October Stamping Challenge #15

Hello!  Here's another quick tag for my October stamping challenge.  I was experimenting with different ways to use this holly stamp (Penny Black) combined with Tombow markers so I cut this one out and mounted it on some scraps of paper leftover from layout auditions for my November class.  The focal image here is embossed in black, watercoloured with Tombows and accented with stickles and Wink of Stella brush pen.  I used my new Pine stickles - Ranger has some new colours out.  They have needed a new green for a while - Lime Green and Crystal are fabulous, but I was ready to have something that could go on darker colours.  I really love this new colour and can't wait to see the rest of them when Heather gets them in.

Thanks for stopping by. One more day of my stamping challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

October Stamping Challenge #7

Hello!  Wow - has a week gone by already?  Must be, if this is #7 of my stamping challenge.  This card was really quick to put together, since I found that lovely tag ready-made in my scrap box.  It features some Distress Ink resist and sponging through sequin waste.  That nice quote is a Stampin' Up stamp and the scrolls and flourishes are Stampers Anonymous.

I cut a fresh piece of card for the base,but used scraps of textured mustard and brown linen for the accent strips. The ribbon was also a scrap that was loitering on my desk.  I used an as-yet uninked background stamp (Stampers Anonymous) on the card base, but I think I used too light an ink (Pale Tomato Hero Arts Shadow Ink) because it doesn't seem to be showing up.  I also used a little spiral clip that was in my stash of spare odds and bits.  I think they might be a bit out of style, but then again, so am I.  I am justifying it on the basis of legwarmers coming back into fashion.  (I know - I can't believe it either.)  Here's my rationale:  if legwarmers can return to fashion, then anything can make a comeback.  So there - my spiral clip is not out of style, it is ahead of trend! 

Thanks for stopping by and a happy long weekend to my Canadian readers.

Challenge Tag

Hello! Wow - two posts in one day. It's been a good day for stamping, other than refereeing two girls who are somewhat overwrought with an excess of excitement and sugar.

The current challenge at Stampotique is to use newsprint/old books on the project. It's an any-stamp-goes challenge, so I went with this nice quote from a Darkroom Door floral set. I had the tag on hand, used to mop up extra ink off the craft sheet from another project. I can't say what the colours are, probably denim and eggplant color wash spray, with some Memories silver in there too. Just guessing though! I stamped the twiggy branch (Sunshine Designs) using chipped sapphire and broken china, then the sentiment embossed in metallic purple. I did a bit of a frame in black pen, and brought in the old paper by die cutting some butterflies with a page from an old book of French poetry. Which I then coloured with Tombows and covered in stickles. But the old book paper is there, I promise. You can kind of make out the print on the two larger butterflies. I decided it was too hard to see the embossing, so I took a waterbrush filled with bleach and went over the words to highlight them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dance for yourself

I'm back! Sorry about the blog-post drought. I was on a business trip and in the week or so leading up to it, I had meant to do up a bunch of stamping and blog posts, but my family kept wanting to eat and wear clean clothes, and I had to shop (dearth of summer wardrobe) and pack for my trip. And DD2 also wanted a birthday party. Now I have semi-presentable summer clothes, I'm back from my trip, have six blisters from new shoes (and walking approx 5000 km with insane bionic android-type travelling companions), and the birthday party was a huge hit (won't dwell on fact that small children are very easy to please and they probably liked the cheesies the best out of all the entertainments and diversions I offered).

There's a fun contest over on Tim Holtz' blog where he's giving away some Distress Ink holders.
He's asked people to make a project with Distress Inks, and here's what I've done with my evening! {ooooh! Just got confirmation from Tim Holtz himself! I'm sure it's a generic one but still. His name is in my Inbox. ooooh!}

I've used a number of techniques, including Versamark resist (you can sort of see the music background - it's a subtle effect, but I like the fact that there's a bit of music "playing" in the background). I experimented a bit with "motion stamping" the people, but it wound up looking like they were some sort of crazy time travelling dancers trapped at a rave party so I had to settle for ordinary stamping instead. (I should mention these stamps are all from one Stampers' Anonymous set, Purely Random, which is one of my favourite sets. It has so many fabulous and useful elements in it, as well as these four dancing-related stamps. Actually, come to think of it, the music stamp is from one of the Christmas sets, but really every stamper should have at least one sheet music stamp, right? Right. A sheet music stamp was one of the stamps I got on my first trip to Western Educational (RIP, o stamping Mecca). Happy sigh of recalling love affair with stamps in first flush....)

Anyway, back to the card. After stamping the dancers (Pine Needles) and the footsteps (Stormy Sky), I made the tag. There was a nice scrap of soft yellow paper just sitting near my left hand, so I added some distress ink and turned it into a tag. I just blended on some shades of yellow to bring it into matching tones with the background and to stop it looking so flat. I also stamped the same sentiment on it in Scattered Straw. A handy tip: heat set with your iron so you can emboss right away. Another handy tip: don't forget to turn off the steam or the words will disappear in a puff of vapour and you will have to restamp them. Or at least I presume this is what would happen .... I also used my edge distresser (finally found it! yay! it was in my basket of stamping tools... grrr...who put it there???) I added an eyelet and some cord and presto, tag! I also used my tag corner punch for the corners since I am too impatient to measure, mark and cut corners like that. I'd rather cut corners with a punch! (Ha! Did you miss my bad puns?) I also spritzed the background with a bit of gold Smooch. (I'm liking this more and more. The first time I tried it, I used way too much. Now I give it two squirts and it's done. It is lasting a lot longer this way. It also fits in my little mini-mister stadium stand. Yay!) On the green panel is some Gala Glitz glitter in green, stuck to some Sook Wang tape (I hope, anyway - I had previously stuck down some microbeads but they looked terrible so I took them off but didn't change the tape). I don't think I'll be sending this off to anyone. I think I might give it to myself to remind me not to worry about conforming to the crazy world around me and if I feel like dancing, I should just go right ahead and do it.

I'm looking at this card and I feel like it needs something else. The layout isn't quite right. I think I need to get over my problem of covering up a background I just spent an hour making (longer if you count the one I had to throw out due to rave-dancing lunatics). Any tips on the layout problem? I have my visual triangle, I have my three yellow things, three green things, something stringy/ribbony, something sparkly, something metal. Maybe I should go read Tim's message again for inspiration....

Thanks for stopping by! It's great to be back, happily ensconced amongst my teetery piles and friendly stamps, listening to Vinney White and Studio 93, getting my fingers into the most dreadful inky mess. I had brought my Copics with me and some stamped images and logged in lots of happy colouring hours, but it's not the same as making a project from start to finish. That being said, I've made great strides with my Copics and am getting very comfortable with them, other than with blending very light colours into white. That still defeats me. Still, one needs a challenge and a reason to get out of bed in the morning!
Happy stamping :-)

All 12 Tags

This post closes the loop on my compulsive requirement to tie up loose ends. These are all 12 of the tags I made over Christmas. Can't wait for the 40 Tags of Lent to start!!!

Sorry this is wrong way up. It shows up the right way in my photo editor. Clearly there is some sort of poltergeist afflicting Blogger today.

Tag 12

Hello! I thought you might be tired of tags, so I will just upload my favourite instead of all the remaining ones. I love this one, but it's a bit of a love-hate relationship, mostly due to the bells at the bottom that I sewed on at 3 am. Sad but true. They used to be silver - but I tinted them with alcohol inks. The flower isn't made of grunge board like Tim's, but it is made of velvet paper and die cute with a Nestability. Love it! It's accented with some butterscotch dimensional pearls.

I also really like how the background turned out. It's stamped (Stampers Anonymous), but there's also a piece of sheet music that I printed off the computer from some free place and aged with antique ink and a blending tool. The message is cut from a Nestabilities die and stamped (Cornish Heritage Farms) and embossed in black, and tinted with green and the blending tool. A few jingle bells on the bottom and you're done!

Thanks for stopping by.

Sixth and Seventh Tags

Here are tags six and seven, inspired by Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas. Tag 7, with the Santa, used a masking technique, so the tag is all one layer, with lots of fun distressing and stamping, etc. I love the gold flourish (Stamp-It)! That was a stamp I picked up when I was visiting my aunt in Victoria and she took me to her LSS (yay!). The Santa is coloured with distress inks and a blender pen, accented with distress stickles.

Tag 6 uses the dictionary paper. Luckily for our French-English dictionary, DH reminded me that I could scan a page from the regular dictionary rather than using an actual page removed from the book itself. I thought the dictionary wouldn't have minded such a noble sacrifice and we hardly ever need the J's.... Anyway, I managed to get a good effect here, and I didn't even need to mail away to some paper supply shop across the border! The pear (Stampers Anonymous) is embossed in black and coloured with the blending tool and distress ink. The dictionary background is as Tim himself does it (or as close as I can come), the flourish is Stamp-It. The gold rick rack has shown up again, this time with jute. I love the warm tones of this, and it could be an all-purpose card, not just for Christmas. But I think pears can definitely be Christmassy. I didn't go with Tim's tree-on-car motif because (a) I only have bright yellow and lime green flock, (b) I don't have a car stamp, only trucks, (c) my only tree stamps are weeping willow and bare deciduous, which would look quite peculiar on my dumptruck stamp, flocked in lime green/yellow. This is sounding kind of funny, and I just might have to try it! 12 Tags of Christmas gone horribly awry.....

Well, I should sign off. hubby has finished tinkering with the various remotes and appears to have stumbled on the successful combination of buttons and pointers to allow us to watch another couple of episodes of The Border before bed. We have the whole fall season backlogged since we missed the first episode and haven't figured out how to watch it on the computer. I just saw it on Sunday and now we are catching up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fifth Tag of Christmas

Here's my fifth tag, based on this one by Tim Holtz. I picked up some fragments and silver tape to make these ornaments because they looked so cool and I thought I would enjoy doing these on lots of cards. It was a lot of fun!

I love the colour scheme of the gold and bluey green. I will be using that again! I followed Tim's design in creating the background using distress inks and the blending tool, and the same for the ornaments. I also added a flourish (Stamp-It), stamped in Snow Cap paint to resist the ink. The bough is from SU's Peaceful Wishes set, stamped with pigment ink (browny copper for the branch and metallic dark green for the needles) and clear embossed. I see now that Tim added some fun stuff at the bottom and a rub-on, so I may doctor this up a bit, or not. I like it as it is and don't want to overdo it. I used SU silver cord instead of wire for the hangers. The background stamp overall is a lovely background stamp by Heather's Stamping Haven, and the image is an old-time letter from the times when they would write twice on the page, the second time perpendicular to the first, to make the most of the paper. I stamped that in Broken China. BTW, has anyone seen my Weathered Wood ink pad? It's on the missing list and I have done an extremely substantial clean-up of my stamping area.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fourth Tag of Christmas

Here's my fourth tag, inspired by this one by Tim Holtz. I didn't have all the hardware and bits and bobs for this one, but what struck me from his was the little window vignette, so I went with that. I did a similar collage background (Stampers Anonymous), coloured in the same technique, but different stamps and colours. I chose the Santa face (Stampers Anonymous) for the window, and created a frame using a SU chipboard frame, painted with Espresso dabbers, then a bit of Snow Cap and lastly some SU shimmer paint to give it some shimmer. There are microbeads inside the window for some interest. Also it was high time for my cards to have an auditory element other than some colourful expressions when I smudge/fudge something or cut myself. This one actually looks better in the picture than in real life. Whooda thunkit!

The holly sprig (Sunshine Designs) is stamped on the back of botched Tag 2 and coloured with the sponge applicator in shades of yellow and green and red on the berry, accented with distress stickles in Fired Brick and Peeled Paint. There is also a bit of accent stamping on the edge, behind the gold rick rack in Aged Mahogany. I think it's more holly sprig, but I can't quite make it out.

Thanks for looking!

Third tag of Christmas

For this tag, inspired by this one, I created a plaid background using alcohol inks and glossy paper. It looks better in real life. It's hard to capture the depth of colour and shimmer with a camera. The background is shades of red and green and yellow, picked up on the mini tag for the sentiment. I stamped poinsettias (Penny Black) in archival and coloured them with distress stickles (Fired Brick, Scattered Straw). The holly sprig (Sunshine Designs) was stamped in distress ink (Aged Mahogany) and sprinkled with perfect pearls (I forget the colour, I think it was a red or purple) and misted to seal. This causes a bit of ink to bleed out for a neat effect.

The sentiment mini tag isn't as garish in real life, but I did sponge on some Mustard Seed to give it some oomph. It's "attached" with a idea-ology diaper pin to some jute. The ribbon on the tag is from the Recess collection by BasicGrey, with some jute. I also added an SU jumbo eyelet, perfect for the tag. I covered the whole tag with the glossy paper, instead of mounting it with other tag showing. These small tags just don't have the same amount of design space as the #8s. However, these are small enough to fit on a half-sheet card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2 front), in the unlikely event I can bring myself to give them away.

I loved doing this plaid and will definitely be doing it again. Tim recommended adding a bit of black, and I think he's right. I didn't have black alcohol ink at the time of plaiding, but I have since added it to the repertoire so the next time I do it, it will have the bit of depth.

Thanks for looking!

Second Tag of Christmas

Here's my tag for the second tag of Christmas, inspired by this one by Tim Holtz. I used the same colour scheme, and kept the distress-embossed frame motif, using corner elements to suggest a frame. (I tried one with a frame, but it didn't work out - that last extra thing I tried just didn't work, and the next thing I did to salvage it made it worse, so it got used for testing and cut up on future tags.) I used the same steps as Tim (are we on a first name basis now???) to create the background and the droplets of gold perfect pearls. I didn't have the metal hardware for the accents, so I kept this one flat - would be good for mailing or a bookmark. (DD1 has been eyeing the tags, wistfully remarking about her current dearth of bookmarks, so maybe this will go to her.)

NSR: We had a great day today. I had a huge sleep in, which was a real treat, then I went downtown to serve sandwiches at the Bishop's Levee, following the service. It was our parish's turn to host the reception and there were sandwiches, hot appetizers, tea & coffee, punch, sherry and wine for 350 to be served. It was quite the do! Then home again to go tobogganning with the kiddies. It was a lot of fun, then a picnic in front of the TV with a movie, then kidlets went to bed and DH and I played the new game he got for Christmas, a strategy game based on Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It's a really good game, which is good because I don't have a great track record for picking good board games. This one was fun, with lots of possibilities. And it won Game of the Year. Now it's time for a quick blog post - a great day!

Thanks for stopping by.

First tag of Christmas

Hello! Are you having a good New Year's Eve? We are. We did a bit of shopping today, the girls got gift certificates for a toy store so we went out. Then we went for supper at a great Chinese restaurant in our end of town, then came home and played with the new toys. Now we're tucked up snugly and will try to stay up late enough to ring in the new year. We'll see. I was up very, very late last night finishing my tags for the 12 Tags of Christmas, which was a totally self-imposed assignment, but really a huge amount of fun and a real creative rush. I did get them all done and emailed off to Tim Holtz himself, and entered in the contest. My fortune cookie tonight said I would be successful in everything I turn my hand to, so I am optimistic about my chances.

Here's the first tag, based on this one by Tim Holtz. Design elements I used were the snowman motif, the steps for creating the background (distress ink, crackle treatment) and stickle-based icicles. I used blues and pinks and purples for the background, and stamped with SU snowflakes, also with a SU snow-related rub on. The snowman is Sunshine Designs, coloured with markers and cut out. The ribbon is SU. The tag is manila, smaller than Tim's but I had a bunch of these in my stash and they work surprisingly well with all the abuse they get. I did find that really good cardstock drank up too much ink for the wetter distress techniques. It tends to float a bit better on the manila - must be coated with something. Anyway, I liked how this one came out. It's quite sparkly in real life. I still don't know what I'm going to do with all these tags. It was a real hoot doing them, even if I did stay up far too late for my own good.

Well, I should get off the computer and spend some time with my true love, who did not (bless him) give me six geese a-laying today. Two children a-playing was quite enough for me!

Happy New Year!

12 Tags of Christmas #1

I recently discovered Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas feature. Wow! It's really amazing. I fell in love with them and wanted to try my hand at them. One of the techniques featured was on how to make plaid backgrounds with alcohol inks so I set to it. It's really easy and I have a tidy pile of them on my desk (tidy used figuratively here of course).

I used mostly reds, golds and purples for this background, and stamped on some wintry images from the Winter Post set (SU). I even tried out my new scratching tool - aren't I getting grungy here! I used versafine ink, which seems to be wearing off. Ink that rubs off is a bit more of an extreme distress effect than I was going, so I will need to be gentle with this card until I try a replacement panel. I will have to try a different kind of ink next time, and just hope for the best.

I also scuffed up the edges of the tag (textured cardstock, named similarly to the irascible hotelier at Fawlty Towers). A bit about how I made my tag. In the absence of the elusive #8 manila tags, I made my own from cardstock and trimmed the corners at the top. For once they are even, a fluke that will never happen again! I also punched a circle from burgundy, but punched across the edge of the paper to get a flat side. Then I added an eyelet with my crop-o-dile. I stamped it a few times with a snowflake from Winter Post and edged in plum and artprint brown. The fibres are from my stash and I just love how they add texture and interest and a hit of colour. The layers are various colours of Mr Fawlty cardstock, edged in artprint brown. The brown one was run through my Big Shot for some texture, and the light burgundy has been stamped with a non-SU Christmas tree in bronze. The main card has been stamped in snowflakes in gold and versamark. The brads are square and spell "joy". They were silver so I tinted them with my alcohol ink applicator while I had it out. They're not so stark now and blend better. When all was said and done my hands were filthy but I was very happy with the result. I loved the tag, but I needed to put it on a card. I'm not so assimilated into the TH cult that I can just make tags for the sake of tags. I'm also a few steps away from doing large amounts of metal work in my papercrafting. Please pass the koolaid!

Thanks for stopping by!

Joan and Amy tagged me! I don't know that many other bloggers yet, so if you'd like to play along, consider yourself tagged. ETA I just found out I was also tagged by my great upline (a few levels up) Josee. Fun!

Here are the rules:

The rules of the game:
• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


OK, here goes

1. I have been to all the provinces in Canada except Prince Edward Island and I've been to one of the territories (NWT).
2. I'm left-handed.
3. I know the alphabet in sign language.
4. I love to read my favourite books over and over.
5. The first car I owned was a red Honda Civic (hatchback). I still have it.
6. I don't really like musicals, except for The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. And Mamma Mia, which I *loved*.
7. I've been hiking on the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies (just on the trails in the backcountry- I didn't go all the way to the top!).