Spooky is...

...ghosts, bats, blood, rats, tombstones, skeletons, haunted houses, and creepy trees.  Thanks to Tim's new holiday dies, Sizzix dies, Martha Stewart gravestone punch, shrink plastic and grunge paper I was able to come up with a suitable entry for this week's theme over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show Blog. 

There are so many layers of ink colors, crackle paints, and spray stone finishes on this it would take quite some time to list all the particulars.  The Sizzix bats are black shrink plastic - perfect size!  Don't know if you can see in the windows but the skeletons from Stamp Camp are having a party!  Wendy's spider is hanging in the long window keeping an eye on things. 

I punched out 6 gravestones from scrap cardstock, glued them together, then sprayed it with a stone Krylon spray.  Included with the punch was 3 stamps so I chose 'RIP', stamped it using black archival ink.  A bit of distressing ink around the edges creepens it up. 

You know all those little bits that fall out of the die from the fence?  Blacken the edges and they make the perfect size of layering pieces behind the fence and tree.  The whole piece is over 1/2" from front to back.

Isn't that mouse something?  He's from the dollar spot at Target; I just used a red Sharpie on his eyes.  Thanks to a friend's fantastic yard sale find, I had plenty of scrabble tiles to create the message.  And what do you think of the bloodied hand?  Found it at Dollar General and it's very accurate, even down to the pores on the top of the hand.  I also got the foot - same accuracy to details.  Not sure when/where I'll use it but didn't want to pass up the opportunity to add it to my Halloween stash.

Halloween is but a few days away...trick or treat, smell my feet...give me something good to eat!

Creativity, mistakes, details

Got the cover done for my compendium technique tags.  This week's theme, Extreme Masking, was the perfect choice for my idea. 

Lots of yellows, oranges an browns, Tim's alphabet mask, stamps from Tim and Wendy, Tim's corners, fragment, and a grungeboard crown.  Black glaze pen for stitching and Black Enamel Accents highlight the flourish dots. 

This technique is lots of fun and so versatile!

Eeek! A mouse...

is trying to get a Halloween treat!  Over on Simon Says Stamp and Blog this week's theme was to create anything but a card.  This 4" square pizza box was made from off-white card stock.  It stands 1" high.

After creating the box I distressed the edges and top with various fall colors.  The green layer was distressed with ink and an edger tool then adhered to the box.  I used a Spellbinder's circle die to cut the center out of both layers. 

I cut the center out of the brown layer, then ran it  through Tim's burlap embossing folder before distressing with brown and black distress inks.  A scrap of acetate (thank goodness I save packaging!) keeps the candy from exiting out the window.

The pumpkin is a Sizzix die; cut out 2 but only used the center portion on the 2nd one.  More distress inks and Distress Stickles and plenty of grunge paper scraps were used for elevation and curlability.  A bit of copper wire coiled on a skewer was gently pulled into shape for the pumpkin vine.

Martha Stewart provided the punch & vein stamp for the leaves.  They were also distressed and curled before Distress Stickles was applied.  Tim's memo pin holds his Happy Halloween ticket from his 100th set.  I carefully stamped it on his ticket die and distressed the edges with brown and black.

Twine was wrapped around the box several times and tied in a knot.  Like that mouse?  He's sticky so he sits on the acetate window and doesn't move around.  Found a set of 12 at Target today for not much $. 

Happy Halloween!

PS - Yes, the layers are a bit wonky.  It's not easy getting everything lined up and cut.  I decided it was better to make them appear even more wonky so I could get by with it!  LOL

Listen to your heart

The 18th CCC technique is Dabber Resist, found on pg. 37 of Tim's book.  I chose a pink and green color palette but it photo'd much redder on the rickrack and paper clip.  Sigh.  Really, it looks much better in person than on the screen.

All the stamps are from Wendy Vecchi's collection.  You can find the number border at the top in Be Happy, Make Art, the ticking is from Art Fit For A Queen, the row of flowers is from  Art Rules, while you'll find the heart and sentiment in  Love to Make Art.

The heart was stamped on grungepaper with coffee then light pink distress inks were smeared all over.  The swirl is chipboard painted with the Shell Pink paint dabber, text in archival coffee, Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint, then more archival ink to bring out the cracks.

The pink rhinestones, rickrack and paper clip come from unknown sources.

I've done this technique lots of time with the White Paint Dabber but am glad I opted to try a color for a unique look.  Hey, it's only ink and paper!

A night on the town

Normally I don't do fancy and I don't do glitz but this piece just kind of happened anyway.  Over on Simon Says Stamp and Show this week's theme was all about metal.  I managed to use some form of metal in 7(*) of my components. 

The background is Duck Faux Metal Easy Liner (*) that was run through the Allegro embossing folder then wrapped around a 5"x7" piece of chipboard.  It already has an adhesive on the back. 

The next layer is grungeboard, with a sheet of text adhered, painted over with the Pearl Paint Dabber, Wendy's background leafy vine stamped in archival olive, then edged with the Silver Paint Dabber(*). 

Ten Seconds Studio Barn Red Metal sheet (*) was cut to size and run through SU's Manhattan Floral embossing folder.  Tim's handy dandy palm sander took the ink off the raised portion of the image very easily. 

I gathered some lace and adhered it to the back of the roses.  I strung my own pearls and created a rather stylish dinner ring from a bead and silver ring(*).   I cut apart a teabag envelope from Harrods and glued it behind the jewelry box key(*). 

Wendy's Cass Opera House was stamped onto the back of a soda can(*).  It's hard to see in the photo but there are 2 strands of silver beads(*) shooting up behind the opera ticket.  The grungeboard layer was elevated using a scrap piece of chipboard.

Rabbit hunting

Gotcha!  I bet you thought I was going to talk about hunting and stuff, didn't you?  Nope!  When the CCC challenge was announced I was knee deep in visitors and other life stuff.  Good job, too, because my creative muse had taken the proverbial hike.  However, today I had some time and was trying to figure out what to put behind my fragment charm when I remembered some wrapping paper that might have just the image I wanted.  The little boy had a spring-like look to him and I immediately thought of Easter and Tim's set of stamps with the rabbit and grasses.  So, the little tyke is off hunting for the Easter Rabbit!

After making the fragment charm I inked up Tim's rabbit in black archival ink and stamped him, heat setting the ink afterwards.  I created a mask to cover him while I stamped Tim's grasses in green & brown archival inks over the rabbit.  Several green distress inks were used to color the bottom of the tag.

Tim's numbered border stamp was inked with white cap pigment ink with clear embossing powder; heat set.  Over this I used several blue distress inks for the sky.  Hmmm...the fragment charm features more pastel colors, not the distress colors I used.  How about some pigment ink over the green and blue?  Yup!  Juniper at the bottom and Cloudy Blue over the top gave me the pastel colors I wanted.

I added the ribbon tie to Peter and some blue flower button brads.  A ring through the charm so it could dangle on the string and I'm happy!

Happy Halloween!

Recently I saw a card by Carrie Lipovich in the Sept/Oct issue of Paper Crafts magazine (pg. 36).  I liked it so much I decided to use it as a jumping off place for my own.

I punched a circle out of scrap paper, placed it on the smaller brown rectangle and inked a harvest moon with several colors of distress ink.  The image is Crow Gate by Inkadinkado, one of their clear mini stamps.  They make some nice images for not much $.  I added 3 black dots in the upper right hand corner for balance.  A black layer separates the image from the card base (same card stock).  The picket fence is Martha Stewart; the small pumpkin punch has no identifying marks - sorry.  The pumpkin was shaded a bit with rusty hinge for depth.

I have a tag that I'll be sharing later this month.  It was truly CASEd from my friend, Patti Behan, at Ranger.  Years ago I took classes from Patti at some LSS in NJ.  She's a great teacher and a lot of fun.  I got to see her in action at the Ranger booth this past CHA in Chicago.  You rock, Patti!

Chunks of blue

Side & top

Front

Back

Side

Remember when I shared my chunky ATC in an earlier post?  Well, I just got the one Sandi made for me the other day.  Love the blues and black of this really cool ATC!  And the pop of color from the red bead just keeps catching my eye.  Since this was a swap on the EWV group you'll see lots of Wendy stamps and ideas.  Love, love, LOVE her work!  And Sandi did a great job - thank you!!!


Thank you, Blogger, for aligning the photos this time!  Drats.  Well, at least in the preview they were lined up nicely. 

It's a cinch to make art!

Just got my Cinch and couldn't wait to play!  Another cyber friend got hers about the same time so I kinda challenged her on her blog to get them both out of the box and least tinker with them.  I created two booklets (one for me and one for her) and now that she's received hers I can show you mine.  The booklets are 2.5"x5.5" and use the 3/4" binding coil.  I love how easy it is to punch the holes in so many different combinations.    

The covers are chipboard covered with card stock; the pages are card stock.  I've used most Tim's stamps but there are some from Wendy's collection in there, too.  I won't go into page-by-page detail but throughout the pages I used embossing folders, plenty of alcohol, distress and archival inks.  Glossy Accents was essential for adhering many of the elements and also created the tear at the bottom of page 4.  Fragments, computer parts, and old watch face, Maya Road trinkets, Tim's embellishments, Sizzix dies, holiday tissue tape, tickets and buttons help complete the pages.  On the last page it's very difficult (even IRL) to see that 'Merry Christmas' is stamped in gold.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

 

 

Close up of cover

The ornate plate on the front has Wendy's 'art' stamped in it.  I filled the opening with sepia glossy accents before adding a few smears of juniper paint dabber to make the plate look much older than it really is.

So, if you have a Cinch (or any bookbinding tool) and haven't used it yet or in a long time, pull it out and PLAY!  As you can see, it was a cinch to create this gallery of images!  I'm thinking holiday gifts, birthday presents, etc.

Blogger has its own idea on how to add pictures and it's NOT user friendly.  Don't know how I stumbled on getting them to line up like this but I'll take it for now!  LOL

It's good to be the king!

This week over at Simon Says the theme is 'Numbers'.  I let the idea roll around in my head and thought about what I had in my room that contained numbers.  I saw a chipboard house on my desk and wondered if I could use it for the base of my project.  And so, the king of the bingo house was born.

I adhered white paper to the house then took brown distress ink and smeared it over all, with extra on the edges.  I positioned the house in Tim's bingo embossing folder so that only the numbers portion would emboss.  I used the folder in the open position so naturally the back is still flat!  Of course, the embossing folder looks a bit worse for the wear but I'm sure it will go back flat once it's been used again.  Pumice stone and black DI were carefully smeared on the raised portion.  The sentiment (Inkadinkadoo) was stamped on the peak in black ArI.

A scrap of red Bazzill cardstock was distressed with inks and my fingers then run through Tim's brick EF and glued on the chimney.  The roof is grungeboard with the swirls pattern, cut with Tim's on the edge die, colored with grey PI & black DI.  The grass is the other piece of the roof but colored with green DIs.

Wendy's man with Ranger's black enamel accents dotted specs is king (Maya Road crown); Tim's word charm hangs by a jump ring from the roof.  The old bingo game pieces were sanded before I glued them down.  I used Glossy Accents to glue everything down.  Grunge board scraps help elevate the various pieces for added dimension. 

It's apple picking time!

I love this time of year!  Cool temps, falling leaves, tractors in the fields bringing in the harvest, and the smell of apples from the local orchard.  I've already made 2 apples pies and am ready to make #3...yum!

This week the technique for the CCC is Wrinkle Free Distress (pg. 33 in Tim' book).  The color palette I chose was Wild Honey, Barn Red and Peeled Paint.  The apple stamp (Anita's) was stamped with black archival ink onto watercolor paper then colored with the above inks, blending & shading with darker versions in the same colors.  It was cut out using a craft knife then elevated with foam tape.

I stamped the apples text (A Stamp in the Hand) across the dry tag using coffee archival ink.  A 'page' from Tim's calendar tissue tape was adhered to red cardstock, torn out and edged with brown & black distress inks.  The button and metal tag were sanded and aged with StazOn ink.  Both were finished with a bit of twine. 

This technique is one of my favorites...so easy...so versatile.  I did edge the tag with brown distress ink to make all the colors pop.  The oven is hot and I have my fork ready!

Distressed & Sanded

within in an inch of it's life!  lol  Seriously, every element (with the exception of the 4 clear acrylic bits) on this piece has seen sandpaper, distress ink, distress stickles and/or distress crackle paint. 

I started out with a chipboard circle then painted it with Claudine's Trad Tan.  Two of Wendy's new background stamps (script, dot border) were stamped in archival ink.  The poinsettia is a Sizzix die that was cut from Core'dinations card stock.  Tim's flourish was cut from harlequin grunge board.  Lots of red, green, and brown inks were used as well as a bit of black and gold.  Tim's Christmas ticket was stamped on his ticket die.

The drying time on this project took tons more time than the actual thought & build process.