Holiday thank you

Here's the card I created to thank those who gave us gifts over the holidays.  I like to have them coordinate with my holiday cards.

Bazzill cardstocks (white, red)
Core'dinations cardstock (brown)
Sizzix Birch Trees embossing folder, mini movers & shapers cardinal
Stampers Anonymous 'thank you' stamp
Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink, Diamond Stickles

Merry Christmas!

As soon as I saw the Birch Trees thinlits die in Tim's latest release I knew it would be the star of both my holiday (Chanukah and Christmas) cards this year.  While I love the grungy look on the sample in the package, the fresh, crisp white look was preferred for these cards.

Sizzix mini cardinal, Birch Trees; Stampers Anonymous Simple Sayings CMS156; Ranger Jet Black, Vermillion Archival Inks, Adirondack Stonewashed Ink, Diamond Stickles; Bazzill cardstocks (white, red, blue)

I edged some of the trees with the Diamond Stickles but they don't really show up in this photo.  In real life it adds just a hint of sparkle.

What's 1"x1.25"x1.5"

A very mini village dwelling made from shrink plastic!

Once the plastic had been cut I removed all tabs and cut each piece apart.  I.e. the two house pieces became four, the roof was cut in half as was the front porch roof.  The crossbars on the end windows didn't hold up nor did the open front door.  The roof section that had a gap on one edge had to be enlarged with an emery board so it would fit better. 

I created a square from a narrow strip of clear packaging so I could adhere each side of the house to it using Glossy Accents.  Now shrink plastic doesn't shrink evenly so there were gaps that I really couldn't live with.  I used some modeling stucco to cover the house.  A bit of Black Soot distress paint was added to a bit more modeling stucco for the roof.

This certainly was not the easiest construction project I've tackled.  And I'm not sure I'd do it again but it was one of those things I just had to try for myself to see if I could and how it would look.  I do enjoy using shrink plastic with many of Tim's dies.  I just have to remember that if there's a delicate piece it's most likely not going to be stable and might break off during the cutting or it will warp horribly.

It takes a village

I wasn't going to fall in love with Tim Holtz's village dwelling.  I wasn't.  Too much money for me, I said.  Too limited in creativity, I said.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  I'll show you what I mean.

Brick house

School

Winter house

House of worship

I've tried to list everything I used but I didn't keep track of the colors of anything...I just kept grabbing and playing until I was satisfied.

Dies:  Village Dwelling, Village Bell Tower, Village Winter, Brick Wall, Cobblestone, cross
Ranger:  alcohol inks, archival inks, distress inks, distress paints, distress stains, distress markers, watercolor distress paper, Distress Stickles Clear Rock Candy Dry Glitter, Texture Paste
Extras: Frosted, Studio 490 Embossing Paste, clear packaging, mica, 110# cardstock, Kraft Core, Adirondack Core, bells, mini fasteners, wood toothpicks, shrink plastic, graphite pencil, Burlap Texture Fade

Brick house:  IRL the door isn't quite that yellow.  The lines were made with distress paint smeared on my craft sheet and a square wood toothpick placed in it then on the door to create the pattern.  Mini fastener = doorknob.  I created a stencil using the Brick Wall die and smeared embossing paste through it.  Let dry then added color.  The house was first painted with Hickory Smoke distress paint to simulate the mortar.  The front stoop was painted with HS dp then splattered with Black Soot d. stain (love that spatter brush!) to look like marble.  Mica is behind each window.  Wood toothpicks are the pillars.

School:  wood toothpicks around white sign.  Hand-wrote the name of the school.

House of worship:  shrink plastic and mini movers & shapers cross for the front door.  Used the Cobblestone die to create a stencil and smeared various d. inks through the stencil.  Randomly drew around some of the stones with the graphite pencil.  Upon completion I smeared a light brown d. ink all over the pieces (before construction!) to smudge the look.  The roof shingles were drawn with the graphite pencil then smudged with my fingertip.  Alcohol ink on clear packaging is behind the windows.

Winter house:  Frosted behind the windows;  Frosted for the snow and icicles - covered all with MultiMedium then sprinkled DS Clear Rock Candy dry glitter over all (did this post-construction).  Added Texture Paste and DSCRCDG to windows and stoop.  Mini fastener for door knob.

I still have plenty of ideas in my head and know that with the release of more dies next year I won't get bored creating a village...or two.  Maybe I'll make one for each season...time will tell!

Floral themed pocket letter

ala Studio 490.

Studio 490 stamp sets by number:  11, 20, 35, 53, 89, 92, 101
Studio 490 background stamp:  Vintage Pricing Chart
Studio 490 stencils:  Borders, Basically Bricks, Checkmate, Alphabets, Old Ledger

Ranger:  manila cardstock, archival inks (all Studio 490 + Jet Black), distress inks, distress markers, embossing paste, embossing powder

**Hand sanitizer (middle row, left and right) 

**Smear archival inks on your nonstick craft sheet and squirt hand sanitizer over them.  Mix gently with a palette knife.  Because of the gelatinous nature of the hand sanitizer you are left with streaks of darker color.  If you use all reds, the look of blood is quite real.  I don't notice the lingering odor of alcohol like I do when I use regular alcohol.  The hand sanitizer also doesn't bleed through the manila cardstock.

Happy birthday, Wendy!  Hope your day is extra special!

It's December!

And you know what that means...yep, time for another Tim 'The Distress Man' Holtz tag!  The last for 2015...gasp!  I do hope he continues this monthly event next year.  I've been keeping up since he started them..what, back in 2007 or so?

Once again I thought outside the box on this one...no Christmas wreath for me.  But I did use Tim's Christmas greenery dies to create the underwater plant life that surrounds the seahorse.

I do like the way Tim gives his supply list so I'm going to copy it.

Surfaces:  #8 manila tag, kraft core, sticky back canvas
Distress inks:  Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Ground Espresso
Distress spray stains: Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch
Distress paint:  Black Soot
Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist
Dies:  Festive Greenery, Bow-Tied, Seahorse, Holiday Greens
Layering stencil: Bubble
Embellishments:  sand paper, Small Talk chit chat stickers


I love looking back at all the tags I've created over the years.  I can see how my art has evolved and what themes and color schemes I used the most.  Lots of lessons learned and new ideas added to my repertoire.

Happy Chanukah!

As soon as I saw the Birch Trees thinlits die in Tim's latest release I knew it would be the star of both my holiday (Chanukah and Christmas) cards this year.  While I love the grungy look on the sample in the package, the fresh, crisp white look was preferred for these cards.

Sizzix mini cardinal, Birch Trees; Stampers Anonymous Simple Sayings CMS156; Ranger Jet Black, Vermillion Archival Inks, Adirondack Stonewashed Ink, Diamond Stickles; Bazzill cardstocks (white, red, blue)

I edged some of the trees with the Diamond Stickles but they don't really show up in this photo.  In real life it adds just a hint of sparkle.

Happy 30th birthday!

My oldest niece is 30 today...gasp!  How can that be?  Just last week I held her in my arms and gazed into her large blue eyes.  Today she's a delightful young adult teaching art in a blue-collar middle school in a very blue-collar community.  She loves it and the faculty and students love her for her...enthusiasm, knowledge, personality, and sharing & caring nature.

The base card is light blue Bazzill cardstock, the next layer is gray Bazzill cardstock that has distressed edges.  The top layer is watercolor distress cardstock that was dipped in Antique Linen and Pumice Stone Distress Paint (one of my favorite color combos!!!) then heated until dry.

The snowflakes are from an experiment using hand sanitizer and archival inks (Sky Blue, Hydrangea, and Cornflower Blue) on manila cardstock.  I used Tim's Paper Snowflakes Sizzix die to cut them out.

The top layer was overstamped with Artful Tools; 'celebrate' was stamped in Encore's Silver Metallic ink then heat embossed with Ranger's Detail Silver embossing powder.  The bird was stamped (Watering Can Archival ink) on watercolor distress cardstock twice and colored with distress markers and a waterbrush.  Love the coordinating die!  The additional words (Crazy Talk) were stamped in Jet Black Archival ink.