Tag Tuesday and an AWARD!!

..well, better late than never, I guess. The theme this week....By Your Own Hand...doodling, writing, whatever, as long as you do something, um, er, by your own hand. lol
You can check out the rest of the entries HERE.
I had done one earlier in the week with some permanent marker and watercolor pencils, but then I got stupid and tried to freehand some flourishes, and, oh my, the flourishes. It was a very tragic end to the tag. You should be thankful I don't design stamps. I'm just sayin'.
So, today I performed a re-do. Here we go:

I was going to stick with the clock theme, but I couldn't help myself, I made the clock into a flower center. lol  The purple flower is a metal die cut I received from one of my swaps.  The flourish is from one of Tim's new dies.  I tried the pigment ink resist with one of Wendy's stamps, which is a clock.  It turned out ok, but I just don't have the greatest luck with this technique. The white dots which you see liberally applied over everything is the new enamel accents from Ranger.  Been wanting to try those, so far....I like.  The distress inks I used were Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo.  The flourish is inked with Bundled Sage.
I was also surprised to find out that I've been bestowed another blog award from my friend Helen.

And the rules are:

1.  Express gratitude to the blogger who bestowed the award unto you... Copious,grovelling …I am not worthy… gratitudes. Okey, dokey.  Helen is very funny, creative, and has the biggest stash of stuff I've ever seen.

2.  Display the picture on your blog proudly.

3.  Be nice and provide a link to the person who gave it to you.

Here's the link to Helen's blog

4.  Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth, or switch it around and tell six outrageous truths and one outrageous lie. I'm not telling which is which

5.  Nominate seven creative writers who might be into doing this. (see below)

6.  Post links to the seven blogs you nominate and let the owners of those blogs know. Ok, on this one, I'm going to nominate seven, but I'll let them choose whether or not they wish to participate.

Hmmmm, six outrageous lies or truths..this might take some time....or not...

1.  I used to be a super model, but I was tired of all the drama.

2.  In high school, I thought I was going to be a park ranger in the mountains out west, or a truckdriver.

3.  I taught Sunday School 

4.  I was almost on The Apprentice, but I told Trump his combover looked idiotic, and was promptly fired.

5.  I don't like flowers

6.  While zip lining in the Amazon, I had to kill a boa constrictor with my own bare hands to save a member of my team. They're kinda strong, it wasn't easy, but I did it. I saved the skin and made a jacket out of it.

7.  I don't like ice cream at all, it disgusts me.

So now I get to nominate, what? seven? who might want to do this? fellow bloggers to receive this award, hmmm....these blogs never fail to make me laugh out loud at some of the stuff they write.....

1. Eileen

2. Linda L.

3. Electra

4. Jana

5.  Nancy C.

6.  Suze

7.  Susan

So, there you go, thanks Helen for nominating me, 'preciate it!

Glue, Paper, Scissors

...after seeing some awesome pages that Sarah and Louise have done with their glue books, I decided to take the plunge and join the online class instructed by Mary Green.  You can view details about glue books and what it entails, HERE.  Hadn't heard anything about this recent phenomenon in paper crafting till I read about  it on Sarah and Louise's blogs.The thing that interested me the most was the ability to learn more about collage.  I love collage.  How many times have you seen my projects with ripped music and text paper? Lots. I decided I wanted to learn more about the composition of collage, so I enrolled.  A glue book is basically gluing ephemera into a book, period. All that's required for supplies is ephemera or paper, glue and scissors.  So class started May 16, and I didn't sign up till May 22. Typical. And here it is May 28 and I just started cutting and gluing for some of the exercises. Yikes. Well, it was described as self paced. lol.  Here's what I came up with for my first exercise:

I chose to use an old book as the base. It's about 5 x 7. It's bigger than the recommended 3.5 x 5.5 inch size. Might be setting myself up for frustration there, but I'll give it a shot.  If there's one thing I've never been accused of, it's not being willing to venture out on my own and suffering the consequences as a result. lol  Here's how the inside of the book pages look, which I think is pretty cool. Circa 1949, nice and yellow-y.

So, if you're interested in collage and paper, I highly recommend Mary's class. Well written and lots of vintage images to use. Do a Google search for glue books, and you'll find a load of stuff.  But you don't realize how hard it is to NOT grab the inks and stamps. Nope. Not allowed. It's very freeing actually. No thoughts about what color inks to use, what stamps to use, what embellishments to put on, it's great! Hope you have a great weekend, be safe and...Go Be Creative!

Stick With What You Know...

...so, the Timinator has a little contest going on, for random winners to be chosen to receive one of the discontinued and much coveted distress ink pad storage tins.  To have another way to win besides blog comments, you could make an item using distress inks, take a picture, email it to him, describe in the email the distress ink techniques you used, and hope like heck for your name to be chosen from probably a gazillion other names.  I might have better luck with the Powerball lottery. lol
So, I thought quietly to myself, wouldn't it be great to come up with something totally jaw dropping to try and impress Tim? Yeah, it'd be great, but I knew I couldn't pull it off with the equipment I had.  Namely, the creative part of my brain.  Too busy right now, studio time is short.  In these conditions, the creative process for me is marginal, at best.  I decided to stick with what I know how to do, grungeboard and grungepaper flowers, vines and leaves. Did I mention the deadline for entries is 5 p.m. Friday PST?  I decided to alter a CD with it's corresponding case. Here it is:

I covered the CD with a piece of the Lost and Found paper stack, inked the edges, stamped with Espresso paint dabber and the Fab Flourish stamp, brushed some perfect pearls over the paint.  Peeled Paint ink for the vines and flourish.  Barn Door used for the flower, overstamped with various Tim stamps in Archival black, and threw on some Fired Brick distress stickles to bling it up.  Inked and stamped the adage ticket, stuck it in a memo pin (now there's something I wouldn't mind buying in bulk, love 'em!), dabbed the gold paint dabber around the edges of the CD, and called it good.
Stuck old text and music paper to the case, which I then inked with Brushed Corduroy.

The case isn't quite done on the outside, but here's the "before" photo:

I'm trying to think of sumpin' good for the outside, as the CD is covered with the Bingo themed paper.  I did tear up some of the paper (gasp!) to put on the outside, which you can see.  I guess I'll try and find some Bingo pieces or something, I mean, how obvious could it be? lol.
If you have any thoughts, let me know.  I will entertain all suggestions, provided they are legal, safe, financially viable, and doable based on my capabilities. lol
Go Be Creative, peeps!

Sunday Stampers

...theme this week...RIPPED AND TORN. Use something ripped or torn in your art. Should be fairly easy, I would think...lol
You can go HERE to check out the details and other entries!

One of my fave techniques is using old text and music paper as a background, kinda collage-y like.  So, I started rippin' and a tearin', and here's my entry for this week:

Once the paper had dried, inked it with Fired Brick, then stamped Tim's Fairytale Frenzy stamp with Studio Matte Medium for a resist, dried it, and inked over with Peeled Paint. You can almost barely see it in the background towards the top of the tag, kinda surrounds the sentiment.
The sentiment is on red card, mounted on black felt, with Fired Brick Distress Stickles globbed around the edges for good measure.
The vine is Timinator's new die, cut out of the paper I got whilst in Mexico last year.  Some I left as is, the other ones I inked with Peeled Paint and overstamped with Wendy's number stamp.
I also decided to use the flower made out of paper twist from last week, which I ended up spraying with perfect pearls and added stickles, but can barely see it in the photo.
In other, late breaking news, here's what else I did last night:

BUMPER CROP, FIRST PICKING.  To give you an idea of how many this is, my sink is roughly 10-12 inches deep, and about 18 x 24 inches. It was half full. Tonight, I will be jammin'. He he.

And had a request or two for pictures of our tin ceiling in the kitchen.  Here you go:

We ordered it from Mboss, Inc. HERE'S the website.  If we could have afforded copper, I would have went that route, but the money tree out back had to be removed for the dog house.
Go be creative!

It's a Garage-Sale-A-Listic Kinda Day

I scored big time at garage sales this weekend, so I had to share. If this isn't your thing, well, guess you'll have to click elsewhere.  Here we go....

H

Here we have a nice selection of Stampin Up stamps, I did get the big background one for a coupla bucks, but the other sets were reasonable, just not $2, lol. Some Art Glitter glitter, that stuff is the BEST glitter in my book, ribbons, nice little roses, dymo labels, and, oh look, some mini twist paper, it was fate.

Some solid wood frames in smaller sizes, perfect for altering. Old Dennison labels, wallpaper border, big huge bottle of Undu for $.25, huge bag of lace, old playing cards for ATC's.

Found this one that had some great costume jewlery that I'll probably use as flower centers, or alter to make other jewelry.  Can you believe those things in the upper right are EARRINGS? The clip on type. Those things are honkin' hugmungo. Talk about stretching out your earlobes... 
Good stuff with minimal damage to the pocket book. I LIKE IT. A LOT.  I need help. Granted, this doesn't happen every time I hit the garage sales.  I also got some awesome little glass bottles that will be great for shadowboxes. They were $.10 each!
So, now the challenge is to find a place to put all this great stuff until I use it.....
Was able to get some motorcycling in today. Gorgeous day for it. Enjoyed a lunch out and hit some of my fave stores that I don't get to much as they are an hour away. Found the Inkssentials Enamel Accents, eeekkkk!  Tomorrow, as I mentioned on my Friday Fill Ins, I will be up to my eyeballs in strawberries. We had some heat today, and tomorrow is supposed to be 90 degrees, so by Monday I'll have the "strawberry stoop".  Looks like a bumper crop this year! Woohoo! Check with me in about a week, though, I probably won't be as excited.....

Friday Fill Ins

You can go here to check out other entries!

And...here we go! (Bold italics are my fill-ins.)

1. Buying stuff on clearance never fails to make me smile.

2. I'm looking forward to retirement, provided I’ll be able to.

3. Birds chirping is what I'm listening to right now.

4. Potato salad must have potates (duh) in it!

5. Egg sandwich was the best thing I ate today.

6. Today was so far a really good day because it’s Friday.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to see my Sis graduate from college, tomorrow my plans include riding my motorcyle and Sunday, I want to make art, if there’s time, but I might be up to my eyeballs in strawberries!

Sunday Stampers

Hel's Sunday Stamper challenge this week.....RED.  After rifling thru the stamp stash, decided to go with Timinator's Fairytale Frenzy set.  And, I had perused his blog, looking at the monthly techniques from 2008, and the faux bleach technique caught my eye. So.........

Once again, what was pictured in my mind didn't exactly turn out as planned.  The light in my office kind of washed out the color, trust me, it's really red at the top.  I used Adirondack color washes in Cranberry and Raisin after I had stamped and embossed the image. Then, I placed newsprint over the images and ironed them to remove the embossing powder.  Same procedure for the sentiment, which in retrospect, I feel is a little overwhelming for the overall look of the tag. The little tag at the top is covered with Forever Red perfect pearls  (I know, it looks purple, but it's really red), stamped with archival black with the Fabby Flourish stamp.  Then attached a leftover birdie out of grungeboard and a UTEE piece.  I love the Adirondack Color Washes, they are so vibrant, and really lend themselves well to the faux bleach technique.  I almost left the tag alone after that, the contrast was striking. But of course, I had to go and booger it up a little. scrolling back up to look at picture. Yeah, should have used a smaller sentiment, but I really love this one.  Any who, enough moaning and groaning.  Thanks for stopping by, I'm telling encouraging you to try this technique, lots of fun! Have a good weekend, go be creative!

Blog Candy Alert...

...from my friend Linda, who I met on last year's Holtz/Vecchi cruise, and is going again this year!  She's celebrating her birthday, and is giving away what I know will be great candy.  And I say this because I know her LSS is like, a couple of miles away from her, easy access. lol

You can check it out HERE, and leave a comment!

Tag Tuesday Is One Year Old This Week!

...and to celebrate, Louise is sending some random RAK's, check out the details HERE. And you can check out the other fabulous entries there as well.  But wait, that's not the best part. (Oooo, sounds like I'm selling something on TV, no you're not getting a double offer of Sham Wow)
A couple of weeks ago she posted and requested some ideas for the challenge this week, and if she chose your idea, you would get an RAK!  Guess who it was?  ME. I had thought of using the numbers 5 and 2 to represent 52 weeks of challenges.  It was one of the few good brainstorms I get once and a while. lol
The only bad thing was, she had sent me a message last Saturday telling me I had won and if I would mind making a tag ahead of time? ....which I never received.  Darn technology. Those weren't my exact words. So, then I felt really bad, so I put some major effort into this week's tag, and I'm not even going to admit how much time I spent moving these elements around this tag, but I tried to make the theme of it something Louise might like.  Here's hoping.......

Here's what I used:
Background paper is Dream Street, inked, sprayed with a PP/inker mix, same mix was used on the flower, which was die cut out of old sewing pattern and old text paper.
Image was courtesy of Terri Kahrs
EDIT: Terri informed me this wasn't her image, so, I guess I don't remember where I got this! If anyone recognizes it, be sure to let me know and I'll give proper credit, sorry! But go check out Terri's blog anyways, it's full of art goodness!
Chipboard numbers cut with Sizzix die, covered with old text paper, inked, and edged with Vintage Glass Glitter - yumm-o, love that stuff.
Vintage blue leafs from Lisa at Collage Stuff
Cluny lace with blue ribbon - unknown, let's just call it "from Lori's hoard stash"
That's about it! 
Thanks, Louise for sponsoring Tag Tuesday, once I finally got around to entering, it's become a weekly habit, forcing me to go be creative! And, really, the word "force" is a little harsh.  What I mean is, "it gives me an excuse to forego housework and the other mundane tasks of life so I can run to the studio".  rofl
Come to think of it, I see there's another challenge this week, where the theme is QUOTE, hmmm, should I be a "cheater" and enter it for both? I'll think about it....in the meantime, go be creative!

G45 ATC's

Very little playtime this weekend, but I did manage to do these:

Painted paper background, nice gold sheen to it, which is hard to see in the pic. Mica tile on the top one, been wanting to try using one of those...
Short but sweet!

Oops, I Did It Again.. and...Twist Paper

..that's a song, isn't it? lol

Don't ask me why I chose that as a title, it really has nothing to do with the subject of this post, other than I've made a couple of ATC's...

using the glitter lace background from last weekend...

And using a painted paper background, um, please disregard the not quite dried glue...

And here's what I meant about twist paper. It was paper rolled up really tight, which you could use as is, or unroll/untwist it:

Usually came in coils, and different sizes.  So I unrolled some and used one of the Timinator dies:

And made a layered flower:

The paper itself is rather thin when you unroll it, but it has a great texture.  I'll probably spray this with some distress ink/perfect pearls mist to give it some shimmer. So, aren't you sad you threw yours away in 1992? HA!
I'm finding that I really like working with the 1940's/1950's models pics, like on the ATC's above.  Does anyone know of a good source for these type of images? I've been looking for old Sears or Penney's catalogs, but nothing as of yet, but I'm sure I'll come across some at a garage sale or auction some day. I'm rather fond of the Anne Taintor twist...that really doesn't surprise you, does it? lol
Have a great weekend, go be creative!
 

Tag Tuesday Challenge

...theme for this week was to use something in your home for inspiration.  Since the dust, dirty dishes, or laundry aren't very inspirational to me, I chose to use the tin ceiling in our kitchen as my inspiration. I didn't take a photo of the ceiling because it was dark outside and pics would have turned out stinky with a lot of glare.  But, I'm sure most of you have seen what old tin ceilings look like.  Actually, we installed ours, so it's a reproduction tin ceiling, we chose to keep the original tin/silver color. Not cheap, but well worth it.  Any who....here's my entry....

I used Ten Seconds Studio metal and mold.  I painted the edges of the tag black first, then after embossing the metal and cutting a viewing window for the G45 paper piece, adhered the metal to the tag. Used more black paint around the edges of the metal to make it blend in with the edges of the tag.  On the window part, I just cut from top to bottom and side to side, then rolled the edges around a bamboo skewer to peel it back.
I was going to put some more embellishments on it, but after checking with my art audience (aka Dewbird and Rocky), we decided it would be too busy.  Then I couldn't come up with anything that really spoke to me for the tag top, so I left that alone, too. I might, however, be persuaded to put some rock candy stickles or crackle paint on the G45 image. lol.You can check out other entries HERE.
Later dudes and dudettes, GO BE CREATIVE!!

Sunday Stampers Challenge

...the challenge this week is GOLD.  I decided to alter a tin. 
 Alcohol inks in Latte, Pitch Black and Metallic Gold, liberally applied.

Distress embossing powder in black over the distress crackle paint in Tarnished Brass, which I didn't like, so I applied more of the alcohol inks as listed above over the lid, and I liked it much better. Black twist paper (you remember, that stuff from the early 90's. Yep, not dry rotted yet, but I did have to chase the moths out. he he)  Opened that up and brushed some gold paint dabber around the edges. That's the base paper layer. Then some gold ribbon that I heated around the edges to make it curly. Then some black cardstock ran thru the CB embossing folder, swiped with gold paint dabber. An old brooch I scored at a garage sale is the finishing piece. 

 

And here's the inside:

I used an image from Suze Weinberg's Instant Art book, added some gold filigree pieces with black rhinestones, and the base is black felt I cut out and glued inside the tin lid and base.  I also added some Platinum stickles round the edge of the image, and the corners of the lid on the outside.  Mona likes her bling bling, you know.  So, there you go. Lots of gold in different forms on this one!  You can check out the other entries HERE.  Hels made a grand piece, as usual, and I'm sure the other entries are as well! Rumor has it that an entry will earn you a chance to win some goodies, so you might want to check it out!

CREATE Retreat, Chicago, Illinois

...is anyone out there going to this event? I wasn't going to go since I'm signed up for the cruise this year too, but all of the workshops look really interesting, and I might have to sign up for one or two classes. Not to mention that it is so close to me, how could I turn down the opportunity? lol

Here's the link to check it out

Click on the workshops tab and check out all the creative goodness that will occur, and let me know!

Ba...Ba....Ba.....Banners

..Yeah, let's finish this up, shall we? lol

Yes, I did come down off the flower pedestal and do something without flowers for the last one...who knew? 
I enjoyed making these, I can't wait to see which ones I get back, you'll be the first to see!

Coupla More Banners...

...for your viewing pleasure. My friend Jessie came over for another "fun day", so I was able to complete my banners for the EWV swap, but I'm going to piecemeal them out over the next few days. Don't want to put your creative stimuli on overload, you know.

And since this is for the EWV group, all stamps are Wendy's, of course.  As you can see, there is a lot of grungeboard and grungepaper involved. Along with distress stickles, distress ink, black Sakura glaze pen, the butterfly on the right one was from Jessie, she is so generous. It came in a whole big box from K & Company. They're two sided chipboard, so you have two options.
We also do a couple of techniques to get the creative time started right, so we made some glitter lace backgrounds for ATC's....

Different angle shot above so maybe you can see all the glittery goodness. We also made some crayon backgrounds on glossy cardstock....

Of course, we had to experiment to see if you could heat emboss on the crayon background, without it remelting and crayon running all over. Jessie tried it by holding the paper on the iron, so it was basically heating from the back, and it worked pretty good.  The lower right shows my example, which I did by the regular embossing method, just left the paper lying flat and not moving the heat gun much, so it didn't blow the melted crayon everywhere.  Turned out pretty good, so now that I know that works, I'll probably be stamping and embossing on these a lot.  Aren't they cool backgrounds??  So, tell me, what kinds of things would you put on these backgrounds? Vintage images? Lace? Words? Idea-ology pieces? So, my uber talented and creative friends, throw some ideas out there...cause I always wanna know what you're thinkin'!

Almost Forgot...

..regarding the color blocked technique I used on the Bright Lights, Big City tag the other day, I did NOT see it on Tim's blog, as I had mentioned, it was a video on the Ranger website. You can check it out HERE.  I just can't remember everything, you know. Sorry to cause any inconvenience. Hope you weren't tirelessly searching Tim's blog for it....curse me if you wish...(like it will do you any good, lol).

Friday Fill Ins

And...here we go!  Bold italics are my "fill-ins".  You can check out other Friday Fill-Ins HERE.

1. Salsa and tequila should be consumed in equal amounts.

2. I burned the hot dogs and you've even got mustard.

3. By the time I get home I’ll be hungry again.

4. Getting the heck out of the store is what I look forward to most when grocery shopping.

5. And I was dreaming my flower gardens were weeded by Sven, the hot garden guy, while I sipped lemonade on the porch.

6. Peanut butter and chocolate...is there anything else better?!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to some cooking and cleaning, tomorrow my plans include making art with a friend and Sunday, I'm spending time with family!

From Lunch To Art...

...I'm sure I'm not the only one to see this...if I am, then I need help in the worst way....lol

Inside:

And finally, a cool stencil:

Pay attention while you eat, I'm just sayin'.....
It was good, by the way.

Blog Candy Alert...

...from Lynn Stevens for celebrating over 400 followers, wowza. Her work is fabulous, and she has an Etsy shop...I'm just sayin'.....go check it out...she will be taking entries till May 10!

 

Gives New Meaning to "Waitin' For The Train"...

It Doesn't Get Any Easier Than This...

...for a background on a tag, I mean. Saw this on Tim's blog first, I think, then I saw my blog friend Helen make a tag with this background, so I had to try it.

Oops. Forgot to put some ribbon or thread at the top. 

Supplies used:

Tim's Rock Star stamp set

Blending tool with all different colors of distress inks

Black embossing powder

White Inkssential pen

Fired Brick Distress Stickles

Platinum Stickles (twinkling lights of the city at night...?? ha ha)

Badda bing, badda boom. Done.