Frightful Observations

I joined a Halloween tag swap in a Facebook group called Love Paper Crafts. I usually only participate in a swap if I'm going to an event or with the Gigglers but what attracted me to this was I only had to make one. We had to post a pic of the front, back or small part of the tag before the deadline to prove we had done it.  I think there were 8 of us & not all from the US.  My partner was Elizabeth from Massachusetts, who generously sent me TWO fabulous tags & a cute bag of goodies.

I decided to use a #8 manila tag & started by stamping the witch in black archival ink.  She has a ring around her for the moon which I didn't want in black so I wiped it off & inked it using a mustard seed marker.  I then blended mustard seed over top for a bright noon.  The rest of the tag is blended using hickory smoke, fired brick, frayed burlap & black soot & the edges are distressed.

The devils are by Sugarland & stamped in vermilion.

The tree is cut in SU Early Expresso & I didn't ink the edges because the manila made it look like a shadow (plus it was too hard...LOL).

I cut 2 Memory Box fences in SU Basic Black then I wiggled it around so it wasn't straight. Both are adhered using a glue pen.

The "31" was cut in Tim's new Halloween black deco sheet.  I love these sheets because the glitter doesn't come off & they're very soft.

The sentiment & spider are from Tim's new Gothic remnant rubs.  I used a fine line Sharpie to draw a line so the spider was hanging from the "31".  I dabbed a small amount of picket fence around for a little fog then added black jute at the top.

I thought it need some dimension & knew I had a skull jewelry charm in my stash.  It was very shiny so I applied a coat of gesso then sponged it with frayed burlap.  It just happened that one of Tim's small arrows fit through the charm!  I also distressed the arrow with mushroom alcohol ink then adhered them with mini glue dots.











The back of the tag was pretty much a mess so I decided to add a paper backing & Tim's new materialize paper pack was perfect. It gave the tag the finished look it needed. I also printed my info, tore it & inked it in fired brick & black soot then adhered it using liquid glue.

I've never done a lot of Halloween projects except for a friend's birthday & a few tags but I did enjoy making this. I so happy Elizabeth enjoyed my creation as much as I enjoyed her's!  One fun fact about our swap...she has the same devil stamp!!

TFL!

Susan's Happy Birthday Tag

At the September Giggler's birthday dinner we celebrated Susan's special day.  She loves everything Tim Holtz so I decided to make a tag instead of the traditional card.

I started by blending picked raspberry & abandoned coral on a #10 tag. Then the edges are distressed & inked with vintage photo.

Using candied apple ink, I stamped the September calendar towards the top left corner, the diamond pattern from Classic #3 stamp set across the bottom & portions of several images from Mixed Media stamp set randomly on the tag.

Happy birthday was stamped over the diamond pattern with peeled paint then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

The crazy bird & balloon were stamped with black archival ink & I drew a "string" from the balloon to the crazy bird with a fine tip sharpie. Using my finger, I went over the bird with crazing medium so when I spritzed the tag with water the bird wouldn't have spots.

The "26" (which is Susan's birth date) was put on with embossing paste then inked with peeled paint after it dried.

Everything was going great until I decided I wanted to add some speckles & sparkle. It's hard to see but I sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Biscotti for the sparkle...OK so far. BUT then I spritzed it with picket fence spray stain & it came out in a big blob! I have a feeling the last time I used it I didn't clean the nozzle! Tim says to wipe them off plus when you spray, commit...don't do a half spray or you get big drops. No time to start over so I was lucky I was able to dab it off but that's why the center looks a tad white!

The gift was colored with Copics BV02, BV11 & R29. The party hat was colored using squeezed lemonade, abandoned coral & picked raspberry distress markers. Both were fussy cut out & adhered using liquid glue.

I was so happy my fluffy bow came out so well. I couldn't have accomplished this without the help of Frédérique Sleijpen-Mommers! Make sure you check out her fluffy bow tutorial...it is awesome! Using a loop pin I added a Christmas typed token "wish" (which is turned around in the photo...oops!).

Well that's it!  Hope you enjoyed!

Road Trip - Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 Technique Remix - September

My friends & I are just lovin' Tim Holtz's 12 tags of 2016 & we look forward to getting together every month to make our versions!  For Tim's September remix he used his distress paint patina technique from April 2013 and his alcohol ink resist technique from September 2014.

I closely followed Tim's distress patina technique & it was the easiest part of the tag for me.  I used cracked pistachio, peeled paint, mermaid lagoon, broken china & tarnished brass. Mine looks different because I didn't dragged it through the paint one way.  I kind of dragged it then rubbed it around so I didn't get the "streaks" of color but thought it took on a patina look.

I also used the same paints on the alpha parts, key, arrow & gears.

On the right of the tag I added a vial label with a rub from botanical set.

The alcohol ink resist technique was quite a challenge for me & it took several tries before I was happy.  I have to say the yupo cardstock is really cool & I was pleasantly surprised that combining pitch black & mushroom alcohol inks together would turn such a beautiful color! I decided to use the car & several other stamps from Visual Artistry's Here and There set & the script from French Memories...don't know why I used that script stamp because I can't drive to Paris...LOL!  Now this is where I had the problem.  Once I stamped the images in black archival ink & wiped the ink off, it seemed to wipe away the details.  I finally decided to wipe from the outer edge of the image inward & it seemed to work better.  Around the small details I dabbed.  I was surprised that I had less problem with the script.  I really liked using the blending solution with the stencils & I used speckled, arrows & splatters.  Another boo boo I made was forgetting to mat the yupo so I used a Sharpie marker to make it appear like it was matted.


At the top, I hung the key from various colors of jute string jute string with a loop pin & added a few gears.

To finish up I used a small talk sticker at the bottom, nailheads to the left & more gears.

Thanks for looking & I hope you enjoyed my version of Tim's tag!

A Pot Full of Posies!

I love making different types of ATCs.  I designed this card for The Craft Shack's September ATC Club & the flowers can be removed from the pot to reveal a special message.

The SU Very Vanilla background is 3 3/8" X 2 3/8" & was placed vertically in Tim Holtz's plank texture fade & embossed.  It was then inked using weathered wood & adhered to the 3 1/2" X 2 1/2" SU Baked Brown Sugar base.

The pot is a 3 1/4" X 2 1/4" piece of watercolor paper painted with antique linen.  I put a small amount of mermaid lagoon, broken china & blueprint sketch paint on a craft sheet. Using Jennifer McGuire's Easy Distress Inking technique, I dipped my finger tips into the paints & tapped it onto the watercolor paper.  Once dry I applied rock candy crackle paint for an aged effect.

Next I die cut an oval then trimmed 1/4" off one end. That end was lined up with the 1 1/2" line on my trimmer & cut. From the center of the left over, it's cut 1/4" for the lip of the pot.  All the edges were inked with blueprint sketch then the 1/4" piece was adhered to the pot. To adhere the pot to the background I used small dimensionals along the edges of the bottom & sides only.

To stain the Petaloo flowers, I colored them using fossilized amber & carved pumpkin (not shown) spray stain.  After spraying the stain on a craft sheet, they were spritzed with water.  You can see in the photo that some of the stain is lighter as it pools up so depending where you pick up the stain with your brush the flowers will be lighter.

The leaves were done the same way using peeled paint spray stain. The leaves & flowers were air dried for awhile then finished drying with a heat tool.

The 2" X 1 1/2" SU Very Vanilla was insert into the pot so I would know how to arrange the leaves & flowers. First the leaves were adhered using glossy accents. Once dry the butterfly stick pin was woven through the card stock so the end of pin was at the back.  Double sided tape was used to adhere it to the 2 1/8" X 1 5/8" Baked Brown Sugar base.  It was slipped back into the pot & the flowers were added being careful not to adhere it to the main base of the ATC.  Once dry, the sentiment was stamped in Black Versafine.

Hope you enjoyed my project & Have A Great Day!


TFL!







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Celebrate with Flowers

For the August technique class at The Craft Shack I wanted to do something different & found a tutorial on SCS by Mary Dimercurio Prasad called Faux Glass Flowers.  I was a little nervous at first (or afraid I'd burn my fingers) but thought I'd give it a try.  I made flowers but I also saw a few samples with butterflies in the SCS gallery & I think dragonflies would be pretty too.

I followed Mary's tutorial by using Tim Holtz's Tattered Florals Die but instead of plastic packaging I used a sheet of Clear Scraps Acrylic  which is a little heavier.  I made several flowers using cranberry & sunshine yellow alcohol ink on two of them and purple twilight & sunshine yellow (sparingly) on the other two.  I also used a small  amount of pearl mixative & a little blending solution to move the colors around.  To get the effect I wanted I went over it a few times adding a few more drops of ink each time.  Once dried I stamped half of them with a dot background & the other half with a script background in StazOn black ink.  I used a sponge dauber to add a little StazOn to the edges.  Once dry, I held the flowers with tweezers & doing 1 or 2 petals at a time, held them in front of my heat tool until I could see the petal start to move.  I pulled it away & gently curled it until it was where I wanted it.  CAUTION - do not get your fingers in front of the heat gun or you will burn them!  If you don't like how they look you can re-heat & shape again.  To finish the flowers off, I placed a drop or 2 of sunshine yellow ink directly on the pearl brad & clear gem then placed them in the center of the flowers.  I layered the larger flowers by adding the brad using a hole reamer & added the gems using a couple of glue dots on the smaller flowers.

To finish the card, I used my Misti to stamp "celebrate" from Tim Holtz's Handwritten Sentiments in black Memento.  Then I masked the word with a piece of torn copy paper & again using my Misti stamped SU Brushstrokes in peeled paint & lightly sponged the edges in the same ink.  The leaves are die cut from Tim Holtz's Garden Greens in SU Old Olive & sponged with peeled paint.  I then placed the leaves & small flower on the SU Elegant Eggplant base.

Fun technique but definitely a card that you would hand deliver.  It would also be neat in a shadow box, a jewelry project or even a little girl's headband!

TFL!!