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

Happy Halloween!

Couldn't let Halloween arrive without making a card. This is the one I sent to a small group of family and elderly friends.  It uses all TH stamps, dies and embossing folders.  Of course, all inks are by Ranger. 

Hope you have a spooktacular Halloween!

When is a heart not a heart?

When it becomes a witch's hat, of course!  I took the large Studio 490 heart, black embossed in Superfine Detail embossing powder and turned it upside down, bent the top portion over, and voila...a witch's hat!

This tag meets the requirements for 3 challenges.  Grungy Monday 24 uses Tim's Perfect Distress technique, the 30th Making Art! challenge (EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo group) needs 2 hearts, and over on the Inspiration Emporium blog you're to use orange, purple and black in your creation.  Ta da!

I used Tim's Wrinkle Free distress technique on the face (cut off the top of the crown, not the brim), and the Perfect Distress technique on the tree (behind the witch) and on 'Halloween'.  A really cool color combo is Dusty Concord distress ink and Blush Perfect Pearls.  Makes the neatest purple shimmer!

Ingredients:
*Studio 490 stamps:  Love To Make Art (large heart), It's Face Art (face), Art Is Therapeutic (crow from label), Believe In Art (sentiment), In Love With Art (small heart)
*Tim Holtz:  Trick-or-Treat (Halloween, spiderweb)
*Sizzix-Tim Holtz:  branch tree (made into a foam stamp)
*Ranger:  Kiwi, Blush Perfect Pearls; Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, Ripe Persimmon, Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Black Soot, Gathered Twigs, Weathered Wood, Tea Dye distress inks; Shabby Shutters distress Stickles; Black Enamel Accents
*Misc.:  #8 tag, ribbons, gems, googly eye

A bewitching queen to be sure!  lol

Use 1 color

Now this could be quite difficult depending on the color you choose but with fall being my favorite season, orange being one of my favorite colors and Wendy's stamps another all-time favorite, how could I go wrong with this challenge hosted by Simon Says Stamp & Show blog?

 

The base of my project is a chunky ATC (2x4 scrap of wood).   Here's a summary of the products used:   grungepaper (bird, stamped twice, wing elevated), Art Parts (bottle - Borders & Bottles), shrink plastic (paint brush), Tim's kraft core cardstock (#7, #8) (pumpkin, leaves, branches), Clearly For Art (lightbulb), glassine paper (rose -Wendy's tutorial for gift card envelope), grungeboard (heart) and abaca ribbon, bakery twine, toothpicks.  The 3-D pumpkin is a flower stamp of Wendy's that I stamped 9 times and cut into layers, assembling it into 3 sections.  I ran the 9 pieces through the Divine Swirl embossing folder; all the leaves were run through the Damask embossing folder.

Studio 490 stamps:  Dimensional Rose Art (rose), Lower Case Art (flower aka pumpkin), Be Happy...Make Art (numerical chart background), I Am My Art (phrase), Steampunk Art (lightbulb), Label It Art (label on bottle-only used top portion)

Tim Holtz/Sizzix:  Autumn Gatherings die, Damask embossing folder

ProvoCraft:  Divine Swirl embossing folder, postage stamp die (label on bottle)

Ranger:  Venetian Orange, Monarch Orange archival inks; Sunset Orange Adirondack Bright; Spiced Marmalade Distress Crackle Paint; Rusty Hinge Distress Stain; Orange Peel Stickles; Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge distress inks; Peach Bellini, Sunset Orange, Terra Cotta acrylic paint dabbers, and l-o-t-s of Glossy Accents

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Orange

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn't say 'knock knock' again?

I know....very old, very bad...but couldn't get it out of my head.