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. 

Linda's Conpendium Challenge

Racing to make the deadline, and I'm excited because it has been SOOOOO long since I've been on line and in the craft room. After months of moving and packing and unpacking, life if finally going back to normal.

So I checked in with Linda Ledbetter and found that she was on Challenge 26 of the Compendium of Curiosities Tim Holtz's wonderful Crumpled Kraft Suede technique explained on page 40 of the book.

Later:  So sorry about the post, link and no picture. New computer on top of everything else and I'm having difficulties...plan to get it fixed up this weekend.

August Calendar

Crafting and Inkeeness have been significantly absent for a while, as we are between abodes and staying at someone else's lake cottage. But things finally settled down long enough on Sunday morning to think about an August calendar page. I am SO glad that Kate Crane started this monthly calendar project lo those many months ago on her blog, the Kathyrn Wheel.

And while I wasn't thrilled with the background I had grabbed on the way out of the old house, I did at least have it! I made the day tags out of manila tags since that was literally all I had with me except scrapbook paper. Out came a few of the stamps I have with me and some Distress Stains and I was in business. It was SO FUN TO PLAY.

As you can see, it's a bit too much on the sparkly side, which is why I didn't use it months ago, but now I'm LOVING it!!  August is about biding our time until the house is done.

I did start on a calendar in June - late - didn't finish, and skipped July all together. I found I really missed it...

So I'm back on the band wagon. Happy August everyone!!

WOYWW # 161

Greetings!

I've been absent for a long time; sold our house -- read packed up 3,000 square feet; went on vacation -- planned before we actually sold the house -- and are building a new house. Plus, oh yeah, and that whole work for a living thing. So alas, no time for crafting.

A couple of days ago we were out at the building site, and I thought I could at least check in with the AMAZING Julia Dunnitt and her Whats On Your Work Desk Wednesday blog posts. I no longer have a work desk in the "old house" since everything is packed (movers come tomorrow). BUT and here's the really exciting thing, the new house has a new craft room. And this is the view.

Try to ignore the spare wood pile (saving for the fire pit, but not very organized as you can see). But I think I'm really going to enjoy the view.  I'll have to plant some pretty flowers or shrubs in the view shed....

Happy 4th of July to the Americans in the group.

And thanks Julia for the rockin' ATC and THE PIN. Love the PIN!! 

CC2 - #4 - Graduation Time

I've missed the past couple challenges that Linda Ledbetter has sent out into blog land for the Compendium of Curiosities 2 Challenge, but not this week!! For new folks, this is all about Tim Holtz and his amazing teaching book, Compendium of Curiosities #2 which you can purchase here. This week it was about faded layers which he describes on page 43.

After seeing Linda's piece, a big ole' light bulb went off in my head about using die cuts with mask material. So I set out to make a very sweet girl a graduation card.

I started with a piece of manilla paper cover stock and applied Evergreen Bough, Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint distress inks to the bottom portion of the paper. On the top I used the new Shaded Lilac, Spun Sugar, Stormy Sky, Broken China, and Tumbled Glass distress inks....very lightly. Next I used the tall grass embossing folder on the bottom of the piece. I laid down my new mask of the branch tree and mostly used the same colors on top of the mask to get a nice blend and a faded picture of the tree. I was careful to avoid the bottom of the tree and used a little sponge finger dauber to color the top of the grass. Next I put some picket fences on one Tim's stamps from the Floral Tattoo collection for a bit of extra interest on the background.

Then came the fun part!!

I used the Tattered Floral Garland die cut and cut out a bunch of the smallest leaves and flowers. I'm really into beads lately, so with my trusty Scotch adhesive in hand, I glued down beads for the flower centers.

I used one of Tim's new kilt pins to attach a heart, a muse token which says Knowledge, and a Dream charm. They seemed like a good combination for someone headed off to Arizona next year for college.

Finally I used one of Wendy Vecchi's stamps for the sentiment. Now I all I have to do is write the inside and slip her a few bucks!! Tis the season.

WOYWW # 153

This is technically my third post in the same 24 hour period, and ironically enough, a 24 hour period where I spent zero time in the Fun Room. Still fighting the shingles and now a cold on top of it, and after a year of trying to sell our house, we got a great offer today, so we spent part of the afternoon at the real estate agents, and the rest of the day wondering where we might be living at the end of June. Hmmm.

So I scurried upstairs and snapped a photo, because for sure this is what it will look like tomorrow. What is tomorrow? Why it's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday #153, Julia Dunnitt's brain child that let's us take a  peak into every one's lives once a week. I'm kinda addicted I have to say.

On the right side is my Martha Stewart score-it...a fabulous little item. I could never use those little score-its-always having to chop off part of it for some reason. On top is a layout idea from Graphic 45 which I will probably never make; but as I was making Mother's Day cards with Graphic 45 papers yesterday it seems appropriate. There's a new package of baby wipes front and center....can't run out of those. The black paper in the upper left is what I use for most of the backgrounds for my photos. The tray in front has the supplies for one of my newest idea...paper beads which I've been covering with wire and beads.  Here's an example of a few of them.

Below are the beads which have been cut from the 48 marbled distress stain tags I made one morning. What a gas that was...I found the more I made the more things I tried - lots of fun!! I cut the tags into long, skinny triangles (no measuring, just eye-balling) and wrap them around a round toothpick and then give them a coat of Diamond Glaze or two to beef them up. I've been busy looking for pretty wire - but managed to get some that is a bit too thick...thinner is definitely better for this project.

And beads...love beads. Beads come in such luscious colors. Mmmm, just yummy. I've found it's a good TV project and I can be with the rest of the crew and still be doing something creative (hence the tray). The Styrofoam ball holds the toothpicks while the glaze is drying.

Pretty much sums it up for me this Wednesday eve....here's hoping you all have a great week!

I Made a Book!

I have always loved books, and have wanted to explore making them for a long time. I finally did it. Not quite what I would have imagined - ever - but I learned a lot, and had fun in the bargain, so it's all good.

One day while poking around Dina Wakley's blog, I came upon an on-line class called, 21 Secrets, An Art Journal On-line Playground from Dirty Footprint Studios. Since I seem to be the last person to jump on the art journal wagon I signed right up. From a list of 25 artists and projects I selected  Dale Anne Potter's Personal Acts of Kindness to start; it intrigued me exactly because we got to make a book.

In deference to Dale Anne, I'll just tell you the concept was to make seven postcards (think master board), each with a special word. We write the postcards to ourselves, citing reasons why we think the word applies to us. Once we get the post cards back, we tuck them away in their own little envelopes inside our little book, which then becomes a pick-me-up for those not so good days in the future when we might not be feeling our very best.

Here's some of the stuff I learned: 

• toilet paper and multi medium are pretty cool when mixed together (aka the heart on the front)
• less is more (still)
• waxed bead thread is probably not the thing to use for binding
• choosing things based solely on whether YOU like them is very freeing, not to mention fun
• paper beads are really fun, albeit a bit time consuming to make
• multi medium is an amazing product (just ordered a gallon of the stuff!)

Here's a tour of my project.

Front Cover 

  Fun with beads

 Back Cover....Multi-medium on Kraft Paper and Adirondack ink on top...feels like rubber. Way cool. 

 My postcards. I used chalk for the color; to tie them all together I used the same color chalk on the little Tim Holtz stamp: Art is a shadow of what a person is thinking.

My inside envelopes - some of the bits and bobs from my table found a home

Have a serious thing for tickets right now....

The inside back cover...a collage in progress

It was a great project...looking forward to diving into the next section of 21 Secrets!! 

 

Happy Mother's Day with Domestic Goddesses

I mean, who wouldn't want to be a Goddess, domestic or otherwise? I love the Domestic Goddess line of paper from Graphic 45, but am afraid it's a bit difficult to find these days. It's so tongue in check, that I thought it would be perfect for Mother's Day cards for my sisters and my Mom. All the cards are very straight forward. A bit of dimension and mix and match the papers up and I was pretty much done.

 This last one was for my Mom - she gets the trophy....as she's been at it the longest!!

 These cards were made so much easier by the addition of the chipboard cut in exactly the right shape for all the Graphic 45 tags. You can find it at Leaky Shed Studio. I was really impressed with how right on the size was; I didn't have to make any adjustments, and the dimension the chipboard added was fabulous.

I used the same paper, along with with Dreamer Paper from 7 Dots Studio and some chipboard letters to make a cover for my recipe book. I'm always clipping recipes out of magazines, and if I try it, and we like it, it gets put into a sheet protector and into the BIG BOOK of recipes...one of the kids named it years ago, and the name has stuck around.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Domestic Goddesses out there in Blog-land!

A Little Something for Bits and Bobs

The other night I got a great little email from Gale at Paper Whimsy with a nifty idea for all those leftover seeds that cry out to be shared with your friends....the Seedman's Purse. If you're not familiar with Paper Whimsy they have the most lovely digital images, and lots of other goodies in their one line Shop. I had just purchased some new paper at my local stamp store, the Stamp Cache and thought perhaps I would give it a go.

I have a tin lid on my table where all the extras go....you know those little items I audition for a piece that don't get the part, and then don't go home right away...cause sometimes they don't have a home. Anyway, its current condition is over-flowing. Could there be a better solution? I wondered if a passel of purses could be the answer.

I started out with 6 inch squares and folded according to directions. For the lids, I scored them with about a quarter to half inch shelf at the top, to allow for some expansion with the stuff.

I tried buttons as a fastener, but settled on brads because they too, allowed a bit more room to wind the jute, ribbon, and/or waxed thread around. Next, they needed a place to hang-out. I gave a plain tin a couple of coats of black acrylic paint, and used Ranger's Glue and Seal to paste on a band of paper. Wow...was that slick. To put some ribbon around the top, I used my regular tape adhesive. And finally there was some place to put a button or two.

Even though several of the purses had a bit of a lip on the lid, they still didn't sit nicely, so I crafted an insert that seemed more hospitable to them. Some trial and error here, but after a couple of times I got it right.

So now I have this nice, compact little bit of goodness on my table.

Originally I thought this would be my entry into Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers this week, which called for RED. One small oversight on my part. No stamping. Oh well; perhaps another time.

Enjoy.