The Last Word

Today is the day the Funkie DTs join in the current challenge over at Frilly and Funkie.  Last Wednesday we started our current challenge "I'll Take Your Word For It", which is to feature a sentiment as the main focal point of your piece.  I posted last week with the Frillies, but felt an inclination to join in with the Funkies this week too.  I hope you will stop by the blog and see what these talented designers have to share.  

I have been so busy I didn't have time to make a tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags challenge in February or March, so I wanted to make sure I got one done for April and this was the perfect time to jump in with one.  Plus my friend Sarah's Mojo Monthly is Tagology (create a tag) this month and Simon Says Stamp and Show wants us to do a Lord Tim of Holtz technique.  So it looks like I might have a three-fer with this one.  

I did Tim's technique of stamping on a Texture Fade and then running the tag through so it gets stamped and embossed at the same time.  I don't have any of his reflections stamps so I had to find something that wouldn't look too blatantly backwards.  The Texture Fade I used here is from Stampin' Up! and of course, the butterflies are from the Papillon set.  I used the Tag and Bookplates die to cut the tag from Ranger's Manilla card stock.  I used to cut my tags from SU's Very Vanilla CS, but from watching Chemistry 101, I learned that the Ranger CS is coated and wow, does it ever work great for sponging on the ink.  There is a big difference and certainly worth the small extra expense!  

The sentiment is from the Wendy Vecchi Believe in Art set.  My tag was sponged with Broken China and Wild Honey, then edged with Frayed Burlap distress inks.  The vellum flowers were cut with the new Tattered Flowers Decorative Strip die, which I am in love it.  It cuts so many tiny flowers that it is easy peasy to create a flower garden with it.  I filled in the centers of the flowers with my Viva Decor Pearl Pen and the typed words are from Tim's new ChitChat sticker set.  

The tag is for my daughter.  She graduated from Florida State University in December with a degree in dietetics and has been sweating out whether she was going to be offered an internship.  She can't sit for the registered dietitian exam without an internship.  Just this past week she found out that she has been offered one at the University of Arkansas School of Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas.  She worked so hard throughout her four years of undergraduate and she made it happen! We are so proud of her accomplishment. 

Thanks for stopping by.  If you haven't already joined in the current challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, there is still time.  Frilly or funkie or whatever your vintage style, you can join in anytime during the two weeks of the challenge.  

Challenges Entered:
Tim Holtz 12 Tags - April Tag
Mojo Monthly - Tagology

Products Used from the Funkie Junkie Boutique

Rayon Seam Binding	Multi Medium Matte	Alterations Tag and Bookplates Die	Ranger Inkssentials Manila Card
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Chitchat Stickers	Tattered Flowers Decorative Strip Die	Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink	Broken China Distress Ink
Scattered Straw Distress Ink

InLinkz.com

It's Not a Card

I'm back again, dear bloggy friends, to share my weekly make for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  I'm so happy you stopped by to check it out!  This week Simon Says Stamp and Show Us Anything But a Card.  And of course my talented teamies all have amazing and fantastic projects to share and I have this lame tag - LOL.  I thought and thought this week about what I could make, but no fantabulous project came toodling through my brain so I settled for a tag.  I set out to make one of Tim Holtz's 12 Christmas tags that I hadn't done.  I chose #12, the one with the tissue paper adhered to the base of the tag.  His had the Frozen Charlotte doll, which creeps me out so I went for something a bit more shabby chic with the cameo.  

I started by cutting a tag with the Tag and Bookplates die from vanilla card stock and stamped it with the Fabulous Flourishes stamp and Sepia Ranger Archival Ink but the stamping didn't show through the tissue paper.  After stamping the flourish, I applied Picket Fence Distress Stain as per Lord Tim's instuctions.  I don't have Tim's new tissue wrap so I stamped his Sheet Music stamp on regular tissue paper, again using the Sepia Ranger Archival Ink, then ironed it dry with my craft iron and smeared Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the entire tag.  

After that I went my own way.  I decided to fiddle around with some crinoline and tried cutting it with the Mini Rosette die.  It worked great.  The folds in the rosettes were actually crisper, but I misted it with a bit of vintage photo DI and water to make it less white and the water relaxed the crisp folds somewhat.  I tried gently pulling it into an oval and it worked!  I continued adding bits and bots until I had it suitably shabbied up including a chipboard heart that I created using the Spellbinders Classic Hearts die, a little LOVE (from Stuff to Say) banner hand cut because I don't have Tim's die YET, a ruffle made from that wonderful Melissa Frances vintage style crepe paper and and the bottom strip was cut with the Vintage Lace die (which Shelly Hickox totally enabled me to buy because she uses it all the time and makes me drool).  

That pretty much sums it up for this week's project.  Hope you will stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog to see the seriously wonderful projects make my my team mates.  And don't forget, every week there is a random drawing for a $50 shopping voucher compliments of our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments you care to leave.  I very much appreciate your visit!  Have a great week.

Playing With Canvas

Today's post is just for fun - no design team commitments, but a couple of challenges I wanted to get in on. If you've visited me recently, you have probably noticed that I have been experimenting with canvas. My interest in canvas started when I saw some canvas tags on a blog (don't know whose - sorry). So I purchased some at my local Jo-Ann's and have been playing around with making flowers, but hadn't gotten around to making a tag. This week's challenge over at the Shabby Tea Room is to make a tag which presented me with the right opportunity to use canvas.

I pulled out a tag like Tim Holtz uses and used it as a pattern to cut my canvas. I punched a hole in the top with my Crop-a-Dile and set in a jumbo eyelet. I stamped the plain canvas with a couple of script and text stamps in Vintage Photo and then spritzed it well with plain water to make it run. That wasn't quite grungy enough so I spritzed it again with the mixture of Vintage Photo, Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold and water that I have been using a lot lately. That gave it a nice vintage feel. Using Archival Brilliance pigment ink in Graphite Black, I stamped a few French label stamps. For the flowers, more canvas was cut with the Sizzix Flowers and Vine #3 die and dyed with SU Pumpkin Pie ink and Butterscotch alcohol ink. The lace at the bottom was also dyed. It started out white and I sprayed it with the Vintage Photo/Perfect Pearls mix until all the white was gone.

I got the idea for the crystals from one of my Simon Says Stamp and Show teammies, Lynne Forsyth. She used them on her latest project for the challenge blog. I was in an antique store last week and they were selling these crystals loose, probably from a damaged chandelier. I got a zip lock bag with about 40 of them for $7. Later I was in another antique store and they were selling them for 50 cents each, so I got a good deal. Plus my baggie has a bunch of the larger teardrop crystals too - very cool! I like that they are real glass - very sparkly when I washed them!

Products Used:
Stamps: Tim Holtz Urban Grunge, 7 Gypsies Avignon Clear Stamps, free vintage image from Night Owl Vintage
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Archival Brilliance Graphite Black
Accessories: Sizzix Flowers & Vine #3 die, Spellbinders Deckle Rectangle dies, Tim Holtz Addage Tickets, Tim Holtz Trinket Pin, Stampin' Up brad

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I sincerely appreciate all your encouraging comments!

Blessings & hugs,


Challenges Entered
The Shabby Tea Room - Tag, You're It

Flourishes - Use a Ticket
Our Vintage Affair - Vintage Tags

Stampin' for the Weekend - Vintage or Shabby

Creatalicious - Vintage

My Partner in Crafting Crime - Let's Try Vintage

Stamptacular Sunday - Distress It

Pocket Full of Posies - Floral Fantasy

My Time to Craft - Jeweled

ABC Challenge - C is for Charms (I think my crystals count as charms)

All That Scraps - Lace

Crafts & Me Challenge - Sparkle and Gems

Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Vintage Summer

Res-Q-Challenge - Tools of the Trade (scissors used to cut canvas into tag shape)

Tag a la The Funkie Junkie

From The Funkie Junkie

Since I struggled with my Tim Holtz inspired Christmas tags the other day, I needed to get my frustration out of my system. So rather than being inspired by another's work, I decided to start with a blank tag and let my creativity go where it may. My starting point was this beautiful medallion image of two young angels from Magic Moonlight Free Images. I printed it out on my computer, trimmed it out and painted the edges with gold paint to enhance the gold colored printout. Then I glazed the center image with several coats of Crystal Effects and when dry, placed tiny gold rhinestones at each V.

For the background of the tag, I used the retired SU Script BG stamp plus an old music score stamp from Stamp Oasis, both stamped in Creamy Caramel. Then I used two angel stamps embossed in gold. The upper one is an old SU stamp (I believe the set is called Angels) and the other is one I bought off eBay and has no manufacture's markings on it. The edges of the tag were sponged with Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink.


The Merry Christmas stamp is from SU's A Cardinal Christmas, stamped in Versamark and Brushed Corduroy and then clear embossed. The tag is a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die, flower and lace by Prima.



I like the results and feel good now that I have cleared all that tag frustration out of my system - LOL!! Hope your Christmas preparations are going well and that you are taking some joy out of this beautiful Advent season. Holiday blessings to all.

OCCC Inspiration Challenge/DT Call

I made this card for the inspiration challenge (last week's challenge) over on Our Creative Corner both for the challenge and to apply for a design team spot. The challenge was "In rural communities, it is almost time for harvest". Autumn is my very favorite time of the year so it wasn't difficult for me to jump right in and come up with a fall inspiration.


While blog surfing, I found several other challenges that this card fits so I am also entering it into:
Stamping for the Weekend - days gone by (vintage)
Stampin' B's - use two die cuts
Daring Cardmakers - use lace

The main image is from Artistic Outpost's Bluebird set. I have used it before, but never as the focal point for a card so I was happy to have such a great showcase for it. I created two tags using the Mega Rectangles Nestabilities. The bottom tag says "harvest blessings".

I normally would have used brown as the accent color, but I purchased this beautiful black crocheted lace from Flourishes recently and it was calling out to me for this card. So the accents are done in black and I love the way it looks. The bottom panel is stamped and clear heat embossed with the SU Filagree stamp. The DSP is from My Mind's Eye. I only had one sheet so I have been hoarding it - saving it for a really terrific fall card. The panel the bow is attached to was cut with the Mega Rectangles and the corners were embossed with the Cuttlebug Fancy Corners embossing folder and brayered with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I very carefully masked off all areas of the card except just want I needed to roll ink over. I carried that technique throughout the whole card. The card stock is scissor distressed along the edges. The edges of the layers and elements have been sponged with both Creamy Caramel and Ranger Vintage Photo ink. The word "harvest" was computer generated with the Metallic Avacodo font - love that font!! It's messy, like an old time typewriter. The chipboard B is a Cuttlebug alphabet - Olivia, which I actually get quite a bit of use out of. The inside of the card carries the same papers and theme. The sentiment is from SU's Happy Harmony set, one of my favorites.



Card Recipe
Stamps: Bluebird by Artistic Outpost, Filagree, Happy Harmony and Wonderful Words by SU and the filagree on the bottom tag is by My Minds Eye
Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Basic Black, MME 29th Street Market collection
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Accessories: Clear EP, Cuttlebug Fancy Corners Embossing Folder, Spellbinders Mega Rectangles and Circles. Ribbon from Jo-Ann's, Black crocheted lace from Flourishes, Tim Holtz trinket pin, bird charm is from Petals a Plenty, sewing machine, mini clip from SU



Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

My Bad

Oh, am I bad!! I was supposed to submit a tag for this fortnight's challenge on the Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog for a guest DT spot. How embarrassing - I submitted a card for the wrong challenge!!! I skipped down on the challenge list and made this card. I won't tell you what the challenge is because I don't want to spoil it for the next round, but obviously I won't be submitting this one again.

So I hastily made a tag and submitted it to the folks over at the Creative Inspirations Challenge blog so they could replace my rouge card if they wish. I am really enjoying making tags. They are quick to make so you get instant gratification, plus you can do so much with them. And of course, a lot of tags you see are distressed style that really appeals to me. So it wasn't an imposition to make the quick tag that you see above.

Card recipe:
Stamps: Rubbernecker
Paper: Don't remember the DSP, card stock from SU - Taken With Teal and River Rock, watercolor paper
Inks: Versamark (images stamped and clear embossed), Stewart Superior India Ink, Reinkers to watercolor images: Going Gray, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Really Rust, flesh tone watercolor crayon, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Csrystal Effects, ClearDew Drops, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Tiny Bubbles embossing folders, Creative Memories cutting system for the starfish shape, SU corner punch and brass brads, sewing machine, Crystal Stickles

Tag Recipe:
Stamps: SU Artifacts, Flourishes Seaside Life, Inkadinkadoo, Family Traditions by Scrappy Cat, Hero Arts
Ink: Chocolate Ship, Taken with Teal Close to Cocoa, Ranger Alcohol Inks: Stream, Butterscotch and Ginger, Taken with Teal, Tattered Angel Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist, Versamark
Accessories: Gold Dimensional Paint, Crystal Effects, Clear EP, Fiskars corner punch, sewing machine, Organdy ribbon from Jo-Ann's crinkled with heat gun