EASTER Refrigerator Magnet

Hello again!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  The weather was spectacular here in South Florida.  We're trying to hang on to a breath of cool air while we can!  It's time again for my weekly sharing of the project I made for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  This week the theme is Show Us a Word.

My word is EASTER.  We are currently in Lent, a period of prayer and introspection with emphasis on change.  What are you doing for Lent?  Are you making a sacrifice, giving something up to strengthen your discipline?  I'm afraid that the time is rushing by so fast that I haven't really given Lent much thought.  But making this project gave me a pause to really meditate on Lent and the renewal that is Easter.  How wonderful that the liturgical season parallels spring with it's renewal of flora and fauna!

For my Easter project, I chose to make a seasonal home decor item, a jumbo refrigerator magnet featuring vintage images, tulle, crinoline and lace. It's 6x6", built on a piece of chipboard from a chipboard scrapbook album.  Products used include Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium Matte, Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die, Gold Alcohol Ink Mixative, Vintage Photo and Antique Linen Distress Inks.   

Do you like my forsythia?  I loved this charming vintage springtime image with the children and what looks to me like a forsythia bush in the background.  I grew up in upstate New York and remember the glorious yellow extravaganza that the forsythia bushes provided every year.  So I tried to recreate them with some crinoline.  My flowers may not look exactly like forsythia but I think they provide a beautiful splash of springtime color on this piece.  I took some photos as I was making them and will try to put them together into a tutorial later this week.  I am finding that crinoline is such a fun, versatile fabric to work with.  It is so stiff - must have tons of sizing it in.  Even when I fully saturated it with water and color from reinkers, it dried totally stiff again - very cool!  I dyed both the crinoline and the rayon seam binding with Barely Banana reinkers - so fun to play with!

Now hustle on over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to see what my team mates have been up to.  I guarantee you will be awe struck by their talent!  I hope you will meditate on a word and then make up a project for our challenge.  Our ever-generous sponsor will be giving away a $50 shopping spree to a random winner.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope to see your project this week over at Simon Says Stamp and Show!

A Time of Plenty

It's time again for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  I'm so happy you stopped by to see my design team inspiration piece.  This week our challenge is Distressed and Sanded.  Sounds like great fun, right?  I certainly enjoyed making this wall hanging as a beautiful home decoration for the autumn season.  I covered a piece of cardboard with burlap and then spritzed it with my homemade vintage photo glimmer mixture which darkened it and gave it a bit of shimmer.  The leaves were die cut from plain white card stock and colored with distress inks and water.  The water allowed me to wrinkle them so they looked more realistic.  Once dry, I spritzed them with my glimmer mixture too.  I really love the way they turned out and will probably be making more to enhance my fall creations.  The canvas sunflowers were cut with Szzix and Cuttlebug dies and were also colored with Tim Holtz Distress Inks - this time in Wild Honey  . The clock and calendar were cut from paper in the Lost and Found pack. I embossed several layers of aluminum foil (didn't have any of the embossable metal you can buy) with Cracked Texture Fade and dripped Adirondack Alcohol inks on it. A sheet of card stock was embossed with the Collage Texture Fade, sanded and ink distressed with Vintage Photo. Tim Holtz Game spinners became clock hands and the whole creation was topped off with one of the fabulous Tim Holtz Ornate Plate.

The flourish and the tiny die cut pumpkin next to it were colored using a technique called Drunken Scotch that I found on KAT's blog.   Check out the link for her quick and easy tutorial.  It makes a great grungy look.  The young harvest boy is a stamp from Artistic Outpost, the vintage pumpkin label is from the Graphics Fairy and the cork letters were cut with the Oliva alphabet for the Cuttlebug. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I hope you will stop by Simon Says Stamp and Show to play with us this week.  And I hope you will take time to visit the rest of the designers for this challenge.  They all do such amazing work and I'm sure you will be delighted by what you see on their blogs.

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey

♥ Dan - My Crafty Life

♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing

♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'

♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???

♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart

♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity

♥ Katie Davis - Chantilly Rose

♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe 

Blessings & hugs,

Welcome to the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop

Welcome to the first ever combined Simon Says Stamp and Show and Simon Says Stamp SUPER HOP. If you are lost, please go back to the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog for the complete list of blog stops. Don't forget, you must comment on each blog along the way to be eligible to win prizes in the September 15th drawing.

You are currently on Linda Coughlin's blog. The letter you are picking up from this stop on the hop is S. Your next and final stop will be at the Simon Says Stamp blog. Be sure to leave a comment here before you leave, both to qualify you for the grand prize drawing and also for the blog candy I am giving away here. The ingredient used to make my project that I am giving away is Tim Holtz Fragments Charms. Have you tried these? They are so much fun. Check out Tim's A Compendium of Curiosities, page 30, to learn all the wonderful ways to use them.

Now that we have gotten through all those blog hop instructions, here's my part of the hop. I decided to make a Halloween tryptych. Here it is in all it's final glory.


But I must say, it took me FOREVER to make this. It was a fun project, but so many elements and details, all hand cut and hand distressed. I was so glad that we had an extra couple of days to create our project this week. For the distressing, I sponged the edges of everything with Vintage Photo distress ink, plus some were misted with a solution of Vintage Photo reinker, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls.

Here are some close up shots of my project.

The center panel was dry embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder. Then I brayered Versamark over the high points and applied Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress EP to give it a nice rough texture. Most of the vintage graphics are from The Graphics Fairy, a free on-line source. Three Tim Holtz stamp sets were also used: Halloween Ticket stamp, Urban Grunge, Spooky Stuff. The letters for the banner are from The Graphics Fairy and are mounted on pendants stamped with the floral filagree stamp from Flights of Fancy which was stamped on white CS with Versamark and then clear embossed. After that, it was sponged with black ink so the pattern of the stamp shows in white. The skull from Grungeboard Altered Elements Plain was painted with Picket Fence distress crackle paint.

Both the left and right panels were embossed with the Patchwork Texture Fade and then painted over with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in Snow Cap. The raven and the Happy Halloween stamps are from the Spooky Stuff stamp set. The raven was stamped on white with versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black ink and clear embossed, then trimmed out. Happy Halloween was stamped in Versamark and Dusty Concord, clear embossed and then sponged with Peeled Paint. The filagree frame for The Raven quote is from The Graphics Fairy. I found The Raven text on line, layered it over the frame with PSE and also created another layer in PSE to add "Nevermore."

A vintage photo of a witch was digitally overlaid on a digital playing card, which was printed and mounted on a bingo card. I printed and punched out the letters for WITCH and glued them to the card. The Tim Holtz Fragment Charm was stamped with alcohol inks and then a stamped image of a witch's cauldron was affixed to the back with Glossy Accents. The black cat was stamped with the Spooky Stuff set and black glitter was applied. The flower was made with Grungepaper cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and the flourish was cut with a Sizzix die. The flower was embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder and sponged with Dried Marigold and Dusty Concord distress inks.

There you have it, folks. Best of luck to you in all the drawings for this outrageously generous blog hop! Hope you have a blast looking at all the lovelies we have created for your inspiration. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Blessings & hugs,

Autumn Accordion Tag

It's that time of the week when we have the wonderful unveiling of DT projects for Simon Says Stamp and Show. I hope you are as excited as I am for Monday morning to come around so you can find out what our weekly challenge is and to be inspired by the design team's samples. This week we are challenging you to make a project in your best Tim Holtz style. For many people, Tim Holtz brings tags to mind and you'll see that held true for the design team as well. I chose to make tags too - with a twist. Mine is a home decor project - an accordion style tag celebrating the autumn months. The four panels represent August with a back-to-school theme, September - the true beginning of autumn, October with Halloween and Thanksgiving in November.

Even with no stitching, this was a fairly labor-intensive project, but it was a lot of fun so I didn't mind. Plus I have decided to keep it myself and use it in my fall decorating. Fall is my favorite season and I love to decorate my home with leaves, pumpkins and other autumn icons.

I have quite a few Tim Holtz embellishments, but not many of his stamps. So I relied on other stamps seasonal stamps that had a vintage feel to them and added the TH embellishments. I must say, I was rather nervous again this week when trying to come up with an idea for a project. The bar is very high with the talent on this DT and I didn't want to let my teammies down. Now that the project is finished, photographed and posted, I'm feeling pretty good about the outcome.

Products Used: Tim Holtz products include Salvage Stickers, Game Spinner, Muse Token, Grungeboard Elements, Philosophy Tag, Tattered Florals Die, Distress Inks, Distress Embossing Powder and Crackle Paint.

I hope you'll play along with us this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show. The prizes are always fantastic and you can't win if you don't play! I'm sure you'll want to visit the blogs of the other talented design team members:

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey
♥ Dan - My Crafty Life
♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing
♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'
♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???
♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart
♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity
♥ Katie Davis - Chantilly Rose
♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe

Thanks for stopping by. Can't wait to see what you make for the Tim Holtz inspired challenge this week!

Blessings & hugs,