Hello Baby

Here is one of the cards I worked on at the Crop last week.  It's a baby card for my sister in law in New Zealand.  The little elephant is from Unity's stamp set Could I Be Any Cuter and the sentiments are from Simon Says Stamp Tiny Ray of Sunshine stamp set.

I actually used my sewing machine on this card with some silver thread!!!  Now that my scrap room is coming together I have a dedicated sewing table which has paper storage underneath.  I love how the inside of the card turned out.  

I'm sharing my card over at Unity's Friends With Flair tonight.


Supplies:
Paper:  Basic Grey Fresh Cut, SU Baked Brown Sugar and Whisper White
Stamps:  Unity Could I be Any Cuter, Simon Says Stamp Tiny Ray of Sunshine
Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories:  silver thread, Mister Huey Calico Shine Spray



I had to share this cute CTMH Make 'n Take card from the Crop last weekend that Donna let us make and our little gift was this cute little strawberry with a Hershey's Kiss inside :)

The Journey is Never Truly Over - Tim's Tags March 2015

I found some crafty time today, apparently, Donna's 12 hour crop yesterday was not enough :)  More on that in another post.  Today I'm sharing my version of Tim's March 2015 Tag.  Lots of fun!!!  I was lucky enough to be a winner last month with my very first entry!!!  So now I have the bug!!  

We started with a Marbled Paint technique which I have to work on a bit.  It got a little muddy on the bottom half of the tag.  That's why I went a little heavy on the embossing paste :)  There is actually some tissue tape under the paint, not sure if you can find it.....the stamped image was stamped in Archival Ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then we created a mask to cover the image and spread embossing paste through a stencil on the tag and and cover with gold embossing powder.  After it was dry, then we heated the powder.  WOW, love the shimmer of the gold embossed paste!!!  You can see Tim's Tag at the end of my post.

Here you can see how shiny the embossed stamped image is and how shimmery the gold embossed paste is.  I filled in a few empty spaces with some rub-ons.  Can't say it enough - I LOVE the rub-ons!!  It's easy to get carried with them :)

Supplies:  Tim Holtz Phrases 2 Clear Stamp, Elements Tissue Tape, Monocles, Memo Pin, Ring Fastener, Bubble Stencil, Botanical Remnant Rubs, Distress Paints (Picked Raspberry, Broken China, Rusty Hinge, Mowed Lawn, Antique Linen), Crinkle Ribbon, Distress Stain (Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Pumice Stone); Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste; Ranger Archival Ink; Stampin Up Gold Embossing Powder 

Art Journal Reveal - Live Simply. Dream Big.....

Well, better late than never, I finally finished my 3rd Art Journal page.  You might remember from my last two that my friend Tracy and I have an ongoing Challenge to each other to complete an Art Journal page every six weeks (or so) in my case.  Funny, I was late this time and I'm usually the one bugging Tracy to see if she's done yet :)  You can check out her Art Journal page here.

This time the theme was Love/Valentines.  I had always had in my mind that I wanted to use one of my Unity Stamps for this, and I chose this sweet girl.  The stamp is called 'Party Love' from Suzi Blu.

I had to include this picture so you could see the dimension!

I actually used several of my Unity Stamp sets on this.  They're all named them below.  As you can see from yesterday's post, the background really came together after I applied the tissue paper.  I then coloured with my Gelatos and spread the colour with my fingers.  By now I was friends with my Gelatos ;)

I couldn't wait for this next step!!  I coloured some white embossing paste with a turquoise Gelato and began to apply it through a Donna Downy stencil.  I tried for a gradient look, so in the lower left corner it's darker than in the upper right corner.

Next I wanted to add this stamped sentiment but because the page is not a flat surface anymore, I stamped it on plain tissue paper and adhered it with gel medium.  Love that I learned this trick - you can't even tell.  Then I stamped the white dots with the Heavy Body Paint and I blended over the stamped heart image with a grey Gelato.  I also used my new Hero Arts Neon Pink ink (LOVE IT) and some Archival Ink for some more background interest.

And lastly I added the Party Girl.  She was stamped onto some My Minds Eye paper several times so I could paper piece her dress and adhered with gel medium.  I then coloured her skin and leggings with my copics.  The shading you see in the first picture above was done with my Gelatos to add depth and to ground the image.  See the difference from here to when she's completed?  Oh, and I did a little doodling on her dress too :)

I am entering this in the Simon Wednesday Challenge - Special Lady/Girly and at The Shabby Tea Room's Challenge - A Pop of Pink.  I am also entering at Unity's Friends with Flair.


Supplies:
Unity Stamps Party Love (Suzi Blu), Beautiful Elements, January 2015 Smak Kit Ourselves, January 2015 KOM Magic of Beginnings; Bo Bunny Stamps Distressed Textures, Stained Textures; Donna Downey Blooming Floral stencil, Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste, Faber Castell Gelatos and PITT artist pens, My Mind's Eye Blush paper, Liquitex matte gel medium and Heavy Body White paint, Hero Arts Neon Pink Ink, Ranger Archival Inks, copics

3rd Art Journal Page - Sneak Peek

Just sharing some photos of my test page and early stages of my Art Journal page for my Love/Valentine Challenge with Tracy.  I always like to try out new techniques and mediums in my test journal.  Here I was trying out my new Gelatos.  These and my PITT pens were part of my Christmas gift from hubby.  I wanted to create a background with them and I experimented over gesso and plain paper.  I also stamped over it with Archival Ink and tried a little drippage too using some Heidi Swapp Color Shine :)

And here are a couple photos of the beginning stages of my actual Art Journal page.

I thought I wanted to collage some random pieces of paper to add interest to the background.  

I applied a coat of gesso and began to colour my page with the Gelatos.  At this point my Gelatos and I were not friends.  I did not like the coverage, and it seemed that no matter what I did, because my pages are not flat anymore, there is warping and texture, I couldn't get them to blend the way I was hoping.

So then I just covered it up :)  After this, things began to fall into place.  I'll share my completed pages tomorrow!!

Know In Your Heart That You Are Loved - Tim's Tags February 2015

After I made my tag yesterday, I kept on going and this time created a tag for the 12 Tags of 2015 - February.  It is a love theme, however I didn't want to use a heart or red.  I really didn't want it be for Valentines so went I with a romantic vintage theme with softer colours.  I can't wait to make another :)

I had a lot of fun using the ephemera and collaging the tag.  You should feel the texture and weight of this tag!!  I loved using the Picket Fence Distress Paint to create a shabby effect on the collage and on the metal word band and arrow.  I couldn't wait for the step when I outlined each piece with the Black Soot Distress Marker.  And of course the final touch was to spritz some Black Soot Distress Marker over the whole tag.

Notice the little number 14 on the tag?  I ended up changing my mind and adding the 5 cents instead.  The edges of the tag were sanded and so were some of the layers.  I also used some tissue tape along the edge of the tag.  I used Tumbled Glass and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks to colour a moth from the ephemera pack and then applied a coat of Glue & Seal and after that was dry I applied Distress Stickles.  It was popped up over the Industrious Sticker frame.