For One Moment - Little Snippets of my Life and Art...

Grungepaper Bracelet I was cruising blogs the other day for inspiration and I ran across this wonderful grungeboard/grungepaper bracelet by Sarah at La-De-Dah .  When I saw it I knew my youngest daughter would love something like this. Since today was a rainy day and I finished all my chores yesterday, I decided it was time to give this a go.  I didn't have any Grungeboard for the bottom layer, so I used two layers of Grungepaper and lined the inside with a soft felt.  Here's how it looked once finished... and here is a few pictures that I took while I was making it.  I usually forget to do this part... I cut the strips  at one inch and two inches wide with my deckle trimmer and ran them through the Vagabond with embossing folders.  My daughter picked a circles design for the bottom layer and a floral design for the top. I inked them up with several Distress Stains and Distress Inks and edged them in B...

Brushless Watercolor - Week 7 The technique for Week 7's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge at Studio L3 is found on page 49 in Tim Holtz's  book (Compendium of Curiosities Volume II).  It was fun and easy to put this tag together!  I used watercolor paper to create the tag and Distress Inks and Distress Stains. This week's sponsor is eclectic Paperie  and one lucky participant will be chosen at random to receive a $25 gift certificate. ...and now that I have a nice pile of stuff on my desk, I think I'll go back to playing and see what else I can some up with. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

Tissue Wrap Collage - Challenge 6 Finally had some time to work on Challenge 6 set by Linda at Studio L3  for "A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II" by Tim Holtz.  This weeks challenge using the technique on page 38 in the book called Tissue Wrap Collage. This week's challenge is being sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique so go check them out! They will be providing a $25 gift certificate for one lucky winner! I can't believe I made the deadline!  I ended up using the little UTEE/porcelain flowers that I had originally made for  Tim Holtz' May Tag.  I like them better on this tag.  For my little "extra" touch I added Perfect Pearl Mist.    I also had to make my own stamped tissue paper since I couldn't find anyone in our area selling Tim Holtz tissue paper and didn't have time to order it and still make the deadline.  My first attempt of this technique was a terrible failure.  LOL, but ...

May - Sewing Mends the Soul... Finally completed my May Tag following along with Tim Holtz.  Took a few days and a bit of rummaging in my old sewing supplies, but I like the way it came out.  I tried the porcelain flowers technique with my Melting Pot and UTEE, but I didn't like how my little flowers came out.  That is sometthing I'll have to try again some other time.  I'm liking the flatter tag better I think.  It's got some embellishments that give it depth...but not so big and heavy that they overpower the tag.  I used pattern paper from an old pattern and a couple of sewing related stamps by Just For Fun.  I dug out my old Dymo label maker for the quote.  Hope I can get my CC2 Challenge #6 tag done before Thursday night's deadline.  My first attempt was a disaster.  Just don't flip this tag over and look at the back!!  I hated to waste a good tag, so I yanked off the grungeboard embellishments I had put o...

Shattered Stains - Week 5  I finally got my "A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II" by Tim Holtz, so now I can play along in the challenges set by Linda at Studio L3 .  Each week a new challenge is issued using the techniques in the book.This week's challenge was to follow the "Shattered Stains" technique on page 48.  This week's challenge is being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp  so go check them out!  A gift certificate of $25 will be awarded for one lucky randomly-selected winner I'm running a bit late but at least I got it done!  (CORRECTION! I ran too late for the challenge, but HEY I had fun doing it anyway and hopefully I'll make it on time for the one that starts today, since I know what time the deadline is now.) I had to do a bit of digging around in my cabinets to find the art supplies I wanted to use.  Once I got started I could have played for hours, but alas...chores are calling my name as well as my bed.  Another...

Mother's Day Cards Finally got my Mother's Day card finished and ready to give.  The last few days I've just been too tired to work on anything...so I just had to content myself to read blogs and soak in all the glorious colors and ideas that others have been sharing. Had a bit more energy today, so I was determined to get my cards done before they got too late!!  One has been delivered and one will go in the mail tomorrow, with the last one being delivered tomorrow night. Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend...it back to work for me tomorrow!

More inky fun here tonight.  I really should wait to photograph and post until the mornings since the colors really don't photograph so well here at my art desk....but I'm usually too busy getting kids off to school, taking care of all the 4 legged babies in the house and me off to work to have to dig out the camera and blog. The colors are just a little bit too vibrant in the photo, but all in all they aren't too far off.  I dug out my Distress Inks and my Marvy Matchables and my new handmade blending tools and had fun layering on the color.  I pulled down boxes of stamps from the closet and went searching through my word and quote stamps until I found some that spoke to me.  I've got BOXES and BOXES or stamps in the closet and it is so fun to pull them down and rummage through them!  Someday I hope to have shelves so that I can pull out my favorite ones and line them up so I can grab them easier when I want them. I really enjoy my late night art time,...

I went out walking yesterday morning at the local Antique Market, then spent time some time downtown on the waterfront with my youngest daughter and her boyfriend watching the jet skit races.  So after a hot day out my hubby and I had a late dinner downtown on the waterfront at the local Irish pub and ended the day with a walk on the waterfront. I hadn't had time to play with my inks this past week, so once I got home I spent some late night hours at my art desk.  Even though I used lots of products while playing, I managed to keep everything fairly neat and put away as I worked.  After a major cleaning a couple of weeks back, I've been trying to make an effort to put things in their place when I'm done.  Just a few more things to put away and it will be all tidy (for the most part). I hate trying to photograph anything that has a shimmer mist sprayed on it.  I have the hardest time getting all the colors and shimmer to show without the shimmer being way...

Played at my desk a bit last night and did something different for a change. I used a couple of sheets from my K&Company Julianne Special Paper 12 x 12 stack and made a sunny little card. I fussy cut the big flowers, which already come with a touch of sparkle to their petals and used a smaller matching floral print for the background. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in wild honey along the edges to add some shading and soften the cut edges. I left space for the sentiment and tucked the card in my stash for when I need a last minute card. All I'll have to do is add a sentiment and it will be ready to go. The card base is a pretty off-white pearl cardstock that I get from Marco Paper, and I used a dark green cardstock for layering. Card Front Inside

 Took some time to play with inks and stamps with no particular end in sight tonight.  I took a tag that I had used to mop up inks when I was making a mess the other night and finished it out with more color and some stamping.  Dug out my alchohol inks and inked up some trinkets to match.  The Grapevine stamps are from Stampin' Up from 1996. Somerset Studios sent them to me to be do as part of their "With One Stamp" feature several years ago. They would send out the same set of stamps to a few artists and we would create different projects and send them back to be featured in the magazine. At that time I was submitting a lot of rubberstamp projects and collage art to the magazine and had several pieces published in Somerset Studios and Legacy. I finally had to give up doing that as I got busy with work and three young children...etc, etc. but I've missed all my inks and papers and my creative time each night and I'm making more of an effort to just D...

Day 8 Finally got a chance to dabble in my inks again tonight, so I decided to work on Day 8. Please forgive the grainy photo, as I used my iPhone.  My good camera is in the bedroom and hubby is asleep and I didn't want to go rumaging around in my camera bag in the dark. I'm limited in Distress Stain colors, so had to go with what I had.  The local JoAnn's only carries a total of 6 colors, most of which are pretty dark.  I'll have to go shopping on line if I want anything lighter. For the first one with the Paint Dabber Resist technique I didn't have any sticky back canvas or Paint Dabbers, so I used white acrylic paint and worked directly on the tag.  I think it really loses something in the translation.  I really need to try this one over again.  Maybe this weekend I'll dig out my USArtQuest canvas and give it a try on that...although it is not sticky backed, it should work better than the paper tag!  This one is my least favorite of the...

If you remember about three weeks ago I posted this little sneak peek to a project I was working on: Well...I FINALLY finished it and sent it on its way as a little surprise gift to Dwayne's wonderful Aunt Nancy.  She has received it, so now I can post the rest of the pictures. It got so thick I had to make it a little belly band to help keep it closed.  I wraps around the album and closes with velcro.  Here are some pictures of the inside, where it is filled with pockets and tags and old family photographs.

Last night I was very tired and my body was aching, so I called it a night early even though I would have loved to have stayed up and played in my inks for a while. Tonight I was determined to get at least one day of Tim Holtz's Chemistry 101 lessons completed.  I decided to work on Day 5 so I could get a bit inky with inks and water.  BOY did I  get inky...but it was an easy clean-up when I was all done and I really had fun digging out stains and inks and rubber stamps.  I didn't have any  Kraft Resist cardstock or Picket Fence Distress Stain so as usual I improvised. For the first tag I stamped and embossed the tag before distressing to give it a faux Kraft Resist type of look.  Then I played with different Distress Stains and water and kept layering it up until I was happy with it. I skipped the bottom layer of Distress Stain as it was supposed to be Picket Fence and that I didn't have.  The rubber stamp image i...

Tim Holtz posted his April Tag http://timholtz.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/03/12-tags-of-2012-april.html today, and I couldn't wait to dig out my inks and play! Everything about it screamed Spring!!! My selection of embossing folders is limited, and I don't have any reflections stamps, but I took the inspiration and ran with it. I didn't have the little bird and twig die that he used, but I did have a small grunge board bird in one of the grunge board packs that I have and I used the branch from the Holly and Berries die. I also chose a little dragonfly from the grunge board pack and dug in my chest of trinkets for the little metal dragonflies. I'm really liking how this one turned out!

Woot Woot!! I finally got time to play!! I finished Day 3 and I am hoping to start of Day 4 before I run out of steam tonigth. This was fun tonight, as it got me digging in my stash of inks. It's been a long time since I pulled out my Archival Inks! In fact, some of them I've had for more than 10 years as you can tell by the labeling and the hinged casing! Most of them didn't even need re-inking even though I have some bottles of the re-inkers too. Here's a shot of PART of the pile I had on my desk when I got through. I've managed to put most of it away, and started pulling out what I need for Day 4...so although this mess it gone, it's been replaced with another one. So now I'm off to play again!

Finally!! I finally got some play time and was able to at least complete the assignment for Day 2. Looks like I won't be able to play any more until the weekend and the class will already be over. But I've been learning a lot and enjoying looking at all the fun stuff everyone else has created. I can't wait to get inky again! Had to take a quick snap with the phone...no time to dig out the big camera tonight.

Decided I needed to get a bit inky tonight, so I dug out my stamps and inks and FINALLY got to work on my March Tag for the 12 Tags of 2012 that Tim Holtz is doing on his blog.  It's already half way through the month, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does for April. ...here is the tag that Tim did and posted for March. I didn't have a woodgrain stamp for my tag...so I started digging through my stamps to see what I could find, and found a wonderful oversized stamp by Stamp Out Cute that I've had for years.  I think it made the perfect background for the butterfly I can't say that I'm really in love with the butterfly, but I was trying his mosaic technique.  Don't know that I'll use it again on anything as it really isn't my style...but it does look pretty good once you get all the bits and pieces on the tag.  I actually made two butterflies but there was only room for one on the card, so I'll have to figure out somet...

Here's a little sneak peak of a mini-album project that I'm working on. Can't show the inside yet because it's a surprise gift for someone and they don't know about it yet. Shhhhh............ Now...I'm off of here to get a bit inky before I have to go pick my daughter up from school. One more day until the weekend! I am hoping to finish up this little book,  get pictures made  and get it in the mail!

Where's my Vagabond? It's sharing its little corner of the world with its crafty friends! Where's YOUR Vagabond?

Crazy, Busy Month!! Where did the time go?  I got my February tag for the Tim Holtz - 12 Tags of 2012 done a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't had the time to get it uploaded until now.  Sorry the picture quality is so bad.  I took the picture in the evening and my house likes to cast a funny color on things in the evening.  Once I get a better picture in the daylight, I'll try and remember to load a better one.