Artist at work...do not disturb

If you create handmade gifts for the holidays, you know this is the mantra right about now.  December 1st is rapidly approaching...so Christmas is almost here!  I've been busy in my art room trying to fulfill obligations so that I can get in there and start on my gift-making.  One of the obligations is to use Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts over on the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo group.  I also wanted to make a cover for some 6x6 chipboard pages I received in a swap so this was a perfect match.

My chipboard covers were covered in Worn Lipstick distress stain, aged with Vintage Photo distress ink and edged with the Gold paint dabber.  One of Wendy's background stamps was inked up with clear embossing ink and clear powder was used to set it.  It's hard to see but it's behind the torn piece of text.  Using Pool and Stream paint dabbers I inked up grungepaper, art parts and alpha charms.  All stamps are by Studio 490 and were inked with Jet Black archival ink.  Dangling from the spine is a bamboo tile that was colored with Perfect Pearls (no, I don't remember what colors...this was in a drawer), jump rings and beads.  The large rings are actually from a wine charms kit.

Hope you are able to make art without being disturbed...too much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm truly blessed!  Not only do I have my health (okay, a few issues but who doesn't?), family and friends, but an amazing husband who's so supportive and generous.  And he's had some good ideas for cards, projects, and is a good critiquer (helps me decide if something is okay or not).  So, between us we came up with this project that covers the challenges on Simon Says Stamp & Show (tickets) and Grungy Monday (the techniques Tim used on his pumpkin for Ranger).  I even pulled in Tim's recent tutorial on gilded kraft glassine.  Once again I called on Diane Zechman's Tissue Box Cover that I found on Splitcoaststampers' site.  Yes, I've used it numerous times but it's easy and so much fun to make one to suit the occasion or decor.

There

There are tickets on the top (tissue tape) and 2 of the sides.  On the top is heat embossing while on the sides are alcohol inks on foil (also embossed in Tim's folder), embossing on 3 of the sides and colored with chalks, Glossy Accent and inks, and the gilded kraft glassine leaves are on the bottom picture.

It's probably easiest just to list all the products used; you can probably figure out how I made everything but you can always send me an email with questions.

TH/Sizzix:  Pocketwatches, Thankful Silhouettes embossing folders; branch tree, mini acorn, mini tattered leaves, mini pumpkin, mini ticket, mini ornamental dies

Add'l TH products:  memo pins, kraft core core'dinations paper, seasonal paper stash (Thanksgiving greetings), kraft glassine paper, tickets tissue tape, sanding block, tiny attacher

TH stamps:  Falling Leaves, Odds and Ends

Studio 490:  Celestial Art (background stamp)

Ranger:  Rust, Caramel, Oregano, Butterscotch alcohol inks; Gold, Copper Mixatives; Frayed Burlap, Fired Brick distress stains; Crackle Accents; Glossy Accents; Gold paint dabber; Jet Black archival ink; Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge, Peeled Paint, Ripe Persimmon distress inks; Frayed Burlap, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain distress stickles

Misc: Bazzill BonBon cardstock, Craf-T Products Decorating Chalk, Martha Stewart ribbon, foil tape

Whew!  I think you need something to pick you up if you've read this far.  How about dessert?  My first pecan pie!  Made the crust from scratch and added tiny pastry maple leaves around the edge. 

Hope it tastes as good as it looks!  Have a wonderful and blessed thanksgiving!

Women only

Now I ask you, what's more womanly than a Studio 490 stamp set from the creative Wendy Vecchi?  Once before I saw a piece of jewelry in a magazine that really caught my eye.  I recreated it using stamps, metallic papers, blingy buttons, etc.  Now I've found another one and it really caught my eye...it looks amazingly similar to Wendy's stamps.  So....

I've included the inspiration piece from the catalog...do you see the similarities?  How could I not use Wendy's stamps and  Clearly For Art to recreate this piece? 

The sheet music was colored with Peeled Paint and Forest Moss distress stains.  The leaves were stamped with Jet Black archival ink.  The bird was inked using Festive Berries, Aged Mahogany, Black Soot and Ripe Persimmon distress inks and stamped on text from an old bird identification book.  Once everything was dry I adhered the papers to Clearly For Art using Ranger's Glue N' Seal.  I ran a brayer across the layers to make sure the bond was good then cut out the leafy branch and bird.  I punched tiny holes, shaped with my fingers and the HeatIt tool, added jump rings, chain and voila! 

If my maternal grandma were still alive it would be going to her because cardinals were her favorite bird.  Instead, I'll wear it in her memory and add it to challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog. 

You just never know when or where you'll find inspiration...it's all around us, we just have to be open-minded to see it.

Do you believe?

I don't know about you but I often find myself referring to Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas for inspiration.  If not the technique, then his choice of colors or perhaps the items he used or the way he's placed them are good jumping off points when my mojo has taken a hike.  And fortunately Linda, who's hosting the Grungy Monday challenges, must feel the same way because she's done back-to-back themes from past tags.  This week we go back in time to one of the first tags Tim created, Day 6 from 2007.

#11 tag
Ranger:  Broken China distress ink refill; Pewter Perfect Pearls; Iced Spruce, Weathered Wood, Black Soot, Mustard Seed distress inks;

Tim Holtz:  snowman mask, Santa with reindeer mask; mini snowflakes, pine tree dies; kraft core core'dinations cardstock; pine trees, December calendar and 'believe' stamps; Christmas charm; grungeboard; pocketwatches embossing folder

Misc.:  SnowTex by DecoArt; 1 3/8" circle punch, Judikins mask paper, ribbon, wire hook


An 'aha' moment...Iced Spruce makes a great shadow color...just enough dark gray to be there but not stand out

Re-use, recycle, repurpose

Gee, that's been my mantra for a long time so I'm glad to see that this theme for the challenge on the Simon Says Stamp & show blog.  I've been saving used coffee filters the past few weeks just so I could make a garden full of flowers for some friends of mine.  Even though the coffee filters were really cool in their used state I wanted to add more color so out came the distress stains and inks.  You can cut multiple layers of flowers in the Spellbinders dies since the filters are so thin.  What a timesaver!

This is a 6x6 heavy duty chipboard  page that is covered in Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas and plenty of her paints.  The flourishes (Coffee archival ink) are Studio 490, the butterfly and my initial are from Maya Road, Martha Stewart branch punch, and Sizzix swirly heart frame.  The purple Washi tape just doesn't like sticking to the canvas...perhaps it wasn't dry enough.  I did stamp some text on it in Jet Black archival ink and it's only barely seen which is fine. I've done some hit-or-miss with the Gold paint dabber and there's Rock Candy distress stickles on both layers of the butterfly.  The heart and initial were covered in Walnut Stain and Dusty Concord crackle paints; more Coffee archival was smeared into the cracks.

Time passages

Can you hear Al Stewart singing about 'time passages'?  I can...love the album and all the songs on it.  Okay, so I'm dating myself by saying I listen to the 33 rpm album...lol!  But I digress.  This tag is for the MakingArt! challenge on the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo group.  The theme is time and can be interpreted in many ways.  I chose one of Wendy's sentiments that makes me think of Al's song.

Wendy's stars were clear embossed and lots of blue distress inks were used on the tag.  Gathered Twigs distress ink was used on all the edges of the tag and bird.  The small bird was stamped on grunge paper 3 times because I wanted both wings to be separate from the bird so it would appear to be in flight.  Wendy's alpha bar stamp and a hole punch give me the letters atop the stars.  Wendy's clock was stamped on shrink plastic in Cobalt archival ink; all other stamping was done in Jet Black archival ink.  Like the lacy bit at the bottom?  That's from Tim's Vintage Lace decorative strip die.  Love all 3 patterns on it and I know it will be appearing in more of my art work.

Studio 490 stamp sets:  Celestial Art, Rose Art Part 2, Alphabetically Art, Lower Case Art

A time for thanks

This week's Grungy Monday challenge used Tim's 2009, Day 7 Christmas tag as inspiration.  I'm not into Christmas, at least not yet, so I chose to do a Thanksgiving theme.  With today being Veteran's Day it's appropriate that not only do I give thanks who have served, or are serving, our country but that my art should reflect my thanks as well.  I know you can't see the white words in the background very well (I think I should have dried them more) but the word 'Thanks' is there.

I've used stamps from Tim's 'Thankful Silhouettes' and 'French Connection'.  I've also used his Tattered Leaves dies on shrink plastic and colored them with colors from the fall palette.  Ranger provided all the inks, paint dabbers  and embossing powder.

Veteran's Day is important to me personally.  I have no family members currently active in the military but my paternal grandfather served in both World War 1 and 2; my dad was in the Army Reserves for the end of the Korean War and retired as a colonel shortly before his death a few years ago and 5 of his 7 siblings (3 sisters and 2 brothers) served in the military.  Even my maternal grandmother served as a dietitian when she was a WAC - that's when she met my grandfather.  My grandpa was very patriotic.  So patriotic that he died on Veteran's Day.  And he missed being born on Veteran's Day by a few hours.  My husband served in the Air Force during the Viet Nam war.  I fly my flag proudly each and every day.  I pray for peace daily and hope that one day we will no longer have the need to be on foreign soil defending our rights or the rights of others, especially at such a great cost as the sacrifice of human life.

God bless the USA!

In loving memory

At first I thought this week's Grungy Monday challenge was a bit strange...to create a loving tribute to someone no longer in our lives.  But then I got to thinking about it being Halloween (the first day of the challenge), the Day of the Dead, etc. and figured it fit in pretty well.  My best friend for nearly 21 years was my cat, Pi.  When I got her as a 6-week old kitten my 10-year old mind would never have thought about how long she would live.  She went from coast to coast with me, even doing a stint in Canada for a few months.  If she could talk I'm sure she'd share more stories than I would care for you to hear.  lol  She loved opening presents...tearing and clawing at the paper like a young child.  She knew a treat of catnip was inside...she just couldn't get to it fast enough!  Here's my #8 tag remembering my special friend one Christmas morning many, many years ago.

I used Tim's tag from the 12 Days of Christmas, Day 2, 2008 as my inspiration.  The pine tree stamp I created from his die and a foam sheet.

Ranger:  glossy cardstock; Denim, Stream, Slate, Eggplant, Silver Metallic Mixative alcohol inks; Bottle, Meadow, Espresso Adirondack inks; clear embossing powder; Blue Violet archival ink; Butterscotch, Cranberry Adirondack acrylic paints; Chipped Sapphire, Gathered Twigs distress inks

Tim Holtz:  Tag & Bookplate die, Pine tree die, snowflakes from Mini Holidays

Maya Road: large bottle cap, chipboard letters

Our house, is a very, very fine house...

with 2 cats in the yard.  No, back up...they're not in the yard...we don't let them outside.  But I digress.  This week the challenge on the Simon Says Stamp & Show blog is all about houses.  Mine is totally created from scratch.  The only thing that was pre-made was the wreath.

This is a gingerbread house aka tissue box cover.  I found the tutorial over on Splitcoaststampers quite some time ago and have used it often.  Last year I made quite a few as gifts.

I found some really cool almost suede-like paper that I thought made for some great gingerbread.  I darkened the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  The rest of the details I think you can figure out so I'll just list the ingredients.  I've dimensionalized (I've coined a new word!) everything by at least 3 layers and/or 3 colors.

Here's a view from the top so you can see all the snowball shingles on top as well as the chimney.

Ranger:  Weathered Wood, Aged mahogany distress inks; Fired Brick, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door distress stains; Diamond Stickles; Fired Brick, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door distress stickles; Gold paint dabber; White Enamel Accents

Tim Holtz:  Scallops on the edge die; Woodgrain, Bricked embossing folders; Gingerbread; Kraft-Core Bazzill paper; grungeboard J (candy cane)

Misc:  1/2" circle punch, buttons, wreath, bakery twine, Deco Art glistening Snow Writer, Sizzix snow mound die, Martha Stewart goo punch, Lucky Squirrel Canvas White Shrink Plastic, toothpick