pieces.

Applied a Basic Grey white rub on flourish to base of piece.

Drill two small holes in the top of the domino, and insert two large jump rings. Put two small jump rings thru the large rings. Punch two small holes in the base of the tree and put two large jump rings in, then you can attach the domino to the rings, now or later. Later makes it easier to apply everything else.

For the little guy, which is one of Tim’s original stamps, I believe, not sure, and of course, I forgot to write down the name this morning, but I’ll get back to you on that. It’s from Stampers Anonymous, of course. I stamped him on a piece of manila file folder that I glued to grungeboard, and embossed with black powder, then cut out. Gave him some stability. Then inked the edges with VP ink, and used my water brush to apply a little FB ink to his cheeks, he was lookin’ kind of pale. I then glammed up his crown with Platinum Stickles, set him aside to dry. I used foam tape on the back to adhere to the base.

The star? Well, you can see it’s all Ideaology pieces. I flattened out a foliage flower, one of the bigger ones, then bent up a tiny edge on each petal, and used Art Glitter glue to adhere the trinket pins in the star shape, let dry. Then used a gear and long attacher to attach it to the piece, I had punched a hole in the top with my crop a dile big bite.

Used black cardstock and ran it through my label maker, and then swiped it with Snow Cap pigment ink, I used foam dots on the back to give it dimension and adhered to piece.

Adhered a clock face from the salvage sticker set to grungeboard shape, sanded edges, applied WS ink around edges, used a long attacher and sprocket gear to attach to piece.

Stamped fab flourish stamp on adage wish ticket, inked around edges with WS. Attached to base of piece using long attacher. Then hung a word key and muse token along with other little bits from hinge clip, and tied a little ribbon bow through the hole on the hinge clip.

Also tied some ribbon on the jump rings holding the domino.

So, there you go, do you think Timinator would approve, lol? For those that went on the cruise and followed the tags, do you see a combination of techniques? Let me know what you would do differently, I always enjoy hearing other ideas.

Tim's Totally Tremendous Tags, Day ELEVEN!

Second to last one.....darn. 
By the way, thanks for all the nice comments about Tag 10, either you guys are too nice to be honest or it really wasn't that bad....LOL.
So day 11 involved the new gadget, Itop, the make-your-own-brad thingie. Obviously, didn't have it. So, resorted to covering some jumbo brads with fabric and Art Glitter glue. Used some silk flowers as backgrounds that matched the general color scheme. I didn't have the bigger reindeer, just the smaller version, so he's a little out of proportion. All in all, I liked the idea, but my silk flowers are possibly a little over the top. Here it is:

I added distress stickles on the brads over the fabric.  Here's a closeup:

Also added Rock Candy stickles to the flowers. White highlights were added with the white pen on the flourishes and wherever else I thought they looked good, and the sentiment was written with the white pen as well.
In retrospect, I should have used something a little more in proportion than the reindeer, and fixed the silk flower background on the left, it's kind of wonky. Next time perhaps. Yeah, right. 

Well, stay tuned for tomorrow, remember it's Thursday, so you know what that means, the Thursday Tree Tutorial! And I'm sorry to say Pam, it won't be a Scrappy Pam tree, LOL. Till Thursday....(wasn't that a music artist from the 80's?, wait, that's Til Tuesday I think, LOL)

Tim's Totally Tremendous Tags, Day TEN! and some blog candy you should check out!

Whew, up to 10 already! LOL  I think this tag was great in technique and Tim's looked awesome, as did everyone else's. I think mine sucks.  Of all the Ten Seconds Studio metal that I do have, the metal tape sheets was not one of them. Imagine that. So, I used HVAC aluminum duct tape. Which was ok, but you can still kind of see the line because I had to put two together to cover the tag. Ok, here it is, begrudgingly.

Here's where I think I went wrong, LOL. I shouldn't have used Christmas as a word, it's too long, takes up the whole side of the tag. And shouldn't the words be facing the same way, perhaps? Whatever. From there the placement of everything else was kind of out of whack. Then I wasn't happy with the way the alcohol inks covered the tape, it actually was kind of blotchy, maybe there was residue on the tape that I should have cleaned off. So, I thought rubbing some black paint on it might help bring it together. Too much black paint. So then I think it needs a little something else to brighten it up since it has totally been botched at this point. I made a glittered snowflake and adhered it to the left side over a grungeboard swirl that is underneath. Along with some star brads that I cover with glitter. I mean, how much worse can it get, really? Anyways, I loved the concept and technique, and will try it again. At this point, not till after the holidays. Maybe a Valentine's Day tag? Well, enough of that. You need to check out Jennie's blog here.  She has a fantastic blog, and is one of our arty friends from across the pond. She's having 12 DAYS OF GIVEAWAYS after Christmas. Instructions for entering are on her blog. Go check it out! Also, she specifically mentions that she is opening it up WORLDWIDE! You know, I don't usually enter giveaways internationally, because I don't want to put the extra burden of postage on the giver (that's assuming I might win, LOL), but hey, if she is willing, I'm in! Thanks Jennie!

Would You Give These to Somebody?

Whoa, two posts in one day, scary. I wanted to get some feedback, and I know you will be completely honest with me, I hope, LOL.

I had a little gathering over the weekend with some friends, and we had to bring a $5 grab bag gift. Keep in mind that these were all women.  So, I thought I would make a set of all occasion cards as my gift, and here's what I came up with:

I thought they would be handy to have for certain events that happen at the last minute. They were pretty much greeting card size, not the quarter fold size. I just stamped a simple sentiment inside, two were sympathy, one congratulations, a happy anniversary, and I can't remember the other sentiment. The person receiving it seemed happy to receive them. I want to know, would you have like to receive them? Would you have given them as a grab bag gift? I'm just curious what folks think, I always wonder whether non arty people like to receive such gifts. In case you want to know how I made them, I just used two different colors of distress inks on each, keeping it tone on tone. The French Script background stamp came into play, along with the Hero Arts Three Ferns stamp. Let me know watcha' think! 'Preciate it! (Gettin' pretty good at abbreviatin', huh?) 

Tim's Totally Tremendous Tags, Day ......What?? FIVE!

Yes, finally got my supplies needed to make this one. So, without further ado, oh, wait a minute, maybe I should refresh your memory of Tim's day five tag, being as how it was eons ago:

And here is my version:

Didn't realize the shadow was so bad there at the bottom. So, instead of the pine bough stamp, used one I had that was a little different. I didn't have the components stamps for the small images behind the fragments, so I ended up using some Graphic 45 Christmas tags I had leftover from another project. On the big ornament, I collaged several of the G45 tags together, I thought it turned out pretty good. I don't have Tim's script stamp, but I use Stampin' Up's French Script background stamp. That is my all time favorite Stampin' Up stamp. The rubber is stained pretty black from all the use, did I mention I really like it? So that's what I used in place of the script stamp. Didn't have a white rub on greeting, so decided to paw through my stash of sentiment stamps, used perfect medium and white embossing powder to get basically the same effect. I used the brass colored memory foil tape on the top of the fragments and brass wire to hang them with. I thought it went well with the gold flourishes.  I added the red ribbon at the top of each fragment.  Ok, now the quandry. No German Scrap, which I'm not sure if I really know what that is. (edging at top and bottom of card.) I'm lookin' around my "mess", when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a strip of lace lookin' stickers from the "clearance" section along with eight tiny reindeer.. oh, wait, scratch the part about the reindeer.  Hmm..I wish these were gold, not white. DOH, use the gold paint dabber on it. Yeah, that's the ticket! Worked great. Presto, done! So, I did for the most part finish the tags yesterday. But I think I'm going to draw it out and post one a day till the end. I only have 10, 11 and 12 to post anyways. Why waste a good thing? It's kind of like the cruise thing, just keep drawin' it out until you get every drop of goodness out of it! Till then!

Another Enabler Alert!

I always like to let people know about good deals. Imagine that! I just checked my email for the first time this weekend, and received notification that Maya Road is having a warehouse sale! A grab "box" of product for $49.50 with free shipping in the US! I LOVE THEIR CHIPBOARD! Well, all their stuff is pretty cool, but I use the chip a lot. So I'm hopin' it's loaded with chip, but at that price, I'll take anything they throw in there! You can get them on their Paypal storefront, here.  
On a more serious note, I have to finish the last couple of tags from the Timinator, so I'm hoping to accomplish that tomorrow. Not feeling the greatest today, Dewbird decided to share his germs this last week, LOL. Thought I was in the clear till last night. Oh well. Tis the season, right? But it's one of those, I really don't have time to not feel well deals. Have a great weekend everyone, what's left of it, and I'll see you on Monday!

Tim's Totally Tremendous Tags, Day 9!

You're going to have to read the whole post today, from beginning to end. I'm just sayin'.


Well, yes, I'm fairly caught up. I did have it completed yesterday, but my tree tutorial took up the blog. So I thought I would save it until Friday. LOL  Actually, I didn't deviate to much from Tim's tag. And I used the same pictures that he so nicely shared with us, as I didn't really have any of my own, well, none that didn't require a lot of digging and calling family members to round up pictures. His were much easier to print. :) 

That picture of the little girl on Santa's lap is hysterical, although you do feel bad for her! That's why I chose the phrase, "better not cry!" for my tape.  Although that's not really Dymo tape, once again I ran black cardstock thru the label maker I do have and swiped white ink over it. And I didn't have the metal numbers, so I used silver embossing powder over grungeboard. No tiny attacher, so life size stapler.  I used alcohol inks to color the metal foliage pieces. I really like cranberry and pesto. No weathered wood distress ink (shocker), so I used broken china overshadowed with black soot, then faded jeans in some areas. No photography stamp, just improvised with some altered stamps I have. And finally I added a metal piece at the top that says "believing". Turned out fairly well, I thought. So I see the next one involves metal, hmmm, one of my favorite products, can't wait to get started on that one! 
P.S. I did do tag 10, I didn't think it was my best work, actually I think it stinks, but I'll post it later. Will probably make another one to see if it turns out better.



Ok, what you all have been waitin' for....or not.......my random generator, aka Dewbird picked number 7 this morning. SUSANK.....email me your addy! Congrats!

It's TIME for the THURSDAY TREE TUTORIAL!

Is it Thursday already?  Yikes! How time flies!

Frigidly cold here today, like wind chills well below zero. We didn't get as much snow as predicted, but with the 40-50 mph winds, it seemed like 12 feet.  Left work early because of the blizzard, and I actually had to stop a few times just to make sure I was still on pavement. It's not the worst I have driven in, but I can tell you it is NO FUN.

So, I actually had the idea for this tree before the G45 tree. It was a lot of fun to do, and remember I told you that each tree will have a theme, usually my favorite artists or companies of products I use. You can already tell I love Maya Road, right? LOL  So this week, I give you:

The WENDY TREE

Sorry about all the extra stuff on the sides of the pic, I hang items on my inspiration board to take pics, and I didn't take time to move it all out of the way. LOL.  Wendy who you ask? Not that you should be asking, you should know who I'm talkin' 'bout by now. WENDY VECCHI. I LOVE HER STYLE, oh, and STAMPS. I'm waiting for her DVD to come out. LOL. KIDDING. Don't email and ask her when, I'm just wishin'.  Ok, let's get started!

Supplies I used in this project:

Maya Road Triangle Banner Chipboard

1 ½” chipboard square

Grungepaper

1 ½” to 1 ¾” strip of paper, I used K & Company paper, Margo collection, it kind of looked Christmasy to me

Jenni Bowlin mini paper to make grungepaper rose

Maya Road Trinket Jewel flower

Maya Road Trinket pin

Idea-ology clip and fastener

Cluny lace

Ribbon

Distress ink: Peeled Paint (PP), Fired Brick(FB), Aged Mahogany (AM), Brushed Corduroy (BC)

Archival Black ink

Sakura glaze pen in black

Stickles – Diamond and Platinum

Studio 490 Stamp Sets Used (followed by which stamp):

Art Parts – Scrolls

All About Art – Polka dot background

Alphabetically Art – Flower background, small flower for star

Artfully Said – Believe quote

Dimensional Rose Art – Rose, leaf, big scroll, number background, flower for star

Flower Art – Grid background

1) Cover triangle banner chip with PP ink, let dry

2) Cover chip square with BC ink, dry

Reminder: make sure to ink the edges of the chipboard!!

3) Now, you can make the grungepaper rose ahead of time if you wish. You can find instructions on Wendy’s blog, here. Cover the grungepaper with the Jenni Bowlin mini papers FIRST, then stamp the rose image three times, if you don’t want the stamp line showing, stamp on the BACK of the grungepaper, then cut out per instructions. Ink the edges of the three pieces with BC ink or brown ink of your choice. Assemble and set aside to let glue dry.

4) You can also stamp the flower stamp that will be the star for the tree, ink front and BACK with FB and AM ink, then stamp polka dot background on front of flower, and stamp the number background on the backs of the flowers. I used three layers of flowers stacked. I curled the petals of the base under, while the top two layers are curled up. Punch small hole in the center of each flower before stacking. Take the MR jewel pin and stick thru the MR jewel flower, then thru the center of the layered grungepaper flower. Spread some Diamond stickles on the petals, set aside. Now, I suppose you could spread the stickles before stacking and let dry, then stack. That would make more sense, wouldn’t it? Hey, this is all trial and error. We will tack it to the tree at the end.

5) Stamp the rose leaves stamp twice on grungepaper, cut out and ink with PP ink. Ink flower background stamp with Archival black and stamp front of leaves, then ink polka dot background and stamp back of leaves, set aside.

6) Stamp Believe quote on chip square with Archival ink, then edge square with Platinum Stickles (oh yeah, thanks to Sherry Goodloe for turning me on to Platinum Stickles and set aside to dry, that stuff is great! I think Sherry buys it in 55 gallon drums from Ranger, LOL, kidding Sherry!)

7) Ink grid background stamp with PP ink, and I like to turn this stamp “on point” when I stamp, for a cool diagonal effect. You can just stamp it square if you want, anyways, stamp the background over the triangle. Now, try to keep it towards the top, because we’ll be covering the bottom 1 ½” of the tree with paper, so that doesn’t require stamping, really.

8) Cover the base with the strip of paper you chose. This hides those holes in the chip! Ink around the edges of the paper strip once adhered with the blending tool and FB ink. I put a piece of scrap paper over the PP area, so I wouldn’t get FB on the PP area. We don’t want anything in the PP area! He he!

9) Stamp over the paper strip with the large scroll stamp (don’t know what else to call it) using FB ink.

10) Take the rose and the leaves and lay on the base of the tree to determine your placement. Then remove, and stamp the scrolls with Archival black, keeping in mind where the rose and leaves were, so you can see some of the scrolls, at least! I just eyeballed it, but if it makes you feel better, I suppose you could mark where the leaves and rose are going to be, somehow.

11) Use the Sakura glaze pen and make stitch lines around the perimeter of the base of the tree, and dot the grid background stamp where the lines intersect. I also dotted where the dots were on the scroll stamp. This is completely optional, as are any of these steps! LOL

12) Put red ribbon thru cluny lace. I would say the strip of lace is about 6” long. You want to have enough to wrap the edges around the sides and attach on the back, so you don’t have frayed edges sticking out, unless you prefer that look! Attach lace to piece where the PP ink background and the paper strip meet with Fabric Tac or other fabric adhesive. Trust me, you want fabric adhesive here. Not that I would know, (snort), I’m just sayin’.

13) Punch a small hole in the center bottom of the tree. I would say my hole ended up being about ½” up from the bottom. Put the Idea-ology fastener thru the back hole of the hinge clip, and put the fastener thru the hole you punched, and spread out the fastener on the back. Open the hinge clip and insert the chip square with the Believe quote. Cool trunk, huh?

14) Punch small hole at the very top of the tree for your star. The jewel pin will be your fastener. Put some glossy accents or other strong adhesive on the pin before you stick it thru, or around the hole and pin afterwards. Point is, you don’t want it to fall out! Let dry thoroughly! CAREFULLY cut off remainder of pin sticking out the back! POINT AWAY FROM YOU (and OTHERS) while cutting!! I had to use wire trimmers.

15) Last step! Adhere rose leaves to piece, then the ROSE! Now, here’s what I did for the rose. These tend to be hard to glue, because the base isn’t flat. I turned the rose over, and ran my pokey tool thru the base, about 1/8” to ¼” up from the point of the base. Get a button. About a ½” button will do. Run floral wire thru two button holes (this is if you have a four hole button, he). Then run one side of the wire thru the rose, and twist with the other end of wire to secure. Then you can wrap a couple of times around, which means between the rose and the button to secure the rose to the button. Cut off excess wire, now your rose has somewhat of a flat base! Adhere to piece in between leaves. DONE! Oh, I put some Diamond stickles on the rose, too. Diamond has a slight gold hue to it which is kind of cool, works nicely with the “flower star” and the Platinum stickles. You don’t have to use the button trick, but you would have to use strong adhesive, and get it to stay in one position while drying, a feat which is more difficult sometimes than it seems. If anyone else has other ideas, let me know! And if you have any questions, click on Rocky to the right to email me!

If you want to hang this piece, attach a loop of ribbon to the top, or you’re favorite method of hanging! I tried to bend the jewel pin stick into a loop, but it didn’t work that great once it was in the piece, so I’ll end up attaching something else with which to hang. Or, I’m thinking that once these four trees are done, I might assemble in one of my antique frames and hang. Would make a nice Christmas decoration for next year, right?

So far, this is my favorite, (um, yeah, one of two so far). Can you guess the theme of next week's tree? Could be one of my favorite artists or companies, you never know. Yeah, and don't forget, comments are good, remember what happened to Helen last week?  It's not hard to comment, and I don't care if it's one word. Ok, on to the next project, I hope I have inspired you to make your own trees!