Hearts & Words

Last night one of my daughter's best friends got married. She looked beautiful, as did my daughter who was in the wedding. But I digress. The marriage definitely warranted a handmade card. And because I actually had time, it was fun to do. When I was making it I thought about Hels Sheridian's weekly challenge. LAST week it was hearts. But I got lucky. This week it's WORDS. So I'm going to post a link to this over on her blog,  Ink on My Fingers.

And because Hels does call it Sunday STAMPERS I would like to point out I used two stamps on this little collage. On the background is one of Tim's Stamps, and the large heart is a Memory Box stamp.

I cut three hearts from Grunge Board and that made the heart really stand out from the card. Stickles brought the sparkle!

I wanted the card to have lots of layers and although this photo doesn't do it total just there were four different layers. Kind of like love...lots of layers.

Girlfriend Christmas Prezzies

One of the few things I did manage to play with...er ah, create for Christmas were magnets for many of my girlfriends. I was inspired by the wonderful world of Helga at Artchix. She has beautiful collage sheets and as recently added wooden cutouts which are oh so fun. I had ordered a few things a couple of months ago (which come in a package covered in colorful images which is such fun to get) and was immediately enchanted.

Naturally I had to use some Tim goodies, including the word bars which are new favorites, and the metal flowers and leaves covered with embossing powder, something I learned from the amazingly creative Tammy Tutterrow, a bunch of paint, inks, and this and thats.

And I was in such a hurry the night I finished them I neglected to take photos. Bummer. So the next night at a party I rounded up the ones there and took photos with my iPhone....

I started with Helga's wooden ATC blanks, painted them black and then sanded them a bit. I used acrylic paint as the next coat and in a couple of instances mixed the paint itself. After all the paint was dry, I sanded again, to get some variety and texture in the backgrounds. The final coat for the base was a healthy coating rock candy stickles. From there it was all embellishments. The hearts below were painted with chalk paint and then covered with sticky embossing powder and dry glitter. 

Each one was like just a small collage...they were oh so much fun to make. 

All told I made about 10....and I'm sure I'll make more! Because, you know, not everyone has one yet, and I can start doing seasonal ones next!

 I am entering my prezzies, in this week's challenge, Gift-spriration Challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Challenge Blog. 

My excuse for Christmas....Thanksgiving!!

This year Christmas caught me. I flat out wasn't prepared. Partly due to the whole move twice, pack thrice experience of the spring, summer, and early fall, and partly due to truly enjoying making things for Thanksgiving. So here's a quick summary of THOSE projects.

Our son came home for a quick visit and he LOVES Thanksgiving so I wanted it to be special. And when I saw Tim's turkeys last year, I knew I had to make a whole flock of them this year. Which I did and spread them on our table and to my friends. Some loved them; some thought I was just a bit weirder than usual. I found the addition of a little feather in the back to be just the thing.

I made napkin holders out of Tim's "pouch" die and just cut off the ends. The leaves are the small movers and shakers tattered leaves colored with alcohol ink. Geez. That stuff is SO much fun. 

The copper mixative was perfect for these.

And having fun with these is what put me behind at Christmas. It's all good!

January Calendar Tag

One day at lunch I was cruising through some website and came across Laura Deninson's Follow the Paper Trail and she was hosting a calendar tag project. You make 12 of one month, keep one, send her 11, and then get 11 other months back. That sounded like a good idea in November. By the first week in December I was wondering if I was crazy. Never having made 12 of the same thing, I didn't really understand how long it would take me.

 

But I got them done, mailed them off - one small problem, I forgot to include my name and address in the package...they're signed and I'll send her an email but I might not be cut out for something like this!

I did pretty much like how the tag turned out though.

I started with a print stamp, sprayed London Blue Dylusions Ink and Tumbled Glass Distress Stain on the tag, then three coats of Picket Fence distress stain - drying each layer in-between. Next I took a Tim Holtz snowflake stamp and stamped the tag a few times and then bounced blue perfect pearls on the damp ink. Pouncing is definitely the way to go (she says after much trial error). I used the Dylsuions snowflake stencil and a white gel pen to outline snowflakes some open areas on the tag. Next I used Iced Spruce distress ink and the blue print snowflake stamp --a new favorite--and went over THAT with silver stickler. A couple of coats of white paint, metallic silver, and clear rock candy stickles were applied to the snowflake on the edge die. I used the word play die and the movers and shapers snowflake with some metallic white paper. Some ribbon and a new tag on the back and I was done.....

Looking forward to getting the rest of the tags...

December 2012 Calendar Page

It was just about a year ago that I discovered Kate Crane's wonderful blog The Kathryn Wheel. She is an amazing artist who has opened my eyes to lots of new adventures. One of her ongoing projects is the  calendar project which is to inspire us to make art every day...366 days this year to be exact.

In this crazy year of moving, moving, moving, packing, packing, unpacking, etc.  my monthly pages are one of the few things I've been able to keep up on - well almost (missed July). And I was super excited to do my December page after my horrid November. Check out Kate's page for her November page and links to other followers!

I used Dylusions spray inks in red, pink, and yellow for the background, and then the greens on a piece of bristol board that had a coat of gesso on it. This was a happy surprise ---when i mopped up with the kitchen roll, a lot of the color came off which I find easier to write on. And then I put a bit of glaze over the page because I find it easier to write on. 

The last blog post had the empty August, so here's the completed version. 

September was the month we moved into the new house and I think the first thing I actually did in the new, smaller, more compact Craft Room. 

October reminds me of growing up in Pennsylvania with beautiful blue skies and red and orange and brown and green leaves...alas we don't have that here in Alaska....but old habits die hard. Tee Hee.

And I kept hoping for snow so of course I had to try out the new Dylusions snow stencil. Actually we are still waiting for snow; very unusual we don't have any at this time of year. Lots of cold and plenty of wind, but no snow. Kind of weird....

And this is November. A good idea, gone bad. But this fall I just don't seem to have much time so I used it.

I am so thankful for Kate's great idea and look forward to new techniques and ideas next year.